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Once again I sit outside the house of the ht Christhts, like so s that have been soaked in Day-Glo paint, add false gaiety to a neighborhood that should have been on the late Soviet Union&039;s first-strike priority list Sitting in Gary and Bill&039;s patrol car, I allow my senses to spread out, in and outside of the Fender horeatest ally Even the h the soil a quarter of a mile away co in her rocking chair and read?ing hera save-your-soul-before-

Arram She is definitely alone in the house, and I ahborhood

This puzzles me With the police security near the warehouse and his confidence in the cleverness of his Yaksha hiding place, I can understand why Eddie left the ice-creauarded But I cannot under?stand why he has left his e By now he h her Again, I am wary of a trap

With Yaksha&039;s blood in th is back to a hundred percent, h I know I am still no match for Eddie, who drew upon Yaksha&039;s blood many times over several weeks Unfortunately, my state of hted the canvas bag that covered his lower portion with stones and waded out into the water and sank him I made certain his remains are now safe from harm He will never be found Yet he has left me with a riddle I can&039;t solve Krishna told hio Why was Yaksha so sure Krishna gave it to hiency? For the life ofto destroy Eddie by dancing for him For me, the word faith is as abstract as the word God I trust that everything is going to work out for the best about asme a bottle of blood for Christmas

What can I do? I have no real plan except the obvious Take Mrs Fender hostage and force Eddie to coet the chance On my lap rests Officer Gary&039;s revolver Or is it Officer Bill&039;s? It doesn&039;t matter It was in their car and it has six bullets in it After tucking it in the front of et out of the car and walk toward the house

I don&039;t knock Why bother? She will not open the door forthe knob, I break the lock and am on her before she can reach for the remote control on her TV Modem Americans are so into their remotes They treat the, capable of leveling any obstacles Fear and loathing distort her already twisted features Yet the en that her brain has cleared I a her by the throat, I shove her up against the wall and breathe cold va Yaksha in the sea, I stripped down to nothing, but I was still hen I put ht for rip on the old lady Her weird gray eyes peer into e scares her but excites her as well What a family

"Where&039;s your son?" I ask

She coughs "Who are you?"

"One of the good guys Your son&039;s one of the bad guys" I throttle her a bit "Do you knohere he is?"

She shakes her heada little blue "No"

She is telling ht?"

"No"

Another genuine reply Odd I allow a grim smile "What did Eddie do as a kid for fun? Did he stick firecrackers in frogs&039; asoline on cats and light theasoline? Did you buy him the cats? Really, I want to knohat kind of mother it takes to make that kind of son"

She rins The expression is like a crack in swaood boy He knohat to do with girls like you"

"Your boy has never irl like me before" I throw her back in her chair "Sit there and keep yourthe chair across fro to wait for Eddie"

"What are you going to do to him?"

I pull out my revolver "Kill him"

She hardly blinks In fact, on the whole she is reth Her boy htened her on the new kids in town Her fear continues to re, but there is a cockiness to her as well She nods as if to herself, her arthritic neck creaking like a termite-infested board

"My boy is smarter than you I think you&039;ll be the one killed"

Turning off the TV with the res

"If he&039;s so smart, then why didn&039;t he run away from home the day he learned to walk?"

She doesn&039;t like that "You&039;re going to be sorry you said that"