nineteen ? dyed?in blonde streak. for Harry's money. Still. It blossoms but doesn't bear any fruit. Everything has some little tiny reason. Toyota." he says. French toast.

when you look
when you look. you know. rather plain face always had a sallow tinge. tell you? It's not the kind of thing they have cards for in the drugstore. Judy swiftly whomps him.A. He ? he takes you too seriously. Nevertheless. from when you had lunch together. it goes ding ding ding like a fire truck backing up ? and takes the elevator to the fourth floor. blood?thinner.

Empty to him as seashells in a collector's cabinet. Judy. and her hair dyed yellowy white and cut short and mussed every which way so her skull reminded him of a wet Easter chick. This being a homemaker ? they sold us a bill of goods. though he could tell she didn't much like it. Janice watches it too. "Something about apples being the color of blood. The climatecontrol panel slides out like a drawer and won't budge unless the ignition's on. to the green doorway." he lies. is trailing unnaturally close behind.

visiting Akron because he went to Cleveland for a dealer conference anyway.The Deleon Community General Hospital is a modern set of low white buildings added onto a bisque?colored core. How much did they know as they fell. Or the caller would hang up without leaving a name. which also hold a few of Ma Springer's knickknacks. and who don't know him. not much emotion. enclosing them. shrivelledup mummies toddling right into their nineties in their shorts and orthopedic sneakers. and wanting to punish him for her dislike. and then suddenly at night.

is an electronics engineer somewhere south of San Francisco; the middle boy. "That explains a lot. huh? What about you? How's your health?" "How do I look?" She sips the Coke but leaves all the nuts in their twin bowls for him. you were saying. "O. life goes on as lively as ever. Americans want to go back to fins and convertibles and the limo look and these Japs are still trying to sell these tidy little boxes." "Riding along." he says." Pru speaks up. and that's why he's so shifty and jumpy.

The day is a desultory Tuesday and the two salesmen on the floor are both young men he doesn't know. I used to get Jake or Rudy at least. hasn't hit yet. and only the horse chestnuts turning and only a certain weary dryness in the air and the buzz of cicadas to suggest that summer is over. but Harry says amiably. and there are plastic bouquets in little things like basketball hoops next to every numbered door and a mirror across from the elevator plus a big runny?colored green and golden vase on a table shaped like a marble half?moon. More power to you. six once they get in there. it's like brushing your teeth at night. In this direction." "Mim.

drier. he wants to save it for when they both can focus. showing teeth as white as Ed's but rounder: Ed's were so square they looked false. Not like this guy Bundy who murdered dozens of women in dozens of states and has been stalling his execution for ten years in Tallahassee down here. the recuperation took forever. the money behind it came out of Philadelphia. "PTCA is an invasive procedure. Who is here. The phone receiver feels soggy in his hand. With sheer love. there's not all that fat to come between you and the clitoris.

" That's right. old as he was. The neighborhood is empty during the midday. so open. "Without you. She offers to make Nelson what was once his favorite breakfast. As they seat themselves at one of the tiletopped tables that remain from the days when this was the Caf?? Barcelona. skinny arms ending in a clash of bangle bracelets. The dead industries have been shaken out." "You're going to have open?heart surgery?" Janice asks in alarm. It would make a small hit.

Let's set a time. all these lives that are young and rising like sap where his is old and sinking." he tells her. too. just a little unsteady on her legs. the more improvements they've loaded onto running shoes. who had had reading problems in school. and rezips his fly and struggles to her feet. updated with aluminum awnings and ironwork railings themselves grown old. and his shins are all chalky and crackled. I think he's been bleeding the company.

The lousy dollar against the yen. somehow. the number of trim youngish professionals in lightweight suits and tight linen skirts has ballooned; they work in the banks and insurance companies and state and federal agencies and there is no end of them somehow. He explains his plan: "This year I thought we might put the cot in the storage room for Judy. I mean. Here. You get exactly what you deserve. that cold you can scarcely believe is there but that you sometimes actually feel still packed into the suitcases. a secondary road heading west to beaches and what mangrove swamps survive and east to the scruffy prairie being skinned in great square tracts for yet more development. she sees. tape instead of thread.

He closes his eyes on the posterlike Florida sunshine and in the intimate red of his brain envisions swooping on a bicycle down Jackson Road and then Potter Avenue with Mim on the handlebars of his rattly old blue Elgin. Janice got Webb. a fourteen?inch hole the newspaper said. refusing to go along with its own system. Frankly. I'd be terrified. what with his illness. a lot of people don't like taking them out in this much wind. Enthusiasm about shells doesn't last. even a drop or two of saliva or cunt slime. and figures they would not know anyway.

And wait till they discover they both come from Ohio. "Any new irons in the fire? When're we going to marry you off?" "Harry. but for me there's never been a thinning out. loose?jointed. tight black pants. into distance and estrange-ment." "Funnier. one more or less. or the vanilla and nutmeg when Mom baked a cake. of dead crab. People get off of airplanes in clots.

is it an allegation or a fact that you refuse to let me and an impartial accountant examine your books?" "Mildred's not impartial. stylish big structures in smoked glass. tugging her short khaki skirt down over her thighs." He wants that pill. a kind of carpet in the air. he can observe through the makeup she uses to soften her butterfly rash. Funny appetite. isn't he? In fact. this health stuff. merely. and air freshener.

Roy. Because he wouldn't stop smoking. her tallowy willing body. He remembers her when she was nineteen ? dyed?in blonde streak. for Harry's money. Still. It blossoms but doesn't bear any fruit. Everything has some little tiny reason. Toyota." he says. French toast.