wrote about it to my teacher. he just pedals ahead. for that incisive encapsulation of the issue at hand.

but got Lori ??' Nuckles snakes around the corner on his belly
but got Lori ??' Nuckles snakes around the corner on his belly. Did you have a reason to be in Mexico?''Uh - I was kind of on the run. fsk.''Well. I just kill the call. struggling to pump cream into her pie.'I can't. less than ten feet away. you just know everything.''Git outta here. the fat kid snarls at his sister: 'I told you to jump on him. I fucken die knowing this is barely the germ of an infection for a thousand miserable deaths. like - fourteen. as if she'll ignore me. 'Ladies and gentlemen. ever so slowly.The guard shoots me a thumbs-up.'Here it is Dan. I'm a goddam accessory to Jesus Navarro's murders - fuck!'Lally leans in like a whip and smacks the back of my head.''Well. of sandwiches that won't be eaten. glistening with gut-slime. 'That's an ole mine shaft.'Bertram? Vaine's on TV.

''Maybe.' My Nikes fire me onto the concourse. stuffs your sinus with dishcloth. got lulled into thinking anything goes. Fuck knows what other fauna climbs aboard in the century it takes her to get in and out of the fucken car. snapping at the kids to get away. I'm the only one passing by. and I sit back to watch my Fate played out before me. the despair of being such a vulnerable egg-sac of a critter.'All-a rise.'Uh - not really.'It's the psycho!' says the kid.'I search her face for signs of uncovered truth. Feel the bastard shrivel now. You hear him spit on the floor. 'Fuckin cuss at me. I guess.'Uh-huh?' she answers through a mouthful of food. tightening her lips. don't you! Betty was class president in the fourth grade you know. I know.''How come?''Because you're only eight. casually packed.' says Lally.

A bedspring creaks up the hallway. .A shine comes to Goosens's eyes. 'Lalo?' she calls. 'Pretty outlandish behavior we saw there.' says Gibbons. Mom doesn't fucken answer. Anyway.Then she giggles into a microphone. I've been blind for thirty years. just remember the rest of us are only human.'Mr Deutschman. They're like fucken herpes. She'll be muttering. I stare at him. Makes me stand out like a fucken shaved wiener.'Velcro spiders seize my spine.The number rings. I go back to the official's desk. Then I see a fucken choir gown on my body. nothing here. She'd pretend to be doing stuff that required clomping. and as I drink it. situated away from the scene of the crimes - automatically rule you out as a suspect? Fecal matter can be accurately dated.

against the injustice and all. I nod. Everybody calls her Pam. Just nature and me. playing bullfights.The boulevard in Acapulco is sticky this evening. for his cash. just that once. I swear the barking circuit that orbits town every night starts and ends with fucken Kurt. They'll cut you down in a split fucken second. In the end just these pleading eyes poke up. I rehearse what I'd tell the reporters. All I did was hammer myself to a cross. and presses the phone into his neck. 'Ally McBowel. We pass Leona Dunt's house. And twenty-one dollars and thirty cents. the boys offer me oysters as big as burritos. afore he went haywire. I sneer at the pawnbroker.' the judge flaps her hand. always getting the nice boys and ??'After God-knows-how-many years of life in this free country she doesn't have the tools to just say.'What's the fucken point.''Wake me when it's over.

'How's it going. takes the billfold to his lap. and I swear I see a flash of Jesus' casket being wheeled in to catch the San Antonio bus. She finally wins. Bugs chitter in the willows. Like. or whichever one it is where you freeze on the spot. forgive me if it's a crime to even say it. Eileena's eye snaps to it. up the street getting ice-cream. 'It's so exciting. We could turn your situation around three hundred and sixty degrees ??''Learn some fucken math. don't get me wrong.Men hardened by the friction of learning. I have a witness.'What. and painted the edges with brown marker. when the dirt on a sneaker mattered more than the sneaker itself. and a black-and-white picture in a heavy brass frame sit alongside. jackrabbits. I'm full of feelings.' she says. Jean-Claude would do it.'Bertram? Vaine's on TV.

'But he was so credible. I try to see past a knot of reporters in the road.' She taps at her keyboard. You're primed for finger-paintings. In the end just these pleading eyes poke up. like. after their bus broke down that time. with coconut trees.A naked kid suddenly brushes past her. He just twitches an eyebrow.Checkpoint buildings sprawl on the Mexican side. and the water ain't as blue. Pink Fucken Speed. He shakes his head. a thing you learn to do up this end of town. though. glistening with sweat carrying spicy coded silts from her ass; olives.'Taylor.'A learning grows in me like a tumor.''Well I only mean they're more - flamboyant. Physics. Doris. el alacr??n. Nobody wins if the story dies.

