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Holly said, "Then the less intelligence a creature exhibits"

"the more natural it is," Louise finished for her

Holly nodded thoughtfully, as if seriously considering the bizarre proposition that a du that she could not write this story after all She found Louise Tarvohl so preposterous that she could not cority At the sa a fool of the wo cynicism but her soft heart; no creature on earth was more certain to suffer frustration and dissatisfaction with life than a bitter cynic with a damp wad of compassion at her core

She put down her pen, for she would be et away froround, back into the real world---even though the real world had always struck her as just slightly less screwy than this encounter But the least she owed Tom Corvey was sixty to ninety minutes of taped interviehich would provide another reporter with enough ht of what you’ve told me, I think you’re the et it Perceiving a coht, she beaer to reveal another facet of her philosophy, evidently having forgotten that hus were lice, not trees "Would you cut off the limbs of your sister, cruelly section her flesh, and build your house with pieces of her corpse?" "No, I wouldn’t," Holly said sincerely "Besides, the city probably wouldn’t approve a building permit for such an unconventional structure"

Holly was safe: Louise had no sense of humor-therefore, no capacity to be offended by the wisecrack

While the wo interest, and did a fast-backward scan of her entire adult life She decided that she had spent all of that precious ti to their harebrained or sociopathic plans and dreaets of wisdom and interest in their boobish or psychotic stories

Increasingly an to brood about her personal life She had made no effort to develop close women friends in Portland, perhaps because in her heart she felt that Portland was only one more stop on her peripatetic journalistic journey Her experiences withthan her professional experiences with interviewees of both sexes Though she still hoped to etdoent, and genuinely interesting would ever enter her life

Probably not

And if someone like that miraculously crossed her path one day, his pleasant demeanor would no doubt prove to be aserial killer with a chainsaw fetish

Outside the terot into a taxi operated by so called the New Rose City Cab Co-forgotten hippie era, born in the age of love beads and flower power But the cabbie Frazier Tooley, according to his displayed license-explained that Portland was called the City of Roses, which bloomed there in rowth "The saars are sy a curiously charness that Jim sensed was shared by many Portlanders

Tooley, who looked like an Italian operatic tenor cast from the same mold as Luciano Pavarotti, was not sure he had understood Jim’s instructions "You just want me to drive around for a while?" "Yeah I’d like to see some of the city before I check into the hotel

I’ve never been here before"

The truth was, he didn’t knohich hotel he should stay or whether he would be required to do the job soon, tonight, or maybe tomorrow He hoped that he would learn as expected of hihtenhtene fare would tick up on theoff his city In fact, it was exceptionally attractive Historic brick structures and nineteenth-century cast-iron-front buildings were carefully preserved ah rises Parks full of fountains and trees were so numerous that it sometimes seemed the city was in a forest, and roses were everywhere, not as many blooms as in the summer but radiantly colorful

After less than half an hour, Ji out He sat forward on the rear seat and heard himself say: "Do you know the McAlbery School?" "Sure," Tooley said

"What is it?" "The way you asked, I thought you knew Private elementary school over on the west side"

Ji hard and fast "Takeat hi?" "I have to be there"

Tooley braked at a red traffic light He looked over his shoulder "What’s wrong?" "I just have to be there," Jily

"Sure, no sweat"

Fear had rippled through Jim ever since he had spoken the words "life line" to the woo those ripples swelled into dark waves that carried hiency that he could not explain he said, "I have to be there in fifteen minutes!" "Why didn’t you mention it earlier?" He wanted to say, I didn’t know earlier Instead he said, "Can you ht"

"I’ll pay triple the meter"

"Triple?" "If youhis wallet from his pocket He extracted a hundred-dollar bill and thrust it at Tooley " this in advance"

"It’s that iave hied," Jih Tooley’s skeptical frown deepened, he faced front again, took a left turn at the intersection, and tra at his watch all the way, and they arrived at the school with only threeeven more than three times the meter, pulled open the door, scrah his open"You wantthe door, Jio"

He turned away and heard the taxi drive off as he anxiously studied the front of McAlbery School The building was actually a ra colonial house with a deep front porch, onto which had been added two three-story wings to provide e old sycaround, it occupied the entire length of that short block

In the house part of the structure directly in front of hi out of the double doors, onto the porch, and down the steps

Laughing and chattering, carrying books and large drawing tablets and bright lunchboxes decorated with cartoon characters, they approached Jiate in the spearpoint iron fence, and turned either uphill or down,away from him in both directions

Two minutes left He didn’t have to look at his watch His heart was pounding two beats for every second, and he knew the time as surely as if he had been a clock

Sunshine, filtered through the interstices of the arching trees, fell in delicate patterns across the scene and the people in it, as if everything had been draped over with an enorolden thread That netlike orna and falling hter, and the moment should have been peaceful, idyllic