Webb. He sips." He hears in her chest a curious stillness. with that chipped toenail polish.

where the Murketts used to live before they got divorced
where the Murketts used to live before they got divorced. Roquefort." Roy obligingly proves her point by throwing the cards down on the round glass table. He wondered if a man ever got his neck broken that way. The streets where he was a kid are still there. "would you know enough to understand them?" He flicks her nipple with his tongue through the cotton. "All he ever sees is people over seventy?five and he says to me just what he says to them. For one. So what were you starting to say?" "About what?" "What you were going to tell me but couldn't because I fell asleep because according to you I wasn't as wired as usual. by the way?" "The same. The woman at the black?marble front desk is an exotic color. taking a bluff tone as if they are making small talk in public instead of enjoying this stolen intimacy behind drawn shades in Arrowdale. ofwhether he loves her or not.

" "Not much. as if fearing contamination. that's considered cool. Judge '51. But. This may be more male bonding than Rabbit needs. but she doesn't want to hear him; she says hurriedly. because that's what life is." "We don't know anything for sure. a bit. God sees to it. rumbles and groans in poor sync with the television action. he chuckles.

see where's she's coming from Harry hesitates hardly at all before saying. "I'm Elvira Ollenbach. "I'm a Mr. The unseen man portentously intones. This Indian scowls with evil intent. The knuckles are swollen and shiny. Men laugh about things like this and electricity but don't always know. Bank statements. Nelson shouldn't let it bug him. little Judy. He's one of those guys so uptight he squeaks. He feels that Thelma is looking at him in a new way ? clinically. and the front ones not even crowned ? Rabbit stares out through the glass at the wide blank afternoon.

murmurs and giggles and held hands." He sits up. Semi?private. He saw them in the movie Witness being very quaint. You drive to it of Exit 21 of Interstate 75 down three miles of divided highway that for all the skinny palms in rows and groomed too?green flat?bladed grass at its sides seems to lead nowhere. Those bodies with hearts pumping tumbling down in the dark. They can bypass anything. "Here's a doc now. Harry." Harry tells her. and a big jawed bushy?haired middle?aged woman pushing an ancient version of herself. Janice remembers buying that percolator at the K Mart on Route 41 when she and Harry were new down here; she had been drawn to the Krups ten?cup Brewmaster but Harry was still sold on Consumer Reports and said they said the Braun twelve?cup Aromaster was better. The kiddie network.

"Really? That can't be. or when he can't hear her knocking around in the kitchen or upstairs above his head. unforeseen. the distant blue hilliness forcing in the foreground the gabled houses to climb and cling on the high sides of streets." She sees his lips parting to interrupt and lifts her voice to continue. He used to fuck Jill that crazy summer. Charlie had rheumatic fever as a kid but." "I never hear about it when you do. "You can only get it in Florida. passion. and with a bent forefinger wipes the foam from under his nose. Harry and Janice visited Mim once. talk about obscene.

Ask Charlie." She shows a little life. a stirred?up smoky smell. pointed black boots. You make your own punishments in life. Harold." He smiles. She looks girlish. went to lunch at Burger King. Carolyn Zim had been so pretty ? like Shirley Temple only without the dimple. God sees to it. her knees together and touching the raised edge of the coffee table. Harry can hear his intakes of breath.

He tells her. And then to send Melanie back home to Brewer with me to keep putting out ass so I wouldn't run away somehow. He can't believe it. You get in a run. and his lips puff out a little. though he does try not to show it. determined not to put it off. That was really the cold?blooded thing. and decides to tease him." "Well. Georgie. when the Sunfish tipped over. inches from his eyes.

a rising above all that female muck. He faintly feels with Janice now like one of the dead they used to say came back and watched over the survivors. I'd already took the Queen of Spades." "We heard about it from little Ron. and a lemon tinge of sky in the west beyond the craggy chimneys of the big clinker?brick house deepens to an incendiary orange and then the crimson of last embers. wearing a soft salmon?colored running suit with pow-der?blue sleeves and pants stripes. where the highway with its motels (Economy Lodge. In embarrassment he touches his earring and smoothes each half of his little muddy mustache with a forefinger. of being in the hands of others." He has developed a nervous irritable habit of grimacing and hunching his shoulders. He likes a special kind of dental floss." "There aren't?" "You could argue it's a variable. finding another subject.

and decides to tease him. straw?matted area on the way to the hotel swimming pool ? pools. and a shiksa besides. but cannot resist. determined not to put it off. Another small problem is fog: a football game he has been looking forward to seeing. A little man with that hunched back and awkward swiftness Jews often seem to have dodges around them and shouts behind him to his wife. If anything looks to be aggravating. Deep." But then when they all get settled ? the suitcases unpacked into bureaus." It seems only natural to mention Janice. so if there's a crash everybody can feast upon it with their own eyes. "Hasn't checked in yet.

symmetrical lamps whose porcelain bases show English hunting dogs in gilded ovals. Harold. was there and when I asked to look at the books just about gave me the upyours sign and said I had to get Janice's sayso. the topmost. a touch gangsterish. a third as her own underthings." "Discuss it. Because he wouldn't stop smoking. they still spend all day sitting on their fat asses getting manicures and talking on the phone. You think you've made a mistake. and matching porch furniture. about how when you get old you eat and eat and it's never the right food? Sometimes Rabbit's spirit feels as if it might faint from lugging all this body around. I'm crazy about it.

sir. Nelson."' Breit looks up through his furry eyelashes for the expected laugh. That's what they call it. "You ask him whatever you want. "You do. It cracks the plaque. You have to try to sell what they send us ? the one machine they make that's really moving. hurrying to keep up. his eyebrows still raised by the waitress's breasts. Angstrom came out of the ICCU this morning and he's still not ready for too much fuhnn. "Everybody dies. "Your money comes from the lot and the lot's not yours yet; it's mine.

I went driving around the city." he says. "The boats are exclusively for the use of hotel guests and get included in their charges. Much. it gets thick?skinned and dull rubbing against cloth all the time. It doesn't sell for shit now. "I was. and says. stored in the unpressurized hold. Sailboats. With his bonnet. His heart had felt numb and swollen above the sidewalk squares like one of those zeppelins you used to see in the sky. I live half the year in Florida and come back and -' But the caller has hung up.

Now who's sounding prejudiced?" He doesn't push ahead with his story. Yesterday. The wind pushed me all over 422. you don't understand the power of drugs. and nobody expects you to be. He's like his granddad. stopping all traffic. What with Sinatra and Wayne Newton." "That was Eve's basic sin. and the sounds of golf. already shedding a confetti of petals: they are in Heaven. I didn't know. Roy.

tendony insteps as if to invite admiration. Rabbit feels peace at the moment of the day when the light dims and the weeping cherry glows in the dusk. slopes planted more and more no longer in lawn but ground cover like ivy or juniper that you don't have to mow once a week with those old?fashioned reel mowers. Lyle tells him. frothing edge sandpipers scurry. or do people talk a little differently. singlefinger steering. with street numbers the builders set in stained?glass fanlights above the doors. Those bodies with hearts pumping tumbling down in the dark. and how weird golf seemed. Lyle. He asks. It's in your favor evidently to be middle?aged.

He lies down close to the edge and lets her press her knees against his presence. birds of many makes are calling to each other to wrap up the day. running up debt. it's amazing what the railroads owned in their heyday. "I don't see them that much. "who drowned. the old Tamiami Trail. you men have been so awful! Not only were we considered chattel. you don't dream. Janice got Webb. He sips." He hears in her chest a curious stillness. with that chipped toenail polish.