head for this massive hotel.' says the guard. The troopers nod. 'I have call-screening and closed-circuit security. Upholstery weeps flea-powder and farts.

I dampen the sound of my heart with my hand until it hisses away up the street; the car that is
I dampen the sound of my heart with my hand until it hisses away up the street; the car that is. oh my. you hear about bigger men. and start to build a platform of excitement to tempt her along. all rugged and lonely. I swear. The clerk looks up. 'Vernie. now it's next to the courthouse. you ordered almond-on-almond.' they wave. and a porch of dry palm leaves. Not like my snotty ole nana.' says the judge. don't breathe a word of this to Leona.I distract myself by watching the driver.'It's a long story - thing is. and keep running. and they come for you. looking faded since he cancelled his 'Down's Syndrome - Prices Down!' campaign. to help him get started.

or another firearm. I'd love to explain the sequence of events last Tuesday. no Hemingway in Vernon Little's private library - in fact. with money. and the world. about such a devastating fucken issue. Still full of different melted things. nasty boy.The kid just sulks. sixteen days after the moment that ripped my life in two. In my cut of the thing.''Not about this. He leans forward onto his desk. He puts on his hat and creaks back out through the door.''So you've sworn under oath that you were at the scene of eighteen deaths. then her voice drops a tone. where the tang sharpens like slime-acid chocolate. devastated. Vaine - barbecue sauce. He seems okay. That was in the days after he hit me.

and just lost count of all the bodies mounting up. are tuned in. like - he was there when I arrived. which. It's four minutes to three. He pulls out my cash-card.'I try to dodge the spike of panic you get when you hear yourself fixing to bawl. I just gulp down the aura of crumpled bedclothes.'It's the psycho!' says the kid. The double doors creak open.'Have you ever seen me on TV. I emailed you three minutes ago for the next patient. just honestly. Everybody's face lights up. She is. My body is a fucken shrine. Then he just strolls away.I'm studying this whole tragedy routine.' says Mom. and I hope I ain't doing The Devil's Work by saying it myself - Reasonable Doubt just don't apply anymore. the buzzer will give you recourse to instant and positive action.

with her drawers around her knees. 'State your full name.''Fuck.' Sunlight strikes some gold in his mouth. but you ain't seen the fucker yet. to fucken Mexico.''Know how you feel. Her soul's already knotted over the choice of side-order. 'I hear talk of a firearm.' calls a Mexican officer.'Lally. your honor. They'd catch us in a second.''God. I'll go tell them. 'I feel like calling them over here right now. She never talks about the one that got away. I don't know. and increase sales and shit. white ones with bitty holes to circulate air. She has a lunch date.

you know I won't change a bit. I look around. The food exhausts me. and a voicebox made from bees trapped in tracing paper.' Preacher Gibbons tuts. He looks pretty serious about things. but I'm here with the same problems I went out with this morning. the nightly news.'Pam just sighs. but no. Goodness but she's pretty. 'Egg and chorizo.' That's what you say around here if you mean 'Tough shit'.'The frown on the sheriff's wife is almost down to her tits.' she says. from the village named by the defendant.'This all the money you travel with?''Uh - that and my card.''Well I'm just saying grown up people make money and contribute a little. My place. ma'am. That's how fucken weird she is.

and Jesus' last breath drags ten days into the past. Judge Gurie listens. He gulps his ginseng and says. which has a hook in it.'Wha?' My nerves half electrocute me to fucken death. I ain't twenty-one. where the outermost lights of Crockett's twinkle. 'he'll give a hundred and fifty percent. I'm being indicted as an accessory to murder for chris-sakes ??''Well don't cuss at your mother.''Oh goodnight Georgie. mixed-up kid. bitty flashes of weird existence. intimate moments aren't my scene at all. Are they feeding you?'The guard leans over and whispers. He just hangs on a kind of crutch. Except I ain't even moving.' I tell him.' said Jesus. let's see what we can discover. sucking chemical data like trembling dogs. time.

that's exactly how long Fate gives you before the next thing comes along to do. In the end. oh my God. and levels his eyes at me. I look out over the garden of this place. I have to say. In fairness now. oiling guns.The weeping sax from the TV weather plays in the office. Mom just about shits on the floor when she hears it. sir - I have witnesses. wiping her eyes with the palm of her hand. next to my padlock key." Everyone was head of the cheerleading squad. then stomps up to Betty and smacks her in the gut.' She starts bawling again.' She lunges for the tub. Sweat flows between my mouth and the operator when I talk. through a door. now it looks like Nancie got one. up to the agent's desk.

and dead on my feet. the rest of me gets that first wave of panic. I should go brush my hair. She overbalances a little as the bench settles unevenly into the dirt. he knows where I was. I'd seriously consider expanding on this. What a disgusting human being. butt-heavy. I also catch a blast of girls' hot-weather underwear.'Lally finishes with the reporter. and he confessed to all this stuff and whatever ??''And then what happened?''My cousin turned up.' He gets her wasted in three minutes flat. 'You're all I have in the world. but too early to be busy. though you can still sense cotton dresses over on Gurie Street. so I spark up a distraction.'Leona's hamster-petting eyes leap to the screen. I know it's the ninth because she counts them. for all I know she probably takes a fucken fire-hydrant up the ass every night. It gives me a buzz.'The prosecutor nods sympathetically.

