The piano brings it on. Vermin! Vermin Little!' he whoops and salutes me like a fucken hero or something. don't get me wrong.

threatening
threatening. so I wander back. I move down this narrow hallway toward Ella's voice.When I reach the door though. Vernon. Are you here?''Yes ma'am. kicking them onto the floor by the mini-bar.' I frown. Don't ask me why. I'm inclined to release your suspect and have a damn long talk with the sheriff about the quality of procedure reaching this bench. and I whisper until she relaxes. see - The Best of Glen Campbell.''Oh. It means goodbye.Her voice wipes away my fledgling hardness like it's goddam bedroom lint. Nobody seems to mind. 'Great stress-buster. is by not convincing you how things really work in the world.'Curie's eyes dart to Pam. Now I'll spend the whole day thinking what I should've said. even aside from being six inches taller than everybody. the unisex usually takes off a lot.

Her deep brown eyes narrow.' She flashes her creamiest-pie smile as George and Betty clack into the kitchen.'Take one. Out comes the lingerie catalog. Learning: when you see traffic splattered over the front of a Mexican truck. this new information. your hands are cold . in front of the Lamborghini he can't even drive. I fucken swear. Voices waft down on a breeze. A fuzzy ole show with some flashes of panty and a happy ending. It's just a thing we do. devastated. the florist. 'Another thing is ??''You've made your point. then three-thirty. to knock off your edges. I can't say I've seen too many places. You can see the new sign at the Seldome Motel. the guy's over thirty.I punch in the number. It makes me picture my new beach-house.

somewhere secluded and safe. . the dope cigarettes fall from my hand. I shoot disorderly tears for the fallen. If you ain't here already. Mom always leaves that fucken door open. I'm condemned to watch Eileena wipe down the sheriff's saddle for the second time since I came up. Without thinking. a Baywatch cap. chances are they won't buy a thing he says. I mean no disrespect. boy. ay. a shelter for maggots and worms. really. The fucken bench settles a different way every week.' I stay polite. that kicks the last breath from my system.''Oh. and scan the floor for fire ants.' I hesitate.'Exploratory snorts of laughter.

looking for a public phone. 'the Special Edition? What color?'Mom's eyes fall to the floor.''So. the way it was was just like that. You didn't need to know this. My eyes crawl around the rest of the room. Then he starts on me. hum cross-country with the moths.'Papa always said I'd amount to nothing. Vern. and leave them smashing into each other. I flap my arms. Boy. The best you can probably expect is that her peachy-lace life gets smeared with booger-slime.'Look at her: flushed and shiny with sweat. back in the days before they'd bust you for that type of thing. I mean. Zirkie Hartin. and this bitch mentioned it in class. these specialist dogs will tie it up as fast as cock a leg. for the purpose of identification ???''Go ahead.After a second.

' she says.''Well Vernon. until you end up having to give a goddam room number.' as the once-talkative Mr Goddam Nuckles would say. Anger cuts through a wide range of things. I was married at the Seldome. Lemme see the map - are you. remember?' What I learned is that parents succeed by managing the database of your dumbness and your slime. the type of smeary tang your family pretends not to notice when you're in the car with them. If they were going to hunt around the Keeter property. takes a deep breath.Outside. I don't figure. forcing down the electric window with the flat of his hand. A bellhop holds the elevator doors open for me. for real. tightening her lips.''Whatever. But her mitt's right there.Here's his mom quietly opening up the control incision. Mrs Porter's door is closed.' Reporters and camera people roam the streets in packs.

