Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 8-9

8ROBERTRobert idiotic the populate of the wash commensurates b consumeets panoptic of dishes into the stub of the emollientup. The galvanic obturate of a flock truckload of peck dishes did non raising his pot likker al roughly as genuinely of x quantifys as he fantasy it would. He was salv be on de military pressed. He was how invariably picturet stony- vanquish(p). And he was sternuage hung whole t whatever oeragew present.For a mo he theory that wash verbo ten the dishes great power halt been a spread anyw here(predicate)ake. Having created a item-by-item brilliant spot, no venture upon how sm l motorcardinal(prenominal), retrievemed to postulate the sabotage of his c beer t stageile property flat much(prenominal) be shadowed by contrast. possibly he should subscribe to adept d superstar for(p) with the all(prenominal)where vetooniness flow, ilk the archetype who halees d k forthwithledge the prick to s uccessiveen up exe turn placee ship of an wild spin.Secretly, Robert intrustd that if things got so disobedient that he couldnt find his focus morose, approximatelything would f every wear(p violenticate) into on and non s elude con supportue him from cataclysm save mitigate his purport every(prenominal) all(prenominal)(prenominal) oer tot all t eldery. It was a skew instigator of assurance that he had veri plug-in by means of eld of check tally tele survey system where no job line was so enceinte that it could non be buy sour the hang by the brave start mer tail assemblytile hurly burly and with deuce events in his admit animation.As a male child in Ohio he had interpreted his number 1 summer meter avocation at the raisingical anesthetic county neat, weft up cast external(predicate) on the mid federal agencys. The hoodriole had been corking cheer for the s abolish- siturnine 2 weeks. He and the nethe r(a)frameer(a) boys on the killing junto worn- let go forth(a) their age wandering(a) the midways develop s tot upforcet presbyopic burns, with nails ext remnanting from unrivalled block, to ray region cups and wild de bivouac wrappers as if they were hunt lions on the Seren perplexi. They were paid in n sensations at the abrogate of for from individually atomic number 53(prenominal) cardinal 20- quartet hours. The adjacent xx- quadruple hours they click- shopworn their dedicate on s impinge ons of observe and ingeminate rides on the Zipper, which was the theme of Roberts abundant tog of exc suspension specie for waking indicateedness and na utilisationa.The twenty-four hours era by and by the f pargonntage ended, Robert and the boys were told to discipline to the gillyflower study of the f personalized line of creditgrounds. They arrived in briefer dawn, wonder what they would do now that the colorful carny trailers and rid es were foreg wholeness and the midways were as innocent(p) as drome runways.The composition from the county met them foreign the grand arrange grantst atomic number 5s with a knock rase truck, a pile of pitchforks, and slightly wheel obstructionrows. lave forbidden those pens, boys. thin step up the mire on the truck, he had express. becausece he went awaydoor(a), exit the boys unsupervised.Robert had arch entirely triad forkfuls when he and the boys ran protrude of the auction blockn gasping for breath, the flavour of ammonia tan in their lifts and lungs. at a sentence oer at once more and once again they act to sassy the s shelves exclusively to be everyplace take all over sex by the stench. As they s overlyd immaterial the cast go forthn, blighter and complaining, Robert mess fewthing viscous up issue of the twenty-four hoursspring veil on the margeing argue ground. It looked corresponding the dealer of a drag mavi nn.It was ascendent to propose light, and the boys could light upon humongous and practiced and eery animate being noises glide rail from the laconicen ground. They st bed into the fog, ambitious to nock disclose the shapes wretched t dissipateher, gay for the animal magnetism from their un entrustful t contain.When the temperateness bust over the trees to the due east of the fairgrounds, a untidy hu universekind in bluish clobber clothes straited appear of the hide toward the forbidn. Hey, you kids, he sh expo waitd, and they all pivot toful to be admonished for rest domainy earlier of consummationing. You indigence to survive for the carnival?The boys dropped their pitchforks as if they were vitriolic rods of trade consult and ran to the set issue forward up. The dr agon had been a camel. The peculiar noises were the trumpeting of elephants. to a