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This had been a much-debated question; apparently the Greyhound driver had threatened to stop the bus if the Stitch-and-Bitchers didn’t quit yelling about it Ultiet e could

"How bad do you want it?" asked Eoose, and a natural-born flirt

A sathered on the other side of the street froin the best entertainment of their day

"Fifty dollars?" the man in the scarf asked

Emelina and I looked at each other, cool as cukes "They’re made by hand," I said

"Sixty?"

"Okay"

He handed us three twenties and Eently behind him as he made his way down the street I ainst each other

"They’re made by hand," Emelina said, eyebrows arched, in perfect imitation of an Empress of the Universe

Miss Lorraine Colder and Miss Elva Dann came back to the truck al lady na cart When Miss Lorraine explained the threat to the homes of Grace, Jessie cried for a little while and then rallied her wits They were able to pack half a dozen pinatas into her cart, and the trio of wole foray

Norma Galvez, in the meantime, lost her partner at a crosswalk and had to be escorted back to the big green naked lady by a bicycle policeman named Officer Metz In a conversation that lasted only five blocks she’d acquired an a nuhters born on Christmas Day, and wore a hernia belt She told Es when she introduced him Officer Metz was sympathetic, but did ask if the ladies had a vendor’s permit Mrs Galvez, a quick thinker, explained that eren’t selling anything We were soliciting donations to save our town Each and every donor got a free peacock pinata In the interest of public relations she gave him one to take home to his twins

By five o’clock ere out of birds As it turned out, Emelina and I didn’t make the best sale of the day While too led one elderly gentleman up to seventy-five dollars When the transaction was completed, the Dona allowed him to kiss her hand

By the ti bus, I was later informed, the Stitch and Bitch Club had already laid plans to come back in ten days with five hundred peacock pinatas There would be only two deviations froinal plan First, each pinata would be accole against the Black Mountain Mining Company To my shock I was elected, in absentia, to write this epic broadside and get it raphed at the school (Miss Lorraine and Miss Elva had retired) Second, the price would be fixed at sixty dollars So out that she couldn’t be expected to kiss every damn cowboy in Tucson

Emelina and I let ourselves intous and had left the key under the usual brick The neighborhood seeoing on, with cheerfully nasty graffiti decorating the plywood construction barriers Our old house with its bolted-down flowerpots stood eerily untouched, inside and out Carlo had let all the plants finish dying, as expected, but beyond that he’d made no effort tolike ato disturb the traces of a deceased wife Or wives

"This is creepy, Carlo," I told hiht fros around? It looks like Hallie and I just walked out yesterday"

He shrugged "What’s to , I believe, to stay out of our way She’d kept asking me if it wouldn’t be aard for us to stay with my "ex" It was hard for her to understand that Carlo and I were really "exes" right fro no claim on each other was the basis of our relationship

I’d stayed up watching the news so I could see hiot ho of potato chips

"That your dinner?"

"You myabout an ordinance that banned charity Santas frothat it took away business Rows of hunting boere lined up behind hie