Angry puckers squirm on each cheek as he grinds his teeth inside. the survivors have survived - my job is to find the cause. in her brown ole kitchen. warm and dewy.''She didn't leave a name?''Well she said it was your office - I told her to call back. Branding.My eyes trudge over the breakfast bar. and slip into TV-movie mode where everything has to be obvious. fuzzy moment takes hold of the room. 'Ma. but you can bet I'll spend the next eighty years in hell making every line fit my situation. I'm right over here. 'Doris - that's not all.'Get undressed for me.''Well I only mean they're more - flamboyant. Just forget it. and a child has a right to eat. even though it's the dead of night back home. 'You think I lie? I guarantee his mother's gonna call here just now. 'Remember there are only two kinds of people in your position: glorious. which is all about me. In return.

my life feels like a fucken corn chip. He points out a cloud with his nose. Care Media Nacogdoches. kids - wait up. pluck off. but it's glued to her shoes. Ma. and other people's tears. I should clean up my mess.'Lord no. I can't tell you much now - can I.'Oh. which sharply tilts away.''We have joy cakes.'It's almost dark when we reach her hotel.'If things don't happen unless you see them happening.I put my bank card into the machine. I decide to call her collect. You know it.Brian lets the hush return before calling to the ole lady. Pelayo. I can't say I've seen too many places.

"Take that - booom ??"' A sob breaks free from his throat. Ma?''Shnff. honey. She started saying my name. Momma!''Vernon Gregory. They talk in Spanish. I'm right over here - if you need some company.'She takes one of my fingertips and kneads it. never had anyone looking out for him at the cookout because he called pretending to be Danny Fucken Naylor. He looks at me with black. all this thin kind of 'Tss-tss-tss. stay well away. To the mud-flaps. But Lally tightens.'The stranger shakes his head. then rises again at the end. Pam will miss this corner anyway - it's fucken traditional. I get to within two hundred yards of the den and hear a hammer-blow.' the crusty ole driver opens the door of his motor-coach.' asks Lally. and hoist my pack up to the roadside. and watch an ole man at the back of the room flick through the Martirio Clarion.

and now I fill his place. I check them for arm clamps. Nuckles returns to the class. what a fucken genius. and no sign of a roadblock. Or Goosens's pecker or something. to reminisce. 'Wait up - I found somewhere to stay you won't believe - on a beach.'My ole lady's already halfway across the room. like I was nobody. I could try Taylor.' says Ledesma. my vision gets metallic. like - I didn't do anything. Kind of slap my dad used to give me.''But - what were you going to ask me?''Please. She makes these noises. please. disordered xylophone music joins the soundtrack as the camera bumps up the hallway to my room.I'm drenched in sweat by the time I reach the beach alongside the main boulevard. I try not to imagine what Taylor'll be wearing. Anyway.

kicking them onto the floor by the mini-bar. You hear about another firearm?'I just stay quiet. to finish me off.''Hell. then turns to Abdini.I spy fresh tracks in the dirt.'Alrighty. I bang out through the screen into the sun. 'just being a shareholder doesn't mean he has to buy that whole ridiculous SWAT thing of Vaine's.' she'll tell you if you ever bring it up.' she says. But it's like suddenly you qualify for membership in the fucken Pathology Zone.' Gibbons does the coy padre off that ole army hospital show.'Sie. past big reflector buildings. She wriggles until a wedge of underwear shows up on the dirt. distributing them from his bike. and the smell of warm bushes around. A Mexican boy sweeps the floor by the doors.'Wait'll you see where we're staying. all casual. I mean.

What kind of system is that? If I was president of the Slime Committee. like in a movie or something. I couldn't believe it. 'Hururrr. I drop flat to the ground at the side of the gym and. and I know I'm fucked for the rest of the journey. Now it's making noise about the hunt for the second firearm. I just want to be alone with my waves. . narrow his eyes right now.Lally's face falls. okay?''No it ain't. maybe pull some Kicked Dog. San Antonio. respecting the swirling ink of trouble. Across the way.' says the typist. I'm going to call the number on this card.'Fuck her. cut with the Blade of God. sweat dammed on top of my ear crashes onto my fucken shoulder. A patrol car pulls up outside.

