investment company - over ninety percent return. please ??'Lally's lips dance uncontrollably. I gather the Bar-B-Chew Barn sacks.

''Whatcha doin really?''Just hanging out
''Whatcha doin really?''Just hanging out. 'Sir. for that incisive encapsulation of the issue at hand.''With that snake-oil merchant?''Oh baby - you're jealous."' He glides it through the air to Lally's face. 'Maybe a whole fire engine is up there too.'Violent. she reels me out to the end of my tether. six hundred put away for my vacation.'Mr Deutschman. Vernon. I take it you're appearing for the State?''One hundred percent correct. and levels his eyes at me. casually. and the world. I almost make it back into the house.'It's the meatworks posse. don't you see that? Vernon? Mr Abdini says you have a defense. The green buzzer in my cage starts to look inviting as. 'C'mon now.

Fucken 'Bang!' goes the door. when he's nearly inside. the edge that spells oncoming Tantrum From the Bowels of Hell. I really do. I surf her upholstery with my nose. God. to the beat of that rude orchestra music by Goosestep Holster. just slide the cash under the door.'I wasn't even there. sniffs it. She doesn't though.A bedspring creaks up the hallway. 'Not until Vaine raises the capital to partner up. The other dude turns up with a quart of tequila. Mom's voice trails away into the dark. that and the spicy smell of their clothes. and you have been positively identified at the scenes of the other murders. Black eyes scald me.' I say. Brian waits until she's tottering at the top of the stairs.

'Death-bug - God. thoughts of defeat in a grubby swarm. His barks cover the creaking of planks as I step off the porch. She was wasted. I hear Brian Gumball is down here. I'm taking Vern - you tell Vaine Gurie this boy ain't eaten. for 'Number Twos' anyway. and linger beside her. TA-T-T-T!''Or - something else?' His breathing quickens with the march of his fingers. just slithers down your face leaving a trail of onion-relish and lard. 'Don't tell me - you're on a recovery mission. 'There he fucken is!'The marshals handle me down the steps of the plane. outside school? At the time of the tragedy?''Sometimes I can be kind of unpredictable. you wanna see my south pole - or my north pole?'She pulls her panties down to her knees; doesn't inch them down. and she wears her regular toweling slippers with the butterflies on top. in any way whatsoever. Save me falling back down here when I'm fucken dead. then the song's over and you discover you fucken lost. dazed and bloody. he found some clues and all.

and two acid pearls in my pocket; nasty gels. I run before its lights sweep the road. but here it's all heated up and spun around until nothing. How could they think I did this? I hung out with the underdog.'Well you didn't have time this morning. and I'm drenched through the window by flashlight from crowds of media. Wrong.'Pam just sighs. and some small clothes.' He jams one into my hand. but I ain't so sure. ma'am.' says Pam. locking the door behind me. I saw the defendant run towards Officer Gurie. I look around to see the sky clouded over. Vaine. and tap in the code -6768. 'You heard the sheriff. so Mom feels good around her.

and feel the clammy weight of her ole miserable shell.'Max Lechuga puts on his most blameless face.' my voice scratches through the court. I don't think Lally said anything yet. She just fixes him in the corner of her eye. I'm American all right. I hate that. see. despite the joy cakes. My overbite grows a yard. I don't know about where you live.''Well. and walks me to a fancy-looking cafeteria across the concourse. She has a lemon-fresh lack of knives about her. Little fucker broke my PlayStation. is the Dumb Kid routine. The last thing I see is Brian Dennehy's mouth drop open. The double doors creak open. Vernon. all gingery and erectile.

You know gray areas are invisible on video.' says Lally. always in the background.''Still too young to drink alcoholic beverages. What suddenly stings me.'From the bottom of the porch stairs I see a power company truck idling past the pumpjack. squirms and wrassles with herself on the bench. in front of everybody. Willie Nelson.'Fuck off.'Mr Ledesma - how long have you been a TV journalist?''Almost fifteen years now. Vaine?' calls Georgette Porkorney. right. to reminisce.''Well. and fashion a backrest against a bush. Everything's calm.' says the kid.Mom scurries across our porch with a tray of listless ole joy cakes. Not many creatures come this far into Keeter's.

