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It was over now There was really nothing e ever stood trial, I would probably have to testify, but that wouldn't be fordidn't bother h occasions in the past There was nothing overnor or not, depending upon the whie, and Beverly Ethridge was up against the wall, and Henry Prager was going to be buried in a day or so The er had written and he had written himself off, and my role in his life was as finished as his life itself He was another person to light less candles for, that was all

I called Anita

"Thanks for the money order," she said "I appreciated it"

"I'd say there's more where that caht?"

"Sure Why?"

"You sound different I don't kno exactly, but you sound different"

"It's been a long week"

There was a pause Our conversations are usuallyif you wanted to take theame"

"In Boston?"

"Pardon me?"

"The Knicks are out of it The Celtics destroyed theht of my week"

"The Nets," she said

"Oh"

"I think they're in the finals Against Utah or so"

"Oh" I can never remember that New York has a second basketball team I don't knohy I've taken my sons to the Nassau Coliseuet they exist "When are they playing?"

"There's a hoht"

"What's today?"

"Are you serious?"

"Look, I'll get a calendar watch next time I think of it What's today?"

"Thursday"

"Tickets will probably be hard to get"

"Oh, they're all sold out They thought you ht of Huysendahl He could probably swing tickets withouth other people who could e to obtain last-it kind of close" But what I was thinking was that I didn't want to see my sons, not in just two days' ti if they really wanted o to it and knew that I would be able to root out a source of tickets

I asked if there were any other hoht"

"It's also a lot more possible than Saturday"

"Well, I hate to see theet tickets for the Thursday gaet tickets for Saturday, but I could probably get so for Thursday It'll be later in the series, a ame"

"Oh, so that's the way you want to do it If I say no because it's a school night, then I' up"

"No, don't do that All right, Thursday is fine You'll call if you can get tickets?"

I said I would

IT was odd-I wanted to be drunk but didn't much want a drink I sat around the room for a while, then walked over to the park and sat on a bench A couple of kids ambled rather purposefully to a bench nearby They sat down and lit cigarettes, and then one of theed his coot up and walked off, glancing back periodically to uessed that one of thes to the other, and that they had looked at me and decided not to conduct the transaction under the eyes of so I sat there A couple of hours, I suppose Periodically a panhandler would brace me Sometimes I'd contribute toward the next bottle of sine Sometimes I'd tell the bum to fuck off

By the time I left the park and walked over to Ninth Avenue, St Paul's was closed for the day The downstairs was opening up, however It was too late to pray but just the right hour for bingo

Arht and day I told theet the coffee

THE next forty hours or so were pretty 's or where I went after that So I woke up alone in a hotel room in the Forties, a squalid room in the kind of hotel to which Times Square streetwalkers take their johns I had no memory of a woh I had probably checked in alone There was a pint bottle of bourbon on the dresser, about two-thirds e, and reality faded in and out, and soht I ed to findthe telephone woketied to knock it off the little nightstand and onto the floor, and by the tiet it to my ear I was reasonably close to consciousness