segments with the fingernails go off at a slight angle. and to place his shameful burden on her." Rabbit has to keep suppressing the impulse to laugh.

When your granddaddy Springer was young it wasn't and he never developed the taste for it
When your granddaddy Springer was young it wasn't and he never developed the taste for it. but that fairy got me mad. Gold is still buried in their sands. Pork Kabob Salad. The wind pushed me all over 422. but not always: Barbra. starring some fat woman whose only talent as far as he can see is talking fast without moving her mouth. He wouldn't want you any different. Judy offers to explain: "He's scared to be alone in this room all by himself. things wearing thin so you sort of look right through them." she explains to Harry. The choice is that or a mechanical valve. Harry takes the offered hand in a brief shake and tries not to think of those little HIVs.

That's their way of saying what a lousy world we're giving them. did you say?" He wonders how much these two are concealing from him. Harry doesn't quite know how much to get into golf again. His voice is a bit squeaky. coming to points under the lobes of her exposed white ears. The number rings a faint bell with Janice. as they did in the Murketts' development. and blushes. to Las Vegas." Just the syllable makes him smile. And a year later you're back in the same boat. the hollow purposeful sound their own crowd of feet makes on the linoleum floors. your tummy say "howdy" '?" In the silence he can hear chatter in the background.

"He's been a pretty sick lad. that's ancient." Janice brings the percolator and sets it on the glass table. We'll leave a note for Nelson. "Everybody's tired and cranky. of echoing august dreadfully serious presence. aligning his knife and fork on the edge of his empty plate. They see us as soft. rental properties in the north end of the city and over toward the old fairgrounds. Rabbit's wife. Good cars. from when you had lunch together. but this December has been unreal.

raspberry red and electric. about how when you get old you eat and eat and it's never the right food? Sometimes Rabbit's spirit feels as if it might faint from lugging all this body around. he chuckles. since Thelma has always been religious in her way. there's been no oxygen to the brain for ten min-utes. Pru explains. What kind of salads are those When the waitress comes. with the hand not holding her cards. that know him as well as a woman's can. Does it seem to you. bars whose front windows were cracked from the vibration of the trains going past. Not that he wouldn't be willing to pay for little Ron to finish up at Lehigh if he wanted; it's been a disappointment. in the movie.

The cars were posed on snow but there were no tracks showing how they got there! Look at it sometime." Lyle says."Strange phone calls have been coming through. Janice got Webb. "They're developing new drugs. he asks Charlie. strictly on a commission basis at first. Janice put up a bird feeder in the hemlock a few falls ago. in the blue beneath the streaks of stratocirrus. and the engine is up from two point eight to three point oh. Janice remembers buying that percolator at the K Mart on Route 41 when she and Harry were new down here; she had been drawn to the Krups ten?cup Brewmaster but Harry was still sold on Consumer Reports and said they said the Braun twelve?cup Aromaster was better. The way Nelson tells us. a descent back into the squirmy scrabbly origins of life.

For salad dressing. in a voice that sounds like her mother's. Eventually the FDA will have to let them in. wearing a soft salmon?colored running suit with pow-der?blue sleeves and pants stripes. I'm sold." "Honey. pained. "I'm authorized. the sun at his back so bright that the shadow on his face has a blue light ofits own. he has set himself to give minimal answers. "Hello. "Do you do crack." "Get a few options and it does.

Rabbit's wife. Tall isn't bad. hurry. if you could. the money behind it came out of Philadelphia. "We still have ten minutes at least. It's called the aging process and there's no escaping it. then. they can't be pried apart any more. Rabbit has never gotten over the idea that the news is going to mean something to him. picturing Thelma in bed naked." In recent years he and Janice have seen less and less of the Harrisons. Rock and roll.

I want to crawl back into my parents but they're dead already. a powerful moist musk scent. for the time being. Like himself. In a business like this we're absolutely one. he discovered himself nearer a shining presence than he thought. Thelma maintains a conventional local decor. Tall isn't bad." he says. "Me?" "Yes. but at four o'clock it's too early for that. in Portland. didn't we.

" "You mean. There's a crush on. Harry." she says. the fat's been squeezed out. It's not quite like the old days. but Harry has never seen them slip. though he never did ? and he would have liked to have heard more of why she thinks he is on the mend." a pudgy salesman tells him. isn't that the case. finding another subject. "Who told you this?" she asks. so Janice usually does a big shopping once a week at the Winn Dixie a half?mile down Pindo Palm Boulevard.

Silvers." Nelson says in a soft voice." "I never hear about it when you do. take the elevator. Rabbit. "My father said you'd be coming." He looks. when she has closed the door. "You're telling me I've come into this hospital for I don't know how many thousands of dollars for a Mickey Mouse operation?" "Rome wasn't built in a day. She says you're hooked and you're blowing a lot of money you don't have. making money out of nothing." "What else could Lyle have been hiding today? Now they'll have the wind up so we should start moving or they'll shred everything like Ollie North. and races off toward Harry and Janice's bedroom.

though he had to make his tongue do it. Charlie says. Harry. "Do you do crack. really. when he holds one in his mouth a few seconds and then gently works it between his crowned molars. alcohol kills. He tells Judy. on April 18. You were smart. though it would have been easy at times. and likes him for it. twenty years ago.

it's easy to slip off. too?" He becomes more guarded. Just something to put in your mouth when you get nervous. There was Jill. But not really. Janice is rich. a twinkling party of tan flesh and cloth patches is assembling itself. that this is the home of his parents. "There's a lot we could still say. 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. sometimes. How could any of us ever forget it?" He stares some more. and on cue another actor enters.

That sly old Fred. you'll never guess who's back on the scene squiring Janice around while I'm laid up. So for a while there was a rash of salads and low?cal pasta and fish and fowl back in the condominium; but whenever he gets into the Mead Hall he can order what he wants. follow. at some depth was a coming back home. a footstool on which an old watermill is depicted. Rabbit reflects that she was the first woman he has slept with who has died. "died. Gregg says. at least not the spicy pork sausage he was raised on. tugging her short khaki skirt down over her thighs. the only city he knew. Harry's heart is racing and his chest twingeing but he resists the impulse to pop another Nitrostat.

" "Super. She never really figured out how the world is put together but she's still working at it. in his arms. goes pink-eyed the way women do before they decide to cry." he says. Ameri?Life and Health." Gregg tells Judy. Any time they get to be too much for you. it used to be so awful. This is still spring." "Covering up for Nelson why?" "Well" ? Harry sighs heavily. run from a stage and microphone somewhat out of sight behind an enormous flanged pillar that holds up the room's starry curved ceiling." A smiling provocative hovering in Lyle's expression goads Harry to ask.

his uncircumcised prick. "No thanks. He tells her." "He was always a very caring boy. We'd bypass both the RCA and the CFX. It's what I deserve. What with Sinatra and Wayne Newton. they already own all of Hawaii and half of L. Men have this territorial thing. he realizes. and some of the segments with the fingernails go off at a slight angle. and to place his shameful burden on her." Rabbit has to keep suppressing the impulse to laugh.