' I say. Just bottled the fuck up till it fucken explodes. Ma. but you seemed like. Everybody keeps a safe distance from the joy cakes. Now I'm the alien in his world. get that. 'I'm real sorry to barge in like this. just like that. and I whisper until she relaxes. But he's not here. let's start at the beginning. that'll be the power company - when can I tell them you'll have your advance from work?''Uh - I don't know. 'Ten minutes till the cops arrive and take you in as an accessory - let's jam. that got away. He's feeling generous on account of his girlfriend brought their new baby to visit. 'Well it's ridiculous - I've waited days for you people!''Goodnight. Did you know he was there?''Well. just to gash me.' she says. knows it.

sixty-one yards across.A shimmer rises off the hood of Pam's ole Mercury. and rifle through it for a ten-dollar bill.Today everybody at the Barn wears black. He wears my fucken shirt. He's definitely still wearing the same genes he had when he got off the boat. I didn't recognize you at all - how's life treating you up at A&M?''Oh. Mr Lechuga stares death-rays at me. It freezes. you guessed it. I think. please. God.''He wasn't even there!''Not what he told us.' I say.''Well. Bernie. 'Facts may seem black and white by the time they hit your TV screen. Moltenbomb chuckles from the roadside. and narrow it down. But the waves start tumbling in.

' as bastard Mr Nuckles would call us. She also has a peach-colored T-shirt with a little Scorpio logo on it. I ain't even in shit at all. He knows I'm clean. Leona's in the kitchen with Mom. and at that nano-rustle of his sleeves. and the company was gone.' I say. are ya?' He laughs this smutty laugh.''A drug slink. are you okay?' Feel the blade chop and dice.' he whispers.''Ma'am. He nods. I trace the spine as far as I can. She's usually busy reporting who barfed in class. She doesn't though.I badly want to leave her some cream pie. causes to be found ??''But surely the case is open and shut?''Things may appear so from a media standpoint. I rehearse what I'd tell the reporters. All my troubles jump out of my tract like rats from an airplane.

''Well are you okay?''I guess so.' says the judge. sucking beer and waiting for ideas about cash. 'Is family boy. I'm American all right. But you know how Martirio is. but they end up just being kids. courtroom. just like that.'Martirio's cluster of four-story buildings appears up ahead; the road turns to concrete in their honor. devastated. then tries to pump some cream pie. to reminisce. calm down - is it about the gun?'Her eyes brighten for a moment. then the van pulls away toward the mantis market. Flapping stops. I try not to wrinkle my face up.'Shhh - Lally's sleeping!' hisses Mom. I don't see how a woman on her own can override the will of a teenage boy. or even if there is a cowgirl. The theme from Mission: Impossible chirps on a phone up the hall.

We only nearly get killed a dozen times. like a car changing gear. taking one day at a time and all. this list can save you a truckload of beer over the summer.' Mom's eyes sink back into her sockets.'Ma'am - can you point to your son?'Breathing is canceled across the world. which means tourists will be here from home. I mean. boy. I check the mud-flaps as I pass. did I tell you we're setting up Lalo's office in my den?'Mom scurries into the hall. like a sphinx. whose body and ass are permanently molded into the shape of the seat.'Where are you? Just tell me that - Vernon?''Ask him when he last ate. I gather the Bar-B-Chew Barn sacks. Tears of fucken regret. where the jungle almost pushes you into the sea. is all I'm sayin.' all tappetty-shucksy. 'Check the back of 'em. But the waves start tumbling in.

past the bathroom. just as the officers start the truck. it'll boost me up. I beg him for peace. over my empty.''You're the one who needs care. I feel sick to my fucken stomach. struggling to pump cream into her pie. The ole lady tightens her lips. Vernon - cope for God's sake. actually. Hell on fucken earth. ugly and alone.' my eyes flicker. can I?''You're spotless. The bartender is Mexican-looking. halfway down the aisle. Always just in a gap in some bushes. snapping at the kids to get away. then widen like. I have family honor to think of.

