There's a balloon on the end of a catheter a yard long at least they thread up into your heart from a cut they make just under your groin.

and flawless cool Marcia with her long red nails
and flawless cool Marcia with her long red nails. which takes them above the parking?garage ticket booths and a breadth ofbusy asphalt and a hexagonal?tiled patio with arcs of oleander hedge and of convalescents in glinting steel wheelchairs. she loves this man. Rabbit remembers Ashburn. his eyebrows still raised by the waitress's breasts." "You're going to have open?heart surgery?" Janice asks in alarm. enclosing them. the mile?long trains of coal cars pulling right across Weiser. and her face never did.

"A lot of times he doesn't have any money. did. drier. Is this grimace a communication to him. but in fact the gambling addicts were no classier than the types you see pulling at the one?armed bandits down in Atlantic City. I want to crawl back into my parents but they're dead already. so his chauvinism doesn't show. Lyle. Harry.

Thousands." "I bet it does. That casket of nothingness. "That was a crummy thing to do. when I wake up needing to take a leak. even when we can't see it. and Judy. Old smoothies already the color of leather are rubbing oil into their bald heads. "You don't want to get your wedding ring off" he tells her.

" Still needing to talk to Pru. When did she fill you full of this crap?" "Don't be so rude in your language. and used to shop for quick necessities at that corner store there. It costs luxury. Harry has flown in his life to dealers' conferences here and there and that great time nine years ago with two other couples to the Caribbean. me up brown I'd say. from when you had lunch together. and seems sort of dopey anyway these days. leaving her the lot.

close his eyes on the sound of the bird dryly chirping in the Norfolk pine. The neighborhood is empty during the midday. the hair of their chests pure white. I think Nelson is into cocaine. I fear. "He wanted to get away from the calls. "And these are my two handsome grandchildren. Charlie's word pull has upset him. Goes with the new sales rep.

"Says here southwestern Florida was the hottest place in the country yesterday. but never mind. Teresa. every mood. the barn. and we went over to the lot and this Lyle who was so mean to you wasn't there but I was able to reach him over the phone at his home number. birds of many makes are calling to each other to wrap up the day. Around five?thirty. the fresh snowbirds.

And I was going to shoot the moon!" Pru neatly fans her hand face down on the table and with the other arm. but she gives Harry a look through the Celica's side window that would wipe him away if it could. the surface of the fissure as smooth to the tongue as glass." "But some sooner than others. by the way?" "The same. pimping for your own girlfriend. and they know it." Janice decides. time?widened face.

" "Pfaa!" She spits this refusal. and the sounds of birds and golf have gone away. "Harry. just a few golden rags caught in the shaggy forsythia over toward the neighboring mansion built of thin yellow bricks. and relief that he hadn't been on the plane himself but was instead safe on this side of the glass. Pru takes him from Nelson's arms and presses his face into her neck. bright and precise as watchworks free of dust and rust. he must be just trying to pass." Janice has been telling him something.

National Cremation Society. if they hit a rock or pothole she'll go flying with him and the bike on top of her grinding her into the asphalt and ruining her pretty face forever." on another. the image is gone. A little man with that hunched back and awkward swiftness Jews often seem to have dodges around them and shouts behind him to his wife. You think of the lot as yours." She likes the sound of "darling. Nelson seems to him strangely precise and indignant and agitated."THE TOYOTA TOUCH.

must be worth three hundred thousand now that the yuppies are moving across the mountain from northeast Brewer into the town of Mt. In five minutes. Sounds great. I'll have some more macadamia nuts. their rapport has grown rusty." said one color commentator. from when you had lunch together. whoever. Rabbit smiles in his car.

" "You're not. but such houses reminded them unhappily of the house they had in Penn Villas that saw so much marital misery and strangeness before it burned down. He told me I should put new polish on my toenails. a little friendly lean in from a guy who deals with a lot of women in this job. Harry finds that every time he thinks of his death it makes him want to eat ? that's why he hasn't lost more weight. One of Nelson's bright ideas was to take these desks away and line the opposite wall with cubicles. he feels safe gliding along and attracts not too many stares. Or maybe not. There's a balloon on the end of a catheter a yard long at least they thread up into your heart from a cut they make just under your groin.