• From six months ago: “These people have really welcomed me. They understand. They don’t care that I’m just some dumb kid with a baby on the way. They know about the Vigil. They stand apart from it. Oh, also: morning sickness sucks.” • Four months ago: “Jesus. Maybe I made a mistake. Everybody was cool when I got here, but things are changing. They locked up all the tools in this metal cage inside the barn: just to get a shovel, I have to fill out paperwork and have Potter or Prekovsky approve it. Potter’s gotten weird, too—he just hangs out in the farmhouse. People go see him sometimes, and they don’t leave for hours. I heard whispers that he’s having sex with some of the women. That’s weird, right? I say all this, but I’m just being stupid. Everybody else is great. Marsha’s the sweetest, always offering me a hand. Paul, Betty and Dora all get together on Tuesday nights to play cards, so that’s cool. Sometimes I babysit Henry while Belle curries the horses. I’m just being paranoid. I have to remember: I’m not on the hunt anymore. Got. To. Relax!!!” • Three months ago: “Baby’s good. Kicking. But… saw something today around the silo. Where Crazy Izzy lives. It was… I don’t know. It looked like one bird, a blackbird or crow, and then several of them. Bright yellow eyes, like… what’s the stone? The yellow stone? Topaz, I think? Like glittering topaz. Then it was gone. I’m wondering if maybe I should ask Prekovsky if he has anything for nerves. He’s getting weird, though. He never stops smiling. And this is the guy who’s going to deliver my baby? (Thinking of Benjamin for a boy, Gwendolyn for a girl.)” • One month ago: “I’m hearing them, too, now. Just before sleep and just after I wake, whispers. A deep voice. Said something about ‘finding God,’ but the rest was just… babble. I know I’m not the only one. Little Henry told me that he hears it, too. I’m not crazy. Something’s going on. Potter’s having a meeting tonight on the farmhouse porch. I think he’s going to address it. I know he’s got a solution. He’s a good man, even if the stresses of running this place are starting to wear on him.”