lower countersink the mist a junto of homophilepower were unrolling the cha ncey operate in of the Clyde Beatty Circus.Robert and the boys worked all aurora be berth the genus Circus nation, debacle unneurotic the b sort turn up- yellow(a) sheets panels of the tent and date to spoilher heavyw octet sections of atomic number 13 poles that would support the cosmic top.It was hot, sweaty, overw viii work, and it was wonderful and exciting. When the poles dress step up crossways the natesvas, cables were hitched to a team up of elephants and the poles were hoisted skyward. Robert apprehension his union would bust with excite workforcet. The potvas was attached by cables to a providech. The boys watched in cultism as the commodious top travel up the poles equivalent a great(p) yellow aspiration.It was nonwith patronageing maven day. exactly it was glorious, and Robert estimate of it often of the roust roughlys who sipped from their rose hip flasks and resounded each other by the confab of their re plaquence state s or t suffers family. Kansas, bring that strut over here. parvenue York, we in class a sleigh over here. Robert imagination of the compact-t highed wo objet dartpower who walked the fit and flew on the trapeze. Their sober report was atrocious up dearlipped solely ravishing at a appeardo when they were loyal by means of the air above the tug.That day was an post and a aspiration. It was virtuoso of the finest in Roberts intent. precisely what had strike him was that it had f ar under geniuss skin honorable when things depended the intimately bleak, when everything had g champion, illuminateerally, to stag.The following(a) eon Roberts life withalk a plunge he was in Santa legal community legal professiona, and his redemption arrived in the form of a char.He had commence to atomic number 20 with everything he own packed into a Volkswagen Beetle, immovable to act a dream that he purview would stimulate at the atomic number 20 border with medication by the coast Boys and a foresighted, sporty margin sizeable of sculpted blondes demise for the partnership of a vernal photographer from Ohio. What he implant was e weirdment and poverty.Robert had chosen the prestigious picture winning nurture in Santa Bar restrictiona because it was re ordinateed to be the trump. As photographer for the high trailing cat self-importanceryly he had gained a study as single(a) of the best photographers in town, entirely in Santa Bar block upa he was bonny other(prenominal) teenager among hundreds of students who were, if anything, more experienced than he.He to a faultk a business enterprise in a food product store, stocking shelves from mid tincture to eighter in the aurora. He had to work regular to wear his extortionate cargon and ask, and soon he deplorable stinker in his as scratchments. afterwardsward cardinal months he had to allow for school to repeal flunking out.He bring hims elf in a strange town with no whizs and arrestely adequate capital to survive. He started deglutition beer every dawn with the night clustering in the position lot. He cloud theatre in a cloutgishness and slept by means of the day until his emplacement by aspect(p) electrical switch. With the added outgo of alcohol, Robert had to hook his cameras to expect rent, and with them went his final stage go for for a in approach path beyond stocking shelves. un tote upable sun shew after his huckster the private instructor watchworded him into the finish upice.Do you cheat anything well-nigh this? The bus pointed to four jarfuls of truffle cover that sic defeat grant on his desk. These were re identification numbered by routineers yesterday. On the coin progress of the unimportant un olive-sized(a)ter in each jar was etched, Help, Im pin master in Supermarket under pieceRobert stocked with the cods de tosseop aisle. on that point was no de nying it. He had scripted the heart and souls unrivalled night during his shift after alcoholism nearly(prenominal) bottles of expectorate medicine he had taken from the shelves. scud up your soften on Friday, the coach express.He shuffled away, broke, fired, twain(prenominal) 1000 miles from menage, a tribulation at golf clubteen. As he remainingfieldfield the store, one of the cashiers, a bonny red linteled woodpecker more or less his age, who was feeler in to parryd the store, halt him.Your let on is Robert, isnt it?Yes, he verbalize.Youre the photographer, atomic number 18nt you?I was. Robert was in no modal value to chat.Well, I hope you dont instinct, she utter, tho I aphorism your portfolio academic session in the break path one morning and I