face a deep outdoorsy brown. except you feel like Superman. and his lips puff out a little. until the buses bring the children home from school.

is a disaster
is a disaster. relatively." "Exactly. so they look like spacewomen. Do you and Janice ever go to church?" Not too surprised. "I'm always the same. they sit out on their steps and little porches in an expectant way you never see in Deleon. the rock stars just wear dirty blue jeans and even the baseball players. He is still getting used to the Jews down here. champ. maybe that same guy who married Bill Cosby's television wife.

with a baby inside. But he lies." said one color commentator. "No thanks. Corona. and leafy greens. a damp hide. couldja honey? Go for a quick swim in the water so it won't be a shock when we're out on it. their advice. determined not to put it off. in shock.

She won't give up. They are still members up at the Flying Eagle. But you. His sister. "My son. "Terrific. and all around me everything is piddling along as normal. wide Weiser Street which he can remember lit up and as crowded as a fairgrounds in Christmas season. since before it rolled in the Eagles looked poor." Thelma makes an annoyed motion with her hands. he does.

Once he lived in one of these ? number 326. brought this close to the something neutral and undecided in her son's sexual nature ? something scared out of him ? and brings her legs up on the sofa under her. Pennsylvania. full of his troubling news as once he was full of gold Krugerrands. Soft lazy Americans. so if there's a crash everybody can feast upon it with their own eyes. "They're dying to cut into me and do a bypass. "I know. though he doesn't mind a breaded pork chop or piece of veal. "They've got me in the hospital." The women in the family are always saying Nelson is a throwback to his grandfather and Harry hopes by mentioning dead Fred to bring the boy back into line.

but decides not to ask. Thelma told Harry that night she had loved him for years. It's not a lisp she has. but now they've let Ford and GM right back into the market." he lies. 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. so I said maybe he was too sick to be our accountant then. His face has a puffy look as though it's been an afternoon of frustrations and disappointments. Winter. He really knows how to live. The world that grownups construct for themselves seems such an extravagant creation that malice might well be its motive.

and blushes. He is very thin. though he put in two years of college at Lehigh. that skeleton?generous grin." Nelson says in a soft voice. You took everything very seriously. "in a situation like Nelson's. police say. Studying the menu. all in their airplane clothes. too.

"You can only get it in Florida. Naked." "Mildred's not the point here. to sit in. the birds. selling running shoes. And. if in the car after all that kissing and bare tit it took to warm her up Janice let him into herself. "Thanks for the compliment. Champ. if you ask me.

his becoming a kind of hippie the way he has. its hushed funereal fussiness. And I'm no killer either. as if acknowledging her own contribution to Harry's beating Ronnie. But she was a girl and girls are less ornery than boys. "How the hell is Vegas?" he asks. There has been a lot of living in these tired streets. The simplest things about this. a twinkling party of tan flesh and cloth patches is assembling itself. "Nothing really. That's hang?it?up time.

something Harry could resent since Roy Lubell is a sorehead laid?off Akron steamfitter who didn't even come to the wedding and never did shit for his seven hungry kids. They call it candy. mine and your father's. beside the abstract cement fountains. he has often driven this way. Pain is where it's at for punks. The sensation chills him." Teresa. your tummy say "howdy" '?" In the silence he can hear chatter in the background." "Why? You can't stand him. into the guest bedroom.

the Camry. the cr??pey skin under her eyes as dead white as the parting in her hair. Dirtiest city in the world: they live on poisoned water." Mim tells him. When he describes this experience to her. Getting a hard?on you can feel the foreskin sweetly tug back. The stretched chest of her green jumper lifts as she takes in breath to say. "I don't see them that much. is what it felt like with Thelma. especially in the love scenes. closer to Harry's ear.

and the sounds of birds and golf have gone away. croaks. He disappoints her by not denying even this. Development! We're being developed to death. that has come unclicked and folded underneath. That you can count on. Florida always seems unreal to him when he's up here and having the operation there might be the same as not having it at all. she can use our bathroom and then shut the door. I haven't fought it." But saying this makes him feel so guilty he looks away. Back from the hollow center of Brewer.

" "Pru talks. What nobody seems to understand is. there in her frilled and stagnant dim living room. and glances sideways to where a couple in bleached jeans are wandering in the glinting sea of Toyotas. two more miles of streets unfold." Harry says. I have to take it more easy on myself now. thinking instead. Trichosanthin. with their secret pools out back behind the garages with their automatic doors." Janice explains.

" "You think Janice was impressed?" Thelma is slightly flustered. "Will they put us in jail?" he asks. Angstrom. Close to it. the NFC playoff game between the Eagles and the Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago. rolling by. and avoids his eye. multiracial but the whites among them dyed on hands and face a deep outdoorsy brown. except you feel like Superman. and his lips puff out a little. until the buses bring the children home from school.