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I can't wait to see the actual thingsI mean, I
knew you had some talent, because you used to draw
those little books for Lin when she was so sick
that year-"
"I did?" I remembered Melinda's sick year; she'd
had one infection after another, culminating in a
massive bout of diarrhea, probably brought on by
too many antibiotics, that had landed her in the
hospital for a weekShe lost ten pounds that
springIf not for summer vacation - and her own
grade-A intelligence - she would have needed to
repeat the second gradeBut I couldn't remember
drawing any little books
"Freddy the Fish? Carla the Crab? Donald the Timid
Deer?"
Donald the Timid Deer rang a very faint bell, way
down deep, but
563
"Angel thought you should try to get cheap rolex watches them
published, don't you remember? But these
Did you know you could do it?"
"NoI started thinking something might be there
when I was at the place on Lake Phalen, but it's
gone farther than I thought it would I thought
of Wireman Looks West and the mouthless, noseless
Candy Brown and thought I'd just uttered the
understatement of the century
"Eddie, will you let me do the rest of the
invitations the way I did the sample? I can
customize them, make them nice
"Pa-" Almost Panda again"Pam, I can't ask you to
do that
"I'll write them and e-mail them to Mr
You can check them over before he prints them
He's quite a jewel, your MrThe two of you really
ganged up on me
"We did, didn't we?" She sounded delightedOnly you have to do omega mens watch fake something for me
"What?"
564
"You have to call the girls, because they're going
crazy, Ilse in particularAnd Pam?"
"What, hon?" I'm sure she said it without thinking,
without knowing how it could cutAh, well - she
probably felt the same when she heard my pet name
for her coming up from Florida, growing colder
with every mile it sped north
It was only quarter to eleven when we said goodbye
and hung upTime never went faster that winter
than it did during my evenings in Little Pink -
standing at my easel, I'd wonder how the colors in
the west could possibly fade so fast - and it
never went slower than it did that morning, when I
made the phone calls I'd been putting offI
swallowed them one after the other, like medicine
I looked at chanel large black tote bag the cordless sitting in my lap"Fuck
you, phone," I said, and started dialing again
v
"Scoto Gallery, this is Alice
565
A cheery voice I'd come to know well over the last
ten days
"Hi, Alice, it's Edgar Freemantle
"Yes, Edgar?" Cheery became cautiousHad that
cautious note been there before? Had I just
ignored it?
I said, "If you have a couple of minutes, I wonder
if we could talk about ordering the slides at the
lecture
"Yes, Edgar, we certainly could The relief was
palpableIt made me feel like a heroOf course
it also made me feel like a rat
"Have you got a pad handy?"
"You bet your tailfeathers!"
"OkayBasically, we're going to want them in
chronological order-"
"But I don't know the chronology, I've been trying
to tell d |