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Sooner Cap blinked, stepped back like he&039;d been struck
"That&039;s right" DelPrego licked his lips "Man, I&039;d just love to have a big, sweaty pair of redneck balls onabout it"
Sooner Cap realized he was being had "How about I sulped "For the love of God, Wayne, let it go"
Jenks tensed Here it cao pointed "Holy shit What&039;s that behind you?"
Sooner Cap said, "You don&039;t think I&039;o didn&039;t wait to see if he fell for it or not He brought the uppercut fast, popped Sooner Cap on the point of his chin The redneck&039;s head snapped back He stu the pool cue at Jenks, but Jenks ducked The cue struck Lancaster in the face, swept him off the barstool like he wasfrom his nose
Jenks stomped hard with his heel on top of Tattoo Man&039;s left tennis shoe His heel struck the foot hard Jenks heard and felt the man&039;s bone snap Tattoo Man screamed Jenks double-punched hirabbed hi hard, and his knuckles smacked just over Tattoo Man&039;s ear
Tattoo Man fell over into a little heap, didn&039;t o in a headlock Jenks picked up Tattoo Man&039;s pool cue, swung hard, and broke the wood over Sooner Cap&039;s back He let go of DelPrego, who turned and threw a quick punch into the redneck&039;s ut Sooner Cap whuffed air and went to one knee
"That&039;s enough!" the bartender barked He held an alued it on the bar
Sooner Cap started to get up He was breathing hard "You fuckers"
"Corabbed Lancaster under one aro took Lancaster&039;s other ar lot
The redneck&039;s curses followed theain and you&039;re dead You hear me? Dead!"
The three poets sat in a nearly deserted Wendy&039;s Jenks ate a double cheeseburger and a Biggie fries DelPrego held a small Frosty to the side of his head where his ear had swollen
Lancaster sat with his head tilted back, crumpled and bloody napkins on the table in front of him He&039;d torn little strips of napkin and had jammed them into his nostrils to stanch the blood flow Once in a while he&039;d moan quietly and rub his teht like that?" Jenks asked DelPrego "You al self killed"
"I watch a lot of Rockford Files reruns"
"TV Shit, that figures"
"Do we qualify as tight now?" Lancaster asked, his stuffed noseout "Do be qualiby ad dight dow?"
Jenks laughed "Alo said "We&039;re a hell of a teahed and so did Jenks
Lancaster groaned and very slowly lifted his an tried to roll over, but Ginny&039;s slab of thigh held him in place He didn&039;t want to wake her He lay still, staring at the ceiling, feeling eood distraction after Annette had shrugged hiainst him in bed Oppressive
And it wasn&039;t just Annette
For a long tian had been directionless He&039;d realized it while working with the old man, Fred Jones It was the first time he&039;d felt like a poet or a teacher in years And he&039;d realized it again talking to Annette Grayson, telling her how he&039;d bloith the wind from one temporary job to another
And then there was Annie Walsh The drea worse In the round His drea at the hard winter ground, digging without a shovel, fingernails hurt and bleeding
Morgan shuddered
Ginny&039;s breathing changed, and Morgan suspected she ake They both pretended to sleep
After half an hour, Morgan figured soive He opened his mouth, drew breath to speak, didn&039;t knohat to say, and shut it again
"What is it?" Ginny asked
"I didn&039;t know if you were awake yet"
"I&039;an still didn&039;t knohat to say
Ginny said, "It&039;s like we have a secret together Don&039;t you think that makes people close? It&039;s kind of a prefabricated intimacy And I need this once in a while, to be close and naked with somebody I can trust Maybe a weird kind of trust but it&039;s there, and I want you to feel it too"
"I feel it"
"It doesn&039;t seee If they sleep with a girl once, they either think they own her or they want to throw her out like an empty beer can I like that you&039;re older I want us to be friends I read your poetry book"
"Which one? A Shot of Bourbon for the Soul?"
"The other one The hat one"
"In the Museum of Men&039;s Hats That was ht it was pretty good"
"Thanks"
"Are you working on anything now?"
Morgan squirht now"
"Writer&039;s block"
"No" It came out more harsh than he&039;dyet"
"I think you&039;re stuck"
"What would you know about it?"
"I want you to be able to tellfor you to worry about"
"This is part of it," Ginny said "I want us to tell each other things"
"I don&039;t want to tell you"
A shrug "Got to tell somebody Do you have anyone to talk to?"
"I&039;m not a talker"
"That&039;s bad"
"Yeah" He didn&039;t knohat he wanted to say He&039;d been closed up, closed off, didn&039;t kno to say rong Maybe he didn&039;t even know because he couldn&039;t say it out loud "What if I try, really trycoet scared" She twirled his chest hair