From the Corner of His Eye

so Edom can make deliveries for me in the morning." … There's only one delivery I'm worried about."
        "Well, I'm worried about seven. Six pies and one baby."
        "You and your pies," He said with frustration.
        "You and your worrying," She countered, favoring him with a smile that affected his heart as sun did butter.
        He sighed. "The notes, and then we go." … Pie notes. Then Maria comes for her English lesson. And then we go."
        "You're in no condition to give an English lesson."
        "Teaching English doesn't require heavy lifting, dear."
        She did not pause in her note writing when she spoke to him, and he watched the elegantly formed script stream from the tip of- her ballpoint pen as though she were but a conduit that carried the words from a higher source.
        Finally, Joey leaned across the table, and Aggie looked at him through the great silent fall of his shadow, her green eyes shining III the shade that he cast. He lowered his raw-granite face to her porcelain features, and as if yearning to be shattered, she raised up slightly to meet his kiss.
        "I love you, is all," he said, and the helplessness in his voice exasperated him.
        "Is all?" She kissed him again. "Is everything."
        "So what do I do to keep from going crazy?"
        The doorbell rang.
        "Answer that," she suggested.

Chapter 3
        
        THE PRIMEVAL FORESTS of the Oregon coast raised a great green cathedral across the hills, and the land was as hushed as any place of worship I High above, glimpsed between the emerald spires, a hawk glided in a widening gyre, dark-feathered angel with a taste for blood.
        Here at ground level, no wildlife stirred, and the momentous day was breathless. Luminous veils of fog still lay motionless in the deeper hollows, where the departed night had discarded them. The only sounds were the Crunch of crisp evergreen needles underfoot and the rhythmic breathing of experienced hikers.
        At nine o'clock that morning, Junior Cain and his bride, Naomi, had parked their Chevy Suburban along an unpaved fire road and headed north on foot, along deer trails and other natural pathways, into this shadowy vastness. Even by noon, the sun penetrated only in narrow shafts that brightened most of the woods by indirection.
        When Junior was in the lead, he occasionally drew far enough of Naomi to pause and turn and watch her as she approached him. I Her golden hair shimmered always bright, in sunshine or shadow, and her face was that perfection of which adolescent boys dreamed, for which grown men sacrificed honor and surrendered fortune. Sometimes, Naomi led; following her, Junior was so enraptured by her lithe form that he was aware of little else, oblivious of the green vaults, the columnar trunks, the lush ferns, and the flourishing rhododendrons.
        Although Naomi's beauty might alone have captured his heart, he was equally enchanted by her grace, her agility, her strength, and by the determination with which she conquered the steepest slopes and the most forbiddingly stony terrain. She approached all of life--not just hiking-with enthusiasm passion, intelligence, courage.
        They had been married fourteen months, yet dally his love grew stronger. He was only twenty-three, and sometimes it seemed that one day his heart would be too small to contain his feelings for her.
        Other men had pursued Naomi, some better looking than Junior, many smarter, virtually all of them richer. Yet Naomi had wanted only him, not for what he owned or might one day acquire, but because she claimed to see in him "a shining soul."
        Junior was a physical therapist, and a good one, working mostly with accident and stroke victims who were struggling to regain lost physical function. He would never lack for meaningful work, but he would never own a mansion on a hill.
        Fortunately, Naomi's tastes were simple. She preferred beer to champagne, shunned diamonds and didn't care if she ever saw Parts. She loved nature, walks in the rain, the beach, and good books.
        Hiking, she often sang softly when the trail was easy. Two of her favorite tunes were "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World." I Her voice was as pure as spring water and as warm its sunshine. Junior often encouraged her to sing, for in her song he heard a love of life and an infectious joy that lifted him.
        Because this