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I reached up and easily pulled Arnie’s hand off my shirt I then reached out, put my hands under his armpits and lifted him into the air He was about as heavy as a department store mannequin I doubt you’ve ever lifted one of those but you can probably guess that they’re not very heavy

Arnie’s eyes greide once again and I set hiently back down

I said, "You’re an astral body Do you knohat that means, Arnie?"

Arnie didn’t hear He clutched at his chest, looking at the world around hirass held soe of manifestation between the physical and spiritual A body that’s half there"

Arnie ran He sprinted to the driver’s side of the sedan and yanked open the door He threw hiet his car keys, realized he didn’t have the wheel, eyes closed

I walked up to his door and said through the , "This is ettin’ killed, but this, this half life you’ve got I did this, I projected you It’s the soy sauce, it’s one thing it lets ht after we talked on the phone You kno you talk to soine what they look like based on their voice? Well, when you got killed you immediately assumed the shape of--"

"This can’t be It can’t I don’t accept that I--I got grandkids I got a vacation coot tickets"

"Yeah, you’re in the denial stage right now, Arnie This is all noro call Amy and tell her she owes ht now I refuse to believe that I’ina--"

Arnie vanished I said to the empty car, "I’m sorry, Arnie I really am"

I went around to the trunk of the car and alht thata corpse This also eli the car back to the restaurant I looked up into the starless, overcast sky and hoped the rain would hold off until I got back to ht I passed a weedy vacant lot, a Burger King, a church operating out of a building that used to be a bowling alley I passed a rail-thin guy who looked ho a stained white T-shirt that seemed to have my name on it It had a yellow caricature of a bucktoothed Asian ht I had seen that character before somewhere, and dismissed it

Half a block later I sao kids who lookedat me suspiciously The kid on the left had a black concert shirt with a picture of solam-rock band on it Below that it said, THE DARKNESS The other kid had on a flannel shirt, unbuttoned Most of the T-shirt underneath was obscured, but between the flannel the words, IS HUNGRY peeked out

I thought I could see a sentence fore in the context ofout of a storefront craft store; her blouse didn’t say anything I saw a busty girl with an olive T-shirt that said STAY OUT OF IRAQ and I thought that ht apply

I stepped onto the blacktop of the They China Food! parking lot and sahite T-shirt approach I squinted and saw it said in bold, black letters, " "BALLS: IT’S WHAT’S FOR DINNER I looked up and saas John wearing the shirt

"Where’d you go?" he asked "I saw your Bronco but the lady at the counter was closing up Said you left a long tiuy?"

I asked, "Did the waitress reuy?"

"She said she couldn’t remember The question seeet my picture"

I waved my hand dismissively toward the horizon "Eh, it didn’t work out Turned out he was dead the whole time He didn’t even know it He was a semi-solid astral body"

"I hate it when they do that"

"Yeah, I had to break the news to him He was drivin’ around a rental car with his own corpse in the trunk I’uy who looks like a door-to-door salesman, and that’s not even what he really looked like at all"

"Well he’s black, right? Dave, his picture was at the top of all those articles I printed out for you Got the bow tie? Kind of bald? Didn’t you read any of theonna do the article?"

I gave John a scowl that told hio back out to the mall I left that floorboard pulled up I was showin’ Arnie the body"

"I’ll put it down I was gonna go out there anyway"

"You go out there by yourself? Why?"

He shrugged "Hey, A surprise there"

"She said call her cell phone as soon as you get in Hey, didn’t you bet her five bucks the thing with the reporter would turn out to be a clusterfuck?"

I WALKED IN my front door and threw the silver canister on the end table with e I found my TV remote between sofa cushions and clicked on the TV It was some show about a family that builds custom motorcycles while they screalanced at the caller ID, picked up and said, "You owe me five bucks"

A I don’t think that thing with the reporter is gonna happen"