CHAPTER 30Ten Years Later
Jessie
Jessie was grading biology tests on the small deck behind her house when the phone rang. She had rented the house almost two years ago now, when she had moved to Pendleton, Oregon from Albuquerque the summer after she turned twenty-four. She had thought the house would be temporary, just until she got her bearings, but she had never moved. The little house suited her, with its large garden plot in the back yard and the gnarled cherry tree that shaded the desk.
Now, hearing the phone, she rose from her chair and went inside to the kitchen. But the receiver was not on the wall mount, and it was several rings before she found it on the dresser in her bedroom.
“Hello?” she said breathlessly, racing the answering machine.
“Jessie? It’s your mother.”
“Laure
