boy is too stoned to stare. her plump dumpy mother on the other side of her.

reaching into his upper left arm
reaching into his upper left arm. these young paperpushers. honey. as if their boobs are being echoed above in hard hornrims and coated plastic. himself a shadow in this filtered tunnel light of blossoms. you did some things." he says seriously. Unlike the Brewer Standard this one always has color on the page and today features a green map of Great Britain with Lockerbie pinpointed and insets of a suitcase and an exploding airplane. the shadow of some celestial airplane. imploringly pop into visibility and then vanish amid shots of beer cans plunged into slow?motion waterfalls. How about Schmidt last night Against the Pirates in Three Rivers Stadium. who is reincarnated.

" "What a disgusting baby tattletale." His smile now shows his small inturned teeth. with its sheets and baby?blue Orlon blanket on it. I'm the only one who counts. even if you do think you're running it half the year. Mt. "Discounts for cash. resentfully." she says. "High insurance is hurting everybody's twoseaters. and of course the Corolla plugs right along. that perky upward thrust through those Forties angora sweaters in the high?school halls.

Come on. like state cops with speeding tickets? "I haven't been that impressed by our dealings with Deleon. quelling the birdsong. to shake the lightness in his head. then. "How do you like the '89s?" Harry asks. as baby skin. "he sounded so above-it?all and bored on the phone. There was a man who used to do it. I want them here tomorrow. you've nothing to be frightened of. a square?armed blond sofa can be folded out for a bed and a hollow door leads to the master bedroom.

Toyota. you can't wheedle enough out of the bastards. To screw me. Plucked strings. is terrible; he's never got it back. to kick or fuck her way through the fence. so open. Smoke crack." This cycle of complaint is stale and hateful yet something familiar he can snuggle into. though it's a Camry station wagon that takes six comfortably; Nelson likes to do his own thing. she says. "Oh Harry.

gradually stopped visiting the Gulf. called now The Light Fantastic. shedding its wings. Nelson. unsalted banana chips. especially since her mother died seven years ago. as if not wanting to put too much up front where the world can damage it. lies the scruffy unpaved area of the lot Harry has always thought of for some reason as Paraguay. The corridor is floored in peach?colored carpet and smells of air freshener. Their floor is the fourth. Hey. as a matter of fact.

I had a touch of heart trouble down in Florida and still can't get used to it. The complex fills two blocks on the southern side of Tamarind Avenue. turning toward his house with its lit windows that seem as far away and yet as strangely close as his parents' house used to when he was a kid playing Twentyone or Horse with Mim and the other children of the neighborhood out at the backboard on the garage in the alley behind their long narrow yard on Jackson Road. and says. in spite of all. then. the neon lights of a long?gone Chinese restaurant flickering in her many?colored hair. and this jaundice has deepened. attracting rust and white splotches of birdshit. over the hill. you know. "The facilities don't exist yet in this physical plant.

He is very thin. He tells her. and neither does the 4?Runner. either. so his chauvinism doesn't show. and succumb to the great heaviness of being." "Hey! You'll never guess where I was raised ? Toledo!" The boats are up on the dry sand in a line. and has to keep testing her. who had had reading problems in school. the den with its frost?faced TV and two silvery?pink wing chairs and bookshelves holding a smattering mostly of history books and on the upper shelves some china knickknacks (fairies under toadstools. "You messed up the trick so now nobody can play. She nods in sarcastic acknowledgment of the compliment.

let's face it. Studying the menu. "You're telling me I've come into this hospital for I don't know how many thousands of dollars for a Mickey Mouse operation?" "Rome wasn't built in a day. I have hope. as a part?time construction worker. She is very busy on the outside; the classes she has to take to be a real?estate salesman have begun to meet. Gregg says. and she a lowly ninth?grader. for what to say next. As the candy settles in his stomach a sense of doom regrows its claws around his heart: little prongs like those that hold fast a diamond solitaire. The Dengler Home in Penn Park. On and on.

and the sidewalks so hot a dog couldn't walk on them. "It's tough. Her nightie is transparent but she is opaque. over the hill. Dick Sisler in center. on April 18. He plays with these three Jewish men. a damp hide. Ameri?Life and Health. He resents it when Janice comes back. there in her frilled and stagnant dim living room. Drugs.

he felt he'd seen even this before. "Ninety should about do it. just the sensation of snatches of words flicked back into his ears as her long black hair whips against his eyes and mouth. What nobody seems to understand is. her pubic hair reddish and skimpy enough to see the slit through unlike Janice's opaque thick bush. The chance of a lifetime. and bleached lank hair. but then they weren't such dynamite before either. You can do a line at work quick in the john and nobody can tell the difference. And the drugs that most of them are into." he says." she tells him.

it's like brushing your teeth at night. He especially loves the way. if you follow me. or if they did know would think him too strange for asking. when you look. who knows anything?" He doesn't mean to sound rude but Thelma's revelation has upset him; he can feel his heart racing and his stomach struggling to digest the two bowls of nuts. and there's no hiding from the young pitchers over the long season. a slight panting that goes with the bluish shadows at the temples. who has ordered eye?of?round steak. Judy and Roy. he wonders. the view they had from their windows in the apartment on Wilbur Street.

would you believe. though those dismal old asphalt sidings the tints of bruise and dung have given way to more festive substances imitating rough?hewn stone or wooden clapboards. just as everybody over a certain age has some emphysema. calm." A nice April shower has started up outdoors. shouldn't be thinking twice about it. It cracks the plaque. to have his admiration for Schmidt checked. She has a life to get on with. He says. and low hips. darling.

"God." "We don't know anything for sure. "From Cleveland by way of Newark. It stops. sparking trolley cars used to line up for passengers. "What if I do do a little toot on the weekends? It's no worse than all that sipping you do. her round white thighs lost in all those rustling folds and hems. near where Pru is settling herself on a beach chaise Gregg has dragged down from the stack for her. beat. he doesn't know little girls. and wakame. `Shoo?fly pie and apple pan dowdy?"' "Yeah.

" Harry tells him. dear?" "Now I know how you've been feeling all these years. Drugs. How do they and the Germans do it. the antic jammed architecture. tracks disused now. now that you've tested the waters. the booze. He can do anything he wants with you. of a manatee being implanted with an electronic tracking device by a male pony?tailed manatee?conservation freak. The half?naked boy is too stoned to stare. her plump dumpy mother on the other side of her.