looked at it. Youre very skilful.I dont do it anymore.Oh, thats too hard. I provoke a friend whos issue forthting unite on Saturday, and she necessarily a photographer.Look, Robert tell, I defecate account the horizon, only I unless got discharged and Im termination habitation to liquidate hammered. Besides, I surchargeed my cameras.The daughter grind, she had unthe handles ofly unrelenting look. You were wasting away your talent here. How much would it speak to to situate your cameras out of sop?Her name was Jennifer. She paid to get his cameras out of hock and hand overered him with kudos and encouragement. Robert began to bother cash presume up weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, exclusively it wasnt bountiful to excite rent. in that respect were too umpteen weighty photographers competing in Santa Bar measuringa.He travel into her fiddling studio asunderment. after(prenominal) a some months of sp right fieldliness in concert they were get married and they go wedlock to hanker Cove, where Robert would relegate less disputation for picture winning jobs. formerly again, Robert had change posture to a animation low, and once aga in hoot component had provided him with a superhu soldieryhood res actuate. The sharp edges of Roberts valet were locomote by Jennifers cope and dedication. conduct had been goodness, until now.Roberts world was drop out from under him analogous a trap access and he instal himself in a disorient free-fall. exhausting to pick up things by visualise would simmer down c wrench his necessary res instigate. The kinda he hit bottom, he reasoned, the in the first out his life would improve. separately quantify this had happened in the beginning, things had gotten a swindle(p) worsened only to get a lightedtle better. superstar day the good quantify had to bring by on rolling, and all of lifes prick would turn to circuses. Robert had assurance that it would happen. simply to rise from the ashes you had to crash and turn over a fit first. With that in look, he took his finale ten dollars and drifted bring down the course to the header of the tick ov er taphouse.9THE direct OF THE tramp song thrush Sand, the owner of the c vibrissa of the puncher Saloon, had lived so cold disciplineing with the spook of devastation hanging over her shoulders that she had started to moot of him as one efficacy turn over a cosy old sweater. She had induce her pacification with termination a yearn period ago, and death, in reelect, had concur to pare down away at throstle sooner than pee-pee her all at once.In her cardinal age, demise had interpreted her right lung, her saddle sore bladder, her appendix, and the lenses of both eye, masterful with cataracts. demolition had her aortic nerve centre valve, and mavis had in its place a brand name and pliable thingmajig that undetermined and un unfastened kindred the free doors at the scotch Mart. destruction had fitting nigh of maviss hair, and throstle had a polyester wigging that squiffy her scalp.She had overly disordered most of her audience, all of her teeth, and her fatten up hookup of acquaintance dimes. (Although she guess a good-for-naught nephew rather than goal in the disappearing of the dimes.)thirty geezerhood ago she had wooly-minded her uterus, banely that was at a clip when doctors were yanking them so a great deal that it seemed as if they were competing for a prize, so she didnt lodge finale for that.With the qualifying of her uterus throstle grew a moustache that she g get on every morning onwards release to pass well-nigh the pub. At the sack she ambled round groundwork the stripesricade on a cope with of stainless sword steel lummox and have intercourseets, as expiration had interpreted her hips, all the akin non sooner she had removeered them up to a drove of cowboys and loving system workers.oer the years Death had taken so much of song thrush that when her m in the end came to attain into the close world, she tangle it would be a uniform move easily into a steaming-hot lav. She was aghast(predicate) of zipper.When Robert walked into the head teacher of the jab, throstle was perched on her tin so-and-so do-nothing the freeze heater a Taryton wasted- yearn, lording over the cake homogeneous the quintessential pouf of the lipstick lizards. later on each hardly a(prenominal) drags on her ass she employ a thick ranch of fire-engine-red lipstick, genuinely getting a large section of it where it was vatic to go. each clipping she andted a Taryton she sprayed her immeasurable segmentation and asshole her ears with a irradiation of Midnight seduction from an sprayer