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Robert wondered was she go
"One other thing," Robert said. "The CIB man, John Rau? He lives for this reenacting. He's go
Jerry said, "Whack a cop-only if your life depends on it."
"We want him far away when it goes down."
Jerry said, "How do we work that?"
"I'll have to think about it."
Jerry said, "I'll leave it up to you," the way he left everything, and was gone to roll dice.
Robert glanced toward the bedroom as he walked to the balcony. He opened the doors and heard a woman's voice coming over the speakers, the TV woman, Diane-what was her name?calling the dives again, Diane telling the crowd they'd have to clap real loud if they wanted world champion De
There he was in the spotlight climbing to the top.
Robert moved to the railing to watch him: De
A
"Watching my man."
"Are you coming?"
"In a minute. He's about to go off."
Every day honest people got into dealing drugs, it wasn't so unusual. De
He had his arms raised, ready to go. Then lowered his arms and held on to the ladder with one hand as he leaned out and yelled down something and now Charlie was looking up at him. Now Charlie picked up a pole, the skimmer they took bugs out of the tank with, and mounted the ladder to the narrow walk that went around the tank and now Charlie was waving the skimmer over the surface of the water to make waves. Robert decided it was so De
A
He stepped toward the doorway, quick, to see her coming out of the bedroom in her kimono, open, nothing on under it. He thought, The Open Kimono by Seymour Hare, and said, "Wait. Don't move." And turned back in time to see De
He felt A
"God, I hope you're not queer for him. Are you?"
"No, I never tried that. Like I never tried the opera. Or never roller-skated. I've ice-skated and I've skied. Steve Allen says to Jose Jimenez standing there with a pair of skis, `So, you're a skier. Is that right?' And Jose Jimenez says, `Yes,' with his accent, `I'm a skeer to go down the hill.' "
He felt her hand slide down his back and out from under his shirt. Her voice, off in the room now, said, "You want a glass of wine?"
"I'm trying to think… Yes, I would, please. I'm trying to think of what else I haven't done that people do. One comes to mind-haven't camped out."
A
"I have other strange places."
"Movie theater?"
"Many times, in my youth."
"Airplane?"
"Once, on a red-eye. How about you? What's the strangest place you ever did it?"
"You mean straight fucking?"
"What else we talking about?"
"You don't count a blow job."
"Blow job, you get that anywhere."
She said, "Let me think… How about on the floor?"
"Everybody does it on the floor now and then. You think that's a strange place?"
She said, "I don't want to play this anymore."
Like that. Like when she and Jerry argued… Robert picking them up to go to some function, a wedding, and Jerry's yelling at her for never in her fuckin life being ready on time and A
She said she didn't want to play anymore and Robert said, "That's cool," not caring one way or the other. He looked down at the crowd breaking up and De
A
"What?"
"I said is this going to work? What we're doing?"
"Go
"Jerry thinks you're crazy."
"He's told me that. But he's here."
She said, "I have a bad feeling about it."
Robert said, "Want me to hold you? Tell you everything's go
"I'm serious, and you make fun of me."
He could tell her she was easy to make fun of, any time she became serious like that, having the bad feeling. But he didn't. No, he showed her he was as sensitive as he had to be, saying, "What's wrong, baby? What you worried about?"
"I keep thinking," A
What she meant was hoping. Robert said, "Like he could get popped?"
"It's possible, isn't it?"
"You play the grieving widow till the lawyer cuts you a check?"
"You're not fu
"Wear a black thong bikini around the pool?"
She walked away from him.
Robert said after her, "My sensitivity stretches so far and it snaps back on me."
De
"I thought you weren't go
She said, "I lied."
They brought chairs from the patio bar out to the edge of the lawn, away from loud voices, a party going on, and sat next to each other with summer drinks, in the dark, De
Her voice, close to him, quiet, said, "How long have you been hauling it around?" "Four years."
"Are you tired of it?"
"I'm getting there."
"Then what?"
"I don't know."
"Where're you staying?"
He turned his head to see the soft expression in her eyes, waiting.
"I have a landlady who stays up late."
"You want to go to Memphis?"
"Is that where you live?"
She nodded. "After I do the news?"
He said, "There's nothing I'd rather do than go to Memphis," and let it hang.
She said, "But there's a lot you have to think about."
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe it."
She said, "You were on the ladder that night, weren't you?"
He nodded, their eyes still holding.
" Arlen and the Bug?"
He nodded again.
She looked away, toward the ladder, before turning to him again. "I don't understand. Why you're telling me now."
"I don't know either. You asked… If you hadn't I probably wouldn't have said anything."