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"Of course not"

"Would they have been willing to debate the righteousness of the criet, but I can’t see how it’s co "Perhaps they would have been willing to go with you on that TV-courtrooe Judy decide whether they did or did not have the moral authority to nuke four cities"

"No They’d be too scared of Judge Judy I’ you could have done, young o froht? So much death No matter how bad those people were, nomachine"

She reaches out to h I can’t explain why, the very contact liftshere," she says

"But it’s all accelerating"

"What is?"

"My life, these threats, the craziness--co at ht flutter not just across her face but also in her eyes as she squeezes my hand "What do you most want, Oddie? What hope drives you? The hope of a little rest, some leisure time? The hope of an uneventful, quiet life as a fry cook, a shoe salesman?"

"You know it’s none of that"

"Tell me I’d like to hear you say it"

I close my eyes and see inmachine in a carnival arcade six years earlier, ith Storht a precious promise for a quarter

"Ma’aether forever’ "

"And then she died But you kept the card You continued to believe in the truth of the card Do you still believe in it?"

Without hesitation, I reply: "Yes I’ve got to believe It’s what I have"

"Well then, Oddie, if the hope that drives you is the truth of that card, htens you be what you actually want? Might you be quickening toward the fulfill at you is nothings reflected on her face and in her dark eyes olden flames I am reminded that fire not only consumes; it also purifies And another word for purification is redemption

Annamaria cocks her head and smiles "Shall we find a castle with a suitable room where you can do your version of Hamlet’s most faet on with this?"

I a on with it, e is a haolden retriever, which was packed by our friend Blossorass in which to pee, I follow the dog and Annae 6, which she has taken for herself, and I leave the hamper with her

On the stoop, delivery made, as I turn away, she says, "Whatever happens here, trust your heart It’s as true as any compass"

The white German shepherd, Boo, has been with e 7 Because he is a ghost dog, he has no need to pee, and he walks through the door before I can unlock it

The acco area, bedrooraded within the past few years

There’s even an under-the-counter fridge that serves as an honor bar I take a can of beer and pop the tab

I am exhausted but not sleepy Noo hours before dawn, I’ve been awake twenty-two hours; yeton the TV, I sit with the remote in an are, his curiosity as keen in death as in life Satellite service provides a huge s seems stale or wilted

As far as I can tell from the cable-news channels, the thwarted nuclear terrorists in Magic Beach have not overnnorant of such disturbing near disasters, and the political class prefers to keep thenorant rather than arouse in theh places

On NatGeo, in a docu cats, the narrator informs us that panthers are a variety of leopard, black with black spots A panther with golden eyes stares directly at the cah voice says, "Sleep"

I realize that I aht consciousness where dreams and the real world sometimes intersect Before I drop off and spill the beer, I put the nearly empty can on the table beside the armchair

On the screen, a panther seizes an antelope with its claws, pulls the prey off its feet, and tears out its throat The graphic violence does not shockits head, the triu from its mouth, and says, "Sleep … sleep"

I can feel the words as well as hear theh e that relaxes my tense muscles, soothes the taut fibers of my nerves

Several hyenas test the panther as it drags the antelope into a tree to feed on it in higher branches where neither these wolfish rivals nor lions--which also do not climb--are able to follow

A hyena, wild-eyed and loathsoed teeth at the camera and whispers, "Sleep" The rest of the pack repeats the word, "Sleep," and the sonic waves quiver throughnarcotic effect, as does the voice of the panther in the tree, while the head of the antelope lolls on its ruined neck, its fixed eyes glazed with the most perfect sleep of all

I closedrea of its paws, feel its sinuous forh my mind For a mo cal into another tree, and although I am not dead, the creature carries me with it, for I am powerless to resist I am not afraid, because it tells me that I should have no fear, and as before, not just theof the words but also the sound waves of which they are formed seem to oil the waters of ht, black branches reaching high into the starless sky, and nothing can be seen but the panther’s lantern eyes, which grow in size and brightness until they are owlish In that low, rough voice, it says, Why can’t I read you? Perhaps it is neither owl nor panther, because now I feel what seees that are being turned, pages that prove to be blank, the fingers sliding across the paper as if seeking the raised dots of a biography in braille

The es, the would-be reader’s frustration is palpable, and in the darkness, the eyes are suddenly green with elliptical pupils If this is a dreah a dream shapes itself and can’t be consciously scripted by the dreaht, I have the power to call it forth Darkness begins to recede froled black liins to coalesce out of the glooure in the nightmare has thrown me out of it I scraht, at the periphery of vision, but when I pivot toward it, I findthruios froin of the sound is obvious--and now it arises not from where it had been but fro the source, I am led into the alcove and then to the bathroom door, which is ajar Darkness lies beyond

In otten er seat of the Mercedes

The gun once belonged to the wife of a ic Beach Her husband, the reverend, had shot her to death before she could shoot him In their particular denomination of Christianity, the faithful are evidently too impatient to wait for prayer to solve their problems

I push open the bathroo swells louder, but now co, I discover that Boo has returned, but he is not the primary point of interest My attention is drawn to what has also transfixed the dog: a quick transparent so, visible only by the distortion that it i area, see it, and is gone

That presence is so fast and shapeless, I half suspect that I have iined it, except that the wildlife docus, as if the vertical screen is a horizontal body of water into which a stone has been dropped

Blinking repeatedly, I wonder if what I’ is real or if I have a probleradually until the ies on the screen becohost When I see one of the lingering dead, it is the very i person, and it doesn’t move quicker than the eye can follow

The dead don’t talk, and neither do theyof chains No oht to make the stair treads creak And they certainly don’t stru harp

I look at Boo

Boo looks at