there was no one at all in the corner , of course , but for a moment ... for just a moment ... life in the years between 1993 and 1998 went on as life in places like derry always does : the buds of april became the brittle , blowing leaves of october ; christmas trees were brought into homes in middecember and hauled off in the backs of dumpsters with strands of tinsel still hanging sadly from their boughs during the first week of january ; babies came in through the in door and old folks went out through the out door .