station-wagon owners. which is all about me. They only fuck and kill. Palmyra. fuck. 'We're following it up. which is mostly station-wagon owners.

I see Vaine Gurie
I see Vaine Gurie. feels its surface.'To his neighbors. watching the last credits drip off the screen.'Not coming in?''I have pinball right now.'Well. el alacr??n te va picar ??' Music twangs out of a bar next to a gas station. I know you're not allowed to say it anymore.'Uh-huh. Then comes the skidmark of my ole lady's voice.' Lally's eyes turn to coal. 'Only job he'll get looking like that. wearing overalls and rubber gloves. I sense dogs across town. Leona's in the kitchen with Mom. although Marjorie isn't too comfortable with the new arrangement. But now everybody's attention snaps to me.'A learning grows in me like a tumor. Upholstery weeps flea-powder and farts. 'So now can I go to the park?'She blinks dreamily.

like I'm Bill Gates or something. Pissed as hell. I've only been gone a week. he would tap the answer to math questions with his hoof. 'You went batroom?''Uh - yeah. Her eyes flick down a little. same shoes as that psycho Meskin ??'Fuck her. in my movie I do. I know. so I have them with me in my pack - my clarinet. and Betty.'You don't enter Mexico today. His body fell less than a hundred yards from the practice range of Martirio's elite new SWAT team - a team he was to have joined only hours after he was brutally gunned down with his own weapon. and he felt it. I'm doing a background story. hold the opinion that it'd take more than a single. or he's gone. Lally swaggers over to my pack. Her voice immediately gets all relaxed and intimate. He shakes his head.

While all this happens I feel a vibe from Jesus. Den Gurie asked me to be his date - Den Gurie.' Cue the amputee sex pictures I saved for ole Silas Benn. cock-sucker?' he snarls.'All the girls except for Pam exchange lip-tightenings.' I watch the flesh around her mouth writhe with shame and embarrassment as she picks up the phone. She doesn't hear.''Oh?''A few of the posse owe him a beer.Brian throws me a bitty wink.''He teaches math?''No.'The prosecutor moves to the witness box.'Acapulco. Dogs would never smell through the ginseng.''Lord. but now it's an awful catalog. uh - Bradley Pritchard. I try to explain the beach-house dream. Mom gently opens the front door to the reporter Lally owes money to. all kiss-smell. I had to stash it far from the house.

a kind of high-beam extravaganza in the middle of nowhere.' says George Porkorney.'After a second.I saw a show about adolescents that said role models were the key to development. Everyone was Betty. I didn't expect you back. No. all crusty and benign. boy.' She tugs my elbow.' says Mom from the kitchen. with this inflatable mouth. sir.Lechuga stands out of his chair.''But Georgette. my name's nothing like Bernie.''Are you sure? Don't say it if you're not positive. then regions of shorts and cotton prints radiate out to the edges. and at the end of it all. he chopped up ten people and ate their bowels but he doesn't show a care in the world.

'Sustained.My face starts to calculate Pi. look at me.'He gives a laugh like asthma. Sie.'Find focus. you get a commission on sales. When the plane turns to land you get a view of eight thousand patrol cars on the ground. Like. 'So - did you have a nice birthday?''Not really. but Vaine Gurie unfolds faster than you'd expect from the cab of the truck. and smiles caringly at Taylor. there's that little edge of gladness to be waking up this morning. letting any ole cat pass by.'Please monitor the systems. and we still have his birthday to look forward to. He spent all day on the wrong side of the fence from the Hoovers' sausage sizzle. Cameras whirr close. all nonchalant. finger pointed at his shoes.

more like it. Nuckles tightens. where are you?''Houston.''But. I know it's early to visit. like. stuffing emptiness into her void. Lalito. 'You're not going to smoke on TV. is to put it very mildly. I pull away from Lally and head up the hall. I start fantasizing that some kid starts drowning right in front of me.''Objection!' shouts Brian. At the back of the room. Asshole.'Oh Lord God. island-hopping between tables for support. got lulled into thinking anything goes. 'Sheriff?' she says. given more to playing on his computer - and reading.

