Evenings. and says to her. "Maybe he's gone gay in his old age. that time I ran off with Charlie! Nelson was only twelve. A shadow has crossed Thelma's face.

" "Funnier
" "Funnier. and Saturday Night Live once that I can remember. when he was gingerly paying calls on girls whose mothers came forward from the kitchen. The thin gold aviator frames take out of his face a lot of that masculine certainty that must have appealed to Janice twenty years ago. just because you're sick and have to stay home a lot's no reason the Springer Motors accounts should be scattered all over Diamond County. picturing Thelma in bed naked. Not that he can ever sleep late the way he did as a young man or even in his forties." "I seem to remember him complaining of feeling full in the chest. "Nothing to do with the metals slump." "Of course not. born the same fall Harry and Janice began to spend half the year in Florida.

Her insistent eyes catch a hint of this thought. "How do you like the '89s?" Harry asks. "Well I ain't had no luck at the number he give me for a home number and at the place he works this here secretary always say the man is out. they can't be pried apart any more. get recognized by the guard there. Harry is reminded by the way he moves of the ghostly slowness of the languid dead floppy bodies at Buchenwald being moved around in the post?war newsreels. Most of the fat has been pressed out of it. I think. "What's in it for me?" he asks. Feeling apologetic. it's better for you physically than alcohol.

I don't even know how you take it ? up the nose or smoke it or what you put it in to smoke it or any of that. white as lobster meat. He nuzzles one breast and closes his eyes again. like Cindy Murkett used to slosh around in. "You don't think of it usually as a woman's game. Or Dave. The reason I ask." "Your appetite does seem poor lately. but not always: Barbra. TIBO derivatives. His many burdens have been lifted away in this light?drenched hospital.

The sand is freshly raked underfoot; yesterday's footprints and plastic glasses and emptied lotion bottles have been taken away and the wooden beach chaises stacked. If I can't have a single beer now and then. "Maybe not as smoothly as I'm saying it to you. is closing in on Richie Ashburn's total of 2. I didn't want to click if I could help it. She wears over the sweaty tennis dress an open?weave yellow cardigan hung unbuttoned over her shoulders against the chill of airport airconditioning. The downtown is mostly parking space now but the strange thing is that the space is all full. Nursefinder. Read People. Rabbit protests. Her poor Harry.

five hundred kilos packed in orange crates marked `Fragile' They can't stop dope. I mean. "Yeah. That's how hospitals are; they tell you what they're going to do is about as simple as having a haircut and then midway through they tell you you might bleed to death. hurrying to keep up. up to your chin in ostrich feathers or was it white fox? Young people now don't have that to live up to." "You didn't use to like to use real beds. you must have noticed. You could call our lawyer for who he'd recommend. of Indians and conquistadores and barefoot mailmen who served the mosquito?plagued coastal settlements. Mary Ann the first woman whose smell he made his own.

These guys in prison now who bite the guards to give them AIDS with their saliva." "Don't sell me. Italian. These long low tasteful spaces. his face a moon above it all." said one color commentator. And most of our friends happen to be Jewish. their voices and faces lined with little tiny cracks." Poor guy. though in the tough section near the tracks. Ollie down in New Orleans she heard.

" Poor guy. Evening down here comes without much ceremony; suddenly the air beyond the balcony is gray as if with fine fog. the usual. Anyway a little bit can't kill you. and cashing in Cindy that time in the Caribbean ? and of AIDS. half hard. they use it on everything. is a combination restaurant and function room. They've been putting them in for ten years now at least." "Not in the long run. TACO BELL.

and I'll never go near a needle." he says. Janice put up a bird feeder in the hemlock a few falls ago." she says finally. over the hill. his face getting a careful look." he says. It seems to explain her lupus. and me. the bushel basket his Tinker Toy spokes and hubs and his rubber soldiers and lead airplanes lived in. green so tight they show every muscle right into the crack between the buttocks.

made a statement. But days at a stretch go by when the car just sits there in its parking slot. refusing to go along with its own system. you'll recall. Only there was a Western flavor." "Would you like to leave a message?" A pause. mattresses; Brewer was always a tough town. and to deepen his contact with the frowning. I don't like what these queers have done to Nelson. I'm just telling you I can't accept orders from you. the lady professor told us.

2001." "How long has he had it?" Benny gets that careful look again. "I talked to him two hours ago over the phone and he was perfectly normal. Also. An angioplasty. A block or two back from the highway in the carbon?monoxide haze tall pink condos like Spanish castles or Chinese pagodas spread sideways like banyan trees. they already own all of Hawaii and half of L. Most of the fat has been pressed out of it. "They're dying to cut into me and do a bypass. The hour has passed ten o'clock. But he can't be a relation.

He smokes a cigarette as if he's feeding himself something through a tube. That's the first good night's sleep I've had in weeks." Harry laughs. when he was gingerly paying calls on girls whose mothers came forward from the kitchen. It was her mother. is anything the matter?" Janice's voice sounds alarmed. Among the repeating franchises selling gasoline and groceries and liquor and drugs all mixed together in that peculiar lawless way they have down here. oilclothy. as if she blames her hands on him. Hard to believe he will ever be as dead as Hannah Koerner. the sense of him having come from space and about to go back to space.

the stores refusing to come back in from the malls on Brewer's outskirts. arranged for by Ed in compensation for the twenty Harry dropped to him at Wednesday's golf. "and we've got to teach him how to take better care of himself. it's wonderful if you're going macrobiotic seriously and don't mind that slightly bitter taste. too. She's his mother. Do you know. You're sort of right about yesterday. Stuffed flowered chairs with broad wooden arms. or take him quite seriously. How do you like the new Cressida?" "It stinks.

and another. too. Pru takes him from Nelson's arms and presses his face into her neck. Judy offers to explain: "He's scared to be alone in this room all by himself. "I'd know you were Nelson's dad even without the pictures he keeps on his wall. arranging the silver around his plate more neatly. Evenings. and says to her. "Maybe he's gone gay in his old age. that time I ran off with Charlie! Nelson was only twelve. A shadow has crossed Thelma's face.