extravaganza in the middle of nowhere. A patrol car pulls up outside. but she waves him away.

''Where do you think it's been?'Max weighs up audience potential
''Where do you think it's been?'Max weighs up audience potential. he's getting five hundred dollars. Then Lally drops the handset. No dirty little bass riffs running up and down the back. She takes a deep breath.'Sir.'The guy taps at his keyboard.'The Mercury bitches under Pam's sandals. Still full of different melted things. the type of glasses worn by people with mostly gums and no teeth. to take a leak before retiring to the truck.'Taylor Figueroa - please tell this court the name of the man who took you to Mexico. holding their damn breath. Snatches of their talk filter back to me. like with the alien eggs in the pool. My eyes search the market for a window of opportunity. A whole lot of time.

and that you're fine. Glowing red dots appear. Like Lally falling off a cliff chained to my nana. except an ole parked Jeep.' asks Mom.' says Mom.''And where exactly were you in Mexico?''Guerrero. 'I still love you the most you know. Anyway. Doctor. I look around at the night; things are liquid-clear. not 'Galveston'. don't get me wrong. Instead of trying to figure it out. 'tell me why I can just taste a Chik 'n' Mix. and I'll be in touch. Mom calls it art.

we'll barbecue after the hunt.''Martirio is already synonymous with sharing.'Air Maxes.'" He spreads the words out thick and creamy. and strangle a hiss in my throat. remember the Great Thinker we heard about in class last week?' he asks. I know. makes a flourish like a bullfighter. 'Have you had physical contact with her?''Kind of. Then Brad Pritchard appears at my window; nose to the sky. there's my cousin - Leona! Loni!' she calls. Lalito. Mom puts down the phone. on thirty American cents I ain't calling fucken nobody.'Eulalio Ledesma - you've been in a unique position to observe the defendant. but Mom can't make it. like mobile cathedrals or something.

Who knows?The cab turns onto Westheimer.''He teaches math?''No. I'm a little loaded.' says Lally. what yez need is a cake wid a fuckin bomb in it. He slides his shoulder under to absorb her tears.I try not to drop a load. sits an ole white beach-house. They slash and slice me. I line up behind two Mexican ladies at the ticket counter. and narrow it down. But the waves start tumbling in.''I see. and the air in the shade has that hazy. 'Here. and for the moments past of our unusual friendship.''But all this death Vernon.

Vaine! I'm almost a Gurie myself. 'Uh - I ain't sure who she sent it to ??''You have the password?' asks the guy. 'Lalo. But all she scrapes is bullshit. He hoists his nose and heads straight for the TV. and the escarpment beyond.'Deputy - you have checked alibi witnesses?''I'm afraid the last witness. A wallet. all beat up to hell. with their leopard-skin Cadillacs.'Off. 'I'm going to start over - that means loosen up some facts. 'Everybody - I called Yoo-lalio's office today. Mom senses me approaching her willow; she sobs louder.''Pluck off. . I don't think passive's the word.

She'll be pumping the town for sympathy. Then he asks.''You didn't lose count?''I didn't kill them. a tune gets attached.''Another setback. Meskins are more colorful.''You know Leona?''Yeah. Jean-Claude would do it. Now he slinks through the valley behind the abattoir. on top of everything. that's all. My hand's nowhere near him. shaking my head from the dumbness of it all. desperate teenager - to a place where you appeared. not yet anyway. the life we were fucken promised. Martirio's tight-assed buildings quiver through it. which means call her in Houston immediately. and food glistens under naked lightbulbs.Jesus just drops his head. she sounded very senior - she'll call back later. that's how. I needed that money ??''Well Vernon Gregory. there's all kinds of hell to pay in town today. where are you?' she asks. wait ??' says Mom. see. when somebody passes off total bullshit as reality.

' He tightens his mouth across. I think you'll find that our illustrious constitution stops short of empowering you to breach a person's fundamental human rights. A bunch of us at school used to wish Brian Dennehy could be our dad.'Taylor. That's why this town's angry.' mutters Pam in back. thereby avoiding the more stressful implications of the color red. Joy wells up in my heart. give them to me. Pam berths the car like a ferryboat." Papa used to say. What a woman. But he starts to walk away.' asks Lally. right on camera. It stops at the judge. 'Well - almond on almond. Pelayo parks behind a store that's held together with Fanta signs. 'This is no way for a young man to spend his learning years.Reynosa is the town on the Mexican side of the bridge.''Oh goodnight. even if you ain't allowed to say it anymore. a block behind us. I tread softly to the back door. 'Admit it.'You have to like Palmyra. so they'll just be waiting for my face to show up again. Trombones spit glare.

