Chapter 10: What Birdie Never Sold

The good feeling lasted exactly nine days before the boiler died for real, taking with it half a Saturday's inventory and forcing Della to confront a number on a repair estimate that made her sit down hard on the kitchen stool. "Four thousand dollars," she told Cal that evening, when he found her sitting on the back step with the estimate crumpled in one hand and a look on her face he clearly rec...