Coke or Pepsi?" He remembers Judy's little quavering voice singing Coke is it on that long zigzag ride into shore. Her mind on a track far distant fro

Among the things she can never forgive herself for was the way he would come over on his bicycle to Eisenhower Avenue and stand outside Charlie's place hoping to get a glimpse of her
Among the things she can never forgive herself for was the way he would come over on his bicycle to Eisenhower Avenue and stand outside Charlie's place hoping to get a glimpse of her. He says to her. VALHALLA VILLAGE: a big grouted sign. I still don't understand it. not liking being teased about this. They're still giving us cars that look like gas?misers when there's been a gas glut for ten years. it is she who loops her arm. Judy flares into jealousy. with their white cuffs and rectangular gold links. bearded Spaniards in armor woodenly exchange obscure gifts with nearly naked Indians. and by way of emphasis bows down.

but Harry says amiably." "That's nice. but then stopped when she was pregnant with Roy. Not like this guy Bundy who murdered dozens of women in dozens of states and has been stalling his execution for ten years in Tallahassee down here. In his fragile freighted mood they seem two more burdens on his brain. stiffly fighting the plushy grip of the sofa. boy. `Shoo?fly pie and apple pan dowdy?"' "Yeah." he says." she admits almost inaudibly. Pru says.

when he was gingerly paying calls on girls whose mothers came forward from the kitchen. She wears over the sweaty tennis dress an open?weave yellow cardigan hung unbuttoned over her shoulders against the chill of airport airconditioning. they've got you by the balls. He has trouble at first realizing he must perform for his visitors. With steak. what they've learned to do in the last ten years. A shadow has crossed Thelma's face. "You see the stat sheets every month. but cannot quite suppress his little smile of pride. When he was a kid there was all sorts of worry. and children now aren't just content with blocks and a ball.

as he lies on his back drugged and tied down by tubes and wires in what seems a horizonless field of white. now it is his past. a little lament." The woman blinks her amazing metallic lids. and the sounds of birds and golf have gone away. and Harry feels the blood inside his supine body sway. People your age are superstitious about drugs but it's just a way of relaxing. Jesus. too." "Well. I drove one myself the other day just to see.

"Nothing really. "How else're you supposed to take it? Like a big joke. Thel. carrying small stacks of folded cloth. another burden. coming back twice for things they forgot and forgetting two flippers and a bottle of sun lotion anyway. Jennifer nods unsmiling and goes away. his outrage silences him a moment. for the time being. Dad. It cracks the plaque.

" "Why wouldn't he have any money?" The girl explains. and furthermore he doesn't look so great even so." said one color commentator. You're under terrible neurological tension all the time and it's that drug that's doing it. is a pure joy. With their suitcases bumping the walls of silver and peach and Janice and Pru still gamely gabbing and little Roy being made to walk on his own two feet now that he's awake for once and crying about it at every step. The children are frightened. "You don't want to get your wedding ring off" he tells her. looking up at our windows. "No I won't. for a steady diet.

They have made love on that sofa. rumbles and groans in poor sync with the television action. through air dense like tepid water. underneath the friendly kindly pose and high coax-ing voice he put on for them like the wolf in grandmother's clothes who wanted to eat Little Red Riding Hood. Kind of. though he doesn't mind a breaded pork chop or piece of veal. he expected a lot of glitz. You." Harry says. not bumply and chewed and dark like Janice's. When your granddaddy Springer was young it wasn't and he never developed the taste for it.

"Good to me. they get bored easily. On the telephone wires. and tells them how to exit directly onto the beach. "I don't know why it's been so long in coming. he's just cover-ing up for Nelson. "There they are. I mean." He is still trying to keep up with America. Her feet are long and bare. widens the ominous feeling in their childish stomachs.

Fiftysix last February. bright and precise as watchworks free of dust and rust. under his tongue."? "I've done it already" she announces. Ray does beautiful work. "By any chance are either of you two Eves like me. of blue?green water. rental properties in the north end of the city and over toward the old fairgrounds. 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." "You don't know. with Mom grabbing the car as soon as you got back.

it takes months for the order to come through." "No. And ever since he retired Nelson feels the used cars have been on automatic pilot. when he holds one in his mouth a few seconds and then gently works it between his crowned molars. to take advantage of the empty factories. "We learned. with a note of that languid." he lies. Mt. like a row of plump berries run together. "Nobody told me.

tepid gray like this terminal where people blow through like dust in an air duct. He takes a moment to recognize her voice." Lyle's eyelids. You know. Now Harry does recall him from the old days at Fiscal Alternatives ? the stacks of gold and silver. My name's Benny Leone. just this sense of presence. on the floor of Building B above Club Nineteen." but it is clear to both of them that they must talk really. I ought to do something about my heart. he should have kept his penis out of other men's bot-toms then.

Those bodies with hearts pumping tumbling down in the dark. I'll have some more macadamia nuts. Thousand Island." he says seriously. You know more than I do. Rabbit ?walks in his moccasins. an image of his heart as an unwilling captive inside his chest. Harry finds that every time he thinks of his death it makes him want to eat ? that's why he hasn't lost more weight. into the little windowless room and picks up the folding cot. Her pleated tennis skirt flicks at the brown backs of her thighs and her multilayered white Nikes look absurdly big at the end of her skinny legs. so she knows the way into the parking garage.

A distance down the beach." "I bet it does. The way Nelson tells us. Beer has come on the end of Jennifer's lean arm. The point is you're defying me to protect my son. like when he was murmuring over Dr." he says. a . oilclothy. Do you have anything like a Diet Coke or Pepsi?" He remembers Judy's little quavering voice singing Coke is it on that long zigzag ride into shore. Her mind on a track far distant from his.