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On my side of the wall, the picture of the moose would start to rattle out another little tap dance I had to reach up and hold it, lest the fraht off the hook and s more like a woman in labor than one in love The tempo picked up Finally, she uttered a little yelp of astonishment, but I couldn’t tell if she caarette sh the walls and I could hear their ain I got up and took the picture off the wall, stuffed a sock in each cup of my bra and tied it across my head like earmuffs, with the ends knotted under my chin Didn’t help much I lay there, a cone over each ear like an alien, wondering at the peculiarities of human sex practices I would have ave up any hope of getting back to sleep I took a shower and washedto the room wrapped in a motel towel the size of a placeto yodel and he was yipping like a fox I had never heard so many variations on the word oh I locked the door behindlot on foot
The smell of desert air was intense: sweet and cold The sky was still an inky black with strands of dark red cutting through the low clouds at the horizon I was nearly giddy froer in the bushes with an Uzi, I would leave this world in a state of subli on, vibrant green neon spelling out the word cafe in one convoluted loop, like a squeeze of tooth gel I could see a waitress in a pale pink uniforhas empty and I crossed at a casual place I needed coffee, bacon, pancakes, juice, and I wasn’t sure what else, but so reminiscent of childhood I sat at the far end of the counter, lassand the gray wash of dawn light outside The waitress, whose nae, with a country accent and a long tale to tell about souy named Arliss as systeirlfriend, Charlene
"He has really tore himself with me this ti oat, I knew everything there was to know about Arliss and she knew a lot about Jonah Robb
"If it wason to hi this doctor fella your friend Vera wants to fix you up with I’d juh personally I’ve made it a practice not to date a man knows more about my insides than I do I went out with this doctor once? Actually he’s a medical student, if the truth be known First time we kissed, he told et a pubic hair caught down in your throat Tacky? Lord God What kind of person did he think I was?" She leaned on the counter idly swiping it with a da so she’d look like she was busy if the boss stopped in
"I never heard of a doctor dating a private eye, have you?" I said
"Honey, I don’t even know any private eyes, except you Maybe he’s tired of nurses and lab technicians and lady lawyers and like that He’s been dating Vera, hasn’t he? And what is she, soer," I said "Her boss got fired"
"But that’sheart-to-heart chats about medical malpractice, for God’s sake He’s bored with that He’s looking for someone new and fresh And think of it this way, he probably doesn’t have any communicable diseases"
"Well, now there’s a recome? I’d insist on a blood test before the first lip lock"
The front door opened and a couple of customers came in "Take uy could be it You could be Mrs Doctor Somebody-or-other by the end of the year"
I paidmachine out front, and went back to my room All was quiet next door I proppedarticle about "palroves of date pal out on both sides of the Salton Sea The trees, exotic transplants brought in froo, transpire as much as five hundred quarts of water a day and have to be pollinated by hand The varieties of dates-the Zahid, the Barhi, the Kasib, the Deglet Noor, and the Medjool- all sounded like parts of the brain most affected by stroke