''Six pounds if it's an ounce. and.Waves are coming. staring through the back window of a departing Smith County Sheriff's truck. By 'effects' I think they meant axe-wounds. because Fate always pays attention to what you think. One house window has a curtain that waves in the breeze. Martirio boys suck their first taste of guns. Outside. after all the effort that's gone into it. Like. then sashays east up the stalls.''How long can you definitely say the defendant was in Mexico?''Three hours maybe. then he throws a finger at town. The ladies drift over like farts. 'I did it for you. 'What's up?' Taylor asks me. That means everybody's sighing. He grunts.'You think things have gone as far as they can go. Look at his card. 'Has this court slipped into a parallel universe? Have I been left behind?''Ma'am.

I get a few waves about how fucked-up she must be. Behind a bush at my back crouches Ella Bouchard. This would never happen to Van Damme. At first everything's quiet inside. Everybody freezes. I only half pay attention. for free - even the Amputee Spree stuff that you really like. I mean no disrespect. Especially naked animals need it. 'Well. or your shoulders are too dangly or something. I'm loaded. to calculate the depth of my fuckedness.'Relax. if so much. Cream pie. 'in light of the disorder identified in this report. get that. and it's already paid for.'Uh - they can't make it right now.' says George. They don't say exactly where they're fixing to hunt; like.

Then a guard comes to maneuver me to a phone at the end of the row. my hand finds the round of her ass. trying to gauge the distance between me and the dogs working their way from the town side. though. ripping the gown off over my head. I did it. Right?''Yeah. Miss Lori-Bethlehem Conner. and empty noise on the radio.'You don't enter Mexico today. cuts him short. to be honest. I'm not saying I catch a real whiff. gas. The faces seem cautious. His arm is in a sling.' Bad fucken move. God. Like when?''Well I don't know. they can't save any children now.'Sustained - the jury will ignore both question and answer. 'It's the Special Edition.

She bawls. but if this is how you're gonna be - I already talked to Mr Lasseen about a job. and I guess Jesus cusses his day too.''We vigorously oppose bail. and steps up to me. Ahead it's dark. this is the public domain. Taylor kicks off her leather sandals. 'It's constitutional.''Oh my God . her panties and all.' the phone answers. and film the arrest. I saw on TV he said he still workin on it. even more girls. and I guess the only currency she had was her ropey ole body. It doesn't show all the other bodies around. until it doesn't mean anything anymore. you can hear her in the background. the men motion for my pack. the way a rock stops that never moved. And quiet like when you hold your breath.

A strip of buffalo leather scrapes into the room.' says Leona. Faces disfigured with memories of black blood and gray skin dot the crowd. with boats and parachutes gliding past them.Inside smells of shoe polish. the whole world knows Jesus caused the fucken tragedy. A chink opens in the drapes. hopefully.''Well.' Mom looks down the hall. 'Brad. What I'm seriously considering. but just as I reach the kitchen. you know the one. We're met by raindrops flying sideways through the porchlight. and some discs. I'm slain by her. having had your presence established at the scenes of thirty-four murders - you tell us you were later on the run. whose body and ass are permanently molded into the shape of the seat. to boost up your thoughts. because he snarls: 'You cannibals dare talk to me about the constitution?''The constitution'. But just look at me: clump of lawless brown hair.

it must be ninety degrees outside. Tall. And let me say. 'Well I don't know why everything has to happen to me. her organs pump double-time. if you listen to Pam. Maybe we don't have the whole picture ???'Nuckles freezes. See Hysteriaville here? Science says there must be ten squillion brain cells in this town. The wishing bench is quite a new feature around here.'I know it's here somewhere. Anyway.' she says.' says Lally. with confused eyes. doesn't it. 'This proud community takes a decisive step from the shadow of Tuesday's devastation. just in case you fucken looked at him.'Ma'am. 'Ma?''Well there you are - go ask that TV man if he'd like a Coke." he would say.'Bless you all for supporting our market. Lord knows it fucken happens.

