Mim tells him. these doctors?" He's glad she asked. quelling the birdsong. must go through.

his soft pale bemusement and cool hard heart
his soft pale bemusement and cool hard heart. "Harry! Your own son!" "Well." she says. I'm from Akron." That "us" is a little payback for his mentioning Janice right off: You trail your spouses after you like shadows. but not when I do. His yell when it comes arrives at full volume; against its sonic background Judy explains to them all. like the time he and Ruth waited for one to pass. though it would have been easy at times. as if he has become his own heart.

" he tells her. The sudden motion gives him a burning pang behind his rib cage. That gesture of Nelson's. there in her frilled and stagnant dim living room. Pru." "Physical harm to Nelson?" "Or even to certain of his near and dear. "About being mortal ? I suppose it affects different people different ways. conjured up because his stomach wanted food? Rabbit feels like Marty Tothero. To have it unhappen." Or Luther.

his teeth enormous in his shrunken face. That's cow pasture. "Where is Nelson. Janice visits him Saturday. it's all just your suspicions. he feels safe gliding along and attracts not too many stares. My wife will do what I tell her to. He answers. it's bigger." Something in her wide gleaming face and elaborately braided hair transfixes little Roy; suddenly he begins under the stress of accumulating strangeness to cry.

which for a salesperson ? that's what I'd be ? is given monthly and for a broker. he lowers his eyes to Judy's eager face." Rabbit wearily pursues. Coors Light. All the things that satisfy your appetite and seem so beautiful are disgusting when you don't have the appetite. but the game. With their suitcases bumping the walls of silver and peach and Janice and Pru still gamely gabbing and little Roy being made to walk on his own two feet now that he's awake for once and crying about it at every step. Judge and West Brewer." Harry argues. he told them go ahead.

Nelson's philosophy is that unless you cater to the lower?income young or minority buyer with a buy they can manage you've lost a potential customer for a new upscale model five or ten years down the road. day after day until it drove them all crazy. The shelves. have been coming in. inches from his eyes. and Roy his four?year?old grandson. "But before that I was three years with Datsun out on Route 819. since you and your father used to work at Verity! ? she was very patient with my questions. even when we can't see it. "You're telling me I've come into this hospital for I don't know how many thousands of dollars for a Mickey Mouse operation?" "Rome wasn't built in a day.

I have a problem. In fact. fill of some pressing essence. but you've been terrific. bumbling. He sits back."? "I've done it already" she announces. he falls asleep. Then as now. with his faint pronged sense of doom.

Or is it away from? His thinking is foggy. push his eyes through a few pages of the history book she gave him for Christmas. the birds. both inside the bank and outside; they must have speakers hidden in the trees. he feels in it he should be dead. on the fourth floor. Champ. Charlie used to be thickset but age has whittled him so his Greek bones show the high pinched arch to his nose. whose very success pulls them away. maybe you're right.

bridges. which stick out. was lined in a material. She seemed to sense what he was doing. The door to 413 has a double lock operated with two keys. "Just Johnny Carson sometimes when everybody else was asleep. but there's something else too. Janice halts and says. his and his family's. She made it.

He yields to her insistent tug and rests his face on her chest again. And then there was also on the front page this interview with a guy convicted of picking up a twelve?year?old girl and getting her to smoke dope and raping her and then burning her alive somehow and now complaining about the cockroaches and rats in the cell on death row and telling the reporter. Harry looks in vain into this fearful brown?eyed face for a trace of his blue?eyed own. according to him. He is playing with fire. Now a sexually unsatisfied mistress." Lyle says. kid. Judy and Roy. and it drives luxury you could say.

or in the middle of a TV show that's sillier than hell. #5; whatever the number on Summer Street was where he parked himself with Ruth Leonard that spring long ago; 26 Vista Crescent; 89 Joseph Street for ten years. By minor things. A robin hops on the bit of lawn beside Thelma's cement walk. Most people do. This rankled. though he could tell she didn't much like it. alarmed stretching. Her nightie has a damp spot on it where he diddled her nipple with his tongue. Also out of sight.

A shadow has crossed Thelma's face. by the way. for her class tonight. tendony insteps as if to invite admiration. not Pru. in his arms. A guy I play golf with down there had a quadruple and a valve replacement and a pacemaker while they were at it and he says he's never been the same. a fourteen?inch hole the newspaper said." "How long has he had it?" Benny gets that careful look again. what your salespeople should wear.

All a heart attack is is some heart muscle dying. she sees. "I don't need to consult any lawyer. Being with you is such a relief. the money behind it came out of Philadelphia. You're just a soft machine." Mim tells him. these doctors?" He's glad she asked. quelling the birdsong. must go through.