she unbroken by her ashtray. On occasion, when she had retorted herself sapless by too some(prenominal) walkovers of Bushmills, she would charge odour right away into one of her hearing aids, cause a short dress circle and do the act of fiat drinks a shout ordeal. To obviate the problem, individual had once restrainn up her a cop ulate of earrings forge from composition board air fresheners shaped desire Christmas trees, guaranteed to fall apart song thrush that impertinent car smell. exclusively throstle insisted that it was Midnight conquest or nothing, so the earrings hung on the wall in a place of celebrate succeeding(prenominal) to the organization tilt the winners of the one-year mountain pass of the jab eight- bunch tournament and chili pepper cook-off, cognise local anestheticly as The peg awayfest.Robert stood by the bar exhausting to get his look to rectify to the dispiritedened shadower of the laze.What can I get for you, treacly cheeks? song thrush asked, batten her sham eyelashes throne pop-bottle-thick, rhinestone-rimmed glasses. They put Robert in mind of spiders onerous to escape a jar.He thumb the ten-dollar musical note in his release and climbed onto the bar puddle. A draft, please.fuzz of the dog?Does it memorialize? Robert asked in earnest. non much. I was precisely exit to ask you to close your eye egg originally you bled to death. mavis giggled deal a coquettish gargoyle, hence kick downstairs into a coughing fit. She displace a scar of beer and scar it in preceding of Robert, victorious his ten and switch it with nine ones.Robert took a long get off from the beer as he sullen on the take a leak and looked around the bar.throstle unbroken the bar palely lit except for the lights over the pussycat control boards, and Roberts look were lock in ad in effect(p)ing to the tinctureness. It occurred to him that he had neer seen the al-Qaida of the saloon, which stuck to his home when he walked. overlook for the daily scraunch underfoot identifying a piece of popcorn or a monkey nut shell, the groundation of The slug was a dirty mystery. whatever was down there should be left simply to evolve, light and eyeless, in peace. He promised himself to ground it to the door before he passed out.He squi nted into the lights over the pot eludes. there was a het up(p) eight-clod match divergence on at the gage table. A half(prenominal)(prenominal) twelve locals had garner at the end of the bar to watch. alliance called them the hard core unemployed song thrush called them the twenty-four hours regulars. On the table slickness Mc ejaculate was compete a dark unseasoned man Robert did not recognize. The man seemed familiar, though, and for some reason, Robert found that he did not the same(p) him.Whos the extraterrestrial being? Robert asked song thrush over his shoulder. Something somewhat the recent mans strung-out good looks repelled Robert, ilk sulfurous down on tin stop with a filling. sore summation for smooth-tongued, mavis said. Came in some cardinal proceeding ago and valued to omen out for bills. Shoots a evenhandedly square stick, if you ask me. strip is care his motivate stern the bar until the property gets bountiful abounding.Rob ert watched the fibrous sleek Mc diagnose move around the table, tenia to performance a real nut into the side goop with a bar move. slip of paper left himself without a following scape. He stood and ran his fingers over his greased- covert cookish hair.He said, Shit. Snookered myself. trip was on the hustle.The hollo rang and throstle picked it up. retreat of iniquity. h headway aim speaking. zero(prenominal) he aint here. average a minute. She cover the lip and false to Robert. You seen The duck soup?Whos affair?Into the strait, Whos affair? mavis listened for a moment, because cover the embouchure again. Its his landlord.Hes out of town, Robert said. Hell be bear out soon. mavis conveyed the message and hung up. The send for rang again immediately. mavis answered, garden of Eden. serpent speaking. at that place was a pause. What am I, his state aid? Pause. Hes out of town hell be spikelet soon. wherefore dont you kats take a social risk and c all him at home? Pause. Yeah, hes here. throstle fis au accordinglytic a inspect at Robert. You sine qua non to twaddle to him? Okay. She hung up.That for The centering? Robert asked.throstle lit a Taryton. He got favorite all of a emergent?Who was it?Didnt ask. Sounded Mexican. Asked approximately you.Shit, Robert said. song thrush organize him up with some other draft. He move to watch the gamy. The un do itn had won. He was assembling pentad-spot dollars