In a blur he saw a long cobweb hanging by the light fixture. I said, ‘Never mind.’ He looked up at the ceiling. His mother said, I’m almost through with this, Benjie.

He walked heavily through the living room and into the hall. Without looking up, she turned to the next page. He waited until she came to the end of the sheet. When she went over her cosmetic orders she had a dedicated, scientific look. He thought she should be able to hear something was wrong just from the terrible way he was breathing. The boy waited for her to look up and ask him what had happened. His mother was sitting on the sofa, going over some papers. He went up the stairs three at a time, stumbled, pulled himself up by the banister and kept going until he was safely inside his own apartment. Inside the building the boy was still running. Then he went back to eat the Cracker Jacks scattered on the sidewalk and to snarl at the pigeons who had flown down to get some. He sensed that the danger had passed, but he stood for a moment at the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly the boy slowed down, went up some stairs and entered an apartment building. He did not even notice the dog beside him or the trail of spilled Cracker Jacks behind. He kept glancing at the boy because he didn’t know why they were running. His Cracker Jack box was hitting the sidewalk. The dog’s legs were so short he appeared to be on wheels. The two of them ran together for a block. The dog caught the boy’s fear, and he started running with him. He stopped at the sidewalk, looked both ways, saw that the street was deserted and kept going. A dog ran out of the alley with a torn Cracker Jack box in his mouth. THE PIGEONS FLEW OUT of the alley in one long swoop and settled on the awning of the grocery store. GET FANTASTIC DEALS ON BESTSELLING EBOOKS

The night swimmers betsy byars