Seventh Heaven Read Online Free PDF

went to the side of the house where the grapevines grew. Big purple grapes were all over the ground, and Nora carefully stepped over them as she set up a rusted ladder Mr. Olivera hadn’t had time to put away. She went back into the house, and while the baby stirred in his sleep and moved his thumb into his mouth, Nora took the container of salt and slipped back outside.
    At this hour the traffic on the Southern State moved like a river. Nora climbed the ladder, and as she neared the roof she saw that the rain gutters were full of pine needles and dead leaves. Something would have to be done about the gutters before winter, before the sky turned yellow and new fallen leaves piled up. Nora held on to the gutter with one hand to keep herself balanced while she tossed salt upward, onto the roof. The crows huddled together on the chimney, screaming like mad.
    â€œGo on,” Nora told them, because, after all, she had her children’s sleep to consider.
    The crows called to her mournfully. Then, with their tails coated white, they rose up from the house and flew south, toward the parkway. They careened in a zigzag line until the salt on their tails fell onto the asphalt like snow. When Nora was satisfied that she was rid of them, she climbed back down the ladder. She tried one of Mr. Olivera’s grapes and was surprised by its sweetness. She could feel her milk coming in. She could feel the pull of the new moon that would rise above her roof in only a few hours. Nora licked her fingertips, knowing as she did that if those crows had had eggs in their nest, she would never have been able to chase them off with salt.
    While Billy dreamed he was playing ball in the driveway, and the baby turned, slowly waking beneath the dish towel, Nora came back into the kitchen. She wiped the table clean, then fixed a bowl of rice cereal for James. As soon as she had the chance she would buy cookbooks, she’d ask her neighbors for their favorite recipes, but tonight she took out two green bowls for Billy and herself and filled them with Frosted Flakes and milk. And later, after the children had eaten, after they’d sampled the cookies she’d baked, and the tub had been washed out and they’d both been bathed, Nora made up her mattress with clean sheets, right on the floor where it lay. She took both children into bed with her, for whose comfort she could not have honestly said, and because there were no curtains hung yet they were able to look at the stars through the bedroom window. Soon, Nora would fix her children macaroni and cheese for dinner; they would grow chrysanthemums and sunflowers in their yard. Nora would find a baby-sitter for James and a baseball mitt for Billy, and she would try to remember to fix Bosco and milk every day at three. If she had to, she would repeat the recipe for rice pudding until she knew it by heart.

2
    SLEEP TIGHT
    A CE M CCARTHY WOKE UP WITH his body on fire and a ripping feeling in the center of his chest. He swung his feet to the floor and put his head down between his knees, and when that didn’t help, he went to his closet, took a cigarette from the pack hidden on the shelf, and lit up, even though his hands shook, as if he were caught in the wind.
    In the room next to his, he could hear the Saint snoring. He could hear traffic in the distance and the leaves moving in the maple tree. He blew out a stream of smoke and watched it disappear through the open window. All summer he had worked alongside his father and his brother, and there was a permanent moon of oil under each of his nails. His dark hair was longer than his father liked it to be, and his eyes were a deep, immutable green. He had always been able to get any girl he wanted, and he’d gone a lot farther with them than he’d ever told Danny Shapiro. In spite of his passion for fast cars and black leather, Ace wasn’t a braggart. The Saint had taught him a sense of piety, something his brother, Jackie, who