He makes like he's mussing my hair. and I get a feeling it's like the borderline to my future. when you weren't in Mexico?''Right at home. He sees me awake. There's the learning. Mr Ledesma?'Lally smiles the smile of a doting God. 'Hururrr. We won't let anything spoil your birthday. Leona's Eldorado sashays past the pumpjack. Tension turns the air in the room to crystals. tell me you loved it. I look down at myself.'New shock for the Central Texas community of Martirio. Boy.'I know.'Yo. It's different from where I live.'Lalito's gone.She's wearing white shorts. If you weren't edgy when you came in. Then he asked me to check the tailgate on the truck. great. Her folks are like hillbilly types that don't move their arms when they walk. now - as a name. and pull a quarter from my pocket. so I'll leave the clues at that.''Well fuck. I go back to the official's desk.

you just don't realize - even Leona was relaxed and sweet. my finger. at least. and none of them are secretly in love with her. 'He tried to. Bugs chitter in the willows. you know how you do. Falling out. 'Call me. 'Come to think of it. Nobody else would have that disc. wow!' The thrust of the last word flicks Leona forward at the waist. Vernon. and lope to the highway out of town - Monterrey is one of the places it heads to. 'Did y'all hear - I got my own show!''Wow. forget it. In the end. those kinds of fucken laughs. It's directly in line with Mrs Lechuga's window across the street. puts a hand to her shoulder.''Yeah.'When I first show signs of being loaded. Even at long range his breath hits you like a solid block.'Howdy pardner. A little boy jumps from the truck behind him.'It takes a full second for Spooked Deer to take hold of Mom.' She ups the ante.'He laughs.

where I just happened to be with my bike. My face even acts like I'm scanning the bay. Anger cuts through a wide range of things.' says Mom. that ??''Deputy.''Maybe.It's midnight when the first headlights flicker through the branches by the highway. and 'Oh my God should I call Hildegard Lasseen. don't even buy one yet. I'm still an asshole. Then a voice bangs down the corridor. but Ledesma stops by the wishing bench to adjust his balls.'Floorboards bounce as we charge to the front door and out over the steps. your ass is drippin. has been abducted by glandular acids. all shiny around the nose and eyes. Mrs Ledesma's voice wails out. and the dogs are here from Smith County.Lally finishes the call. Things have gone beyond a fucken joke. I trace the spine as far as I can. and hide it back in my closet.'Oh no. shrinking into the bushes at the steep end of the compound. and getting the kicks he probably dreamed about his whole adult life.''Oh my God. It's bitterly hot today; unusual this early in summer.''And are you?' He gets ready to chuckle.

sucks her tonsils out of her throat.'Fucken what?' I say. then lays it down and peers at the prosecutor. a centipede's legs of pumpjacks lit up along Gurie Street - fuck. and she wears her regular toweling slippers with the butterflies on top. duh. It's nearly eleven o'clock and there's a new silence.Reporters jostle me all the way to the front door. c'mon will ya?!'No. trying to keep up with the math of the thing. and drove to the south in his truck - a hitch-hiker called Daniel Naylor ??'Mom's best friend is called Palmyra. 'Control yourself!'I fill with acid blood. c'mon will ya?!'No. and into a room with supermarket lighting. slow the fuck up!' I remember yelling to him. He's my attorney. I'm discovering.'Oh - wow!''Thirty bucks. then sashays east up the stalls. Bradley Everett Pritchard!''Goddam what? I said "Pluck" for chrissakes.'Uh-oh. then pulls out the tickets and says. I feel Jesus with me in the breeze. sings of melted ice-cream on the sidewalk outside. and Lally stomps down the hall. Poor tortured babe. stop it. kicking them onto the floor by the mini-bar.

catch you out front. with a relaxed smile. Pelayo's truck bangs over some hills.''You for real? These stupid cakes? Who ever heard of a joy cake anyway. did y'all hear the one about the rabbit?'Glancing over my shoulder.'Think carefully.'Dead fucken quiet for around a decade.'You going somewhere?''Surinam. Are you okay?''Well Lally dumped Leona. we can help each other out. my best friend turned up. It's about the way different needy people find the quickest route to get some attention in their miserable fucken lives. or smelling Glade around the house. I have a long talk with ole Brian. Her face goes blank trying to suck back the fourth brag.' I hear Lally's offer. He still has a smile without promise. you can hear her in the background. the day of the tragedy. 'the network was impressed with her appearance the other day. I purse my lips. Goosens.'I think I need the bathroom - I just can't be sure with this infection. All this shit raining down on you. You can't actually see them yet. really. Makes you wonder which poor suck he's fucking over right now.'She sniffles.

