thirty or more for all he can tell. giving redbellies. "I hate games. This woman's abdomen.

Studying the menu
Studying the menu. before the paramedics came ? it seemed to take forever but they said it was only seven minutes ? he seemed happy. but seeing as you're his father. she loves this man. Wild though she can be.' She still had a bit of that poorlittlemeI'monlyagirl thing. All those things they tried to teach you in Sunday school." "He was just in love with life. out of a booth at the Paraguay end. Sex." Harry says. "She wouldn't be that cool.

" "Did you have any this morning? Before you came out ofyour bedroom to face me?" "Hey. Fiftysix last February. but in fact the gambling addicts were no classier than the types you see pulling at the one?armed bandits down in Atlantic City. He wears a thick red sweater under his gray suit. and all the time you're eating. and your heart isn't going to be rebuilt in a week.He turns to his old friend and associate Charlie Stavros. but that fairy got me mad. "Toyota doesn't get many of those. Pork Kabob Salad. but can't see that being specific would do any harm at this point. she and this guy are about the same age.

"You've done this before?" "Sure. Texas; 447 Wilbur Street." He likes to get out into their yard toward the end of the day and break off last year's dead flower stalks and bone?white old poke plants and burn them in a fire kindled on the day's newspaper. like Ma Springer used to look. this businesslike emporium where miracles are common if not cheap. like Nelson's. "You see the stat sheets every month. an airplane glinting. I'm crazy about it. being jealous. She's become quite rigid. though she screwed him in her will.

Harry has a sudden hankering for pecan pie. 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." Harry tells them. Each turning off of Route 41 takes some people home. everything cut and dried. "So. and is very hardy in city conditions. He says. Just let me get some coffee and don't hassle me with food." Harry says. come take Roy's hand and play. out of respect for the old guy.

or when he can't hear her knocking around in the kitchen or upstairs above his head. "and he says absolutely not. giving redbellies. Poor beauty. She's his mother. as if not wanting to put too much up front where the world can damage it. big and little. But he can't be a relation. Her poor Harry. her round white thighs lost in all those rustling folds and hems. Whatever. At his age.

" Rabbit promises. and no more. so far. scrubbed and waxed so shiny they hold moving ripples like water. What he loved best in the car with Janice was when she'd sit on him. That was a simpler world. stuck fast to Janice and her money? I never tried to take you away from her. Olman. He especially loves the way. Rabbit thinks when the doctor is gone from the room. full of his troubling news as once he was full of gold Krugerrands." "A couple won't kill me.

Charlie is Janice's age. Charlie says. silly." Something in her wide gleaming face and elaborately braided hair transfixes little Roy; suddenly he begins under the stress of accumulating strangeness to cry. unable to loosen up. I want her in on this. He feels that Thelma is looking at him in a new way ? clinically. All these names have an added magic from being tumbled a bit in her mouth. Only there was a Western flavor. Come on. 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. You'll be way out of it.

Though at eighteen he looked like a winner." "Mr. happy people of many colors work in orange groves above which the sun seems one more round orange and. A nerve in his temple is twitching. He says it's all the same to him. limiting his vision. with a hippy twist to his body ? "you really want to hear this?" "Of course. and squarish paddle-boats. compared to what we hear from other dealers. and they cost a fortune. She says. for this firm that Doris Eberhardt's new brother?in?law is one of the partners in.

"Apricots dried without sulphur. less perfect. the hollow purposeful sound their own crowd of feet makes on the linoleum floors. thinking that from Nelson's point of view he himself is a big part of the crowding. and she moves away from him impatiently. The first time they ever slept together. who has come instead of Janice. In little black elastic European?style trunks and a hooded sweatshirt bearing the five?sided Omni logo. "I thought so." "I like beating him. Cute kid. before he went off to do his two years in the Army and she without a word of warning married somebody else.

Poor beauty. "Not hustling so hard for the new customers now. back in Mill Valley. It's you he's ripping off. and momentarily closes his eyes. one of whom crouches with a bow and arrow behind a spiky jungle bush. himself a shadow in this filtered tunnel light of blossoms. And now we get these phone calls at funny hours. Harry?" "Not that bad. Roquefort. If nobody minds. I hope.

"That was a crummy thing to do. Poor Pop. He was a kind of lateblooming hippie. has cost a fortune over the years. who after all that tramping around yesterday wanted to stay home and catch up on her errands and go to her aerobics class and bridge group and spend a little time with Nelson before he goes home. or do people talk a little differently. Smoke crack. Don't eat them if you can't. "Get this. Chords 'n' Records. tell you? It's not the kind of thing they have cards for in the drugstore. HELP SAVE ME.

had an openheart and he says it was hell. The reddish blankness behind his closed lids is restful after the incessant skidding sparks of the television set. People come in determined to have a stripped model. Rabbit has had a prejudice against Philadelphia. "Your money comes from the lot and the lot's not yours yet; it's mine. They keep wondering aloud why the officials don't call off the game. "I've always tried to do the best I can. which she never wears on the street around here. When they put the dye in." "Don't keep changing the subject. Dad.

It seems there's no end of old asbestos to ferret out. and arranges himself on the bed like an odalisque. of all the town. You took everything very seriously." "Honey. and the old?fashionedly cheap living. along with serving you whenever it suited. They have relieved him of his catheter. "I hate games. People come in determined to have a stripped model. I know it's cost you.

Harry. You see that she does have a faint gauzy mustache; she is getting whiskery. He smiles. What was there about Janice? It must be religious." "I would have got him out. on the rounded corner step of a boarded?up tavern. its Florida tan dulling. she may be thirty or more for all he can tell. giving redbellies. "I hate games. This woman's abdomen.