so strange to know people were in their rooms , hiding , at 5:30 p.m . now he had a walled garden of four city lots . `` my brother also called me dung heap . he opened the doors and jumped down to the road . her house is about a half mile up the ridge . he could have had a full ride to any college he chose but that hope had been squashed by the aliens . thomas looks over at me , startled . `` i was working , not cheating on you . '' 