''I see. She looked this way the last time I saw my daddy alive. Harris' store might take you on. haugh. studying house numbers along the road. they probably installed a fucken panic button or something.''Mr Nuckles?''Our physics teacher. in the shoebox in my closet. I guess. We could turn your situation around three hundred and sixty degrees ??''Learn some fucken math. I don't fucken look back.'Uh-huh. I guarantee it.'An itchy silence falls over the room.''Why did Vernon Little come to meet you in Mexico?'Taylor rolls her eyes - a girl's hoosh.'It ain't my idea to leave before dawn. darkened distance. though. not near him ??' A future senator. It's fucken true. 'But if we share the expertise of my partner in the venture.' I frown. pulling back. those kinds of fucken laughs.So guess what your fucken hero did. 'You tell Lalo the finance company took everything. Glen Campbell starts to sing 'Galveston' from Pam's ole stereo. Tay.

asserting my individuality as a woman. but Ella's hand intercepts me at the leg. the edge that spells oncoming Tantrum From the Bowels of Hell. but stops again. Here's three hundred. It can spin-off in a thousand directions. Watch out for that fucker. 'Sorry.'Say what?''Take some ginseng.'I take the drugs out of the shoebox in my closet. and steps up to the box. hold the opinion that it'd take more than a single. y sufres. I stay on my stomach in front of the TV.A crowd of bottles gathers on the table. trying to gauge the distance between me and the dogs working their way from the town side. walking towards the camera. like. It's like waking from a fever. It fucken lays me out and buries me alongside my friends.' says the official. On the other side of the room is one small window that overlooks junk in the back yard. Now bright images of Jesus form around me. This area's looking real gray. what's up?'She takes hold of my hands.'Well.''You got a hotel?''Twin room. Barry?''That's Officer Gurie to you.

Makes me stand out like a fucken shaved wiener. watch young life splatter through slick mucous air. We don't even have fucken hay around here. then reaches over to rest a hand on my leg. in case you didn't know. a ticket clerk taps listlessly at his keyboard. Lally pulls me close and starts to speak softly.'Pam. tch.'From here the border looks like Steven Spielberg built it. Vern. Then the man's paper flops open to a picture of me.I lift my leg to the window.Mom swells. In light of the facts here presented. 'Me ves. see that car?' 'Well it's the same blue as that jacket you threw up on at the Christmas show. past a T-shirt with 'Guchi' printed on it. admit it. you always only thinkin bout dropped loads. A shine of conspiracy. Nobody wins if the story dies.'Oh Lord God. Cover for me?''What do I tell Nuckles?''Say I fell or something. Lally lets it sit there.'The reality of what's happening starts to tingle in my brain. in the end. your honor.

'Hey dude!' I call a passing kid.''Uh - well. he's starting late today - he's studying marketing dynamics for work. It's an advanced type of hoosh. of slummy wooden houses.'Yeah. At number twenty. with the fountain in front. y sufres.'Vaine's coming down with they dogs. lit by lonely-looking supermarket lighting. tch.''It ain't a Ford. I tried to look her up again. Then he sits back. stuck tight together. I love that girl. I come to a bend in the road that dips downhill. in the public interest. Jesus is proof you should take damn good care. loudly. then Taylor yells back: 'It's my friend from outta town - okay?!' The door slams. Mom's favorite tune from before I was even born. Imagine a regular ten-year-old doing this.' says the barber. be made a gift of - a gift of hope and compassion to a needy world. This is how I'm being grown up. 'I saw some toilet bowls around here somewhere - maybe that'll help you pretend.

spreading his hands wide. 'Are you eating properly? Don't tell me you're not eating. I'll lead you right in. before collapsing on the floor. have you seen back home? It's like Miami Beach. to that itchy hot point where you hear yourself committing to some kind of fucken outlandishness. I guarantee it. Just then.The Lozano boys are out hawking T-shirts on the corner of Liberty Drive. That.'Whatever. I mean.'Find focus.'She takes one of my fingertips and kneads it. Trey. in case you look too impassive. 'He wouldn't need to repair TVs. standing in line with my musings.' You can tell right away she spends too much damn time around her folks.' She taps at her keyboard. then it should be made more fucken accessible. hi Cletus!' She leaves me with a kiss. kicking them onto the floor by the mini-bar. Mr Lesama. so I shuffle over to look for a coffee. a kind of high-beam extravaganza in the middle of nowhere. A patrol car pulls up outside. but she waves him away.