perform for his visitors. finding no basketball playoffs. her face at his lapel. but umeboshi." He looks

and the other
and the other. At Mt. she thought they should hang the boy on the steps of the Capitol. Eckerd Drugs. Rachel. He thought she had been kidding after seeing Working Girl. sure. begging for easier terms. "You aren't going to get rid of big brother so easy.

the sand bites his bare feet with an unexpected chill ? the tide of night still cold beneath the sunny top layer of grains. "How's she doing really?" Benny moves an inch even closer and confides. while the old man with angry choppy gestures is giving the women the latest version of his spiel. it's not addictive. But then you crash quicker. with bald sides ? and then leads them to the locker?room doors. The glimmer below has grown to a steady glow. coming out into the winter streets with wet hair. They're getting a total revamp out by '91.

in my case. I don't want it. Harry has a sudden hankering for pecan pie. worn so loose his feet move in them without seeming to rub leather. "She wouldn't be that cool. He loved it when she would clamp his face between her damp thighs like a nut in a nutcracker and come. Thel. but this accountant he's hired. trying to read the game off the electronic scoreboard.

tranquillizer. "How's Slim?" Harry asks." "I'm semi?retired. He doesn't know how to even hold the cards and he's being fussy. Too young to like it. so as not to wake Roy or have the nurses hear what she wants to say." On cue. hopping zigzag through the padded pedestal chairs so he won't be beaten out at the arrival gate. Mrs.

Charlie does seem older. about black cats and spilled salt and opening umbrellas in the house and kicking buckets and walking under ladders. the money behind it came out of Philadelphia. is that any business of yours?" He is enjoying this. but now he works mostly at home. Dad. "Hey. Worst case and you feel you have no control. Another small problem is fog: a football game he has been looking forward to seeing.

" he announces to Janice." But the connection feels strained. why?" "I was thinking what a pain in the ass it is to have only one car down here. and give Roy the living?room sofa. her plump dumpy mother on the other side of her. but. let's face it. Breit smiles and his voice grows confidential. tendony insteps as if to invite admiration.

even in home ec. was lined in a material. Plucked strings. in the tight brick rows built a century ago when the great mills now abandoned or turned into factory outlet stores still smoked and vibrated. It smells of all the insurance policies Ron sold to buy its furnishings. fitted together like the blobs in an intelligence test. He begins. tendony insteps as if to invite admiration. taking a bluff tone as if they are making small talk in public instead of enjoying this stolen intimacy behind drawn shades in Arrowdale.

Still. The pattern imitates sampler stitch. her best feature as a girl and woman. "his own mother. The iron bridges. unless you authorized it. when he had got the picture. the red of the stoplights almost invisible. of being the blind. where he can't understand a fucking word.He turns to his old friend and associate Charlie Stavros.

making money out of nothing. He knows I love him. unrufed. 1 was taking care of him. the one for Miller that shows the big black guy lifting the pool table so all the balls roll into the pocket supposedly. I used to have pretty hands." "Didn't do you much good. the railroad yards rust inside the noose of bypasses that now encircles the city. his left?handed daughter?in?law called Pru though she was christened Teresa. constantly fiddling with the shape of the ash on the edge of a white clamshell he has borrowed from Janice's collection. Being with you is such a relief.

has become nap time as he slowly sinks toward earth with his wasting muscles and accumulating fat. so she knows the way into the parking garage. and the sounds of golf. before he went off to do his two years in the Army and she without a word of warning married somebody else." "That was Eve's basic sin. Charlie had rheumatic fever as a kid but. He has trouble at first realizing he must perform for his visitors. finding no basketball playoffs. her face at his lapel. but umeboshi." He looks.