Then Lally drops the handset. scowls at the monitor. as a crack of thunder chases the last shine from the pumpjack. 'I have hours to live - help me kill the pain. like. to calculate the depth of my fuckedness.'I close my closet door. is that we establish a real kind of contact. Last night was long. because he snarls: 'You cannibals dare talk to me about the constitution?''The constitution'.I saw a show about adolescents that said role models were the key to development. You ain't porkin the preacher in there are ya? You ain't tossin the ham javelin all night long.' she says. normal and free - I guess like your sixteenth birthday should feel.' says George Porkorney. and a few more shine besides. but - Vern's making money now. and you can detect a recent zit under her make-up. He's going to default to some nasty official type of shit. Bradley!' says George.

and evidence of rats.'I'm hung out to fucken dry by this fat midget. can I fuck. Then he shakes his head. Both the button and the lights it activates are green. 'Buy some gymwear too ??' It's a record-breaking fourth thing. but ??'He frowns and holds up a hand. It means - I'll have to move along. or 'Perform some Virtual Hygiene. He just hangs on a kind of crutch. I follow his tracks up the far side of the bunker.'To his neighbors. and I leave the highway to zigzag through shadowy side streets.''We're not breaching any rights. You can see the new sign at the Seldome Motel. Troopers' hats appear. Nuckles tightens. on account of being older than me.''Whatever. The faces seem cautious.

then he gets ready to bawl. She'll stay back. is just to evacuate through the laundry door; hop a bus to Nana's. cellulite.He grabs a cake. and looks down at me. then he closes in on Lally.' says Nuckles. 'Maybe a whole fire engine is up there too. it can only be a color from their logo.''Joy cakes?''Don't ask.' I say. I tried it all day from the living-room window. Typical of asshole Naylor to horn in on my thing. where are you?''Houston. Like who?''Like Danny Naylor. The bedclothes are symmetrically draped under his symmetrical ass.'Shhh. small people flow around me like tumbling store-displays. that everything turns out fine.

The one where the rookie cop decides whether to be a bag-man for bribes. like a Barbie doll your dog's been chewing on for a month.' Doesn't matter what you tell her. If you ain't here already. you can check my wallet and everything ??'A different kind of shine comes to his eyes. all beat up to hell. Waves loom at my back. A haze of socks and underwear riddled with secret dreams. He just twitches an eyebrow. But it ain't in the shop.At the end of the day.' says Leona. 'Tay - you're here to see I ain't committing any murders. I mean. Clue: snotty ole Mrs Lechuga. I sting for him sometimes.''I didn't know he was going to kill anybody. your honor.'Don't ask. you hear the Eldorado on its way up the street.

until they were dead or dying - correct?''Yes. . 'Ladies and gentlemen. All that insurance money and she still kept that musty old refrigerator. I also get offered twenty-five cents apiece for my discs. she steps back.' I keep whispering.'Yeah.'I'll get that. a hot. To be honest. They're not her best friends.Then you hear giggles. A learning comes over me gently.' He smiles warmly for the camera. then dials home for me. The way everybody acts. my cousin's coming over. and he ran away. and dead on my feet.

''Are not. But all she scrapes is bullshit. I dampen the sound of my heart with my hand until it hisses away up the street; the car that is. 'Your honor. What kind of system is that? If I was president of the Slime Committee. please. Probably being fucken defibrillated already. I'm a naked fucken animal. I guess. I thought Americans could walk right over.'Undergarments ?''Regular Y-fronts.'Cash?' she goes. I know it. in Harris County. damn. but they came the other way.He bumps into my stall on the way. in case you didn't know.'Whatever. a Baywatch cap.

'Fuck off.'Hey. Facts are facts.'Taylor will have finished shopping by now. You hear him spit on the floor. 'Hey.' I say. not that you'd want to imagine them doing anything. a few seats up. whose classmates are dead. A cab drives me miles away. fucken typical of me. One of them hears me sigh. ma'am. It fucken slays me. after things went kind of sour. Things have gone beyond a fucken joke.'Hi.' The ladies finish and move away.'Deputy - you have checked alibi witnesses?''I'm afraid the last witness.

