defend me. but this December except for that one cold snap in the middle of the month has been like early September in Pennsylvania ? hot.

for all the years he lived with her in her gloomy big house on Joseph Street and listened to her guff about what a saint Fred was and her complaining about her swollen ankles
for all the years he lived with her in her gloomy big house on Joseph Street and listened to her guff about what a saint Fred was and her complaining about her swollen ankles. Mom. She won't give up. That was a simpler world. "Nobody. She made it. A letter he once read in a skin magazine was from a guy who got circumcised in midwife and found his sexual pleasure and responsiveness went so far down his circumcised life was hardly worth living. Charlie kids her about it. She is already in one of her nighties. Her nightie is transparent but she is opaque. "So you're the one who wants to be a sailor girl.

This rankled. plus the assessment for repairs to the two greens close to the road that are always being vandalized." she says. to their little niche in the maze. and those infuri-ating Florida sandals that go f lip?flop as she walks around when he is still trying to sleep in the morning." "He's never married. and built it in. But these Mediterranean types don't even seem to get gray and paunchy.Mim phones. You're absolutely alive and when you're not you'll be absolutely something else. Breit's sore?looking mouth gets stern; his upper lip has sweat on it.

" "I think you did. When she was a girl nobody had money but people had dreams. Imagine sitting there in your seat being lulled by the hum of the big Rolls?Royce engines and the stewardesses bringing the clinking drinks caddy and the feeling of having caught the plane and nothing to do now but relax and then with a roar and giant ripping noise and scattered screams this whole cozy world dropping away and nothing under you but black space and your chest squeezed by the terrible unbreathable cold. and it's not going to get better." Harry says." he admits. so she knows the way into the parking garage. A watery glimmer of arousal winks below his waist. because that's what life is. finer than velvet. the loot of all those lifetimes flooding the sandy low land.

quite. What was there about Janice? It must be religious. Shoo?fly pie and apple pan dowdy. and you won't get any present." he says. though he never did ? and he would have liked to have heard more of why she thinks he is on the mend. the bushel basket his Tinker Toy spokes and hubs and his rubber soldiers and lead airplanes lived in. Do you possibly think ??" "Think what?" "That she was just pretending. Thelma's disease. a young Brewer girl." "But not you?" "He's sure of me.

and then the Phillies are playing the Mets on Channel 11. so it must be worth quite a lot. Thel. has become a saucer shape glinting in a number of points. as if his blood is no longer purely his own. He still has the hope that everything can be explained away. That was one of the songs she used to sing around the house. Could lose a few pounds. "These kids. the scarlet circlet of it. She sat out on the balcony for a while after Harry and Pru and the children went.

" Janice has been telling him something. Guys. the softness in her voice ebbing. with his faint pronged sense of doom. Banyan trees fascinate Harry down here." "Oh let me. "1 don't want to be the first. He wondered if a man ever got his neck broken that way. a boyish lightness. to Nelson's old tapes of the Bee Gees that he outgrew long ago. the surface of the fissure as smooth to the tongue as glass.

"Maybe he's gone gay in his old age. Harry pulls at the nylon painter attached to the bow and the hull is heavier than he thought; by the time he's dragged it forty feet through the sand his breathing feels shallow and that annoy-ing binding pain has begun to flicker on the left side of his ribs. Which is why Harry and Janice spend half the year in Florida ? so Nelson can have free run of the lot. Ten years ago. I'm eating." She is busy re?establishing them in the Penn Park house. There's a couch in there if anybody needs all of a sudden to take a nap." Janice finds this rude." This needless emphasis. knocks you out." It seems only natural to mention Janice.

With her lupus. he was right there. it's just you see differently now. couldja honey? Go for a quick swim in the water so it won't be a shock when we're out on it." "Why on earth why?" Lyle's eyes. She says it destroys people. "PTCA is an invasive procedure. In Brewer people still use the streets." a pudgy salesman tells him. the laborers of old hand?dug a great trench to bring the railroad tracks into the city. Mary Ann the first woman whose smell he made his own.

you must tell me about cocaine. as if his blood is no longer purely his own. Judge. You chop up this powder with a razor blade on a mirror usually and make them into lines about an eighth of an inch wide and an inch or two long. Rabbit likes to drive around. facing Nelson has made him feel uneasy for thirty years. Ifit weren't for the children. It cracks the plaque. In fact. of course we don't use that commercial soy sauce and sesame oil. with two men on.

flop and then flop. In little black elastic European?style trunks and a hooded sweatshirt bearing the five?sided Omni logo. I never found the kid easy to deal with. Janice says. with a note of that languid. "Where'd you get that idea?" "Daddy hates jail. until the buses bring the children home from school. I don't know as I can stand five days of this. lips smeared with lipstick like she had eaten a jam sandwich. 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. the only city he knew.

But Benny seems to know all he wants to. I just decided to do without. stirred up by seeing Thelma and Lyle. big red cinch?in belt. We're turning into mad dogs ?the human race is one big swamp of viruses. as if like plastic garbage bags it will never rot away. they have to have these video games -" "Jesus ? fifty thousand buys a lot of video games. virtually blinds you with its towering space and light. all these lives that are young and rising like sap where his is old and sinking. The docs tell me I ought to have an openheart." Still needing to talk to Pru.

"Fine. You know how she'll say anything to make a dramatic effect. "It eats up the dollars. "Sure. inventory." She seems awfully full of Nelson. at the other." Her hands have made Thelma angry and he is fighting back. "And these are my two handsome grandchildren. "I do like the way you want to defend me. but this December except for that one cold snap in the middle of the month has been like early September in Pennsylvania ? hot.