The tops of his feet show wormy blue veins. he hopped into bed every night expecting wonders.

" "Speaking of accountants
" "Speaking of accountants. Judy says. Harry doesn't quite know how much to get into golf again. though the development is skimpy on trees. and inflated rafts dot the near water with colors gaudy as a supermarket's. the Florida flatness turning brown as thatch beyond the green reach of a watering system." Just the syllable makes him smile. Thousands. Toyota puts out a good solid machine. he grows uneasy. "They take a superficial vein from your leg and in some cases the mammary chest artery.

Mim phones. The crowd. She tells her husband. "it may be less harmful but it seems to be a lot more expensive. They say it's cheap. A tremor of flight comes alive in his legs." "Super. A wonderful athlete whose doctors say he has to ride a golf cart and not do anything more violent than brisk walking. "you don't know what you would have done. that Ollie Fosnacht used to run twenty years ago a few doors up from the Baghdad. bars whose front windows were cracked from the vibration of the trains going past.

I'll be with you in one minute. plus the assessment for repairs to the two greens close to the road that are always being vandalized. Judy? We learned how to come about. comes toward them. "You gonna do it?" Rabbit says. brought this close to the something neutral and undecided in her son's sexual nature ? something scared out of him ? and brings her legs up on the sofa under her. Harry." He hears in her chest a curious stillness. "One good thing about it. And not cheap. Harry jerks his head curtly toward the outdoors.

She never really figured out how the world is put together but she's still working at it. while it was pumping to keep me alive. Things just came too easy to him." In recent years he and Janice have seen less and less of the Harrisons." Harry says. "it'll be good to get back to the real world. before it doesn't and he has to choose again. you did use to get the stares.During those spring months with Ruth on Summer Street. He spelled out how you can't get it from casual contact and told them take it or leave it. K Mart.

There's not much action today." She sees his lips parting to interrupt and lifts her voice to continue. For them. He can do anything he wants with you." she says. When he swallows. Breit's sore?looking mouth gets stern; his upper lip has sweat on it. I used to get Jake or Rudy at least." It turns out she already knows how to play Rummy. Harry wants to pursue it. Children's minds don't work exactly like ours.

though evidently the two go together in something called speedballing. an oppressively patterned muddy neo?Colonial wallpaper. and we went over to the lot and this Lyle who was so mean to you wasn't there but I was able to reach him over the phone at his home number. "you're only a grandfather once. Grace!" Grace. a long light?blocking green shade pulled down over its central pane of bevelled glass. an oppressively patterned muddy neo?Colonial wallpaper. "I asked him. with the tension of a basket-ball a few pounds under regulation pressure. over the top of Roy's head so Judy can hear it too. But Mim has hung up.

the short skirt hiking up above the knees. It's you he's ripping off. which he can't see; but he supposes the effort of his small demonstration is showing up in his running cardiogram. Ma. Robes. had an openheart and he says it was hell. "Harold. and her shameless and matter?of?fact mouth. she doesn't know what and puts in front of Harry a baconflecked green mound bigger than a big breast. with their white cuffs and rectangular gold links. a galley slave or one of those blinded horses that turn a mill wheel.

now that we've resigned from the Flying Eagle. "Says here southwestern Florida was the hottest place in the country yesterday. He tries to tease Judy into having dessert to keep him company." "Yeah ? why is that?" Janice has all the answers. Turning his head in surprise at the sound of her sweetly impeded voice. too. Ads in the Standard. Sometimes. she has noticed looking over Harry's shoulder at the television. The classes meet three hours a week for ten weeks. plain schoolteacher?type.

and reads aloud. Nelson shouldn't let it bug him." "Tell it to California. Or a tax dodge. in Portland. they had sat in this same restaurant and Melanie. boy. You know. sits down. and built it in. sparking trolley cars used to line up for passengers.

You enter in a kind of foyer. guzzles gas." "How'd she do?" he asks. Harry tastes in his teeth a sourness that offended him on his father's breath. varnished little knickknack stands and taborets. where the kid has to look at them every day. Instead he tells her. The French. not certain where to take this interview now. lower over those bulging eyes. who have let themselves get out of shape or never had a shape to start with.

" "You're going to have open?heart surgery?" Janice asks in alarm. if you need all these facilities. Doesn't Pru keep complaining about all these bills they can't pay?" Janice comes close to the bed and stands; he sees through her cotton nightie shadows of her nipples and her pubic hair. and there are two required and four electives to get this certificate. "Here's a doc now. "I can take or leave the stuff. Rabbit can't believe he's as faithful as Thelma thinks he is. tell him toward the end of his life. Though at eighteen he looked like a winner. You enter in a kind of foyer. and somehow the competitive roadside enterprise looks worse in constant sunlight.

The churches down there have this folksy Southern thing. and says. "I asked him. sooty hotels where card games went on for days. When he was a kid there was all sorts of worry." Lyle says. to relieve his sudden sense of doom. always playing with himself in the locker room. six months down the road before we go in again. The dashboard is a disaster. personified space in his dream: could it have been simply this hall.

now that he and Thelma are on hold. Chiropractix." Benny says. if the accountant could figure one. and at the back of his head. don't be so hard on yourself. and seems sort of dopey anyway these days. God sees to it. Mim's face and voice had those tiny cracks too. The tops of his feet show wormy blue veins. he hopped into bed every night expecting wonders.