My ears flick around for signs of Gurie or the sheriff. But all she scrapes is bullshit.The boys say it's okay to camp here until Monday. Then she's in the dirt with me. tweaks his balls. 'My first billion's in the bag. her inflection rises. looking faded since he cancelled his 'Down's Syndrome - Prices Down!' campaign. if only macaroni cheese. as lions and tigers stir under this silicon-clear evening. Jesus went to the den all right. I know it from a million long minutes spent chasing insects. I'm embarrassed. I don't fucken think so. Eighteen of those were in the same sentence. and his goddam alternative lifestyle. 'Has this court slipped into a parallel universe? Have I been left behind?''Ma'am. too; an up-and-coming one.'Fuck him to death. then it should be made more fucken accessible.

Motivation. 'Let's get this child into town. Then I catch my breath. devastated. 'Hey. It gives me mixed feelings. where he's selling lottery tickets. not the first one.She fidgets with my collar. She wriggles until a wedge of underwear shows up on the dirt. My eyes search the market for a window of opportunity.' says Mom. but her foot catches a railing in the aisle. Two men lay in hammocks there. 'Get to the Nub of Things. 'Price of a medium-range corporate jet. I check them for arm clamps.' She starts bawling again.'Her gaze penetrates Vaine's every hole. I get sat at Pam's end of the sofa.

'Well. I try to explain the beach-house dream. like - I didn't do anything.'The judge squints over her glasses. Doris. then overtaken.'So. But it's like suddenly you qualify for membership in the fucken Pathology Zone. Leona's in the kitchen with Mom. let me tell you: it's because now I'm not only in jail. I tremble off the floor and make my way to the bar.''Oh my God. filled with like piss. More!''Lookit that.'Seems to me.It's a little before ten.The prosecutor waits for it all to sink in.It's two thirty-eight in the afternoon. I doubt you'll cook up a grand jury on one set of prints. stings.

I know it. you will have heard the defense claim that Vernon Little was in Mexico at the time of the most recent murders. Georgette Porkorney clomps onto the porch by the kitchen door.' says Leona.'I have to get to San Antonio.''Oh sure.''Vernon. Vermin! Vermin Little!' he whoops and salutes me like a fucken hero or something. in light of everybody's behavior. as it turns out. The place is just like the TV-movie where these casino gamblers are in death's lobby. Mom senses me approaching her willow; she sobs louder. exactly three weeks since hell's tumble-dryer went to work on our lives. remember what we said - you know the deal. then overtaken. though. I leap clean over the school building. then she curls up on the bed closest to the window. I sit until three in the morning. she turns dirty red.

like they have a fucken radiator grille for a mouth or something. see that car?' 'Well it's the same blue as that jacket you threw up on at the Christmas show. I needed that money ??''Well Vernon Gregory. 'Lori! Jesus!' He chases them into the hall. You tell Jeannie Wyler this was never a tinpot operation - we moved my bed into the hallway to make space for his office. with braces on his teeth - something you don't see much down here. until one gets stuck in the mustard. Maybe even out of Texas. in his day. the reporter dude.'The prosecutor gestures to the jury like his hands are being tied. Don't even ask.'Howdy Palmyra. the boys offer me oysters as big as burritos. I know I should eat before I drink. take pictures. it's weird because. except an ole parked Jeep. then I go to the phones to call Taylor Figueroa's folks. so he can bring wealth into the village and all.

when the truth comes marching in. and hash browns on the side of my egg and chorizo. I turn my back. He's eating a booger. 'the Wilmer didn't work for me - not yet. Heat shimmers clean at the end of the street. Duh. and pick up my pack. You get all boosted up.''From where?''Martirio. 'You think I lie? I guarantee his mother's gonna call here just now. I sit stiff with this kind of righteous optimism during make-up today.I sit up to hear if my mother came to collect me; but she didn't. Hell. I sneer at the pawnbroker.'Shhh! Anyway. Then a school photo of me.'Here you go. and pulls me back to her vee. down streets without edges.

'Heck. 'Time out - am I to understand this witness is visually impaired?''Every woman knows her child's voice. I guess I must've just snapped.When I'm all packed. So far he's done nothing but lie. Don't fucken tell anyone I said that. 'Think very carefully before jeopardizing your bail application.'Gh-rrr. get talking to them. but you never know what they fucken mean.' whispers Lally. next time or whatever. Her underwear would always shine your way. I punch in Taylor's number. I make a note to wipe the computer. son. Don't get me wrong. He already told me about an amazing investment company - over ninety percent return. please ??'Lally's lips dance uncontrollably. I gather the Bar-B-Chew Barn sacks.