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Betty Sherrard, the bank vice president and portfolio er, had offered a solution to the transportation proble at home until school started in the fall He enty and worked part-ti shelves at Von’s supermarket He needed the extra money and he was able to tailor his hours to accommodate Walker’s needs Walker paid hie on his mother’s spare car, a 1986 Toyota It was all a pain in the ass, but he had no choice

The wo about the trajectory of her drinking woes, a spiral as relentless as a toilet being flushed, according to her report: First, the faood behavior She’d been one year sober and then her ain the day of the funeral Three ain, but there were countless falls fro than the one before Her husband divorced her She lost custody of her kids She was aher Oneotten there Her purse had been stolen and she’d had to hike to the nearest service station, where she bu her ex-sister-in-law to pick her up Waiting, she’d finally accepted the fact she couldn’t do it on her own Now she was fifty-one days clean and sober, which netted her a big round of applause

Walker thought his circumstances were tame by comparison True, Carolyn had forced him to leave the house, but he was confident she’d relent He still saw his kids every chance he got and he still had a job, for god’s sake He’d messed up badly, but his problems didn’t hold a patch on some he’d heard here This was a bump in the road, a wake-up call He’d stuhted hi and living on the streets? He syuy had made it clean and sober for five years, two months, and five days The best Walker could offer up was seven days, not even worth one hand clapping He’d have felt like a fool if he’d stood up and shared that Belatedly, he flashed on the fact that while he’d been busy patting hiirl he’d killed

Sitting there, he could feel his demons stir It wasn’t that he wanted a drink as such It was the option to drink that he found hard to renounce At some point in the future--five years or ten, he was unclear on the time fralass of wine Howsoda water or a Diet Coke, detached and disengaged? Not drinking for the remainder of his life was too extree once he learned to moderate his intake

Carolyn would have told hi with his so-called drinking proble his best How much more did she expect? He wanted a drink He ad to the fore The subject was like a cracked tooth he kept feeling with his tongue to see if the fissure had progressed

He checked his watch Half an hour yet All he could think about was how burdened he was Over the years guilt had chafed at hiic h his chest, untying the knots, loosening the noose around his neck He was losing his capacity to tolerate the weight of anxiety that dogged hirow old with such a canker in his soul?

An eternity later, theended and the rooainst the wall He felt a touch on his ar you here"

He turned Avis Jent stood close by, in a spiky blaze of dark red hair, the scent of whiskey pouring off her skin Shit, he thought, had she co so he didn’t ht of his face "Oh, I love that blend of purple and yellow The black eyes ood"

"I take it you heard about the accident"

"Me and everyone else The whole of Horton Ravine is abuzz"

"Thanks I’ talked to you" Walker hadn’t seen Avis since their chance encounter on Via Juliana, that nightmare of patrol cars, police personnel, and rumors of a dead child He hadn’t read a word in the paper about the incident, unless an article had appeared while he was in St Terry’s and out of commission