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"I guess we're in the grip of a moral renaissance"

"That's his point" He picked up his chopsticks, mimed a drusouy she met in Al-Anon"

"Maybe they're just friends"

"No, I don't think so" He poured tea for both of us "You know, I screwed around a lot before I got sober Whenever I went to a bar I told ot was drunk, but now and then I got lucky Sometimes I even remembered it"

"And sometimes you'd rather you didn't"

"Well, sure The point is I didn't give that up coe al, but I bottooing to Al-Anon, started dealing with her own issues, and we hung together I would still have so on the side, you know"

"I didn't know"

"No?" He thought about it "Well, I guess that was before I knew you, before you got sober Because I stopped fooling around after a couple of years It was no greatthat any may have been a factor, first herpes and then AIDS, but I don't think I got scared off I think I lost interest" He took a sip of tea "And now I'm one of Father Feeney's ninety percent, and she's out there"

"Well, "

"This isn't the first time"

"Oh," I said

"I don't kno I feel about it"

"Does she know that you know?"

"Who knohat she knows? Who knohat I know? I just wanted things to stay the way they were, you know? And they never do"

"I know," I said "I ith Elaine last night and she said the M word"

"What's that, e is a et etclients"

"Clients?"

"Johns"

"Oh, right That's the condition? Marryhypothetically, and then she apologized for saying the word and we both agreed ant things to stay the way they are" I looked down into lass of whiskey "I don't know if that's going to be possible It see to stay just the way it is, that's when it changes"

"Well," he said, "you'll have to see how it goes"

"And take it a day at a time, and don't drink"

"I like that," he said "It has a nice ring to it"

WE sat there a long while, talking about one thing and another I talked about rips with and the other one that I couldn't see training ht be delayed by an owners' lockout We talked about a kid in our hos and alcohol who'd gone out after four ht he said, "What I think I'll do tonight, I think I'll go to so where I won't run into anybody I knoant to talk about all this shit with Bev at aand I can't do that around here"

"You could"

"Yeah, but I don't want to I'm an old-timer, I've been sober since the Flood, I wouldn't want the newcorinned "I'll go don and give myself permission to sound as confused and fucked-up as I feel And who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky, find soure"

"That's a good idea," I said "Find out if she's got a sister"

I went to aat St Paul's on Sundays, so I went to one at Roosevelt Hospital A fair number of the people who showed up were in-patients from the detox ward The speaker had started out as a heroin addict, kicked that in a twenty-eight-day residential program in Minnesota, and devoted the next fifteen years to alcoholic drinking Now she was almost three years sober

They went around the room after she was done, and most of the patients just said their na, if just to tell her I enjoyed her story and was glad she was sober, but when it got to me I said, "My naht"

Afterward I went back to the hotel Nofor two hours Soate Calendar, a case-by-case report on British crihteenth centuries I'd had it around for a es before I went to sleep

It wasthan others What got to ed People back then killed each other for every reason and for no reason, and they did it with everyto bear