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"We found the car ten an had shrugged "Those crazy Mexicans"
"What about your shoes?" one cop had asked
"I wanted to walk in the sand"
"Then shouldn&039;t you have taken off your socks too?"
"I told you," Morgan had said "I was drunk"
Morgan had claimed the whole incident had happened about a mile down the coast and away from the pier The situation seean had watched the car go down There&039;d been no sign of the an should flee the country A foran had seen the job listings before English teachers needed in Japan and South Korea
But that would take tie Surely recent events would catch up and overwhelm him before then At least he was home For a while, the world could wait He went to bed, slept like a cold, dead stone
Mondayhe went to Albatross Hall He was five minutes late for his poetry workshop He noticed three empty chairs in a row, didn&039;t have to think too hard about it Ellis, Lancaster, and DelPrego
"Has anyone seen our estured at the enorance
"Never et on with it Tairl, sandals with socks, dishwater hair, and no makeup "It&039;s called &039;The Aftertaste of Love&039;&8201;" She stood and cleared her throat, read froe dust fro-whistle need of his generation But nobody hears"
Ah It was as Morgan thought God had started punishing hi ed his desk drawers The radio announcer spit out the local news, then switched to the weather Mild for athered up north and west in Colorado A cold front It threatened to slide south by the weekend and dust Green County with a few flakes
Morgan found what he was looking for in the bottom drawer A flask of Jim Beam Not his usual poison, but it would do in a pinch He unscrewed the cap and took a long swig The faan decided that not only had he officially fallen off the wagon, but that the wagon had also backed over hi
The phone rang in , startled hirabbed the phone "Hello?"
"Morgan? It&039;s Dean Whittaker"
Morgan sat up straight "What can I do for you, sir?"
"Good news, Morgan Lots of press going to be there all the way fro to be great press for the university"
"Uh"
"Also, we have the honors college assigning the poetry reading as mandatory extra credit for their freshman composition and huenerally well attended, but ant to put our best foot forward, eh? I think we can fill up the whole damn auditorium"
"That&039;s fifteen hundred seats"
"Well, the press, faculty, raduate students froras-you didn&039;t hear hteen-year-olds don&039;t usually go in for this sort of thing, but the seats will be filled and it&039;ll look good That&039;s what counts The eyes of the entire university will be on this show Exciting, isn&039;t it?"
"Sure" Morgan found his hand reaching for the Jiood show for us, aren&039;t you, Morgan?"
Morgan cleared his throat, picked his words carefully "I pro with excellent and innovative poetry"
"Right," Whittaker said "Just so long as we get the right ood-bye and hung up
Morgan drank whiskey, rubbed his eyes He thought about Ginny Maybe he should call her He was surprised to wish he could be with her She had a soothing effect She&039;d been right People who have a secret together need each other He picked up the phone, put it back down again No, she an didn&039;t have the spine right now to explain hi and rang
Morgan hung up, bit his thurabbed for it quickly Maybe Ellis had 69 and was ringing him back "Hello? Hello?"
"Take it easy, Professor," Fred Jones said "You sound like you just ran a ht now, Mr Jones"
"Busy my ass I have four new poee of his nose, bit off the first reply, and took a deep breath before saying, "You know, Mr Jones, part of any good poet&039;s education is to accumulate aon caive your oork a rest and go hear so me off"
"Okay, I&039;uy on ca poet"
Jones went quiet on his end for a an told Jones how to find Valentine&039;s office The ian Let thehttian smile His face muscles weren&039;t used to it It alo eating hard The thery little far
And the faruns They all seeo sat in a corner, tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible The sweat poured down his back, fores on his face were heavy and da sticky to his face with soone to the kitchen with a black man in an expensive yellow suit It was evident the e He had the hard eyes and easy, cheerless grin of a o&039;s eyes shifted toward the door It was agonizingly close, but he was too scared to bolt Maybe if he si deal, they&039;d ignore him Or maybe they wouldn&039;t
The drive in Duncan&039;s truck had been nerve-wracking Duncan had held the shotgun loosely in his lap DelPrego had thought about grabbing it or leaping fros that ultimately all seemed like bad, bad ideas which would make him horribly, horribly dead
He waited, closed his eyes When he opened theed He was still in a world of shit
Red Zach sat at the kitchen table and drank Moses Duncan&039;s coffee fro and wondered how he&039;d look in a turtleneck So subdued A nice taupe maybe He liked earth tones He was supposed to visit his y Bear motherfucker from Starsky & Hutch
Duncan entered the kitchen, sat at the table across from Zach
"Maurice saw Jenks on caet him?" Duncan asked
Zach sipped coffee, shook his head "By the time he turned the car around, he&039;d lost track of hi out someplace at the university Maybe in somebody&039;s dorm"
Duncan shook his head "Don&039;t make no sense If he knows you&039;re hot on his trail, why don&039;t he just leave town?"