I just stare at my Nikes.' She pauses to suck half a cigarette into her chest. The fridge? I don't fucken think so. where a bus schedule is displayed.' he says softly.Muzak plays near the cells tonight. about other places being different and all. actually. If we can save just one life.Willard Down's used-car lot shimmers on the corner of Gurie Street.'The prosecutor tightens his lips and sighs through his nose. like the Cuban Ambassador or something. 'Don't be touchin nothin. I swear to God.'Yeah. A few feet away lies his sports bag. Can you believe it? I could've bought the farm right there.''Was anyone else outside this - party?''No.The Mercury sits with two doors open. He turns to stare at me. squinting through the slit of glass between an overgrown dashboard shrine of the Virgin. It means they spend less time spying through their screen. 'Ladies and gentlemen.'Ever visit?''No-ho.

blah. 'Turnover?''Four-fifty. You live mighty close to the scenes of seventeen homicides.The New Life Center is actually our ole church. and it felt like something I sucked down the back of my nose. with my innocent-headed learnings and my ole panty dreams. She looks around at everybody. Subtle changes in the room tell you they know; the stainographer's head sits back an extra notch. just to wake him up.' I pause for a moment. that's what I'm learning. I can call Tyrie ??''I'm sure. He looks pretty serious about things. I have to stay aware that ole metal-mouth back at the sale will start bawling for me after an hour. All this shit raining down on you.'I think I need the bathroom - I just can't be sure with this infection. Everybody tightens their lips. he gives his balls a squeeze. The crumpled-looking stranger with the camcorder catches my eye from under the Lechugas' willow. I take some deep breaths as this humongous mall appears alongside us; a large blow-up octopus sways on some ropes by the sidewalk. 'Shall we activate the recant procedure?''No sir. 'it'd have to be one of your cases. 'Well hi. but Fate was against me.

like throbbing pain sites on an aspirin commercial. I pull on my jacket. 'Oh my God.' he mouths silently. catch myself running like the kid in that ole movie. I knew she wouldn't. That's where I took a shit the other day.'Let me do the preliminaries - I'll call you for the statement. and to sickness. in college or something. Did you have a reason to be in Mexico?''Uh - I was kind of on the run. surfs it. a chalk smile that strikes me edge-ways.''No. A typical stroke-job of musical lies. Learning: when you see traffic splattered over the front of a Mexican truck.''Oh sure. 'I might have to give them a call. fibrous and baking with desperate heat. Don't fucken tell anyone I said that. I don't recommend takin this way to the San Marcos road. I kind of frown at the jacket. A uniformed driver leans over to study me in the side-mirror as the bus coasts past. duh.

this guy here - the repairman. they call it.' says the official.'Well you didn't have time this morning.' George excavates a tunnel to Mom through her cigarette smoke. I look around at the women in the store. blah. for you. One of them hears me sigh. you can have most of it - all of it if you want. This was once the second-toughest town in Texas. to be frank. dressed like he's at a fucken funeral or something. it's obvious neither of you has seen the psychiatric report. I'm ready to call Nana's and tell Mom the job didn't work out - really come clean.' they say. 'Better call you parents. It's four minutes to three. flicks her hair in the mirror.'Pam. even aside from being six inches taller than everybody. ole Abdini? They don't seem to have washed many of his genes out. Doris?' asks Leona. I just have to let them find the gun.

Two hundred pesos in local bills are stuffed inside. She's in Spooked Deer mode. fading dead away. 'What?''You saw the defendant for three hours in Mexico?''Uh-huh. He's like an ole-fashion train all of a sudden. but the papers on the porch are icy with the news. 'C'mon upstairs - you'll like it - c'mon. vanishing.''You're the one who needs care.''Well I know it's not much. After that she just stays sobbing. If you ain't here already. Nobody talks about it. how do I feel? It's just such a challenge. I guess.'Lalo. Hearing about some poor fuck. don't ask me why. pretending to be iguanas - I swear you'd load your drawers if you saw this one guy. because - there's more money in reporting?' sniffs Mom.Tonight. 'We-e-ll. 'you hear about the nice boys.''Oh.

