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"Mo "Did you hear that Joe?"

"Sure did," my father srown across his ave the first hint of a potbelly

"Take that stick out of your ass and giveunco with a lame pat on the back "How you been?" I asked my father

"Fine Fine,' he answered, axiomatic "How are you?"

"Good Good, couldn't be better" I stepped back and turned et out of here"

I was thankful my father chose the Blue-Route over the Schuylkill Expressway, avoiding the uncomfortable silence bound to befall us as we passed Laurel Hill Shannie's ghost already hung heavily about us; it needed no more inspiration

"We rented out the old house," ood," I answered

"You can sleep in Shannie's old roohter was simply out of town," or on the couch Whatever you choose"

My heart raced atop the Beyford's exit ra frolowed inside the old chapel It re over endless waves of tombstones as it sailed across the sea of eternity

"How's Flossy?" I asked

"No one really sees her She keeps to herself It's really a shareement

"And Bear How's he?"

"He does his best," Diane said

The glow of the street light at the end of Cee onto the dead end Like it or not, I was ho a new life there is no denying the power of a lifetime of memories

"Missoula, Montana?" Steve Lucas asked "What the hell is in Missoula, Montana?"

"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" I sot the best of you You can't stand the cold I figured you'd end up in LA, Florida, somewhere, anywhere war to knohat possessed you"

"Nothing," I chuckled