The Lesson of Her Death

catch this man.”
    The body of the student, Emily Rossiter, a resident of St. Louis, was found floating in Blackfoot Pond on the night of the full moon. She had been struck on the head and left to drown. The body was reportedly mutilated.
    “We’re devoting a hundred and ten percent of our time to solving these cult murders,” Steven Ribbon, Sheriff of New Lebanon, said last night. He added that he had taken the unusualstep of asking an outside consultant to assist in the investigation.
    “This man has a number of years of homicide investigation experience with a big city police department and he’s already provided some real helpful insights into the workings of this killer’s mind.”
    Citing security, Sheriff Ribbon would give no details on this consultant’s identity or exact role in the case.
    The Chamber of Commerce estimates that the series of murders has cost the town one million dollars in lost revenues.
    H er biggest fear is that somehow her father has scared off the Sunshine Man.
    It is now a couple of days in a row that her daddy has gotten up late, had breakfast with them and then been home before supper. But worse than that he had gone for long walks in the woods behind the house, the woods where the Sunshine Man lived. Sarah considers herself an expert on wizards and she knows that they resent people who don’t believe in them. Her father’s certainly a person like that.
    Although she’s questioned Redford T. Redford at length about the wizard the bear has remained silent. She has left several presents and painstakingly written notes for the Sunshine Man in the magic circle. He has not picked them up or responded.
    She has thought about running away again. But because her mother has agreed with Dr. Parker to keep her out of school for a while, Sarah is willing to postpone her escape plans. She listens to her books on tape, she looks at her picture books, she watches television, she plays with her stuffed animals.
    At night Sarah sits and stares out the window. Once, when the waning moon is bright, she thinks she sees the form of a man walking through the woods. She flashesher bedside light and waves. Whoever it might be stops and looks at the house but does not respond. He seems to vanish. She stares after him until the trees begin to sway and the night sky opens up in great cartwheeling streaks of stars and planets and giants and animals, then she crawls under the blankets. She holds tight to her piece of magic quartz and, knowing the Sunshine Man may be out there, sends him a message in her thoughts.
    Sarah wishes her father would start working late again. And sure enough, after just two days, she gets this wish. He’s up and gone before breakfast, and home long after she’s gone to bed. One morning, when he hadn’t seen her for two days, her father left a note at the breakfast table for her; it sounded all stiff. Sarah sadly thinks the Sunshine Man is much smarter than her father.
    She hopes the wizard will come back and make her smart. She believes he can do it. She also knows though that this will be a very hard wish to grant so she tells herself to be patient. She knows she’ll have to wait just a little while longer.
    Philip closed his bedroom door and immediately they were warriors once again, tall and dignified and ever correct, struggling to understand this strange dimension.
    Jano looked around the room. “Your sister here?”
    “Nope.”
    The boys who knew Philip’s sister, and that was a lot of boys, did not call her “Rose” or “Rosy”; they called her “Halpern,” which seemed to Philip to say everything there was to say about her.
    Jano whispered urgently, “Well?”
    “What?” Phathar shoved a dripping handful of popcorn from a half-gallon bag into his mouth.
    He whispered, “Did you do it?” Jano’s eyes were red and it looked like there was a streak of dried snot under his nose. Phathar wondered if his friend had been crying(Phathar assumed
he
was the only freshman boy who still cried).
    Jano repeated, “The girl at the pond. Emily something. Did you?”
    He ate another mouthful. “Nope.”
    Jano whispered, “I don’t believe you.”
    “I didn’t do it, dude.”
    “You wanted to fuck her so you killed her.”
    “I did not.” With a pudgy finger Phathar worked a hull out from between an incisor and his gum.
    “I am like totally freaked. What are we going to do?”
    “Have some popcorn.”
    “You are like too much, man. She’s dead too and