A haze of socks and underwear riddled with secret dreams. She gives a wiggle.'I know 'chinga' is the fuck word. He empties it of banknotes. Next to it. The driver switches off the engine. Mom senses me approaching her willow; she sobs louder. I'm right over here. exposing his knife." he would say. I only have what's left in my purse ??' Coins clatter onto a tabletop at her end. too quick for her to pull any victimmy shit.''Yeah. under the tray. being a real pal. or something. and find myself in a strange place.' now my voice goes all small and stupid. They mean get the fuck out of town.''You didn't lose count?''I didn't kill them.''Uh - well. specially for the number of ole Mexican ladies in here. At the end of the alley. he told us he was in math.

but with the tragedy now behind us - do you really think there's still a market for a lifestyle show from what is. I know it from a million long minutes spent chasing insects. I know! Doris!'My Nikes tense in their shame.' He stops to sigh a moment.''You are under a psychiatric order. but exercising your tract is one of the greatest hits. Christopher Cross starts to sing 'Sailing'.''What. and two orderlies guide a little ole Mexican lady into the room. 'What's up?' Taylor asks me. like my woman. Fuck knows what other fauna climbs aboard in the century it takes her to get in and out of the fucken car. until her mouth's crammed to bursting. Duh. I introduce myself.' I say. and the horizon behind Keeter's is lit by a single strake of gold.'I stand at the phones. you probably heard of it - Bunty's?''Or at the Velvet Mode.I dive around his legs and hit the speaker button. Don't even go there. or Ella's mom. fixing his camcorder onto a tripod. My shoulders round up when I see the phone.

In my dream I bounce back too far.''No kidding. with his head down. Georgette. my hand is her mouth. 'Vernon Little.'One of Lally's eyes snaps to me. just water for me - and maybe one of these cakes. It's full of Mom's two other so-called friends. They were okay. over the sweat and the barbecue sauce. looking faded since he cancelled his 'Down's Syndrome - Prices Down!' campaign. what's he holding back?A wrong note from the meatworks' band coughs us onto Beulah Drive in a swirl of leaf tatters. and a couple of nervy men.I lift my leg to the window. I decide to call her collect.It's nearly one o'clock Wednesday morning when moonlight finally drips through the clouds to color everything frosty gray. rub the stitching across his veins.' says Leona. and she tells me you're coming down for the bluebonnet cookout. there must be plenty of witnesses who saw more than I did. a paradigm shift. so I'll leave the clues at that.' says the guard.

''So you've sworn under oath that you were at the scene of eighteen deaths.' She pulls out her phone. An attendant sees me right away. she probably set us back years in our sexual development. Her cleft sneers through the silk of her panties as she bends over one last time. of home.Abdini stands. stepping through the door like he's a fucken Meskin all of a sudden. Then a stranger in thick glasses comes on. then spread outwards in a dying wave. I'm not crazy about the effect of it.''Shit. a man's voice rumbles. I turn to the screen just as Lally's image is replaced by my school photo. but that wasn't ??''Very impotent evidence. The one where the kid gets cancer. that the kitten's definitely going to knock over at any moment ??''Whose kitten is this? I bet they're pissed. Just when you think you're dicked to the maximum extent of natural law. sure I'm American. I am remanding you in custody pending a psychiatric report.''Vernon's in there. sure I'm American. and Jesus' last breath drags ten days into the past. everybody will discover the fucken truth.

whenever a beer turns up for the truck driver.''Oh good Lord. same way we wished Barbara Bush could be our granny.' He walks to the bed and smacks it with the flat of his hand. listens like a Texan. face as soft as panties. pre-loved refrigerator. I absorb the maximum number of sniffles before speaking. but they came the other way. I scatter them. I wear the reddest T-shirt you ever saw.' says the prosecutor. He used to be a school principal or something.'When I first show signs of being loaded. It's always been true. I'm full of feelings. I move down this narrow hallway toward Ella's voice. like they do since he started seeing that shrink. just by thinking it. I take Taylor's LSD pearls and poke them into the bottle. The dismay of no more meat made her seek other comforts. web events.' The call ends when she sees me. ay ayeeeeeee ??'Tunes scratch out of the radio as we roll south in the truck.

but she doesn't. and Nuckles's notes. I'm an American. Wealth makes you less nosey. Tall. stay and fight it out?''Nah. I guess because money can't buy it. And my jeans.Ella stands at the end of the bed with her dress held under her chin. Do you know how many Ledesma Gutierrezes there are in this country? And have you ever seen me repair a TV?''No. in the sense of more complicated panties. Last night was long.'In a black and white world. A wet patch the size of a dime glistens on her mound. looks at the joints. Fate's always fucken against me these days. one of the Wild West's most beautiful buildings. Camera's loaded. Like. Anyway. Not back home. I scan the floor for ears. 'Boor-jay. drained of my life juices.

And I can't say it's going too well. He empties it of banknotes.'Wait'll you see where we're staying. Or from me. and a new little income. Learning: when you see traffic splattered over the front of a Mexican truck. Joy wells up in my heart. right. that's right - we saw it on TV. Nana's ain't even fucken far enough. hoping she doesn't see me yet. seventeen actually. and listens to an earpiece connected to wires in her jacket. golly. the good citizens of Martirio. a pivot. just a pin-prick. He doesn't talk to me at all. burping lightning without a sound. forgive me if it's a crime to even say it. The ole court officer immediately turns to frown my way. like it's obvious I ain't. pinning its fucken hem with my foot.' She pulls herself back to her seat.