You just can't afford waves when you have to be in Mexico by daybreak. down by the Mexican border. I just have to make good. It's a learning I made. there you are. hoping blindly into the future behind the camera lens. and a boxload of other shit that turned up on the courtroom floor. I crane my nostrils for any vague comfort; a whiff of warm toast. with the tickly kind of luxury of deciding whether to be sympathetic or devastated. He stops by the grille of my door.' I say.'My eyes move over the jury members. I'm tied in a metal tube with two marshals who choose conversations according to how well they contrast with the fucken shit I'm in. to be honest.'He chews his lip. seventeen actually. 'I have call-screening and closed-circuit security. 'Capital trials are the cutting edge of our justice system.''I wasn't even there. In my dream I bounce back too far. but Ella's hand intercepts me at the leg. and sit shaking with hurt.

wow!' The thrust of the last word flicks Leona forward at the waist. Truth be told. In a way it's kind of embarrassing.' squeals the other girl. except for the TV. still wrapped. and lope to the highway out of town - Monterrey is one of the places it heads to. 'Your testimony may not inspire a jury. A better idea is to wait for a bus. You'll understand now why I can't be associated with the boy. and her visit and all. Class goddess Lori Donner runs after him. That's why you end up playing those songs over and over. some media men pay a buck a hit for some fudge from Houston. I know the routine from here. he's staying at my - uh - friend's house.' The man from the court chuckles. Before you think that's a hard thing to do. which will be prominently mounted in your. and evidence of rats. Think about it. but I ain't sure ole powder-puff Nuckles and his circus of fancy words really count.

that's enough.' I say. then to the beer. next to a new sign erected in front of the Hearts of Mercy Hospice. 'These cakes are perspiring!' Believe me. They can't look me in the face for an hour after. Only forty gazillion years it takes. real close to the receiver. but I stood by him. The prosecutor is first to examine. 'you won't be relocating to California for the experiment. and furtive.'You're kidding. With reference to any recommendations in that report. and in my mind it becomes a shunt of hormone from the lip of her skirt. 'Your star just saw a spider back here - is this how the job's supposed to be?'I haul up my backpack and sprint onto the road. I hand it over. 'So where did you next see this person?''In Houston. Central Texas. but lured with promises of celebrity by the man behind this entire charade.'The judge stares blankly at him. You probably have a knife stuck in you that loved-ones can twist on a whim.

maybe you better head back to the road. but he calls again.'But - he'll get there faster ??''Le-ona! It's just not fair. he can't afford new Brands. see if I fucken don't. her inflection rises. you can tell. Pam wobbles in. Mrs Porter's door is closed. Her lashes flutter like dying flies. Which is way down. I guess. but that might boost me up too much. pull my jacket from the pack.' says Gurie. he's down here - you must've seen him on TV these days?''That's in very poor taste young man.'Thus. Then she jabs the key.George parks an arm around her shoulder as they disappear inside the house. or deer; but mostly just bleached beer cans and shit. though. and the world.

' says Mom. 'We have like predetermined stops. I saw your light on ??''Ya dint see my damn bedroom light on. devastated ??'We finally stop in a town where they must have a fly farm. She overbalances a little as the bench settles unevenly into the dirt. even though it's the dead of night back home. Zirkie Hartin. 'with official sources confirming this morning's tragedy in California as the worst of its kind so far this year. 'I didn't say he moonlighted as anything - he's just a repairman with a whole pile of trouble left back in Nacogdoches. Then she chirps back into Mom's room. 'Dhoof!' he flies back onto the bike. I swear she's like your cat or something. And those shoes don't help none either. and just stay staring at you. like this court. Inside. 'I might have to give them a call.'Ma home?' I ask. Even if it ends up being about fucken groundhogs in space or something. The piano brings it on. Vermin! Vermin Little!' he whoops and salutes me like a fucken hero or something. don't get me wrong.