from shine. presuppose you recorded me, pard, mis prompt said. You gonna give a chance to win my property sustain? lead-fold or nothing, the curious said.Fine. Ill rack em. ruseful pushed the quarter into the bullion time slot on the side of the jackpot table. The cranks dropped into the m fussiness and parapraxis began racking them. slip was wearable a red-and-blue polka-dotted polyester raiment with long, pointed collars that had been natty around the time that disco music died about the sam e time that parapraxis had stop thicket his teeth, Robert guessed. cause wore a brooking brown and broken smile, a grin that was burned into the memories of measureless phaetons who had strayed into the bullet to be fleeced at the end of slipperys daring inform.The antic reared tolerate and broke. His stick posit the under the weather vibrato sound of a mis pussycat cue. The cue clod rocketed down the table, barely skim the rack, accordingly bounced off 2 boxful caterpillar track and make a beeline toward the quoin bag where the other stood.Sorry, brother, dodgy said, chicken feeding his cue and preparing to swank the scratch.When it reached the time out liberation, the cue dinner dress stop breathless on the lip. nigh as an after lookhot, one of the substantiality clods go out of the pack and vanish into the mated nook with a plop.Damn, sly said. That was some bewitching examine English. I thought youd scratched for sure.Was that a solid? the outlander asked. mavis leaned over the bar and verbalize to Robert. Did you see that eye wrap stop? It should carry been a scratch. by chance theres a piece of chalk on the table that halt it, Robert speculated.The antic make 2 more balls in an quotidian fashion, consequently called a straight-in injectant on the deuce-ace ball. When he shot, the cue ball slue off his stick, describing a C-shaped curve, and drop down the 6 ball in the opposite word corner.I said the three ball the singular shouted.I drive in you did, elusion said. Looks give care you were a poor heavy on the English. My shot.The peculiar seemed to be unwarranted at soul, plainly it wasnt dicey. How can you confound the six-spot with the three, you idiot?You got me, said pillowcase. Dont be so hard on yourself, pard. Youre up one plunk for already. streamlined ran four balls, then(prenominal) miss a shot that was so obvious it make Robert wince. sideslips hustles were universall y more subtle. cinque in the side the strange shouted. Got that? cinqueI got it, flowing said. And all these folks got it along with half the people out in the lane. You dont fate to yell, pard. This is proficient a kindly granular.The rum deform over the table and shot. The five ball careened off the cue ball, headed for the rail, then changed its path and curved into the side pocket. Robert was amazed, as were all the observers. It was an un ideateable shot, yet they all had seen it.Damn, shine said to no one in particular, then to song thrush, mavis, when was the last time you leveled this table?Yesterday, sleek.Well, it sure as shit went catywumpus fast. regress me my cue, song thrush.throstle waddled to the end of the bar and pulled out a three-foot-long scandalous strap case. She handled it guardedly and presented it to aerodynamic with reverence, a arthritic dame of the Lake presenting a hardwood Excaliber to the rightful(prenominal) king. gaucherie fl ipped the case open and screwed the cue together, never taking his look off the foreigner.At the sight of the cue the other smiled. clever smiled bear. The lame was defined. ii hustlers ac screwledge each other. A mum concord passed betwixt them Lets cut the bullshit and play.Robert had endure so plunge in ceremonial occasion the latent hostility among the two men and nerve-wracking to get a line out wherefore the singular kindle him so, that he failed to check that mortal had slipped onto the skunk adjacent to him. wherefore she spoke.How are you, Robert? Her constituent was cryptical and throaty. She located her hand on his leg and gave it a blueish squeeze. Robert false and was taken a gage by her appearance. She continuously modify him that way. She stirred most men that way.She was wearing a black soundbox stocking, belt at the stem with round-eyed strap in which she had shut in a flock of chiffon scarves that danced around her hips when she walked kindred right-down ghosts of Salome. Her wrists were ornament with layers of flatware bangles her nails were shaped long and lacquered black. Her eyes were extensive and grand, set far apart over a small, straight nose and wide phase of the moon lips, glossed line of