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Part 4:
FromAmerican Godsby Neil Giaman "Park here," said Wednesday. "we can walk the rest of the way."
Shadow turned off the engine. He went into the back of the Winnebago, pulled on his coat, his boots and gloves. Then he climbed out of the vehicle and said "Okay. Let's go."
Wednesday looked at him with amusement and something else- irritation perhaps. Or pride. "Why don't you argue?" asked Wednesday. "Why don't you exclaim that it's all impossible? Why the hell do you just do what I say and take it all so fucking calmly?"
"Because you're not paying me to ask questions," said Shadow. And then he said, realizing the truth as the words came out of his mouth, "Anyway, nothing's really surprised me since Laura."
"Since she came back from the dead?"
"Since I learned she was screwing Robbie. That one hurt. Everything else just sits on the surface. Where are we going?"
Wednesday pointed, and they began to walk. Something rustled behind him. He thought for a moment that it was the cat, but then he smelled perfume, and under the perfume, the scent of something rotten "Hello, Laura," said Shadow.
Her voice was hesitant, perhaps, he thought, even a little scared. She said, "Hello, puppy."
She stepped around the stone angel. Shadow looked at her, in the daylight. Some things were different and some things were the same. Her eyes had not changed, nor had the crooked hopefulness of her smile. And she was, very obviously, very dead.
The time at the funeral home in Cairo made it easier somehow for him to be in her presence. He did not know what to say to her.
Her cold hand sought his, and he squeezed it gently. He could feel his heart beating in his chest. He was scared, and what scared him was the normality of the moment. He felt so comfortable with her at his side that he would have been willing to stand there forever.
"I miss you," he admitted.
"I'm here," she said.
"That's when I miss you the most. When you're here. When you aren't here, when you're just a ghost from the past or a dream from another life, it's easier then."
She squeezed his fingers. She rested her head on his shoulder, and it almost undid him.
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