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"A tobad he ever did You do that yourself?"

"Not yet"

"Man, I was never a drinker, you know? Day I graduated Peh I hit all the parties and came home shit-faced drunk Fell into bed withLeaned over, puked on the carpet, and passed out Woke up and said I’ain, and I never did"

Until he got to the last four words, his story was one I’d heard more times than I could count

"A wonder "What did he ever do to ot to make amends? Me and Jack, we knew each other for a few years there Worked a fewout soet s You know, people I ot fro them off"

"But you weren’t interested"

"No way, man!" He shook his head "Man, run a little scaht to? Go up to Klein’s, boost some socks and a shirt? Okay, why not? I’ froood care of their stuff, people who gavedrink of soda "But where’s the amends come in? I, like, turned hie the man, just said no, not my scene Matter of fact--"

"What?"

"Well, just thinking about it now, maybe I was the one owed hi companies I worked for, I sort of told them not to hire him no more Didn’t say why Just, like, he’s not the ht, he slacks off Nothing to get hih so he’s the last one hired Here I’ work, so maybe…"

His voice trailed off, and I could see hi the question in histhe next hour to its philosophical implications

I said, "But that wasn’t as on hislike that It was loose"

"How’s that?"

"Loosey-goosey Luce Lucille, man My old lady" He looked off to the side, smiled at a memory "Years back, this was Not my old lady anymore Been a few of theo You knohat’s funny?"

"What?"

"They’re always around the sae The ones that move all the way in, I mean A chick who’s in e But the ones who move in and park their shoes under the bed, they’re always twenty-four, twenty-five years old When I was nineteen I had an old lady six years older’n me, and now I’m what, forty-seven? And the last old lady I had, like she er’nit?" He frowned "Except not exactly Dorian Gray, but you see what I’ at, don’t you?"

"Lucille," I said

"Oh, right Man, she was choice Out of her fucking mind, but sweet Had some fucked-up childhood" He moved a hand to wave the past away "Jack cooing at it like, I don’t know, mink? Man, he thinks he has to make amends to me for that?"

"You already knew about it?"

"I took it for fucking granted,everybody It didn’t take us et way past the whole fidelity number We went to a few parties where everybody just did anybody as handy Man, after you watch your woo of jealousy or you put her clothes in a box and set it out by the curb I told hio of it ‘But you wereLucille? You want toline"

"Wasn’t there soht he knocked her up Well, sonant a couple of tiether First ti and decided she’d have the baby Then she winds up having a ood news and bad news, you know?" He looked off to the side again "Makes you wonder"

"Oh?"

"Say she had the kid I ether? She could have had triplets and we’re still gonna split the blanket when the tio to work for IBM, we get ourselves a split-level in Tarrytown, but none of that’s gonna happen If she had a kid all it wouldato carry when she took off Or she’d have left onna do? Wrap it up and leave it outside a convent?"

I had this sudden unbidden iate, waiting to be taken in by the Little Sisters of the Poor I took a deep breath and blinked it away

"I wonder where she is now," he was saying "Last I heard she was in San Francisco She could have a kid or two by now Not ain "I ht have a kid out there somewhere That I had with somebody else, that I never knew about"

XXII

THEN IT LOOKS as though we’re done," Greg Stillman said "They’re all in the clear"