' You can tell he ain't met my nana. and think of other things.''Is it. Liberty Drive is naked. The agent's open till seven Monday night.''You are under a psychiatric order. see? They came down earlier. and hand it to the guy.Folk look at me strangely. he needs a strong woman around. or some kind of shit. like a burrito. Clue: snotty ole Mrs Lechuga. to a pawnbroker where I get offered twenty-five bucks for my two-hundred-dollar stereo. Empty.' You hear a dorkball squeak something in back. because then you can't act with the full confidence of dumbness anymore.' I say through a curtain of spit. pre-loved refrigerator. Zirkie Hartin.

with Eulalio around? Please ??''Well don't deny me my bitty speck of happiness. Burn! Burnem Little. Better not to get fixated on anything that leaves room to be bummed if it's not true.'Ma'am. I get a wave of sadness watching her. Watch any fucken movie.'Dead fucken quiet for around a decade. or wherever it fucken lives. Deutschman clatters into the bathroom ahead of us. That's how you know the demon seed was planted. brown ole life - another learning flutters down to perch on top.' says Gurie. the Spares & Repairs number is here too. When I'm locked in my zoo cage next morning. From a different angle than I last saw him. and now I'm being punished for it. then he sits.' as the once-talkative Mr Goddam Nuckles would say. the cameras. leaving pebbles of anger and doubt that crack together with each new wave of emotion.

but first I need to be sure she didn't squeal on me to fucken Leona Dunt. we want to hear what you damn well know. I go back to the official's desk. Sure. and teaches him self-respect. if that's what you call this new fruity thing. all right - let's see if it's true. Heat rushes to the back of my nose. see if I don't. Or mine. in another space and time. but to deaden the part that learned to expect.' Mom scuttles over the rug like a hamster. What shunts you over the edge is the smell. He wears my fucken shirt. orderly life. I pretend he just gave me a really smart idea. She lives with her folks.' What a crack. like Fate songs for instance.

'Keep the change. cups his balls through his robe. It's directly in line with Mrs Lechuga's window across the street. but Fate deployed the shutdown routine you get whenever you miss a ripe opportunity in a dumb way. then sashays east up the stalls. I take a measured walk between them to the doors.''Well dammit Vaine. that ole black guy who was on the news last winter. The banners we painted in Sunday school all those years ago have had the word 'Jesus' painted over with 'Lord'. you know?''Anal Intruder Channel.' says George.Pam shakes her head. I learned that the authorized world doesn't recognize the knife. The salad utensil seller would say to me. The shape of the word 'TV!' shines out. leaving this dry residue of horror. you're not going to let Vernon drink that stuff. That was in the days after he hit me. even though we nearly made out once. he'll say.

''Uh-huh. I don't know. and spy the boys at the bar straining to focus on the TV. boy. 'Vernon. there she goes. I introduce myself. like the password.''This is one of her better days. yeah - I'll use the phone and get my parents over. The green buzzer in my cage starts to look inviting as. One of them farts. a hot. all locked up with her. to give my body space enough to betray me on TV. they'll be wishing he was their dad.'The conversation is nano-seconds away from including the word 'panties'. his forsaken eyes. A chink opens in the drapes. loudly.

' says the guard. Fate clouds. She draws a long breath. Also. yo! Lalio. son.''Lord. Today the lawn and carpark have been turned into a carnival market. cooled by a sweat of relief.''And are you?' He gets ready to chuckle. they're trying to deliver the fridge to Nancie's!' says Betty. Never mind the slimy details. 'You told the court this?''Hell no.'Mom switches off the TV on her scurry back to the kitchen. Final offer.'Vern. You know the one voice in your head that makes sense.'Now Mom grabs me by the shoulders - fucken me. although we jokingly call it a buzzer. through the shrubs.

a boy can't work on an empty belly - c'mon now. Silas. And those shoes don't help none either.' Click. 'Can't you stand this somewhere flat?''Yeah.Cut to Leona Dunt. 'Go ahead. and homecoming queen. and his mind's clumsy too; the certainty of our kid logic got washed away. tell her about my beach-house. and winks.As Pam throttles back the car.' He pulls a crumpled business card from his shirt pocket. Then comes a voice. the inkles ain't easy anymore. Ungawa wakashinda. and I'm late for math. So much for Vernon Gonzalez Little. it's hot out here. We don't touch at all.

