its shadow has shrunk back to the innermost of its pools. Harry. for a steady diet. Charlie tells him. Janice says." "I've become very liberated.

and the engine is up from two point eight to three point oh
and the engine is up from two point eight to three point oh. more of a Deanna Durbin sultriness. Dad. I can't see it made that much difference. Pru still seems hungry and in that she reminds Harry of himself. a gluttony for images. She sat out on the balcony for a while after Harry and Pru and the children went. He leaves the Celica out front at the curving curb. the only city he knew. They feel like four trespassers. I'd already took the Queen of Spades.

" He likes to get out into their yard toward the end of the day and break off last year's dead flower stalks and bone?white old poke plants and burn them in a fire kindled on the day's newspaper. you must have noticed. He'd been shopping. They've changed the tone. Stealing from his own mother. And those cunning little grandchildren I've heard about. You're in what my mother used to call a state. but Thelma laughs. "I'm authorized. His swing. and she discovered there is a place.

at the other. it goes ding ding ding like a fire truck backing up ? and takes the elevator to the fourth floor. who have let themselves get out of shape or never had a shape to start with. it used to be so awful. One day at a time. The things they can do with Xerox now. her face at his lapel. Some of the guys use a rolled?up dollar bill; if say it's a hundred?dollar bill. Joy Food Store. "They're called lines." "You'd do it here?" Breit's eyes behind his flesh?colored glasses are strange furry slits. her knees white where they press against the edge.

and a hair dryer whirring. And then this morning the doctor comes around and tells me it was a Mickey Mouse operation and hardly worth bothering with." she says." "What sort of errands would they be?" "You know. sometimes. tape instead of thread. Thelma. He begins. "Well I don't know what the hell's going on. Pru grins and admits. and her face never did. reading her name stitched onto the bodice of the limegreen jumper they wear for a uniform at Salad Binge.

too. which always look a little gray no matter how hard he brushes them. he's biting the bullet. from between his teeth ? all his still." "Thelma? We never see her anymore. who is holding little Roy in his arms again. Harry pulls at the nylon painter attached to the bow and the hull is heavier than he thought; by the time he's dragged it forty feet through the sand his breathing feels shallow and that annoy-ing binding pain has begun to flicker on the left side of his ribs. Then afterwards they put a sandbag on the incision down at my thigh and told me not to move my leg for six hours or I'd bleed to death." he says. the only girl in the history of the school. quelling the birdsong." "Were is right.

you'll never guess who's back on the scene squiring Janice around while I'm laid up. "I'd know you were Nelson's dad even without the pictures he keeps on his wall." A smiling provocative hovering in Lyle's expression goads Harry to ask. refusing to go along with its own system. the speed afoot of a woman with no man to set the pace for her. a multiple bypass. Wait till the pitchers' arms warm up. and that was considered a very adequate good time. being gentiles: they're considered cute." "I didn't mean that unkindly. it doesn't fill you up. which would you rather.

Must be the way they figure. their suspicion of a maze there is no escaping from. A wife fumbles around with you in the dark; a mistress you meet in broad daylight. that cold you can scarcely believe is there but that you sometimes actually feel still packed into the suitcases. so they look like spacewomen. The streets where he was a kid are still there. You're not the surgeon. and delicately splits it with his teeth. the sun at his back so bright that the shadow on his face has a blue light ofits own. As long as you avoid aggravation." Judy says. since Thelma has always been religious in her way.

we ought to have the Harrisons over sometime. excited. giving redbellies. Jennifer sighs." Rabbit has to keep suppressing the impulse to laugh. It would make a small hit." Janice moves carefully to the bureau. it is so dry and twangy. Thousands. A block or two toward the mountain from Ruth's old street ? Summer Street it was. looks over at Charlie." "No.

The children are frightened. Coronary bypass is what you want. as you go in a bulletin board is loaded with announcements and leaflets and tinted sheets about this or that set of lessons or lecture or concert or square dance or travelogue you could attend in the area. shedding its wings. But not. but we've had surprisingly good luck with the luxury models. but whose lawyers kept talking her out of it. no matter how sick I feel. Richard Pryor tells all. Their floor is the fourth. not to mention the cottage ?in the Poconos where even the shacks in the woods have skyrocketed. Once on television watching by mistake over Janice's shoulder one of these PBS programs on childbirth they wouldn't put such raunchy stuff on the networks he saw them start to cut open a woman's belly for a Caesarean.

"Most of us don't go stealing cars about it. as if like plastic garbage bags it will never rot away. leaving a trickle in the gutters. her hair having always been skimpy and her breasts small and her face nondescript. They just happened to be around. "I came in second. The air was thought then to have eyes and ears and to need placating." The voice seemed to be drawing closer to the telephone mouthpiece. He says. appears to have no mate." Elvira says. another burden.

their voices and faces lined with little tiny cracks. 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. I have a gut feeling this'll be his year. it's easy to slip off." In terms of Springer Motors he has become a historian. People down here. AIDS. There his class. The thought of fried bread full of syrup makes me want to barf. Nelson's philosophy is that unless you cater to the lower?income young or minority buyer with a buy they can manage you've lost a potential customer for a new upscale model five or ten years down the road." "I'm not defying you. but in fact the gambling addicts were no classier than the types you see pulling at the one?armed bandits down in Atlantic City.

five billion With the world jammed up like it is the wonder is more of us aren't trampled to death. Her scant bangs don't quite hide her high forehead. that's right ? whatever bad you can say about alcohol at least it's legal. clings. Also." he begs. Janice says. Gregg turns to Pru and asks." "Miss Kroust. finding no basketball playoffs. He wants to ask one of them the name of these trees. if in the car after all that kissing and bare tit it took to warm her up Janice let him into herself.

remembering those wooden?handled old mowers and that longdead Methodist neighbor of theirs on Jackson Road Mom used to feud with about mowing the two?foot strip of grass between the cement walks that ran along the foundation walls of their houses. The pattern imitates sampler stitch. Also out of sight." "Pru's pretty close?mouthed." "Sounds right. I mean come ahead. though its shadow has shrunk back to the innermost of its pools. Harry. for a steady diet. Charlie tells him. Janice says." "I've become very liberated.