It was gone.
Two shingles came floating down like large black leaves. 'Look out, Trent!' Laurie cried out a second or two later, and shoved him hard enough to knock him over. The rubber-backed welcome mat thwacked into the street where he had been standing.
Trent looked at Laurie. Laurie looked back.
'That would've smarted like big blue heck if it'd hit you on the head,' she told him, 'so you just better not call me Sprat anymore, Trent.'
He looked at her solemnly for several seconds, and then began to giggle. Laurie joined in. So did the little ones. Brian took one of Trent's hands; Lissa took the other. They helped pull him to his feet, and then the four of them stood together, looking at the smoking cellar-hole in the middle of the shattered lawn. People were coming out of their houses now, but the Bradbury children ignored them. Or perhaps it would be truer to say the Bradbury children didn't know they were there at all.
'Wow,' Brian said reverently. 'Our house took off, Trent.'
'Yeah,' Trent said.
'Maybe wherever it's going, there'll be people who want to know about the Normans and the Sexies,' Lissa said.
Trent and Laurie put their arms around each other and began to shriek with mingled laughter and horror... and that was when the rain began to pelt down. Mr. Slattery from across the street joined them. He didn't have much hair, but what he did have was plastered to his gleaming skull in tight little bunches. 'What happened?' he screamed over the thunder, which was almost constant now. 'What happened here?'
Trent let go of his sister and looked at Mr. Slattery. 'True Space Adventures,' he said solemnly, and that set them all off again.
Mr. Slattery cast a doubtful, frightened look at the empty cellar-hole, decided discretion was the better part of valor, and retreated to his side of the street. Although it was still pouring buckets, In did not invite the Bradbury children to join him. Nor did they care. They sat down on the curb, Trent and Laurie in the middle, Brian and Lissa on the sides.
Laurie leaned toward Trent and whispered in his ear: 'We're free.'
'It's better than that,' Trent said. 'She is.'
Then he put his arms around all of them - by stretching, he could just manage - and they sat on the curb in the pouring rain and waited for their mother to come home.