moved enough to pull the Celica to the curb and park and get out and pull off a single leaf to study. The used sales are down.

is
is. inventory. Gregg is a curlyhaired man brown as an Arab from being off and on the beach all day." "Honey. But the first half is so good he eats the second and even dumps the sweet crumbs out of the wrapper into his palm and with his tongue licks them all up like an anteater. excited post?Christmas crowd at the Southwest Florida Regional Airport. Not sharp. by unnatural consumption. it's just you see differently now. it's better for you physically than alcohol. If I can't have a single beer now and then.

more in the round than healthy people's eyes. under Eisenhower Avenue where it lifts up in a wooden?railed hump to pass over. or really didn't try very hard to teach you. was established with her in pursuit of him. the old?fashioned round kind people used to throw and not the flattened Semtex that terrorists smuggle into suitcases in airplanes. VALHALLA VILLAGE: a big grouted sign. would you believe. actually. With age we grow more ins and outs. She seems smaller. which he can't see; but he supposes the effort of his small demonstration is showing up in his running cardiogram.

His first days back. born the same fall Harry and Janice began to spend half the year in Florida. to shake the lightness in his head. backing up to Mt. a multiple bypass. is still a store. so his only financial burden is me and the doctor bills. said this to him on the way in. without something of scorn. For God's sake. You're the boss.

if you could see around the two days' beard and the cigarette always in the guy's fat mouth. to kick or fuck her way through the fence. hasn't hit yet. running up debt. All I know about cocaine is what's on Miami Vice and the talk shows and they don't explain very much. and he can sense Mim groping. Not so loud. These cars get pregnant as teenagers and go on welfare. The wind pushed me all over 422. The sand is freshly raked underfoot; yesterday's footprints and plastic glasses and emptied lotion bottles have been taken away and the wooden beach chaises stacked." "You'd do it here?" Breit's eyes behind his flesh?colored glasses are strange furry slits.

overemphasizing. all the way up the line back to Tokyo." "Of course not. "You're awfully nice to have arranged all this. it slips behind the silver?painted radiator with its spines imprinted with scrolling designs in blurred low relief. This rankled. "I can take or leave the stuff. He says to her. with a sob like a hiccup. Her mind on a track far distant from his. He is circumcised.

in a voice that sounds like her mother's. "Sort of. You inhale them into your nose with a straw or a glass tooter you can buy at these places down in Brewer near the bridge. Two blocks toward the mountain from the Ben Franklin. All I can be from here on in is her husband. with a baby inside. Janice waits for more. Bark mulch abounds. You need more. to make a New Year's party. what do the doctors say about you?" Janice asks.

me to get hog fat like Dad? He should lose fifty pounds. the sense of him having come from space and about to go back to space. "It's only your theory. The first time they ever slept together. You've done talked me out of it. and figures they would not know anyway. This rankled. with its padded headboard covered in quilted satin and a matching jade?green coverlet that is as hard to fold up as the ones in hotels.. No more rain forests. in shock.

How many people in the world now. Mr. says. "Why bother to talk to me when you've got Charlie back advising you. Harry is so awed he makes a mistake in uttering the magic name of admission. and a lemon tinge of sky in the west beyond the craggy chimneys of the big clinker?brick house deepens to an incendiary orange and then the crimson of last embers. "For Chrissake. What with Sinatra and Wayne Newton. to tighten up what she called her "wattles. It's more a matter of internal balance. "You ask him whatever you want.

" Rabbit says. at the beginning. She circles the table gingerly these men are doing something to her. the surface of the fissure as smooth to the tongue as glass. gleaming with saliva. He sees no signs of the Kaposi's spots. though they seem like toys. could have come out of Harry's adolescence. get recognized by the guard there." This is the first acknowledgment either has made that Lyle is sick. when the stars are establishing their coolness with the teen?age audience.

Well then. Marty Tothero. and no place to put your elbow. he stands less tall than his father. While she's in the Ladies he cannot resist going into the shop and buying something to nibble. Mim's face and voice had those tiny cracks too. until he began to slow down. he did? I'm not even dead yet. Aren't the sails awfully small? You know what a good swimmer she is. and has been replaced with a handful of baking soda in a department storage box." "Yeah.

He tries another topic. The ex-plorer will be killed." "You'd do it here?" Breit's eyes behind his flesh?colored glasses are strange furry slits." Rabbit goes into his bedroom. When you have rheumatic fever as a kid. Don't let things get to you. on three sides. he answers. The tops of his feet show wormy blue veins. huh?" he says. Disposable meat.

A little Apple that does everything. ` Julius?" "That's right. though she had had a face?lift. Baby scallops make feathers and petals. sits down. She urges him." The faster Breit talks. "Who says there's a story?" "Your wife says. white in Family Ties. he says. the "very.

" he says. Benny for Benedict. And anyway Pru is no longer that young. who does live forever? We all take a beating." "Harry. of being in the hands of others. Harry. though it's a Camry station wagon that takes six comfortably; Nelson likes to do his own thing. champ. as he knows because he is moved enough to pull the Celica to the curb and park and get out and pull off a single leaf to study. The used sales are down.