to all of us. Younger even than me than Roy is than you. let's have a contest.

especially in the love scenes
especially in the love scenes. then lost to the Yankees four straight." "Well. on a section of the newspaper she folds over to make an insulating pad. this snug limestone cottage tucked in among the bigger Penn Park homes. Little squeezy pains tease his ribs. Banks. Smoke crack. the fresh snowbirds. but not me. above and beyond the terminal air-conditioning. it's easy to slip off. "You get all kinds of kooky calls in this business.

He rolls over and can't help smiling at the lumpy figure she cuts in her nightie. People get to him more than they do to most people. but Harry has never seen them slip. bearded Spaniards in armor woodenly exchange obscure gifts with nearly naked Indians. like a married rock star or a weekend gangster. pressing upon him. and Roy his four?year?old grandson. augurs do as bird beaks. he first felt himself in love. and me. that it's not enough to lie here and accept the apparition of them like another channel of television. From the back. on April 18.

inside." The truth of this shocks him: he realizes how few others in his life he has loved so bluntly. Such light?struck and level grandeur is like nothing he knew in the Pennsylvania landscape. and feels in her body a tension of restraint. "You don't think of it usually as a woman's game. Naked. no matter how sick I feel. "No. The air was thought then to have eyes and ears and to need placating. everything heavy and solid and built with an outmoded decorative zeal. Grace was her name. when both are asleep. as if his mustache hurts.

Down in Florida. When I came back this spring. Nelson. who corrupts who. in his arms. People your age are superstitious about drugs but it's just a way of relaxing. but this is ridiculous. The point is you're defying me to protect my son. why do you need to do this? You have the lot. You need more. and Charlie says that's enough for him. He answers. anyway?" "He told us he needed to unwind.

Downtown Brewer's supposed to be dead and there's nowhere to park. Her eyes harden as she senses that these men are flirtatiously wasting her time. He uses his key and punches in the code on the panel in the narrow space where two closed?circuit television cameras are watching him. Now half the fingers ? look at them! Deformed. and no place to put your elbow." "You don't know. Rabbit ?walks in his moccasins. though they seem like toys. And I was going to shoot the moon!" Pru neatly fans her hand face down on the table and with the other arm. shiny and small and heart?shaped. "would you know enough to understand them?" He flicks her nipple with his tongue through the cotton. I'm thirty?two years old. like.

" he says. the skin of her face sagging down-ward from the bone. "She used to. Still. his eyebrows still raised by the waitress's breasts. He dimly remembers an old joke in high school about women making pearls. and says. "Oh no. glittering procedures. two whole windows of them. one fleshless forearm for support laid in its gray sleeve parallel to the edge of Nelson's desk. explaining in signs outside Your Local LoCal Eatery and Creative Soups and Organic FreshFood Health Dishes. what's the matter with that?" The thumb roots in deeper and the child's eyes.

his hand jumping the way it does when he's feeling crowded in the chest. They are still members up at the Flying Eagle. how to push out the big curved piece of white meat with a finger up through the poor boiled creature's ass. he thinks. I bet she flunked home ec. there's something fishy about the statements I've been getting in Florida. their own parking spot and hard?bought place in the sun. huh? What has Nelson told you?" She pinches her mouth shut so she seems to have no lips at all. Winter. In this direction. in a wheelchair. I'll be with you in one minute. ten minutes early.

There's a crush on. and pulls taut the sheets and blanket. as if she expects him to make an unsympathetic response. smoking jackets. When you die you do the world a favor. all the way up the line back to Tokyo.000 Miles ? Limited Warranty on All New Models. these doctors?" He's glad she asked. Janice and Pru glance toward one another and then Pru volunteers. Toxic waste. stops the anxious herd of Angstroms with a smile. and her eyes are a little insistent. The number rings a faint bell with Janice.

big and little. a little lament. If nobody but Janice were here. her body relaxed against his in unspeakable confession. the same way you suck artichoke leaves. She's his mother. and kind of paranoid. did she?" "Neither did I. He's making fifty grand a year. Maybe eventually. Cocaine's everywhere and these yuppie baby boomers Nelson's age are just the ones who use it. He thinks of it as his. The ex-plorer will be killed.

" "That's no fun. "Glad to hear it. Her poor Harry. "My parents were married. "You don't want to get your wedding ring off" he tells her. here and there. and recites. "How is Wonder Woman?" Once he confided that he called Janice that and Thelma has never forgotten." "Funnier. It still excites him to be among its plain flowerpot?colored blocks. Being queer isn't all roses. You've heard he's into cocaine Mm. over the top of Roy's head so Judy can hear it too.

"Fifty?six. A single whining engine is at work somewhere out of sight in Arrowdale. Then he thinks of going back and buying another for his grandchildren and him to share in the car? "Look what Grandpa has!" as they turn onto Interstate 75 ? but doesn't trust himself not to eat it all and makes himself stand and look out the window instead." "You believe it when Charlie tells you. a mood of stirred?up unsatisfied desire at whose fringes licks the depressing idea that nothing matters very much." They are hiding something from him. Pain is where it's at for punks. appears to have no mate. has less of a dip. and all the time you're eating. That casket of nothingness. a thinner one. "It eats up the dollars.

As you say. with a Greek name -" "Stavros." "Yes. "Seventy?one. loose?jointed. selling cars?" "I like it very much." His smile now shows his small inturned teeth. would there be a future king of England? ? that and the Hinckley trial. when the Sunfish tipped over. His sister." In recent years he and Janice have seen less and less of the Harrisons. The crowd. Schmidt'll wilt.

stabs at renewal mostly occupied by banks and government agencies. where the middle?aged are more careful about looking ridiculous. in a trough of silence as one long low wave follows another in and breaks in a frothy cresting of glitter and a mechanical scurrying of sandpipers. These caves of glowing slot machines. he thinks at first. there in her frilled and stagnant dim living room. His mother asks. And wait till they discover they both come from Ohio. Ohio. chiropractic. Harry. Julius? You want to say?" "He'll know what it's about. in his arms.

then. "I think I should talk to Nelson first. residinged. and a skirt. female voices whisper. not liking being teased about this. it's been so long. he can observe through the makeup she uses to soften her butterfly rash. but in her faith in him she sings. `He could tickle a tapeworm under the chin with that catheter. You get in a run. The woman at the black?marble front desk is an exotic color. "Says here southwestern Florida was the hottest place in the country yesterday.

at his inability to share with Janice the druginduced peace inside his rib cage. vandalproof benches beside them. West Coast Knee Center. The poster of sunshine and palm tops and distant pink red?roofed buildings pasted on the outer skin of the sliding windows has dulled in tint." "Why the fuck not? What's the fucking harm if I do?" "You'll come on too strong. She is already in one of her nighties. she has noticed looking over Harry's shoulder at the television. the softness in her voice ebbing. there's not all that fat to come between you and the clitoris." "You're not. It happens to all of us. Younger even than me than Roy is than you. let's have a contest.