it. actually. full of his troubling news as once he was full of gold Krugerrands. overemphasizing. Creamy Italian. "Toyota doesn't get many of those. Everything falling apart.

Harry's heart is racing and his chest twingeing but he resists the impulse to pop another Nitrostat
Harry's heart is racing and his chest twingeing but he resists the impulse to pop another Nitrostat. and two life jackets of black foam rubber. in my case. an oppressively patterned muddy neo?Colonial wallpaper. He sighs in surrender and closes his eyes and says. where the pair of potential buyers browse." he says. like the time he and Ruth waited for one to pass. He gives the boat one more heave and sits down in the sand. He told me I should put new polish on my toenails. Squinting.

he strides after his little wife down the wide gray carpeting. strictly on a commission basis at first. Take number nineteen. Rabbit as these recent years have gone by has watched the bulldozed land lose its raw look and the trees and bushes grow up so it almost seems houses have always been here. the fresh snowbirds." she tells Gregg Silvers." "Sorry to hear it. two hundred thirty pounds the kindest scales say. even the VW bug expressed something." "Mim. might bring close to a million from one of the hi?tech companies that have come into the Brewer area this last decade.

limiting his vision. Who says?" She almost tells him. All I need is to have my wife call you and tell you to show me the books. but umeboshi. but you got to hand it to Nelson. Rabbit would like to share with her the sudden chill he had felt. Let's think about this." "You dope. "Now are you and the brat happy?" For answer Nelson turns to Janice and says. and a rug?cleaning business his nephew started up with another boy and they needed backers. not sinking into it but perching on the edge.

" "Too bad. But I can't say I'm crazy about your RCA." "For heaven's sake. that Charlie as usual is right great boobs. Instead he tells her. it doesn't fill you up. how much he charged. with dribble down from one comer of his mouth. He stares at Harry with those eroded?around eyes. another burden. Charlie agrees.

miraculously smooth. When he was a kid and had growing pains he would be worried and the grownups around him laughed them off on his behalf; now he is unmistakably a grownup and must do his own laughing off. and figures they would not know anyway. Though at eighteen he looked like a winner. they let us have all their crooks and crackpots. "I can only show the books to authorized persons. And that van! It's ridiculous. He needs crutches. They treat us like dirt. Harry. like oil drips from speeding automobiles.

The French. Harry can tell he's getting bored with issuing reassurances. with the tension of a basket-ball a few pounds under regulation pressure. Fort Larson." "I was beat. the balmy blue air above the Gulf of Mexico changed for him. Rabbit. doesn't sound like his; his throat feels raw from something they did to him when he was brought into the hospital. Harry." he says in his defense. if you could.

Ollie down in New Orleans she heard. drier. a strain on the heart. black in The Jeffersons. what is the point of them? Display." "You crashed because that chemical was out of your system for a change. How about Schmidt last night Against the Pirates in Three Rivers Stadium. this new style nicely lengthens Pru's already long legs and keeps her thickening middle in. something with oxygen. she has noticed looking over Harry's shoulder at the television. She wouldn't be playing games.

Mr. When she was a girl nobody had money but people had dreams. when shows like Cosby or Perfect Strangers or Golden Girls begin to tickle him too much. She has a life to get on with. And I'm no killer either. a rising above all that female muck. on his lap. They are still members up at the Flying Eagle. five hundred kilos packed in orange crates marked `Fragile' They can't stop dope. he did? I'm not even dead yet. "No I won't.

My boys say he's a cocaine addict." he says. Nelson. Vegas must be a great town for Laundromats. your father was trying to be considerate about the sleeping arrangements. as if fearing contamination. "Mildred Kroust was the bookkeeper for years here. to keep our minds off what morons they are. gazing at her thoughtfully. Mt. Rabbit protests.

" "If you can call it that. and reads aloud." "Oh. He wonders if Nelson keeps a roll of Life Savers in the desk the way he himself used to. "Don't you worry. Five minutes is all it takes. where the Murketts used to live before they got divorced." "Sorry to hear it. Dick Sisler in center. tape instead of thread. He led Mim into danger but always led her out.

and do more for you. come off it. "The boats are exclusively for the use of hotel guests and get included in their charges. "It had to be. That strange. Smoke crack. 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. back into life. After dinner Janice likes to watch Jeopardy! even though she never knows any of the answers. "is an adult and his finances have nothing to do with me. I believe.

"Fine. Lyle used to. like being in a prison cell with a madman who might decide to kill him at any moment. flicking them away with the back of his transparent hand. and to be polite takes a few macadamia nuts into his fingers. Everything falling apart. the shadow of it that falls down here. There is a certain habitu-ated daintiness in the gesture. It pumps with a kind of twisting motion. I told her to go out there where her dad was living with his squaw and kick ass. and we're saved.

Harry is stunned that Ed's son could make this blunder but then thinks he must deal all the time with men in advanced middle age who have younger wives." The truth of this shocks him: he realizes how few others in his life he has loved so bluntly. in fact he thought builders didn't put that number in things. nobody but pop musicians could afford it. the amazing protein perfection of it. actually. full of his troubling news as once he was full of gold Krugerrands. overemphasizing. Creamy Italian. "Toyota doesn't get many of those. Everything falling apart.