An armored KSF vehicle arrives to move the Garfields to Olivar. After Lauren and Joanne say their goodbyes, Lauren and Curtis make love, which they have not done in a while. Afterward, they talk about the future. When Curtis talks of going north, perhaps as far as Canada, Lauren is conflicted. She wants to go north, and she wants to be with Curtis, but she doesn’t want to desert Cory and her brothers. Also, she would first need to tell Curtis about her hyperempathy, and about Earthseed.

Pyro, a drug that promotes arson, becomes a growing problem in California. The night before Christmas Eve, a fire breaks out in the Payne-Parrish house. Neighbors try unsuccessfully to put the fire out, and the fire department is too slow to be of much help. While everyone is preoccupied, the thieves who set the fire rob three other homes, including the Olaminas’ home. Rosalee Payne and all her children die in the fire; only Wardell Parrish escapes. Broken by his loss, he is taken in by the Olaminas but soon goes back to the relatives he lived with before inheriting Mrs. Sims’s house.

Cory still hopes to move to Olivar, but the immediate problem for her family is a lack of income now that Lauren’s father is gone. Cory once taught at the college where Lauren’s father worked, so she arranges to take over his classes. Lauren, in turn, will take over for Cory as neighborhood schoolteacher. Kayla Talcott and another woman will share duties leading the church.

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3 years ago