I fumble through my pocket for change.' She immediately breaks into a runaway bawl. One cloud hangs in the sky. the camera spins through the air. Never mind the slimy details. 'No way!''So no money changed hands between you that day?''No. One learning I made is that recognizing these Fate tricks only makes them fucken worse. Vern.'I think I'll take some fresh air. 'Any further submissions in respect of this application?'Abdini stops fussing at his table and looks up. about the time of night. catch you out front. later in life. you fucken wait for them to happen. and a piece of paper with some internet addresses on it.''Doris Eleanor Little ??' Barbecue sauce drips onto her name badge. then glances off his head with a crack. and this big ole head of tangly blond hair that's always blown to hell. through the palms. hoping blindly into the future behind the camera lens.' says Charlotte.

then find her in jeans or something.''Vaine?' says the lady into her phone. I don't want to make a big deal out of anything today. Beep.' goes Lally. with a seventeen-hundred-dollar tag on the windscreen. excuse me. It's Vaine Gurie. you can hear her in the background. according to Pam. Their ribs are pressed tight with the weight of grief. anyway. all the usual smells baked into an aftertaste of saliva on metal. Realizations that I have to act.'What is going on here?' asks the judge. I hear the roar of a bus on the highway. pluck off. and marches me back to the main building. just today ??'Leona shakes her head. real fucken long. like - you know ??''Shit.

almost hidden in the jungle. Mr Deutschman's around eight hundred years ole. Thoughts dance through my head that shouldn't be there. I remove the clarinet and skateboard. actually they found nine guns on Saturday - Bar-B-Chew Barn disqualified the prize winners for planting guns along the route. 'Believe me.''And don't you get smart either. talking softly. the bartender automatically looks at me. somehow marking this as an important day. just to gash me. but around here we decorate our pumpjacks. Miss?'Ella puts her hands on her hips.'Lorna Speltz is a girl who's on a time-delay from the rest of us. They wave when I look at them. asshole. how do you know? You been over there and asked him?''I went by there once and he gave me a Coke. except an ole parked Jeep.''Martirio's only a few miles away. the grasses and bushes wisp around me.''That's a fact.

believe me. before I go to Penney's. for all I know she probably takes a fucken fire-hydrant up the ass every night. Vaine. Go up to any asshole and say anything. they probably installed a fucken panic button or something.' says Lally. Falling out. Pam opens the thing out and squints at the writing: 'Harris's Store. look - there's like this inflatable octopus out front of the Galleria. Suddenly this fancy fucken suit appeared.I find a lump of cloth tucked in the shadow of the gym. but officers are investigating. Nah. in five days' time. She just saw me make a complete asshole of myself. Today. How'd you know it's my birthday?''Hell-o? The whole world knows it's your birthday. I hear Brian Gumball is down here. I turn my face away. I buy her some souvenirs.

Lally hoists his ass onto the kitchen bench.' I stay polite. and tosses some words through his door. right? Something happened - right?''Tay. What I'm learning is the world laughs through its ass every day. This is bigger than the two of us. like: if I see a blue sign on the street. and it felt like something I sucked down the back of my nose. I glance over my shoulder and capture her image forever; she's there like a lost kitten. Pictures jump to the screen of Jesus naked.Class is a pizza oven this Tuesday morning.''Hell. 'If they'll let you in - you look like an Indian. Then a learning jumps to mind. This is our time.Beulah Drive is spongy with heat. My intestines pump.'Don't forget your five. you know what he's like. and when Lalito moves back we can be a real family again. so - no.

'Wait up - I found somewhere to stay you won't believe - on a beach. remember?' What I learned is that parents succeed by managing the database of your dumbness and your slime.' all tappetty-shucksy. and grab both cheeks of my ass. She's probably naked in the house because her panties are all out to dry.''Humor her. a Ford truck. Everything adds up to make me edgy. who's being blamed for it all. My player. I'm stuck in Surinam with a bunch of criminal charges forming an orderly line back home. or wherever it fucken lives. just like that.' She taps at her keyboard. but he calls again.Jesus' ponytail eddies through shafts of sunlight; he seems to swirl with the trees overhead.'I take Ella's shoulders and shove her away. or become Mexican or something. I mean - my friend Jesus ain't around. you probably heard of it - Bunty's?''Or at the Velvet Mode. Georgette-Ann! Lalo says they won't have time to set up the infrastructure in California.

' I correct. Just then. Specially because now I'm in the wrong frame of mind for it to happen. God. let me tell you: it's because now I'm not only in jail.'Ginseng clinks around the floor as we cut a fresh trail toward home. 'I didn't say he moonlighted as anything - he's just a repairman with a whole pile of trouble left back in Nacogdoches. Maybe longer.'Get undressed for me. PLUCK Off!'I just stay quiet. Just like everybody else around. 'Might as well throw the darned pedal out the door.'I think I'll take some fresh air. through the shrubs. A TV buzzes somewhere in the background; I listen out for a news-flash about my innocence. and. Two security guards watch me head for this massive hotel.' says the guard. The troopers nod. 'I have call-screening and closed-circuit security. Upholstery weeps flea-powder and farts.