CHAPTER XVIThe new buildings pressed against the new sidewalks. The streets were empty except for their car and a turret-like Mobile Sweeper whose gutter broom whispered against the curb. A light here and there in a window heralded the end of sleep. A lone car crossed at an intersection ahead, moving slowly as if fatigued by a night-long vigil.
The sun seemed reluctant to plunge the world into daylight; it balanced on the horizon in indecision. The moon was high and tiny and rode the growing blueness with a ghostlike pallor.
Herb, leaning forward tensely, thought: Suppose Bud isn’t there? Suppose he’s somewhere else?
“Turn left up here,” Norma said. “It’s only a few blocks.”
The buildings anchored time to the Earth, encapsulating the past in steel and concrete. Morning shadows walked b
