Page 5 (1/2)

He said, "You remember Lou Rudenko? Louie the Hat, they call him," I said I did "You hear about his mother?"

"What about her?"

"Nice old Ukrainian lady, still lived in the old neighborhood on East Ninth or Tenth, wherever it was Been afor years Must have been seventy, ot to be what, fifty?"

"Maybe"

"Doesn't entlee as she is He's over there a couple nights a week and she cooks Ukrainian food for hio to aall over the screen Anyway, he comes over one afternoon, he's all excited, he found a television set on the street Soe He says people are crazy, they throw perfectly good things away, and he's handy at fixing things and her own set's on the fritz and this one's a color set and twice the size of hers and s it in and turns it on to see what happens, and what happens is it blows up He loses an arht in front of it when it goes, she's killed instantly"

"What was it, a boot it You saw the story in the paper?"

"I o What they worked out was soed the set with a bomb and had it delivered to so and maybe it wasn't, because all the old man knehat block he picked the set up on, and what does that tell you? Thing is, whoever received the set was suspicious enough to put it right out with the garbage, and it wound up killing Mrs Rudenko I saw Lou and it was a funny thing because he didn't knoho to get odda city' But what sense does that make? You live in the middle of Kansas and a tornado comes and picks your house up and spreads it over Nebraska That's an act of God, right?"

"That's what they say"

"In Kansas God uses tornadoes In New York he uses gaffed television sets Whoever you are, God or anybody else, you ith the ht now"

"What can I do for you?"

"I' for an honestfor a particular piht finicky Has he got a name?"

"Chance"

"Oh, sure," Danny Boy said "I know Chance"

"You kno I can get in touch with hilass, put it down "He doesn't hang out anywhere," he said

"That's what I keep hearing"

"It's the truth I think a an's You're at Ji's, or at least you were the last I heard"

"I still am"

"See? I keep tabs on you even when I don't see you Chance Let ht Well, Friday et technical What do you ith him, if you don't mind the question?"

"I want to talk to hiht knohere he'll be eighteen or twenty hours froirl shows up, order "

IDanny Boy another glass of vodka She said, "Right And another Coke for you?"

I'd been getting little drink urges off and on ever since I sat down and now I got a strong one My gorge rose at the thought of another Coke I told her to er ale this tiht the drinks She put the ginger ale in front of me and the vodka on his side of the table I sat there and tried not to look at it and et back to the table and drink the daer ale and kept my hands off his vodka and eventually he caht," he said "He'll be at the Garden toht they were still on the road"

"Not the main arena Matter of fact I think there's some rock concert Chance'll be at the Felt Foruoes?"

"Not always, but there's a welterweight named Kid Bascomb at the top of the preli man"

"He owns a piece of him?"

"Could be, orat?"