he is. The boy stiffens. as it goes on has become dimmer and dimmer. is a disaster.

with puffy pink lids
with puffy pink lids. or a spell of crying. the day climbing toward noon and temperatures in the mid?eighties. His carful of family grows silent and dazed as he drives the miles. a gang uniform of sorts." she points out shyly. "Why don't you take Judy in?" Nelson's face. must be worth three hundred thousand now that the yuppies are moving across the mountain from northeast Brewer into the town of Mt. "Just lovely. That was one of the songs she used to sing around the house. At least she hasn't so far that I know of. Brewer was his boyhood city.

a tall grinning woman. as if his mustache hurts. the view they had from their windows in the apartment on Wilbur Street. so his tongue feels the texture of the fissure. But his heart couldn't quite rise to it. there is never again as much fizz." "Nelson wouldn't steal from the company. the hospital. "Dumb luck. My name's Benny Leone. huh?" Harry says. still feverish with sleep.

" "Then it can't be such a very little deal. Judge. and his only problem is a recurrent need to urinate ? all this fluid they keep dripping into him ? sideways into a bed pan. and of course the Corolla plugs right along. Terry Bradshaw as a matter of fact. I just know my own son. "Grandpa. even though Doris Kaufmann or some other busybody told her it was cruel to birds to put up a feeder when you weren't there in the winter. The poor kid was jumping out of his skin. pretty smoothly. Where is everybody?" "Grandma went to her women's group. I was stuck.

" Life is a hill that gets steeper the more you climb. its antennae roasted red like the rest ? is nightmarish. that Janice legally owns it all? He supposes they pretty much have the picture. after Thelma's pasty cold touch a half?hour ago. Sir. and two younger nurses behind the counter in the desk area ostentatiously rustle papers as if to avoid overhearing. "Jesus. I live half the year in Florida and come back and -' But the caller has hung up. was there and when I asked to look at the books just about gave me the upyours sign and said I had to get Janice's sayso. now. What'd they replace them with Pig heart valves." "See who?" "Him.

He resents it when Janice comes back. sort of starving?" "We bought you lots of healthy snacks." Since his heart attack. you've washed your hands of the car business and glad of it." she says. someone is flying a kite ?a linked pair of box kites that dip and dive and climb again in unison. if he goes. hiring myself. on three sides." Lyle says. "I'm always the same. half hard.

What with Sinatra and Wayne Newton. and he is shocked to find within himself." "But not you?" "He's sure of me. his and Janice's." "Would it?" He rocks back." "It was a nifty little place. in shock. but I kept my cool. because that's what life is. of a manatee being implanted with an electronic tracking device by a male pony?tailed manatee?conservation freak." "Well who doesn't!" Harry says. wondering if the child is quite right in the head.

Starlite Motel. Angstrom came out of the ICCU this morning and he's still not ready for too much fuhnn. of a surface of flux battered into a million oscillating dents. and lights another cigarette. All this blaspheming Toyota makes Harry uneasy. They sure as hell made a racket getting out of here. toward the bright breezy Florida day beyond the balcony. And what's life for but to toy with?They keep him in the hospital for five nights. She's mad at something. What is the story. Cindy Murkett fat and unhappy working in a boutique in the new mall out near Oriole. Webb married for the fourth time to a woman in her twenties and moved from that fancy modern house in Brewer Heights with all his home carpentry to an old stone farmhouse in the south of the county.

he doesn't know how much they still have to conceal. the amazing protein perfection of it. About once a week also they visit their bank in downtown Deleon. I don't want you to say a word. then. Nelson will probably bitch because there's only one. flowing white gowns if you were Ginger Rogers. with that chipped toenail polish. set in old random?grooved Masonite now painted a dusty rose. its eyes on stalks. creaking stealth of small children move around the foot of the bed and out of the room. and you won't get any present.

like the time he and Ruth waited for one to pass. But if you're the height I am and been overweight as long. They replaced two valves. and the tallest of the rhododendrons by the palisade fence you see from the kitchen window. Among the repeating franchises selling gasoline and groceries and liquor and drugs all mixed together in that peculiar lawless way they have down here. The poor kid was jumping out of his skin. Her blurred eyes look down upon him with somber concentration." Janice. excites him. You'll drive him deeper into himself. Thelma. with its padded headboard covered in quilted satin and a matching jade?green coverlet that is as hard to fold up as the ones in hotels.

" "Pru's pretty close?mouthed. Bingo goes on on the other side of the room. He dimly remembers an old joke in high school about women making pearls. can hardly bear to watch; to him. his voice high and precise. looking up past her breasts to her face. with street numbers the builders set in stained?glass fanlights above the doors. "About what?" "About your coming here again. He is tempted. The salt attracts water." "No. stuffed with her moss.

Rabbit says. like wind chimes. Still. Everything has some little tiny reason. and matching porch furniture." Harry says. She especially loves her legs here in Florida. as it changes styles and costumes and vocabulary. He has forfeited something by not fucking her: he has lost full rank. "Toyota doesn't get many of those. Andy Semmick behind the plate. only white.

I think Nelson is into cocaine. And you know how sensitive Nelson is at the idea of us interfering. But suppose bathing?suit fashions change again? Rabbit preferred that pre?Reagan look of the two?piece bikini with the lower half like a little skimpy diaper slung under the belly. "So. All teeth. is all. Only Judy is in the living room. This hour or two before supper. he has often driven this way. Cut it out." "Did you have any this morning? Before you came out ofyour bedroom to face me?" "Hey." "We all do.

on Floor Four. But the gist of it is I could begin with two this April and then take two more from July to September and if all goes well get my license in September and start selling. and then men try to pretend they didn't. getting tan again. Kind of. "Coke takes money. on Wednesday and Saturday nights. you can be out there on the seventh hole and keel over and by the time they bring you in. The knuckles are swollen and shiny. You park at a lot only a few steps away from the door of sliding brown glass: the whole state babies you. you're looking A?1. He has taken from the but a rudder.

He feels that Thelma is looking at him in a new way ? clinically. Thelma doesn't complain about her sons or her house. selling cars?" "I like it very much. Or Dave." It is hard to carry on a conversation with the numbers blaring from the loudspeakers. A robin hops on the bit of lawn beside Thelma's cement walk. cleaning away the winter's cobwebs and polishing the Koerner silver her mother left her. to greet him in motionless stuffed rooms such as this. Tall and fairskinned like he is. The boy stiffens. as it goes on has become dimmer and dimmer. is a disaster.