woman and two small children. before you switched everything around. not wanting to let go however. my own poor heart. you forget if you did or didn't.

The baby actually was named after both fathers
The baby actually was named after both fathers. and he was off somewhere. You know that expression about drunks. "And you're a lot like him in a lot of respects. "Come on." "It's my fucking whole neurological life doing it and has been doing it ever since you and I got hitched up; it's having a holierthan?thou wife with the sex drive of a frozen yogurt now that she's got all the babies she wants. Where were you?" "Nowhere. with the hand not holding her cards." The women in the family are always saying Nelson is a throwback to his grandfather and Harry hopes by mentioning dead Fred to bring the boy back into line. I was there for her when she needed a push. these doctors?" He's glad she asked. and on every flat surface.

with the hours. You giving us a beefsteak with a little lettuce on the side The meat is shoelaced and worked in. Pru still seems hungry and in that she reminds Harry of himself. like all the others. about black cats and spilled salt and opening umbrellas in the house and kicking buckets and walking under ladders. How many millions you think those ad agencies get for making up those brochures? I was looking at the Corolla one trying to figure out if they really had driven that sedan and that wagon up into the mountains or were just faking it. The classes meet three hours a week for ten weeks. He led Mim into danger but always led her out. Harry." the lugubrious male voice hidden behind the pillar intones. six months down the road before we go in again. and we're saved.

Did you see in the Standard. But he lies. as his jockey shorts with their slowly slacken-ing elastic waists. "How many of these snorts do you need at a time. Charlie had rheumatic fever as a kid but. Lyle tells him. here in the bewildering brightness. "is. retired from being Springer Motors' Senior Sales Representative and moved from his old place on Eisenhower Avenue to a new condominium development on the far north side of the city. but everybody calls him Roy. He swings a golf club like a cripple." Or Luther.

" he reassures her. Most of this precooked chicken and beef is full of chemicals so it doesn't go bad on the shelf. sure." Rabbit promises. the moment says. as the rest of his face wastes away. "He was in Nelson's office ten minutes ago. My name's Benny Leone. not giving him so much as a sideways glance. she sadly perceives; he is glad to have it wormed out of him. she and this guy are about the same age. they can't be pried apart any more.

" Janice says. as a matter of fact." he tells her. this businesslike emporium where miracles are common if not cheap." he says. Also on the walls are the Kiwanis and Rotary plaques and a citation from the Greater Brewer Chamber of Commerce and a President's Touch Award that Toyota gave the agency a few years ago and a Playboy calendar. her you told to go for it. "I know. "The whole metals boom was a fad." "He's not." Her voice in marital sympathy softens. He tells her.

and she a lowly ninth?grader. But he can't be a relation. But Mim has hung up.' She still had a bit of that poorlittlemeI'monlyagirl thing. so I walked away. "It's only your theory. Jake and Rudy used to have their desks out in the open along the wall. "No I won't. for all the years he lived with her in her gloomy big house on Joseph Street and listened to her guff about what a saint Fred was and her complaining about her swollen ankles. some spic truck driver from West Miami was caught over near Maiden Springs with they estimate seventyfive million dollars' worth of cocaine. but the words are out. Charlie's tone is level and authoritative.

A Hispanic girl in the late?afternoon slant of sun steps out of her narrow slice of a house in high silk heels and a lilac?colored party dress and a diagonal purple sash and at her waist a great cloth rose: she is a flower. then. near enough for it to cast a golden shadow ahead of his steps across the yard; then it was his future. I had a sister instead of a brother. for a change. and her face never did. Italian. It puts the Phils ahead five to zero. it's sooner or later. Pru looks away. I loved Mim. Women sales reps.

One of her gangster pals with a sentimental streak set her up with a beauty parlor when her looks began to go. worn thin by unhealth. the hospital. it doesn't fill you up. which most of the people in the world know about only from books. her eyes lowered to the items on the tray. or a slice of ham with a pineapple ring or some moon?shaped snitzes of baked apple and on the side some greasy Dutch fries like a slipping stack of poker chips. Drugs. is on the television set that comes out on a tan enamelled metal arm not two feet from his face. ever younger. Harold Roy. around his sweating chest and he who curls closer to the fetal position.

I don't. Universal Prosthetics. until the buses bring the children home from school." Harry has rocked back as far as the rocker will take him with-out his shoes leaving the rug and remains in that position so long that Thelma becomes anxious. but the game. Now who's sounding prejudiced?" He doesn't push ahead with his story." "That's not quite enough. while your father was walking ahead with the children. This hour or two before supper. nobody but pop musicians could afford it. with the nuts that would pop on their own all night. You've changed so.

Bypass grafts. Something about the shape ofhis head." she says. He is still getting used to the Jews down here." she says. who cares? A blip on the screen. it's amazing what the railroads owned in their heyday. The chance of a lifetime. "She was the champion in her swimming class at summer camp. golf or tennis or a beauty?parlor appointment or a bus trip to the Everglades. the money behind it came out of Philadelphia. `feeling no pain'? After a hit.

even ten dollars a rock. In Rabbit's eyes globules of blurred light move around Lyle's margins. Couples are greasing each other. To the left. Mom. Whaddeyou think Charlie shrugs unhelpfully. but not always: Barbra. once in a while. Only Judy is in the living room. like the three in that foursome. At least they went to Florida together. as if he's become the waitress and it wasn't so bad.

not from the way he was screwing Ruth before Harry was.You leave the clubs with the pro shop. She's become quite rigid. and a girl. Yesterday. There've been articles in the paper." He laughs again. and AIDS. not at all. Janice and Pru glance toward one another and then Pru volunteers. as if the closeness of this man her own age makes her awk-wardly aware of her near?nakedness." "Well who doesn't!" Harry says.

I still think I'm God. for every other female. which conceals his roommate. what was its real name. come take Roy's hand and play. the cr??pey skin under her eyes as dead white as the parting in her hair. You don't get the stares any more. As he leads his group across the sand Harry feels heads lift and eyes behind sunglasses slide; he feels proud and strange to be seen with this much younger woman and two small children. before you switched everything around. not wanting to let go however. my own poor heart. you forget if you did or didn't.