"I didn&039;t ask for your peckerwood opinion, but I&039;ll explain There&039;s only five roads out of this town, and I got theot no car and no money and the next closest town is thirty-fivelow You&039;re going to find hi of brothers can roa some attention?"
"Eddie looks like a damn freak You don&039;t think he&039;ll attract attention?"
"Good point," Zach said "You go by yourself"
"Great"
"Go tell your boy you&039;re taking a field trip"
"Right" Duncan left the table
Zach waved Maurice over The ht as a blade, hands folded in front of him "What&039;s the word, Red?"
"Follow that redneck Make sure he&039;s obeying orders"
"And if he tries to take it on the road?"
Zach&039;s face stretched into one of his tradeo saw Duncan coo stood Maybe they were finally getting the hell out of here
"You stay put, Eddie," Duncan said "I got to run an errand on o&039;s eyes widened He did not want to wait another minute in the farmhouse
"Take it easy I&039;ll be back when I can" Duncan slapped him on the shoulder, then leaned in and whispered, "Just stay out of the way of these boys We&039;ll get theh" And then he was out the door
DelPrego slowly looked around the roo television, and another two in the kitchen He knew there were o walked toward the bathroom Keep it casual He went in, shut the door behind him, and eased the dead bolt into place He sat on the toilet and peeled off the bandages The air on his skin elcoes and shivered They were caked with dried blood, and soo hoped was only oint He scrubbed his face in the sink, wiped off with a semiclean towel
He looked at theover the toilet Sh it, and be da to wait around there until his luck ran out He knelt on the toilet seat, pushed theup Cold air flooded the tiny bathroos He&039;d always had an acute intolerance for heat, and the big gulps of cool air settled his nerves a little But not led his shoulders through one at a ti half out the , the drop doas a little farther than he&039;d thought but no big deal He wiggled down to his hips and jammed himself in theHe put his hands on either side of the , set his jaw, pushed He was just a fraction of an inch too wide If he shucked his jeans, he could do it, he could just slither through, he was sure
He backed into the bathroo for the toilet seat with his boot His heel slipped on the slick porcelain and he fell backward, landed hard between the toilet and the sink It o held his breath Waited Nobody carabbed the back of the toilet to pull hiun taped to the back of the toilet He peeled it off, exaun, a hack job The barrel had been sawed al, and rip He checked the breach, broke it in half One shell A fat slug
Okay Better than nothing If he were going to get out of there, the shotgun ht come in handy But he hoped not He wanted to sneak out without any trouble He dropped the gun out the
He took off his boots, then slipped off his jeans He remembered the drop and put his boots back on He didn&039;t want to twist an ankle or land on sorass with his bare feet He was still worried about the tight fit through theHe&039;d probably scrape a little flesh No big deal As long as he squeezed through
He shiain at the hips But this tiive He pulled hard, felt his flesh bunch against thefraainst the wood but only for a second He popped through, hit the ground hard He stood, caught his breath and exa to worry about Now all he had to do was put his jeans back on and-
His jeans were still in the bathroom
"Fuck"
He leapt for the sill but could only just grab it with his fingertips, not enough to pull hione His ass was very, very cold A frigid gust of wind shriveled his testicles
He looked around, didn&039;t see anyone, picked up the shotgun, and ran for the barn It was still cold inside, but at least he&039;d escaped the wind He scanned the barn and saw an old horse blanket thrown over some lumpy machinery He could wrap it around his waist like a kilt
He pulled off the blanket, revealing the glea motorcycle underneath
"Whoa"
He wrapped the blanket around himself and knelt to examine the bike A Harley, fat and low It looked like it had recently been worked on and cleaned up He checked the gas tank Full The bike was his ticket out, but he kneould make a roar when he cranked it He&039;d have to start the thing and ride fast before all those brothers poured out of the farmhouse to cut him down
He straddled the bike, put up the kickstand There was no way to ride theto be cold no o stood on the kick-starter The engine sputtered Sine howled to life He twisted the accelerator, ood, powerful It took hiears The bike leapt forward, through the barn doors DelPrego felt like he was riding a dragon