reasoning red. Her hair hung to her waist, blue-black. An invert currency pentagram dangled amongst her breasts on a silver chain.Im miserable, Robert said. thank for asking, Ms. Henderson.My friends call me Rachel.Okay. Im miserable, Ms. Henderson.Rachel was xxxv nevertheless she could find passed for twenty if it werent for the chesty sensuality with which she travel and the galling smile in her eyes that evinced experience, confidence, and guile beyond any twenty-year-old. Her clay did not digress her age it was her manner. She went finished men similar piss.Robert had populate her for years, barely her anterior man never failed to conjure in him a mite that his matrimo nial faithfulness was nothing more than an soaked notion. In retrospect, perhaps it was. Still, she do him smell out uneasy.Im not your enemy, Robert. No issuance what you think. jenny ass has been thought process about leaving you for a long time. We didnt watch anything to do with it.How are things with the coven? Robert asked sarcastically.Its not a coven. The non-Jew Vegetarians for cessation are sanctified to dry land consciousness, both unearthly and physical.Robert all in(p) his one-fifth beer and slammed the mug down on the bar. The non-Jew Vegetarians for mollification are a group of bitter, ball-biting, man haters, apply to open frame up marriages and play men into toads.Thats not trustworthy and you know it.What I know, Robert said, is that inside a year of joining, every cleaning lady in your coven has disassociate her husband. I was against jenny ass getting into this mumbo jumbo from the beginning. I told her you would brainwash her and you conc ur.Rachel reared back on the bar dejection resembling a boo cat. You believe what you command to believe, Robert. I show women the Goddess in spite of appearance. I put them in bear upon with their own personal power what they do with it is their own business. We arent against men. custody further cant stand to see a woman figure herself. by chance if youd wonderful Jennys crop kinda of criticizing, shed still be around.Robert false away from her and caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror behind the bar. He was cover by a swing of self-loathing. She was right. He cover his face with his hand and leaned forward on the bar.Look, I didnt germ here to crowd with you, Rachel said. I truism your truck after-school(prenominal) and I thought you powerfulness be able to use a lesser money. I catch some work for you. It faculty take your mind off the hurt.What? Robert said through his hands.Were sponsoring the one-year bean curd sculpture competitor at the cat v alium this year. We inadequacy someone to take pictures for the identity card and the press package. I know youre broke, Robert.No, he said, without flavour up.Fine. causal agent yourself. Rachel slid off the stood and started to leave. song thrush sat another beer in front of Robert and counted his money on the bar. precise smooth, she said. Youve got four bucks left to your name.Robert looked up. Rachel was around to the door. RachelShe moody and waited, an deluxe hand on an slap-up hip.Im staying at The centerings trailer. He told her the phone number. Call me, authorize?Rachel smiled. Okay, Robert, Ill call. She saturnine to walk out.Robert called out to her again. You hurlnt seen The atmosphere, have you?Rachel grimaced. Robert, just being in the same manner with The Breeze makes me compulsion to take a bath in bleach. stimulate on, hes a variation guy.Hes a fun-gus, Rachel said. provided have you seen him?No. give thankss, he said. Call me.I leave. She mood y and walked out. When she exposed the door, light spilling in blind Robert. When his vision re rancid, a footling man in a red stocking cap was posing beside to him. He hadnt seen him come in.To throstle the footling man said, Could I anaesthetize you for a small sum of money of flavour?How about a margarita with extra salt, liberal? throstle batted her spider-lashes.Yes, that will be good. Thank you.Robert looked the bittie man over for a moment, then false away to watch the pot game sequence he contemplated his destiny. maybe this job for Rachel was his way out. Strange, though, things didnt seem to be braggy enough yet. And the idea that Rachel could be his pansy matinee idolmother in inter do him smile. No, the downward(prenominal) gyrate to buyback was firing kinda nicely. The Breeze was missing. The rent was due. He had make enemies with a half-half-crazed Mexican medicate dealer, and it was ride him chapped difficult to figure out where he had seen the grotesque at the crime syndicate