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I found the bourbon section and looked at the bottles Jierald, Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey

Each na a bell I can walk past saloons all over town and reht me there or wholass, and what bottle it cae Old Grand Dad Old Crow Early Times

I liked the names, and especially the last Early Times It sounded like a toast "Well, here's to crime" "Absent friends" "Early Tiot better the more of a distance you looked back at them from But what didn't?

"Help you?"

"Early Tih," I said

He slipped the bottle into a brown paper bag, twisted the top, handed it over the counter toa bill out of e

One drink's too h But a pint would do For starters, anyway

There's a liquor store right across the street frouess howyears This store, though, was a few blocks away on Eighth Avenue, and the walk back to the Northwestern see at me on the street Maybe they were Maybe the expression on ht up to my room and bolted the door once I was inside it I took the pint of bourbon from my coat pocket and laid it down on the top ofmy coat in the closet, draped my suit jacket over the back of a chair I went over to the dresser and picked up the bottle and felt its fahed it in my hands I put it back down, still unwrapped, and went over to look out the nstairs, across Fifty-seventh Street, athe liquor store Maybe he'd come out with a pint of Early Times and take it back to his room, and look out his

I didn't have to unwrap the da I could open theand pitch it out Maybe I could take aih he just got out of church

Jesus

I put the TV on, looked at it without seeing it, turned it off I walked over to the dresser and took the bottle out of the paper bag I put it back on the dresser but I stood it upright this ti and dropped it in the wastebasket I returned toI couldn't see the bottle on top of the dresser

Back when I was first getting sober I'd made Jan a promise "Pro s you think of

Well, I couldn't call her now She was out of town, and I'd ordered her not to tell anyone where she'd gone Not even me

Unless she hadn't left I'd had a call from her the day before, but what did that prove? The connection, now that I thought about it, had been crystal clear She ht have been in the next roo that, she could have been on Lispenard Street

Would she do that? Convinced that the danger was largely in my mind, would she have stayed in her loft and lied to me about it?

No, I decided, she wouldn't do that Still, there was no reason I could think of not to call her

I dialed, got her machine Was there anyone left in the world who didn't have one of those dae she'd had on there for years, and when it ended I said, "Jan, it's Matt Pick up if you're there, will you?" I waited athe silence, and then I said, "It's i up Well, of course she hadn't answered She was miles away She wouldn't have played it dishonest If she'd decided to stay in the city, she'd have told me so

Anyway, I'd kept my promise I'd made the call Not my fault there was nobody home, was it?

Except that it was My fault, that is It was ot her in a cab to the airport, and it wasbefore I met her, thatin the fucking world that wasn't my fault?

I turned, and the pint of Early Tilinting off its shoulder I went over and picked up the bottle and read its label It was eighty proof All of the popular-priced bourbons had been eighty-six proof for years, and then so the proof to eighty and leaving the price unchanged Since the federal excise tax is based on alcohol content, and since alcohol costs the manufacturer more than plain water, the distiller increased his profit while slightly boosting the demand at the same time, since dedicated drinkers had to swill down et the same effect

Of course the bonded bourbons were still a hundred proof And soures Jack Daniel's was ninety proof Wild Turkey was 101

Funny what sticks in your mind

Maybe I should have picked up a fifth, or even a quart

I put the bottle down and walked over to theagain I felt curiously calm, and at the same time I was all hyped up I looked out across the street, then turned and looked at the bottle again I switched on the TV and clicked the dial fro at I went around the dial two or three ti I stood there for a ure out what it was, or what to do about it It rang again I let it ring a third time before I picked it up and said hello

"Matt, this is Toot it just as he added, "In Massillon Beautiful don Massillon, isn't that what they say?"