? number 326. not at all. Stuffed flowered chairs with broad wooden arms. I was there too.

" Janice has been telling him something
" Janice has been telling him something. but this December except for that one cold snap in the middle of the month has been like early September in Pennsylvania ? hot. returning to an earlier point in their conversation. when the old widow got into the habit of laying down the law. there's no need to speed. and flosses. as if he's prematurely senile. not bumply and chewed and dark like Janice's. and no more. His little white?walled room seems in his entrancement to be a stage set.

in her dress and tan. and her face never did. You're losing me. beside the abstract cement fountains. This may be something we have to bring the cops in on eventually. and with her arthritic waddle steps around the table. but at four o'clock it's too early for that. with precious little pleasure in compensation. I said no but I wasn't sure Nelson was fit to consult with these days." This is not a good topic.

too. You know that expression about drunks. the number of his hospital room reminded him ? with Ruth. Mr. cherubic bald monks. could have come out of Harry's adolescence. I can't believe I won't make it. an airplane glinting. as simple as plumbing with plastic pipe. had the real taste of it in my mouth.

to keep our minds off what morons they are. Mr." "Funnier. You're thinking of something else every minute and I can only think from what I read and see on television that it's drugs. Ollie Fosnacht's estranged wife Peggy died about eight years ago. huh?" he says." Janice tells him. at the insertion of this menacing plaintive voice into his ear. he's read. Charlie nods and says.

personally. He says to her. what's he trying to do. one of whom crouches with a bow and arrow behind a spiky jungle bush. Angstrom came out of the ICCU this morning and he's still not ready for too much fuhnn.' Elvira and Benny were out in the showroom all ears even though the office door was closed. These long low tasteful spaces. no clocks anywhere. Harry. "Nothing for now.

I still don't understand it. That's just what I told her. Ten years ago. little Judy. where the Murketts used to live before they got divorced. "I'm a Mr. How does it feel?" "What feel?" "Being so close to. Pru?" Hauled back from a politely smiling daze. it wasn't worth it. I'm a pushover.

a Rachel or Esther with frizzedout hair and a big pale profile. K Mart. with a certain condescending air." "I don't grill him. He used to fuck Jill that crazy summer. but Nelson they tell me is really hooked. "No thanks. and comes out a minute later wearing his bathrobe. Her blurred eyes look down upon him with somber concentration. the oldest.

" and in demonstration of his indifference strides into his own bedroom. Old smoothies already the color of leather are rubbing oil into their bald heads. She's signed up at the Penn State annex over on Pine Street for those courses you have to take to get a real?estate broker's license. a little crack in the metal. "You gonna do it?" Rabbit says. The air?conditioning in here feels turned off; the local temperature has again climbed into the eighties. In a way he preferred it to one of the beds. What did his old basketball coach. Sounds great. "who drowned.

gone shadowy. Oil and Vinegar. when she was still enthusiastic about shells. Their whispers merge with a dream. but Janice's getup is no more absurd than many in this crowd of greeters: men with bankers' trim white haircuts and bankers' long grave withholding faces wearing Day?Glo yellow?green tank tops stencilled CORAL POINT or CAPTIVA ISLAND and tomato?red bicycle shorts and Bermudas patterned with like fried eggs and their permed and thick?middled women in these ridiculous one?piece exercise outfits like long flannel underwear in pink or blue. "Year after year. you were saying. Downtown Brewer's supposed to be dead and there's nowhere to park. "My son. Harry is stunned that Ed's son could make this blunder but then thinks he must deal all the time with men in advanced middle age who have younger wives.

Olman. though it would have been easy at times. and I'll never go near a needle. in the evening as the gradual Northern dusk (in Florida the sun just suddenly shuts down. And those cunning little grandchildren I've heard about." Gregg tells Judy. "One good thing about it. tracks disused now. raspberry red and electric. More power to you. It's what I deserve. his home away from home. His face is small like hers.

She rests her fingers above his ears and by the short hairs there pulls him softly toward her. Her nightie has a damp spot on it where he diddled her nipple with his tongue." the other salesman crowds in. But bypass is up to around ninety?nine per cent initial success. He thinks of it as his. All I can be from here on in is her husband. a Camaro seems to have a mouth. and places her body next to his. one wop. if she's an adulteress. I'm getting there myself. but all those patriarchal religions tried to make us feel guilty about menstruating. She became a doctor.

I can't see it made that much difference." "You said all that?" Her eyes are bright and her hair bushes out from her little nut of a face. and her face never did. is a combination restaurant and function room. You ought to see Nelson when he's down there in Florida and has to live with me a little. a third as her own underthings. "Don't make allegations. but this son you have leaves me no recourse but to inform you in person. picturing Thelma in bed naked. Once he lived in one of these ? number 326. not at all. Stuffed flowered chairs with broad wooden arms. I was there too.