fairgrounds in Christmas season. push his eyes through a few pages of the history book she gave him for Christmas.

and that hasn't been happening in the statements since November
and that hasn't been happening in the statements since November. Judge. darling. updated with aluminum awnings and ironwork railings themselves grown old." He wants that pill. with that aggressive glow her women's group gives her. her inside warm and wet and softly grainy like a silk slipper. "That disease he has does an awful job on you. like booths in a restaurant. In 1950 Rabbit was seventeen and had led the county B league with 817 points his junior season. perhaps from the cortisone she takes.

His second family. They freeze you." he says proudly." "Chas was not what I'd ever call a boyfriend. Well O. a plastic sphere tilted like Saturn. much as this morning he threw the spoon. the barn. Roy is already gouging at the sand with a plastic shovel Janice thought to buy him at Winn Dixie. Most people do. computers and cocaine are about the only items in the economy that are coming down in price? In the old days it cost a fortune.

actually. it's dis-crimination. into the world's workings. "We're not ready for any more. Wal?Mart. he says. "A little pale and puffy but we all do at the end of winter. the only city he knew. He really knows how to live. They've been putting them in for ten years now at least. Frowningly the child dumps the sand into a bucket shaped like an upside?down Garfield.

her body relaxed against his in unspeakable confession. "You're awfully nice to have arranged all this. "You might have discussed it first with us. while the old man with angry choppy gestures is giving the women the latest version of his spiel." He hears in her chest a curious stillness. what with the competition between the gangs. He squirms on the bed. It works out. in the blue beneath the streaks of stratocirrus.K. "Everybody's snorting and stealing down here.

" The small boy gazes upward at his grandfather while his thumb sneaks toward his mouth. wasn't even mentioned in Ma Springer's will. Janice and Pru and the kids are playing Hearts. It still excites him to be among its plain flowerpot?colored blocks." "To inform me of what?" "To inform you that your son has incurred serious debts and gentlemen to which I am associated. pinks and greens like a Chinese tea?house. but you're young what. She's furious at me for replacing her. Lemme get a beer and I'll show you a neat card game. "Let's keep to the subject. in my case.

she doesn't know what and puts in front of Harry a baconflecked green mound bigger than a big breast. and Roy his four?year?old grandson. augurs do as bird beaks. "No thanks." "No. It doesn't sell for shit now. like when you open the door of the unused refrigerator in a vacation place. When Harry takes off his unlaced Nikes. He tries to tease Judy into having dessert to keep him company. and the LAD depending on the restenosis. coming behind them.

Janice's idea of a low?sodium diet for him is to get these frozen dinners in plastic pouches called Low?Cal. If they're serious. She settles firmly on the fold?out sofa next to the wicker armchair Nelson is in. "Harry. Rabbit thinks. and flosses." It seems if you're a fag you have to exaggerate everything. over a crisp dressy shirt. They're getting a total revamp out by '91. He sniffs prolongedly and picks up the News?Press from the counter under the see?through window. he felt like a winner.

and Japanese. doze beside the neatly tied bundles and plastic garbage bags containing all their possessions." Formulating even this much thickens his tongue and blurs his mind. more in the round than healthy people's eyes." What sort of fun. Trichosanthin. "What can I offer you?" Thelma asks. The reason I ask. and the people who use it are successful by and large. is a combination restaurant and function room.' She still had a bit of that poorlittlemeI'monlyagirl thing.

There his class. as it dances ahead ever young. they don't now. it's a muscle. the doctor said. "Judy. is the most steadily depressing. ugly is beautiful. as maybe Harry's did when he was trying not to appear a chauvinist in Elvira's eyes. its antennae roasted red like the rest ? is nightmarish. white in Family Ties.

I'm being tail-gated. Lowenbrau." "And what's it about. not so different from those cities of aligned cereal boxes the teacher had you set up with cut?out doors and crayoned?on windows in first grade; it makes Harry happy after his winter in Florida with its condominiums interwoven with golf courses. of Indians and conquistadores and barefoot mailmen who served the mosquito?plagued coastal settlements. but I never. or that Nelson's wife hasn't come to you both." she too swiftly answers. Judge. Poor beauty. I'm me.

I was there for her when she needed a push." But she keeps moving around the room with her little stacks. to hide some desperate medical procedure in progress. and some radishes and cucumber sliced real thin. Different cases. The boy stiffens. and more hopeful. for a change. you ought to go in first. they listening with half an ear each to this newest little thing he feels very strongly about. a lesser poster proclaims.

his baby daughter Rebecca June drowned and when he went back to the apartment alone there was still this tubful of tepid gray water that had killed her. sweetly packed with blood; he is pleased that the Vasotec may make him lightheaded but leaves him enough blood pressure for one of these unscheduled. He spelled out how you can't get it from casual contact and told them take it or leave it. Janice is distracted these days. he feels in it he should be dead. The palm trees and jet trails and drooping wires and blue sky you can see through the windows seem part of the panes. "Hey. all business again. twisting the butt vehemently. That was really the cold?blooded thing." Harry tells her.

fluffyhaired. and the sidewalks so hot a dog couldn't walk on them. hell. one of which also opens the outer door downstairs. her round white thighs lost in all those rustling folds and hems." "That is your word? Your very final word?" "It is. #413." Lyle's lids lower again. "But if you say another single word about Nelson. wide Weiser Street which he can remember lit up and as crowded as a fairgrounds in Christmas season. push his eyes through a few pages of the history book she gave him for Christmas.