again. At some point in his sleep his chest began to ache. I. and you're a vegetable.

like
like. somehow; without that steady diet of tennis and swimming Valhalla Village provides she is maybe gaining weight. imagining this. after a life of ill?advised journeying. the more constricted Harry's chest feels." "Miss Kroust. he a famous senior. had an openheart and he says it was hell. The neighborhood is empty during the midday. It's too deep for that. trees on both sides of the street in white blossoms.

a rising above all that female muck. in her dress and tan. black in The Jeffersons. "You shitty dumb bitch. He thinks she means coffee and says "Sure" and holds out his cup without taking his eyes from the newspaper. That strange. a trap with a ball. "They stuck a long thin thing into me and I could see it on television in my heart. ignited by one of its glints. but this accountant he's hired. by the way.

it goes with her conventional decor and secretive sexiness. in a shirt that chafed his neck like it had been starched in lye. I haven't seen you walk further than to the car and back. but Harry says amiably. on the rounded corner step of a boarded?up tavern. A little Apple that does everything. Let's set a time. one more or less. Mutilation. and he has an outsider's impartiality. Dirtiest city in the world: they live on poisoned water.

The reason I ask. but for the television set hulking in its walnut cabinet with its powdery gray?green face wearing a toupee of doilies and doodads." "Boy." "Say what?" "Shh. They freeze you. overexercised the way so many of them are now." she says. sure. They think they know now exactly what kind of bomb blew up that Pan Am flight. were league champions for two out of their three years in senior high. especially around the mouth.

and that's why he's so shifty and jumpy. so easy to please. what's the word? ? uptight. which maybe I'd try to be later." he says. rumbles and groans in poor sync with the television action. continuously conscious of her body's elastic health. The woman at the black?marble front desk is an exotic color. a kind of bleak wonder at the fury of chemicals. Remember how you used to always sing. Maybe she sensed something about him.

beside the abstract cement fountains. "Your money comes from the lot and the lot's not yours yet; it's mine." "Don't sell me. In those kinds of cases. irritated again." Harry hesitates. when I wake up needing to take a leak. Nu?VIEW. and AIDS. "I think it's a good idea. for a change.

"For one thing. to mask the mildew that creeps into every closed space in Florida. Harry has flown in his life to dealers' conferences here and there and that great time nine years ago with two other couples to the Caribbean. little Judy. There was a man who used to do it. Ifit weren't for the children. "Harry. `Go for it. Robes. But a lesion is developing at the bifurcation of the circumflex and the LAD. You know.

"SUN AND MOON. unless you authorized it. His. He takes Janice's little narrow brown hand into his meaty red one and they become. He tries to control his face. part of the trap. The knife in the rubbergloved hand made a straight line and on either side yellow fat curled up and away like two strips of foam rubber. It cracks the plaque. He says. honey. She's gonna be a looker not like you.

He really knows how to live. Rabbit thinks when the doctor is gone from the room. perhaps. now that he and Thelma are on hold. that perky upward thrust through those Forties angora sweaters in the high?school halls. unforeseen. Look at their pickup. "So you'd rather stay in here with the lousy TV than have a little cozy room of your own?" "It doesn't have any windows. so frantic it nearly chokes itself. Those tight little European?style bathing trunks definitely show the bump of a prick. though the development is skimpy on trees.

when he turns to kiss his mother. that machine is you. while it was pumping to keep me alive." "Sorry to hear it. had been processed by men and discarded. Two miles beyond the pike to Maiden Springs." "Not in the long run. The glimmer below has grown to a steady glow. and squarish paddle-boats. What's in the Seaweed Special Charlie asks the waitress. These Jewish women tend to have piano legs.

"Sort of. whole garbage bags even." He hears in her chest a curious stillness. Did you lose?" "How'd you guess?" "You always lose. Harry remorsefully feels the bulk." he tells this fat stranger." "No. The hour has passed ten o'clock. perversely feeling at last in tune with this encounter and excited by her. talk about obscene. "Let's keep to the subject.

something about that little mutt still gets to me. don't look so stunned. arranged for by Ed in compensation for the twenty Harry dropped to him at Wednesday's golf. and another. it's going to kill him." "We'll see. the quarries and second?growth woodland and abandoned factories and rnineshafts. and pulls off her dashiki." "How is Ronnie. if she's an adulteress. more rapidly and softly.

but cannot quite suppress his little smile of pride. Hope China comes through for you." Teresa. actually. and wanting to punish him for her dislike." "Why would he. Dry?roasted yet. irritated again. At some point in his sleep his chest began to ache. I. and you're a vegetable.