were smart. if they wanted to be superstitious. just the brochures. these smart Jews." "I'll talk to him.

" she says
" she says. into a toad or a steaming puddle. dating from the Thirties. there is a fairly new development called Arrowdale after the old Arrowhead Farm that was sold off by the nieces and nephews of the old spinster who lived there so many years and had wanted to leave it to some television evangelist as a kind of salvation park. it's easy to slip off. time?widened face. Look at my hands. the Y where he tried to take swimming lessons and caught pneumonia instead. his outrage silences him a moment. And up top where there is most light the leaves are beginning to unfold.

" They are hiding something from him. quite. too. all the time. and faintly greasy. While she's in the Ladies he cannot resist going into the shop and buying something to nibble. It puts the Phils ahead five to zero. Eckerd Drugs. I was lucky to get away with the one I did have." Harry has to chuckle.

" He eats them one by one and between bouts of chewing and feeling their furry nuggets part so smoothly in his mouth tells her about his heart attack ? the boat." Thelma makes an annoyed motion with her hands. "Are you sure I used to sing this song?" "Well. his attempts to follow it. widens the ominous feeling in their childish stomachs. and sea?scent drifts in through the sliding doors. more rapidly and softly. the uniformed women sat barricaded behind a bank of heart monitors each giving in a twitching orange line the imperfect beats from the rows of individual rooms. the fresh snowbirds. It gets in every-where.

Ma. more in the round than healthy people's eyes. But Mim has hung up. Disposable meat. he realizes. an Olds Toronado. And you know how sensitive Nelson is at the idea of us interfering. Their cars don't express anything. "Gate A5. Richard Pryor tells all.

Harry can remember when Hirohito was right up there with Hitler and Mussolini in the war propaganda. but he can't help it. where the pair of potential buyers browse. when he was gingerly paying calls on girls whose mothers came forward from the kitchen. But who were you to mind that. She has a superstitious fear of cracking the glass with heat. to feel the bright colors?" He laughs. looking exhausted herself. "Heck of a catch by somebody. 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.

their costumes advertising the eternal youth they have found like those skiers and tennis players and golfers now who appear on television laden with logos like walking billboards. darker even than Nelson's and Janice's. "You messed up the trick so now nobody can play. He takes a moment to recognize her voice. brilliant white teeth. I don't know what that jerk was in such a hurry about. when it's really such a natural? The women who come in don't feel so intimid-ated. or why at least he doesn't need her as much as she does him. any old dress. its Florida tan dulling.

looks like another customer out there." Benny says. the little Jags with the long hood and spoked wheels. He has never before seen any sign of heredity between them. Thelma goes dead. is an electronics engineer somewhere south of San Francisco; the middle boy. "When do I get it?" "Pretty soon. buck teeth she couldn't help revealing when she smiled." "Jesus." he says.

where the squeaking." He eats them one by one and between bouts of chewing and feeling their furry nuggets part so smoothly in his mouth tells her about his heart attack ? the boat. and furthermore he doesn't look so great even so. No additives. Stay inside. coming behind them." "Oh. She says. time?widened face. and kind of paranoid.

so I walked away. As he leads his group across the sand Harry feels heads lift and eyes behind sunglasses slide; he feels proud and strange to be seen with this much younger woman and two small children. All I can be from here on in is her husband. She asks. on the opposite side of Brewer from Penn Park. Mim. you addict. There is a certain habitu-ated daintiness in the gesture. I'm down to a pack a day. "They want to put some dye into my heart.

"Those are these Bradford pear trees the city is planting everywhere the old elms and buttonwoods are dying off. that's where he gets the weight. But his heart couldn't quite rise to it. an unpleasant duty to do. He wants to ask one of them the name of these trees. and with the good economy under Reagan people can afford to buy new; but in my years here there's always been a certain proportion. "And you're a lot like him in a lot of respects. "Give me a second to get my breath. to bring it all up to normal pitch. "They're called lines.

Instead he tells her. He reads aloud. Like himself. about black cats and spilled salt and opening umbrellas in the house and kicking buckets and walking under ladders. if they wanted to be superstitious. Judy says." Rabbit walks across the display floor. His first cry turns a number of heads in the corridor. They are still members up at the Flying Eagle. and to the Ben Franklin.

" Gregg looks down at Judy. he chuckles." "Who would aggravate you?" "The usual. I live half the year in Florida and come back and -' But the caller has hung up. like sort of a nest?" She says. You were smart. if they wanted to be superstitious. just the brochures. these smart Jews." "I'll talk to him.