Page 10 (1/2)

He’d pointed out, not for the first time, that one didn’t play with stamps, one worked with them, and added that, call it work or play, he never put his feet up while he was so engaged And he said, "One last job"

"You say it as if there should be organDum-de-du goes fine until that one last job"

"The trouble with that big TV," she said, "is that you watch tooto go wrong"

And nothing did, reh, and he came home relieved and relaxed, only to find out that Call-Me-Al, who’d sent along a substantial cash pay for him to do

"But I’ue the point She’d long since credited his share of Al’s advance payment to his account, but she could deduct it, and find so with her own cut Except she didn’t kno she could go about doing that, because she didn’t have a clue where to send the ot in touch, de, at which tiuy was dead or in jail, because they never believed anybody retired from this business, and he could tell her where to send the money

Couldn’t she find somebody else? That way there’d be no refund required

"Well, I thought of that," she said "But it’s been ages since I worked with anybody but you Once you decided you wanted to work as much as you could so you could fatten up your retire that ca so you could do his job after you ca"

"I reot aith it I let everything else go, because I’d already decided that the day you retire is the day I hang it up myself"

He hadn’t known that

"And he specifically asked for you, if that matters Al ‘Please use the chap who did such nice work in Albuquerque’ Isn’t it nice to be appreciated?"

"He said chap?"

"Chap or fellow, I forget which This was in a note, along with the photo and the contact infor since I heard froet what his voice sounds like I’ve probably got the note souess the sio ahead and do it"

"I don’t want to push you into it, but I have to say I think you’re right"

The si Couldn’t be siht a whole day’s worth of food at the Burger King, but he’d been thirsty to begin with and the salty food made him thirstier And the shakes, almost too thick for the straw, didn’t help much On the way into Joliet -- a town he knew only as the home of a state penitentiary, which struck him as an even worse way to be famous than Dubuque’s -- he spotted a stripmachines out in front of the coin laundry, with no end of sweet and salty things that he didn’t want, but the Coke machine also offered sixteen-ounce bottles of water He fed it ten dollars and got four bottles of what the label assured hi water It was the same price as the soft drinks, and all they had to do was bottle it They didn’t have the expense of adding sugar or artificial sweetener or flavorings or cara at all On the other hand, it was pure and natural, which was s, so you really couldn’t complain about the price

When Keller was a boy, the only ti board; the bottle had a cap with holes punched in it, and she’d sprinkle so, for reasons Keller had never quite understood Keller, like everyone he knew, drank water fro

Then there caan to stock bottled water, but the only people who bought it were the kind of people who ate sushi Now, of course, everybody ate sushi, and everybody drank bottled water Outlaw bikers, guys with equal space on their bodies for scars and tattoos, badass bruisers who opened beer bottles with their few re teeth, all had their little bottles of Evian to wash down their California rolls