anything that might joggle his heart. I miss playing with old Ronnie. That virus too small to imagine travelling through our fluids.

you can go through hundreds
you can go through hundreds. The pillar on two of its broad sides bears giant muddy ceramic murals about the Vikings: broadswords and horned helmets and dragon?headed ships protrude from the enamelled mass in its numerous blotchy colors. his hand jumping the way it does when he's feeling crowded in the chest." "Speaking of accountants. but a shell she has grown repels him. She looks not so different from how Judy looks in hers and not very much larger. He is very thin. it's been so long. she shouldn't wear all those earrings and go so heavy on the makeup. Nelson. "Coke takes money.

" Rabbit goes into his bedroom. You smoke them in a kind of pipe." but it is clear to both of them that they must talk really. he realizes. There is a sweetish?rotten smell. she's around. it slips behind the silver?painted radiator with its spines imprinted with scrolling designs in blurred low relief. Thel. Mean. That's just what I told her. shaped like an S fifteen stories high.

his widow Bessie and daughter Janice have the fantasy. She for her part has suddenly moved. in fact he thought builders didn't put that number in things." "Why? You can't stand him. Fuck her. But the bitch won't. The hunchbacked little Jewish guy in such a hurry has already met his loved one. something about that little mutt still gets to me. I'll kill you. he can't remember the song. sort of starving?" "We bought you lots of healthy snacks.

it's what I'd have done ? without any hesitation. There had been a kind of Moorish fountain in the lobby. Judge boys together and played on the high?school basketball varsities that. Breit smiles and his voice grows confidential. leaving Harry's Celica back in Penn Park. or that Nelson's wife hasn't come to you both. Shoo?fly pie and apple pan dowdy. But who were you to mind that. with Mom grabbing the car as soon as you got back. You could call our lawyer for who he'd recommend. He thought she had been kidding after seeing Working Girl.

"The reason I haven't left Janice and never can now. Harry read in the papers recently. He told me I should put new polish on my toenails. and used to shop for quick necessities at that corner store there. it's like brushing your teeth at night. music that's used to being ignored. do you owe him any money? How much?" "Mom. sooty hotels where card games went on for days. which takes them above the parking?garage ticket booths and a breadth ofbusy asphalt and a hexagonal?tiled patio with arcs of oleander hedge and of convalescents in glinting steel wheelchairs. All teeth. their laps in plain view.

Janice's tits have kept their tilt pretty much. tennis balls ? they can find within the Valhalla complex. That's not old for some guys ? not for a stocky little plug?ugly like Ronnie. When Nelson finally comes out in his expensive smoky?blue pajamas he is surprised and annoyed to find her here. and in his diagonal posi-tion he undergoes one of those surges of lightheadedness as when he stands up too fast; it is not clear who is upright and who is not. The palm trees and jet trails and drooping wires and blue sky you can see through the windows seem part of the panes. returning with a round painted tray holding along with the two tall glasses of sparkling dark soft drink two matching small bowls of nuts. squarish flowers in blue and pink. "You're thin." She bleakly nods. taking a tasteless sip of his Diet Coke.

se?or. Cocaine's everywhere and these yuppie baby boomers Nelson's age are just the ones who use it. see where's she's coming from Harry hesitates hardly at all before saying. "You do. My associates are eager to settle with anyone of that excellent name. as his jockey shorts with their slowly slacken-ing elastic waists. "A couple of the mechanics quit when Nelson brought him in as accountant in his condition. The crowd. pretty smoothly." "You didn't use to like to use real beds. their parade of days.

They just happened to be around. upstairs. Too big. Harry finds the fog merciful. The whole affair was her idea. He needed to stay where they remembered him when. Mean. When they put the dye in. But the first half is so good he eats the second and even dumps the sweet crumbs out of the wrapper into his palm and with his tongue licks them all up like an anteater. but the houses are more ordinary ?C ranch houses and split levels with sides of aluminum clapboards and fronts of brick varied by flagstone porchlets and unfunctional patches of masonry facing. "Tell Nelson if you ever see him I like the new decor.

"Mildred Kroust was the bookkeeper for years here. up between the front seats. arthritic. these blocks along the tracks full of tough men. Harry. And wouldn't you like to split that stale Danish with me? Just to keep it out ofyour father's stomach?" "You can have it all. the lady professor told us. and relief that he hadn't been on the plane himself but was instead safe on this side of the glass. like. too. "Because he's grown up in the shadow of a dominating father.

He gets all the attention and everything ever since he was born. though it would have been easy at times. Harry wants to pursue it. It's just dumb luck the house didn't bum down with Nelson in it too. of a surface of flux battered into a million oscillating dents. might bring close to a million from one of the hi?tech companies that have come into the Brewer area this last decade. a Scotland Yard detective doing a little lecture with a diagram of an airplane's hold. He asks. drawing at last away. Dad. He and I discussed it.

the lady professor told us. Imagine sitting there in your seat being lulled by the hum of the big Rolls?Royce engines and the stewardesses bringing the clinking drinks caddy and the feeling of having caught the plane and nothing to do now but relax and then with a roar and giant ripping noise and scattered screams this whole cozy world dropping away and nothing under you but black space and your chest squeezed by the terrible unbreathable cold. They sure as hell made a racket getting out of here. Naked. with a repair?free longevity that's absolutely un-believable. and all the time you're eating. He seems depressed. thank God. a tall grinning woman. Gregg turns to Pru and asks. "Where is Nelson.

even to the rings of pallor that sunglasses have left around her eyes. you're in good shape. Ollie Fosnacht's estranged wife Peggy died about eight years ago. not from the way he used to carry on in the locker room. I bet it was Thelma. Texas; 447 Wilbur Street. but they're filthy. "That's what I was saying. The climatecontrol panel slides out like a drawer and won't budge unless the ignition's on. But Janice knows. you did use to get the stares.

He remembers her when she was nineteen ? dyed?in blonde streak. back there in that church basement buried deeper in his mind than an airraid shelter." "I seem to remember him complaining of feeling full in the chest. you sound like your mother. Teresa. Harold. where even the wild patches. for his presence should make her glad. though he doesn't like to laugh now or do anything that might joggle his heart. I miss playing with old Ronnie. That virus too small to imagine travelling through our fluids.