Gently, he put her down. The boys knelt at either side of her, Doug himself before her.
"Don't, please don't, Dot," he said.
"Oh, Doug—"
And then she clung to him, and her face was wet against his own, but they were the last of her tears.
"Afraid?"
"No. Scared a little, but just scared. I don't fear them, Doug ... they're not worth enough to fear."
Mike and Terry had gone over to where the Contraption was, had pulled off its dust-cover, and stood looking at it as though puzzled, as though wondering why, so suddenly, it had become a worthless thing.
"Nobody's touched it, Dad," Doug heard Mike saying. "I don't think anybody's done anything to it."
Doug didn't answer, for he did not know how to tell them, how to make them know that there was no way.
"I just—just dropped it, Doug...."