was to take these desks away and line the opposite wall with cubicles. and she the plush brown sofa.

so the bare calves touch; she arches her brown
so the bare calves touch; she arches her brown. "What's in it for me?" he asks. The kid keeps sniffing." "Ronnie and I go every Sunday now. Pru says it's cocaine. as the blocks flicker by. You're still young. She says. Spanish and French pirates once hid among these islands." "That was Eve's basic sin. Ten more years." She likes the sound of "darling.

" More than adequate. And then a soda at the Pensupreme. He'll look like Ronnie Harrison. The coughdrop factory. And then there was also on the front page this interview with a guy convicted of picking up a twelve?year?old girl and getting her to smoke dope and raping her and then burning her alive somehow and now complaining about the cockroaches and rats in the cell on death row and telling the reporter. Like himself. Things over at the lot had got to be aggravating. you were in Florida. besides you two? Talk about automatic pilot -" "There's Jeremy. "Well. I'm sorry I told you half of what I did. He likes a special kind of dental floss.

as if he has become his own heart. quite." she says. arranged for by Ed in compensation for the twenty Harry dropped to him at Wednesday's golf. "The worst of it is. that flared up a minute ago. He wakes frightened. So it hits him now as something fresh. I mean. Poor guy. over the top of Roy's head so Judy can hear it too." "You believe it when Charlie tells you.

and he is shocked to find within himself. After taking a wrong turn in the milky?green terrazzo corridors on the ground floor and confronting a door marked STAFF ONLY. and the engine is up from two point eight to three point oh. He says it's all the same to him. You're not the surgeon. He spelled out how you can't get it from casual contact and told them take it or leave it. He must lose some weight. damn it! Now I've made you sad. Let me help you out with all that. she can use our bathroom and then shut the door. the red of the stoplights almost invisible. with the headlines calling him "Rabbit.

set in old random?grooved Masonite now painted a dusty rose." "Why would he." says Judy. then. "It gets into the bathing suit." since it began as a used?car lot owned and run by Fred Springer. then. back from the water near some palms with their roots exposed. breaking into a run. so I walked away. How could any of us ever forget it?" He stares some more. In fact.

and relief that he hadn't been on the plane himself but was instead safe on this side of the glass. You can't live through these athletes. "I believe it. with husky voices. 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. Chiropractix. "God. virtually blinds you with its towering space and light. He has trouble at first realizing he must perform for his visitors. At Mt. a square?armed blond sofa can be folded out for a bed and a hollow door leads to the master bedroom." he tells this fat stranger.

the speckled busyness. Harry. the drug runs him. "It gets into the bathing suit. That pollen is off the scale. Mr. their rapport has grown rusty. If nobody but Janice were here. past the king?size bed they bought down here." The women in the family are always saying Nelson is a throwback to his grandfather and Harry hopes by mentioning dead Fred to bring the boy back into line. He has chosen to wear a worn blue denim jacket down on the plane. in my computer.

" "Yeah." "Yeah? Join the crowd. One fag. like a boy. half?expecting it will be free. you're so rich. But Judy has beat him to his own king?size bed with its jade?green fitted coverlet. you were in Florida. Black box of nothingness. I didn't know. Those bodies with hearts pumping tumbling down in the dark." "Yeah ? why is that?" Janice has all the answers.

"My parents were married. The pattern imitates sampler stitch. It seems there's no end of old asbestos to ferret out. and was lucky to land in West Virginia. what your salespeople should wear." "Harry. Gregg asks him. Judy rolls her clear green eyes heavenward in protest of how obnoxious and clumsy grownups are. Rabbit wonders what his own life would have been like if he had been circumcised. Soft lazy Americans. quite. Bush get subpoenas.

" Thelma nods. and Nelson's go?ahead -" "You're not going to get that. so frantic it nearly chokes itself." Nelson says in a soft voice. Her feet are long and bare." "Well who doesn't!" Harry says." he says. and has to keep testing her. and I'll never go near a needle. in Rabbit's eyes. "I guess you've come onto the job since I was last here. thinking that from Nelson's point of view he himself is a big part of the crowding.

deliberate way her lips move. By then. Lyle says nothing. inventory. hasn't he been in the news a little. You heard her." His face feels hot and his heart is racing but in a steady sweet way. "Don't you worry. sodium?soaked nuts. And not cheap. the hospital. "and we've got to teach him how to take better care of himself.

"You like those?" Rabbit pants." "Nelson doesn't do crack. plush chocolate?brown sofa with needlepointed scatter pillows and yellowing lace antimacassars. her eyes lowered to the items on the tray. are history now. but you got to hand it to Nelson. his voice high and precise. offhand. their four eyes shiningly reflecting the electronic jiggle and their two mouths both open to make identical slots of darkness. He sighs in surrender and closes his eyes and says. he first felt himself in love. Harold.

demoralized like. Me. "Who else is here. What's wrong with running your blood through a machine What else you think you are. Also out of sight." Her hands have made Thelma angry and he is fighting back. excites him." "Ha f the year! All the year. She is still at heart too much a schoolteacher; she enjoys administering a lesson. Universal Prosthetics. One of Nelson's bright ideas was to take these desks away and line the opposite wall with cubicles. and she the plush brown sofa.