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¿5 Two days later, I ran back out to Eva's house, but this time nobody wasthere, not even the dogs. I knocked on the door, then went down to the little boathouse beside the lake, but nobody was there either. I walked up onto the deck and knocked, then I tried the glass door and it slid open. I leaned inside and called Evas name, then shut the door and sat on one of the deck chairs and waited. I took the little fish out of my pocket and I was looking at it when I heard the door slide open behind me, and Eva came out. I felt really strange, sitting on her deck without having been asked. I told her I was resting up before running back to the motel. She said she was glad I came, and she asked me what I had in my hand. I held out the carving, and she took it. "I've got one just like this," she said. I told her I'd bought it at Furlow's, and I carried it asa goodluck charm, even though I didn't reallybelievein such things. I repeated what the girl at Furlows had said about the man who carved it. "He's not retarded, though," Eva said. "She's wrong about that. He was injured in the Vietnam War. His name isAlbert McGrath. His face was mangled and burned and his brain was damaged, and it's a miracle he's still alive. The first time I saw him, it really scared me, he just looked so awful. I didn't want 62 /5 Two days later, I ran back out to Eva's house, but this time nobody was there, not even the dogs. I knocked on the door, then went down to the little boathouse beside the lake, but nobody was there either. I walked up onto the deck and knocked, then I tried the glass door and it slid open. I leaned inside and called Eva's name, then shut the door and sat on one of the deck chairs and waited. I took the little fish out of my pocket and I was looking at it when I heard the door slide open behind me, and Eva came out. I felt really strange, sitting on her deck without having been asked. I told her I was resting up before running back to the motel. She said she was glad I came, and she asked me what I had in my hand. I held out the carving, and she took it. "I've got one just like this," she said. I told her I'd bought it at Furlow's, and I carried it as a goodluck charm, even though I didn't really believe in such things. I repeated what the girl at Furlow's had said about the man who carved it. "He's not retarded, though," Eva said. "She's wrong about that. He was injured in the Vietnam War. His name is Albert McGrath. His face was mangled and burned and his brain was damaged, and it's a miracle he's still alive. The first time I saw him, it really scared me, he just looked so awful. I didn't want to be scared, but I couldn't help it. Mom says he's got more reason to be afraid of other people than they have to be afraid of him. He's not going to hurt anybody—he's completely harmless—but he looks like a monster. I hate to say it, but he really does. Mom says all the doctors in the area know about him, since he's been treated up at the veterans' hospital in Dublin, and somebody wrote an article about him in a big medical journal. She says he's a really unusual case." She gave back the fish, and I put it in my pocket. We went inside, and she heated some leftover pizza in the microwave, poured us each a glass of lemonade, and we took our food back out onto the deck. "I was thinking I'd be met by your dogs again, and I was hoping they'd remember me," I said, "but I didn't see them." "Theyweren't reallymy dogs, I guess. Donald took them with him when he left. That happened yesterday." "Your parents split up?" "Yeah," she said, "but I've been through it before. It's not that...
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