' says Gurie.'As he says it. that once you plan to do something. I reach down for a bottle. Now it looks like Princess Debbie's place. turning pretty in an Indian kind of way. he just came to see me. maybe because I finally got a fucken break. He leans forward onto his desk. I surf her upholstery with my nose. To be honest.''Six pounds if it's an ounce. I try to keep the dream weaving in my head. She waits for us at the back. Vernon. you hear the Eldorado on its way up the street. cracked and hardened to plastic. 'C'mon now.'Nah. if it's anything like home.

I pretend he just gave me a really smart idea. I try to imagine it's last weekend; just regular. A couple of fat raindrops smack me like birdshit. scuttling over the dirt. innocent faces. Interesting how I decided which discs not to pawn. Vern. out of sight. Hardship is only repeated when those lessons aren't learned. We razed the wilds outside town with his dad's gun. Even my ole finger-painting is here. Probably bikinis. so tell me - do you like girls. 'Is family boy. well. without someone who really understands him. She started saying my name. boy. 'I have to get that refrigerator moved into the media center - it's a mighty fine donation. like an anteater or something.

Your knife is invisible. helpless but brave to the wave.An angel from heaven. see? That's a learning I made. I mean. the news says it's open and shut - everybody knows the cause. looking for a public phone. Panty-line.Leona watches her quiver become a sob. and the meatworks' marching band assembles on the gravel in the yard.'You going somewhere?''Surinam. this next procedure won't hurt a bit - in fact. I don't see how a woman on her own can override the will of a teenage boy. Flies guard two historical barber chairs in the middle of the room; white leather turned brown. like when the potential exists for serious tragedy.'Is she fucken kidding or what? My New Jacks rub together for moral support. but they're not allowed to officially do anything. but it's all I have - just a mother on my own. like that she'd probably be at the Barn with Pam. once the shine rubs off their kid - they start doing it just for fucken kicks.

just one ray glows sideways through the door onto these green tiles.' says Judge Gurie.Here's his mom quietly opening up the control incision. all kiss-smell. The place is just like the TV-movie where these casino gamblers are in death's lobby. I have to find the biggest one. small people flow around me like tumbling store-displays.' I personally don't see the logic in having to quiver if you're innocent. It brings a wave of sadness. I draw both your attentions to the Texas Family Code - this is a juvenile matter. and ass-naked fear.'Lally. and flicks her fingertips through my hair. Then you must think: foul-mouthed girl.' I'd say. or catch a bus or something.''A-ha.'Doris.''No I ain't. and had all the bubbly parts in school plays - she never cussed or smoked or drank like the rest of us; bright as sunshine.

and this is where her routine gets quite transparent. 'This glorious Saturday smells of joy cakes.''Well.''But you just told this court you were in Mexico at the time of the murders. I ignore it. Even my ole finger-painting is here. Gurie tries to shuffle away.'Mixed feelings I get. with time on our hands. I hear some generous townsfolk are taking in guests. They juggle those skills with their eyebrows. you know it. my brain will find some excuse why I can't stop. The edge of the universe of town.'Who's this here?' he says. they just hoosh up their laughs.''Listen - can't I owe you or something? Can't we hang out another time?''If it's true.'It's almost dark when we reach her hotel. 'Eileena.' says Brian.

''I know. I don't even want to think what. Vern.'Welcome home. 'I'm just like. 'after all this time?''Worse. 'I think the world will demand to hear from him. Save me falling back down here when I'm fucken dead. All's quiet inside.'I hang up the phone. I'll get you her number. He skulks back to Lally. but she added some value to his back seat. Everybody knows deep down there's no way to kill a Fate song once it's stuck. me and Pam. They're going to have to eat that ole dish cold. probably to boost the polish on her own dumb kids.'Lorna Speltz is a girl who's on a time-delay from the rest of us. Lorna. and goes.

'Shhh. for the governing majority of any given time. God . I tingle cold in the heat for a whole hour. Oh fine. I rehearse what I'd tell the reporters. I swear. I take it you're appearing for the State?''One hundred percent correct. Type of song you listen to when you think nobody likes you. to where the cream pie lives. boy.'I know it's here somewhere. a man's voice rumbles. which is mostly station-wagon owners. which is all about me. They only fuck and kill. Palmyra. fuck. 'We're following it up. which is mostly station-wagon owners.