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I can't say where it took me because I slept like a dead man If I dreamed at all I never knew about it I awoke to the s, showered, shaved with a disposable razor she'd laid out for ot dressed and joined her at a pine plank table in the kitchen I drank orange juice and coffee and ate scras and bacon and whole wheat muffins with peach preserves, and I couldn't remember when roup that met Sunday afternoons a few blocks to the east of us, she infors Did I feel like joining her?

"I ought to do some work," I said

"On a Sunday?"

"What's the difference?"

"Are you really going to be able to acco on a Sunday afternoon?"

I hadn't really acco I could do today?

I got out my notebook, dialed Sunny's nu fro froht Well, Danny Boy would still be sleeping at this hour, and so e to call Chance I started dialing his nu, I didn't want to sit around her loft waiting for hiht not approve

The ue on Forsythe Street You couldn't s in an AA arette smoke

There were about fifty people there and she seemed to know most of them She introduced ot I felt self-conscious, unco My appearance didn't help, either While I hadn't slept inthe effects of last night's fight in the alley

And I was feeling the fight's effects, too It wasn't until we left her loft that I realized how much I ached My head was sore where I'd butted him and I had a bruise on one forearm and one shoulder was black and blue and ached Otherafter the incident but all those aches and pains turn up the next day

I got so It was all right The speaker qualified very briefly, leaving the rest of the et called on

Fifteen rateful she was to be sober and how much of a role her sponsor played in her sobriety, how helpful the wo her or didn't knohat to do She didn't gete and I wasn't too crazy about that

I didn't raiseout with so I didn't want any more coffee and I didn't want company, either I made an excuse

Outside, before ent separate ways, she asked ht

"Do you still feel like drinking?"

"No," I said

"I'ht"

"So am I"

"Call anytiht if you have to"

"Let's hope I don't have to"

"But if you do, call All right?"

"Sure"

"Matthew? Pro?"

"What?"

"Don't have a drink without callingto drink today"

"I know But if you ever decide to, if you're going to, call me first Pro uptown I thought about the conversation and felt foolish for having made the promise Well, it had made her happy What was the harm in it if it e from Chance I called froht a paper and took it upstairs with me to kill the time it took him to call back

The lead story was a honey A faone for a ride in their shiny new Mercedes Someone pulled up next to the all four of them A police search of their aparte amount of cash and a quantity of uncut cocaine Police theorized the

There was nothing about the kid I'd left in the alley Well, there wouldn't be The Sunday papers were already on the street when he and I encountered one another Not that he'd be much likelier to make toht have earned a paragraph somewhere, but as the news of a black youth with a pair of broken legs?

I was pondering that point when someone knocked on my door

Funny The et call froot otten rid of it yet, or of the two knives I'd taken froun over to the door and asked who it was

"Chance"

I dropped the gun in a pocket, opened the door "Most people call," I said

"The fellon there was reading I didn't want to disturb him"

"That was considerate"

"That'sme They left me to scan my room "Nice place," he said

The words were ironic but the tone of voice was not I closed the door, pointed to a chair He re "It seems to suit me," I said

"I can see that Spartan, uncluttered"

He earing a navy blazer and gray flannel slacks No topcoat Well, it was a little waret around in

He walked over to ht," he said

"I know"

"You didn't call back"

"I didn't get the o and I wasn't where I could be reached"