Demon Box

"Understand?" the Tra

The evening leans forward from its many seats. Betty Blum begins to take blame and croon apologies in the familiar catty pussyfooting of one browbeaten señora coming to the defense of another. The unseen audience starts to sigh, disappointed. But before the Tra

"If you do I swear I'll kill you, and if I can get to him I'll kill Donald, and if I can get to them before I'm stopped I'll kill Terry and the grandchildren and then myself, I swear it before God!"

Both her husband and Betty stare dumbstruck at this outburst. Then the two of them exchange quick small nods: shoulda seen something like this coming… woman this age… all those rum-and-Cokes. The Tra

Then the pulse of the street begins to rush again. The kids on the roof whisper excited reviews. The chickens gather in the lobby of shade under the mango branches. The accordionist doesn't resume his practicing, but, the Tra

The Tra

Wally shows up with two yellowtail and the Tra

When he figures it is late enough that his wife has been adequately disciplined, he borrows their car to drive back to the hotel with old Chief. "I bet she's there by now," he bets.

He wins; she's asleep on the couch. It will be the last time he'd win such a bet.

Things can be trusted. Things do not break. Things are not gyps. Pull chains on light switches are not manufactured to snap off inside the fixture just to force a poor sucker to shell out dinero for a complete new rig-up that isn't fair.

"Ten pesos for a rum-'n'-Coke? They only cost five pesos two blocks from here!"

They have been drinking at the hotel all afternoon. "This is the beachfront," his wife reminds him. "Besides, these have straws."

The waiter rewards her logic with a grand denture display. Betty and Wally order. The drinks arrive. Betty sips her margarita like a bee choosing a blossom from acres of clover.

"Feh," she drawls. "Not great but feh-uh."

"I love the way you Miami women talk, Betty." The Tra

He stops short. He has seen something that nips his declaration in the bud. The Tra

His wife continues to stare at the young morsel at the icecream stand, not out of jealousy, as she knows Betty Blum is silently supposing, but with a sense of sweet wonder, as one stares at a pressed flower discovered in a school a

There is a silence as the Tra

"Time," declares Wally Blum, "is one of those things you can trust because you know just how much to allow for political bias."

The Tra

The three of them walk back to the hotel restaurant and order Lobster Supreme, picking at the shells till nearly ten. Finally the Tra

Here it comes again: the turmoil, the chaos, the hubbub and howls – the nightdogs again – the pre-dawn yapping that starts in the hills south and sweeps across the town, just when you were sure the sonofabitches had, at last, exhausted the shadows and were going to settle down and let you get some rest.

Old Chief whimpers. The Tra

A fair question. I had been forced to deal with it there once myself. You see, one day, not long after Betsy had a