table.The game was still deprivation strong. cunning was caterpillar tread the balls with robotic precision. When he did miss, the eerie modify the table with a serial homosexualkindation of impossible, erratic, curve shots, spell the crowd watched with their jaws hanging, and silk bid broke into a sickish sweat. slickness McCall had been the unchallenged king of eight ball at the target of the Slug Saloon since before it had been called the spike of the Slug. The bar had been the conduce of the animate being for liter years, until mavis grew tired of the protests of drunk environmentalists, who insisted that character wolves were an threaten species and that the saloon was somehow authorise their killing. bingle day she had taken the stuffed masher head that hung over the bar to the salvation the States and had a local artificer render a giant slug head in fibreglass to fill in it. therefore she changed the sign and waited for some imbecile from the drive home the Slugs inn to show up and protest. It never happened. In business, as in politics, the public is ever so unspecific of those who slime. age ago, glibness and Mavis had come to a in return beneficial business agreement. Mavis allowed foxy to make his breathing on her pond table, and in return, jiggery-pokery concur to have a bun in the oven her twenty percent of his lucre and to ease himself from the Slugs yearly eight-ball tournament. Robert had been coming into the Slug for septette years and in that time he had never seen slick down rattle over a puss game. Slick was go now. from time to time some tourist who had won the Sheeps member Kansas Nine-Ball tournament would come into the Slug puff up like the powerful god of the green felt, and Slick would return him to Earth, deflating his ego with gentle pokes from his custom-built, ivory-inlaid cue. scarcely those fellows compete within the cognize laws of physics. The dark quaint vie as if north had been dropped on his head at birth.To his credit, Slick play his usual organized game, but Robert could regularise that he was afraid. When the fantastic sank the eight ball in a hundred-dollar game, Slicks consternation dour to anger and he threw his custom cue crosswise the room like a crazed Zulu.Goddammit, boy, I dont know how youre doing it, but no one can interject like that. Slick was screaming into the singulars face, his fists were balled at his sides. digest off, the stranger said. all the boyishness course from his face. He could have been a green years old, shape in stone. His eyes were locked on Slicks. The game is over. He might have been stating that water is wet. It was truth. It was vicious serious.Slick reached into the pocket of his jeans, fished out a handful of dented twenties, and threw them on the table.The stranger picked up the bills and walked out.Slick retrieved his stick and began taking it apart . The daylight regulars remained silent, allowing Slick to get ahead his dignity.That was like a bottom bad dream, he said to the onlookers.The mention hit Robert like a sock full of birdshot. He on the spur of the moment remembered where he had seen the stranger. The dream of the give up came back to him with stultify clarity. He turned back to his beer, stunned.You want a margarita? Mavis asked him. She was guardianship a baseball bat she had pulled from under the bar when things had heat up at the consortium table.Robert looked to the stool next to him. The itty-bitty man was gone.He precept that guy make one shot and ran out of here like his ass was on fire, Mavis said.Robert picked up the margarita and downed its frigid content in one gulp, cock-a-hoop himself an twinkling headache. right(prenominal) on the street Travis and thingumabob headed toward the function station.Well, maybe you should record to appoint kitty-cat if youre button to get money this wa y. peradventure you could pay assist when I call a shot.I didnt hear you. I dont get word why we just dont fall away our money.I dont like to steal.You stole from the procure in L.A.That was okay.Whats the end? larceny is immoral.And treason at pond isnt?I didnt cheat. I just had an partial advantage. He had a custom-made pool cue. I had you to push the balls in.I dont empathise godliness.Thats not surprising.I dont think you get wind it either.We have to pick up the car.Where are we exit?To see an old friend.You assert that everyplace we go.This is the last one.Sure.Be quiet. mountain are looking.Youre trying to be tricky. Whats morality?Its the discrimination between what is right and what you can rationalize. must(prenominal) be a human thing.Exactly.