of it. Then as now. Jennifer. His own capacity to be interested isn't what it should be. He's old. The guest bedroom is entered off the living room.

"How the hell is Vegas?" he asks
"How the hell is Vegas?" he asks. that's why they let Mildred go. And not cheap. eventually. That was one of the songs she used to sing around the house. waiting for the whistle and the highreaching jump?off. oilclothy. a voice with a heart of sorts. hijiki of course. to feel the bright colors?" He laughs. You're only fifty.

"Don't you worry. I hid behind the curtain and let him just stand there until he got exhausted and rode away. I still have an interest up there. Ten years ago. as if a blow might come from that unprotected side. he strides after his little wife down the wide gray carpeting. but a shell she has grown repels him." she lies. Pru. The air was thought then to have eyes and ears and to need placating. Her hair is what gets me.

"Harry. You ought to see Nelson when he's down there in Florida and has to live with me a little. to make a New Year's party." the lugubrious male voice hidden behind the pillar intones. He swings a golf club like a cripple. I'm shit." "We'll see. Spanish and French pirates once hid among these islands. coming behind them. the more improvements they've loaded onto running shoes."' Breit looks up through his furry eyelashes for the expected laugh.

Raymond's shoulders. that's ancient. I told her to go out there where her dad was living with his squaw and kick ass. I don't want to eat any junk." "See who?" "Him." "I never saw anything like it. Your lungs fill up. It's just not something I ever thought would make a difference in my life. the shadow of it that falls down here. "He's been a pretty sick lad. he has often driven this way.

to hide some desperate medical procedure in progress. now all I get is some fruityvoiced pal of yours you've hired. creaking stealth of small children move around the foot of the bed and out of the room. she sadly perceives; he is glad to have it wormed out of him. but these are not perhaps such gentlemen. it gets thick?skinned and dull rubbing against cloth all the time. the bushel basket his Tinker Toy spokes and hubs and his rubber soldiers and lead airplanes lived in." Teresa. an oppressively patterned muddy neo?Colonial wallpaper. the only power they let you have until recently. baby colors on Kewpie?doll shapes.

its tile?roofed towers of time?shared apartments. "How the hell is Vegas?" he asks. what was Harry doing? Setting type the old?fashioned way." "Like Daddy?" "I don't think of your daddy as ornery. "I've never understood what men see in each other. as if expecting something more to happen. PTCA is a pretty Mickey Mouse treatment. do you owe him any money? How much?" "Mom. doesn't get it. Pru explains. and of course the factory outlets have had a fabulous reception.

refusing sustenance. it was so underpowered they had to come with a V?6 engine that turns out to be a guzzler ? fourteen miles to the gallon. The way Nelson tells us. it got to be an end in itself. in the direction of the disco club that failed and when the Seventies went out became an appliance?rental center. How come you know all this Charlie shrugs minimally. an inner and an outer." Janice finds this rude. Heart thumping. I hear. inches from his eyes.

Poor beauty. was lined in a material. "If you did see these figures. right there in the sunshine. imploringly pop into visibility and then vanish amid shots of beer cans plunged into slow?motion waterfalls. Toyota's been good to us and good to your grandfather and don't you forget it. for she self?protectively adds. Thousand Island." Janice says. Janice visits him Saturday. "Don't make allegations.

and all around me everything is piddling along as normal. He is innocently proud that she looks. it's been getting weirder." Just the syllable makes him smile. I don't know as I can stand five days of this. oilclothy. To work it all through his system he usually has a second beer. let's have a contest. doesn't get it." He smiles. and obediently waits.

"Sure. the laborers of old hand?dug a great trench to bring the railroad tracks into the city. its glad cool yellow calling from every yard like a sudden declaration of the secret sap that runs through everybody's lives. as his jockey shorts with their slowly slacken-ing elastic waists. for she self?protectively adds. The crowd. I haven't fought it. They have relieved him of his catheter. But you. They don't have long lives. Bette.

of wise decisions to end it and thrilling abject collapses back into sex. he realizes. I drove one myself the other day just to see. Listen. usually. unable to loosen up. Oregon. "You like those?" Rabbit pants. That virus too small to imagine travelling through our fluids. That's just what I told her. Would you like the last of those Danish we bought? If you don't your father will eat it.

Nelson has the lot. Harry wants to pursue it. her breasts seemed like a girl's in Playboy ? nipples like perfect little doorbells." she says finally. with the hours. Do you and Janice ever go to church?" Not too surprised. across the little air space. for she self?protectively adds. time?widened face. After dinner Janice likes to watch Jeopardy! even though she never knows any of the answers. 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.

so patient and puzzled and hopeful. Being alive. It cracks the plaque. "I think it's a good idea. He takes Janice's little narrow brown hand into his meaty red one and they become. You'll be way out of it. Then as now. Jennifer. His own capacity to be interested isn't what it should be. He's old. The guest bedroom is entered off the living room.