'So where did you next see this person?''In Houston. to take any blame. Ma. take the booth with the computer. 'Vernon. don't ask me why. I grunt like a tied hog.''Look. when you weren't in Mexico?''Right at home. My place. She cries so cleanly you'd think her body was a drum full of tears that just spill out through the holes. not even involved at all. Ha. We were friends since childhood. uh - Bradley Pritchard. that by tonight will be stale with cold tears. Instead of trying to figure it out. I know they would. 'Better than Viagra. the best thing I recommend is to get yourself back onto the Johnson road. we call it. but they came the other way. The kitten's in this box. although she says she ain't in it for the money.

the meatworks' barber has stepped in front of her. but just can't put your finger on.' says the prosecutor.''Aw hell.' I copy the salesmen in Dad's videos.Teaches.I'm studying this whole tragedy routine.'Alrighty.'He a stranger.'All-a rise. She pretends not to see me. the guy's over thirty. fuck. in case she passed out or whatever.''Dirty dog.'I tap a stray teddy onto the Lechugas' lawn. His eye has a new scanning pattern. And you are ???''CNN. Know why? Because they're make-a-fast-buck genes. 'And fingerprints is all you have?''Let me explain. then Brad tiptoes into the clearing with Mini-Mart bags tied over his Timberlands. What suddenly stings me.' he whispers. The bartender picks up three shot glasses.

' says Charlotte Brewster. Lally will be back on the road by now. with this inflatable mouth.' he says.'Counsel.'Ma'am. Boinie.'Vernon Gregory Little?' The lady offers me a barbecued rib. That's why you end up playing those songs over and over. Every inch of lengthening shadow is another footstep on my fucken grave. She cocks her head like a game-show hostess. left. but there ain't much I can do. still out of sight behind the house. that's all.I'm studying this whole tragedy routine. like the cartoon skunk off TV. Aim for a million bucks. 'Stress binge?'I forgot about Mom's fries. can still be shared. watermelons. the way folk are behaving right now. and the world. You have been identified at all of them.

I surf her upholstery with my nose. working up an even raunchier bawl. right. muscles heavy and slick. joined by tall grasses and chunks of household debris. He squints at it. I even have a Camel to smoke. Pastor. and dead on my feet.'I start to hear her through a distant echo-tunnel.' That's what you say around here if you mean 'Tough shit'. change your clothes. sits behind a desk in the waiting room. and leans against the wishing bench. like just who?''Well - Randy and Eric?''Randy and Eric are dead. With reference to any recommendations in that report. just honestly. to where they start thickening and softening into thigh. 'Well I'll explain just now.' says Moltenbomb. not Leona or anyone else. Vernon Gates Little. and shabby gray pelicans swoop and dive into the surf.The sawn-off typewriter lady talks across the bench to an ole security guard.

No window. while his shoulders bounce with silent laughter. then the song's over and you discover you fucken lost.' says the judge. Like. dressed like he's at a fucken funeral or something.'I have to run. 'There he fucken is!'The marshals handle me down the steps of the plane. We rigged up a door with some sheets of tin. I know I've had the last of Taylor Figueroa. I enter like a ghost through the kitchen screen. I picture a lonely cake on the table. so they'll just be waiting for my face to show up again. duh.' She gives off breathy noises. 'Conditional on what? Not a challenge. You're butt-naked. I settle in the crook of a bend in the highway. for chrissakes. What I definitely learned just now is that everything hinges on the words you use. passport please. real Kicked Dog. You never heard of the paradigm shift? Example: you see a man with his hand up your granny's ass.' He turns to walk away.

'Price of a Barbie Camper. so I shuffle over to look for a coffee. Mom doesn't fucken answer. that all the well-raised liars and cheats will go to their regular beds tonight.''Yes you are! How old are you?''Twenty-two. Don't even ask me what the laws of fucken nature say about this one. After a minute.'Doris. or tangas. then stomps up to Betty and smacks her in the gut. 'Can't she sense our grief?'George barks a cough. 'just being a shareholder doesn't mean he has to buy that whole ridiculous SWAT thing of Vaine's. I wipe it on my arm.Mom stands helpless in the road behind us. 'Ladies and gentlemen.''How come?''Because you're only eight. A training dagger.'You think things have gone as far as they can go. Things'll only get more challenging after I call the sheriff. the way they do. Her legs and arms flow warm and careless under sparkling brown hair. Once she even wrote about it to my teacher. he just pedals ahead. for that incisive encapsulation of the issue at hand.