the sparrows and starlings you see in Pennsylvania. rather plain face always had a sallow tinge. as she grows into that barrel body of women in late middle age.

with a touch of double chin now that she's putting on weight
with a touch of double chin now that she's putting on weight. tepid gray like this terminal where people blow through like dust in an air duct. "1 don't want to be the first. they split you right open like a coconut and rip veins out of your legs. hold the mainsheet loose. he feels in it he should be dead. he doesn't know little girls. Team owner to pay for Amber's funeral. of course we don't use that commercial soy sauce and sesame oil.

day after day; it was like being wrapped in warm washcloths. I just decided to do without. is. a bit wobbly for a second. except it was reversed. an amphitheater. Her parents must have put a lot of protein. "and he says absolutely not. coached by Marty Tothero.

It's just dumb luck the house didn't bum down with Nelson in it too. like somebody you played basketball against forty years ago. multiracial but the whites among them dyed on hands and face a deep outdoorsy brown. "and they always take twenty dollars off of him. that Nelson and his family get to live in just for covering the upkeep and taxes. too?" He becomes more guarded. undergoes a displeased. "Not hustling so hard for the new customers now. letting him off as insane was a scandal.

and not whole-sale so many of them out. Fort Larson." Nelson says. Nelson calls in to her comfortably. with the hand not holding her cards. During the commercial. to take advantage of the empty factories. He has taken the rocking chair. golf or tennis or a beauty?parlor appointment or a bus trip to the Everglades.

" Nelson says in a soft voice. You smoke them in a kind of pipe. just like you." Rabbit is beginning to know how Lyle felt. Gregg says. you must tell me about cocaine." "Chas was not what I'd ever call a boyfriend. I used to get Jake or Rudy at least. and her unease would spread to him.

and then suddenly at night. He is flying back tomorrow afternoon. And most of our friends happen to be Jewish. Mary Ann the first woman whose smell he made his own. That's not old for some guys ? not for a stocky little plug?ugly like Ronnie. with that trained look on their pretty faces like actresses or geisha girls. thirty years ago it will be this June. And maybe that whore in Texas who with a curious drawling courtesy made him an unvirgin is dead now too. We all do things our parents wouldn't approve of.

of a surface of flux battered into a million oscillating dents. Or perhaps a monster is what he has been all along. Charlie tells him." she tells Gregg Silvers. after Thelma's pasty cold touch a half?hour ago." "How about you?" Janice asks. She's mad at something. "Crack's just coke that's been freebased for you ? little pebbles. Sex.

waiting for him to make his move ? "and then run all your blood through a machine for hours. were history. Pork Kabob Salad. Let me help you out with all that. I loved Mim. He has plenty of margin still. She knocks the glass 'table with her shin. seventy if he's a day.Nelson was still sleeping at eleven.

are all around corners from one another. A spark. plastic paddleboats. the skin of her face sagging down-ward from the bone. in her dress and tan. Her nightie has a damp spot on it where he diddled her nipple with his tongue. "I thought you'd be with the others. the number of his hospital room reminded him ? with Ruth. "I used to work in Fiscal Alternatives on Weiser Street when you and your wife would come and trade gold and silver.

The half?naked boy is too stoned to stare. "Thanks for the nuts. Don't let things get to you. Myocardial infarction. reaching again with his fork. Or once when he was fourteen and she mentioned the stains on his bedsheets. "Where're you folks from up north?" "Pennsylvania. Pru and Judy come out of the hotel to join them and they descend concrete steps. now that we've resigned from the Flying Eagle.

but it looks cheap inside and pseudo?Audi outside. I like to keep track of the guy. All the time. Janice is distracted these days. "Good to me. I think she's scared ofwhat she'll find out. instead of the sparrows and starlings you see in Pennsylvania. rather plain face always had a sallow tinge. as she grows into that barrel body of women in late middle age.