arms ending in a clash of bangle bracelets." she says. stops the anxious herd of Angstroms with a smile." "Thelma." He gestures; smoke loops around his face.

since you and your father used to work at Verity! ? she was very patient with my questions
since you and your father used to work at Verity! ? she was very patient with my questions. Grace!" Grace." He gestures; smoke loops around his face. too. Rabbit never could have made it out there. but for a basic twenty?one K you expect a little oomph ? my God. he reads. "But you think about it. Come to think of it. "A couple of the mechanics quit when Nelson brought him in as accountant in his condition. entered from under a wide maroon marquee through sliding glass doors tinted opaque like limousine windows.

" Janice intervenes: "What Mom says is her legs hurt after all that sitting in the car and she's thinking of moving the cocktail hour ahead if this is how we're all going to talk for five days. Harry. I still think I'm God. though he never did ? and he would have liked to have heard more of why she thinks he is on the mend. The downtown is mostly parking space now but the strange thing is that the space is all full. And that van! It's ridiculous. "I'll quick go to the bathroom and brush my teeth and stuff and you turn off the lights. a gang uniform of sorts. Fort Larson. you know. Ten years ago.

When he was a kid and had growing pains he would be worried and the grownups around him laughed them off on his behalf; now he is unmistakably a grownup and must do his own laughing off. its glad cool yellow calling from every yard like a sudden declaration of the secret sap that runs through everybody's lives. "We're not ready for any more. don't be so hard on yourself. "The facilities don't exist yet in this physical plant. and there are two required and four electives to get this certificate. But now that he is as sick as if not sicker than she. Mutilation. but seeing as you're his father. Building B. They said we were unclean.

Charlie. Drugs." Harry argues. miles of low homes are roofed with fat white cooling tile. which conceals his roommate. You can do a line at work quick in the john and nobody can tell the difference. I think he's been bleeding the company. stand out. the same way you suck artichoke leaves. as maybe Harry's did when he was trying not to appear a chauvinist in Elvira's eyes. and two.

You see the world the way it was meant to be. or maybe Rabbit imagines it. as if from a task of housework." she tells him. only Matlock and The Wonder Years. They handle well and they last. And they think it might rain on New Year's. running up debt. She looks up at him with that presumptuous solemnity of women you have fucked. Reagan. who was burbling and vomiting and groaning this morning but has fallen since into a silence that might be death.

on the fourth floor. I took him on that time to get him off your wife's back." he says." "Just a thought. I used to have pretty hands. is not his son Nelson and daughter-in?law Pru and their two children but something more ominous and intimately his: his own death. With the impatient mass of his entire family and its baggage pressing behind him. She's signed up at the Penn State annex over on Pine Street for those courses you have to take to get a real?estate broker's license. You know. and rezips his fly and struggles to her feet. they're booked solid for months.

Most people do." a pudgy salesman tells him." he admits. Pru reads over his shoulder. Charlie nods and says. Sell like Superman. their own parking spot and hard?bought place in the sun. honest. Judy shrugs and finishes the sentence. but not when I do. and faintly greasy.

but not distressed either: resigned." Elvira adds. Too young to like it. With the impatient mass of his entire family and its baggage pressing behind him. their legs getting skinny. magazines. He's free to wander the halls now. and two. Being little. widens the ominous feeling in their childish stomachs. merely.

Does it seem to you. "It helps the panic. not so much when they are on her as when empty and laun-dry?clean. To work it all through his system he usually has a second beer. Actually. A body can see at a glance things aren't right. the trees young and oval in shape and blending one into the other like clouds. once one of a half?dozen first?run movie theaters along Weiser. Also on the walls are the Kiwanis and Rotary plaques and a citation from the Greater Brewer Chamber of Commerce and a President's Touch Award that Toyota gave the agency a few years ago and a Playboy calendar. all the history gets in the way. personified space in his dream: could it have been simply this hall.

A beer?" "Both are no?nos for the new me. with that aggressive glow her women's group gives her. which was not long enough to stretch out on but long enough if both parties kept their knees bent. here was something so obscene they had to show it to us so we'd believe it. ever younger. they already own all of Hawaii and half of L. the lying on the beach feeling like a jellyfish. The movie palaces of his boyhood. You're in what my mother used to call a state. Painkiller." he says seriously.

coming to points under the lobes of her exposed white ears. saying "Silberstein. These are futuristic spaces like those square tunnels in movies that a trick of the camera accelerates into spacewarp to show we're going from one star to the next. But I don't think I ever really inhaled. Fly 'em into Libya. He admires her hair. She looks in that two?tone running suit and those bulky Adidas like a senior?league bowling champion. He asked ifhe might drive over and she said he might. what your salespeople should wear. I want them here tomorrow. "One hour.

I was stuck. about how when you get old you eat and eat and it's never the right food? Sometimes Rabbit's spirit feels as if it might faint from lugging all this body around. even if you do think you're running it half the year. it's sooner or later." This last remark seems a touch impertinent. which conceals his roommate. A little can die without your noticing. and if she's too far gone ? he said she's senile and over at Dengler's ? I think we should hire somebody. Also. it's been so long. gleaming with saliva.

plainly teasing now. and glances sideways to where a couple in bleached jeans are wandering in the glinting sea of Toyotas. The raw glory of it all overpowers for a moment the nagging aches and worries in his chest and releases him into self?forgetfulness. I'm a pushover. no vocals. up to your chin in ostrich feathers or was it white fox? Young people now don't have that to live up to. skinny arms ending in a clash of bangle bracelets." she says. stops the anxious herd of Angstroms with a smile." "Thelma." He gestures; smoke loops around his face.