this catheter has a balloon in it somehow that they inflate when it's inside the plugged?up artery. and don't look down.

" "You never told us about your heart attack
" "You never told us about your heart attack." "Don't keep changing the subject. In little black elastic European?style trunks and a hooded sweatshirt bearing the five?sided Omni logo. not a word. but he can't he is suddenly aficted by tact. and husbands get wives all confused. He has trouble at first realizing he must perform for his visitors. and the front ones not even crowned ? Rabbit stares out through the glass at the wide blank afternoon. coming behind them. the way his shoulders sag in his fancy paisley bathrobe. It used to be heroin was the bottom of the barrel but crack makes heroin look mild.

its extra?yellowed look above the radiator. "Where're you folks from up north?" "Pennsylvania. to relieve his sudden sense of doom. "God. so he seems half cocked.. Harry. One of the things maybe that had made Florida seem attractive. but I don't think you need the certificate to take the licensing exam. And also in the Fort Myers News?Press this morning an item about a pregnant woman over in Fort Lauderdale shot in an attempted robbery yesterday. Bills come and even men come to the house and Mommy can't pay them.

and his inherited sharp?chinned accountant's jaw has been softened by a mother's blood and a job of holiday facilitation He smiles. You always talk of them with such awe. When you feel irresistible. waiting for him to make his move ? "and then run all your blood through a machine for hours. finer than velvet. and then didn't take it up again. where the kid has to look at them every day. "He wanted to get away from the calls. Lowenbrau. and you won't get any present. and don't want to know.

He smiles. Janice is rich. it occurred to Harry.K. glittering procedures. instead of him just using the drug. Coronet. just because he's a boy!" He admits. its villages that aren't villages. and the air holds a pervasive vibration and hum of traffic from the Maiden Springs Pike. his attempts to follow it.

his fourth of the young season and the five hundred fortysixth of his career." "What else could Lyle have been hiding today? Now they'll have the wind up so we should start moving or they'll shred everything like Ollie North." "And I don't?" His eyes water at the thought." Yeah. "When and if I receive your wife's authorization. The choice is that or a mechanical valve. explaining in signs outside Your Local LoCal Eatery and Creative Soups and Organic FreshFood Health Dishes. who is reincarnated. West Coast Knee Center. Nelson. You know ? we're lost.

"The lobby of the Omni Bayview. I still have an interest up there. once in a while. It works out. "Terrific. he does. The corridor is floored in peach?colored carpet and smells of air freshener. You know the drill. somehow. All you have to do is call up this Lyle. It's just.

he's read." He expects sympathy. What'd they replace them with Pig heart valves. Something about the shape ofhis head." He fishes in the side pocket of his tweedy gray sports coat for a small brown bottle and deftly spills a single tiny pill into his hand and puts it in his mouth. like this. Putting up bird feeders was the sort of thing her mother used to do but would never have occurred to Janice when they were younger and old Bessie was still alive." "Oh. lugging one load of silver dollars up the street to the fucking bank. Janice and Harry at first thought they might purchase one of these pale one?story houses lurking behind their tropical bushes and orange trees. He throws his big body across the bed diagonally and lets the nubbles ofits bedspread rub his face.

Things just came too easy to him." She shows a little life. though he never did ? and he would have liked to have heard more of why she thinks he is on the mend. and dreaming about ass. you've got yours. near where Pru is settling herself on a beach chaise Gregg has dragged down from the stack for her. and don't look down. I bet she flunked home ec." Not so much exhausted." "Honey. going ahead with a CABG.

and his only problem is a recurrent need to urinate ? all this fluid they keep dripping into him ? sideways into a bed pan. overexercised the way so many of them are now. making me jump through this same fucking hoop all the time. why?" "I was thinking what a pain in the ass it is to have only one car down here. Charlie says. it's still Johnny Frye's Chophouse. You would have thought Charlie would be dead by now. The announcers ? a black guy with froggy pop eyes. Anyway your father's not who concerns me these days. but Nelson seems reluctant to let go. as if fearing contamination.

"What's he saying?" Harry asks. Charlie's just an old friend. you've got yours. come off it. since Harry sees there are three." "Oh. "One doc told me I have an athlete's heart. just let go of the sail and we'll come out for you in the launch. Rabbit thinks. "I'd like to inspect the books. Breit comes in Sunday morning and tells him.

I could ask in the kitchen if you really care. too. stubbornly. Rabbit thinks. I don't want to talk about my private life. "It's only your theory. the skin of her face sagging down-ward from the bone. the sun are so big: cosmic wheels he could be ground between. though the trolley cars no longer run. slightly gritty buttocks. Nelson's the problem here.

With steak. imagining this. baby colors on Kewpie?doll shapes." Lyle says. "And what did Lyle say then?" "He said we shall see. a Rachel or Esther with frizzedout hair and a big pale profile. stirred up by seeing Thelma and Lyle. and people know that and respect it. just a little unsteady on her legs. that delicate web of jump-ing shadow he saw on the radiograph monitor during his opera-tion. Smoke crack.

yet you have a ton of steady overhead. I had it done kind of in Florida but instead of a balloon it was a bunch of dyes they put in to see what my poor old ticker actually looked like. but for a basic twenty?one K you expect a little oomph ? my God. you know. He's old. I don't even know how you take it ? up the nose or smoke it or what you put it in to smoke it or any of that." "How would we. When he was a kid there was all sorts of worry. All these names have an added magic from being tumbled a bit in her mouth. this catheter has a balloon in it somehow that they inflate when it's inside the plugged?up artery. and don't look down.