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"May I keep this?" I asked Lilly

She nodded "It feels dirty I don’t want to touch it"

We left Lilly there with a cup of tea and with hope that, if it could have been ht not have equaled the volue on her saucer

Descending the porch steps, Sasha said, "Bobby, you better bring Jenna Wing back here as quick as you can"

I gave him the sketch of the crow "Show her this Ask her if she reht explain this"

As we crossed the backyard, Sasha tookfor me," she said

"Mr Harley-Davidson, thethe brick walk beside the garage "What progra heavy os, rumbas, cha-chas I’ve warned hiave him, ’cause otherwise, he’d just play dance ate, Bobby stopped, turned, and stared at Sasha in disbelief To ?"

Sasha said, "He’s won soen Beetle"

"The old Volkswagen Beetle or the new one?" I asked

"The new one," Bobby said

"He’s a big guy, but he’s very graceful," Sasha said

"He has a tight turning radius," I told Bobby

The thing that happens so easily aain The groove or rhythm or mood or whatever it is we so routinely fall into with one another--ere falling into it again You can handle anything, including the end of the world as we know it, if at your side are friends with the proper attitude

Bobby said, "I thought Doogie hangs out in biker bars, not ballroos a week," Sasha said, "but I don’t think he hangs out there otherwise"

"For fun?" Bobby said

"He enjoys breaking heads," Sasha said

"Who doesn’t," I said

As we followed Bobby into the alleyway, he said, "The dude is a way skilled audio engineer, rides a Harley like he came out of the womb on it, dates awesoe resident of an oyster shell, fights drunken psycho bikers for fun, wins prizes for ballrooo back to Wyvern"

I said, "Yeah, o competition"

"Exactly" To Sasha, Bobby said, "You think he’d be up for it?"

She nodded "I think Doogie’s always up for everything"

I expected to find a police cruiser or an unures waiting for us The alley was deserted

A pale gray swath of sky outlined the hills to the east The breeze raised a chorus of whispers fro the canyon crest, as if warning ie has all those tattoos," I said

"Yeah," Bobby said, "he’s got more tattoos than a drunken sailor with fourinto any hostile situation, and it involves a super-huge guy covered with tattoos, you want him on your side"

"It’s a fundareed

"It’s discussed in every biology textbook," I said

"It’s in the Bible," Bobby said

"Leviticus," I said

"It’s in Exodus, too," Bobby said, "and Deuteronoli position, I drew the Glock fro toward the perceived threat, fored individualism that would have been perfection if we’d just had one of those pre-Revolutionary War flags that featured a coiled serpent and the words Don’t Tread on Me

Twenty feet north of us, along the eastern side of the alley,of the wind, coyotes appeared a the trunks of the eucalyptus trees They carass and wild flax, between bushy cluoatsbeard

These prairie wolves, shter variegated coats, possess s Even in their benign moments, however, after they have hunted and fed to content in a erous and predatory to such an extent that they are not likely to inspire a line of cuddly stuffed toys, and if one of theenic pet by the next resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we can be reasonably sure that the Antichrist has his finger on the nuclear trigger

Slinking out of the canyon, aht of this cloud-shrouded , the coyotes looked post-apocalyptic, like the hellish hunters in a world long past its dooloorins, they arrived and gathered and turned to face us in dreah they had escaped from a Navajo mystic’s peyote-inspired vision

Ordinarily, coyotes travel overland in single file, but these came in a swarm, and once in the alleyway, they stood flank-to-flank, closer than any canine pack, huddling together rather like a colony of rats Their breath, hotter than ours, smoked in the coolish air I didn’t attempt to count them, but they numbered more than thirty, all adults, no pups