Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - Maybe
old enough to read a newspaper headline as...
Maybe
old enough to read a newspaper headline as simple
as THEY ARE GONEThe twins dead and Adriana, the
oldest, eloped off to Atlanta with one of his
plant managersno wonder John had had enough of
Duma for awhileHe and the remaining three moved
to MiamiMany years later, he moved back here to
249
die, and Miss Eastlake cared for him"Pretty much as I'm caring for her
do you see why an old lady with onset-Alzheimer's
might consider Duma a bad place for daughters?"
"I guess so, but how does an old lady with onset-
Alzheimer's find the phone number of her new
tenant?"
Wireman gave me a sly look"New tenant, old
number, autodial function on all the phones back
there He jerked his thumb over his balenciaga replicas handbags shoulder
"Any other questions?"
I gaped at him"She has me on autodial?"
"Don't blame me; I came in late on this movie-show
My guess is that the Realtor who handles things
for her programmed the rental properties into the
phonesOr maybe Miss Eastlake's business manager
He pops down from StPetersburg every six weeks
or so to make sure she's not dead and I'm not
stealing the SpodeI'll ask him the next time he
shows up
"So she can call any house on the north end of the
Key at the touch of a buttonI mean, they are all hers"But you know what, muchacho? I
250
think your button is going to have a little
nervous breakdown this evening
"No," I said, not even thinking about it
"Ah," Wireman said, exactly as rolex swiss watches if he understood
And who knows, maybe he did"Anyway, that
explains your mystery caller - although I have to
tell you, explanations have a way of thinning out
on Duma KeyAs your story demonstrates
"What do you mean? Have you hadexperiences?"
He looked at me squarely, his large tanned face
inscrutableThe chilly late January wind gusted,
blowing sand around our anklesIt also lifted his
hair, once again revealing the coin-shaped scar
above his right templeI wondered if someone had
poked him with the neck of a bottle, maybe in a
bar fight, and tried to imagine someone getting
mad at this manexperiences," he said, and
hooked the first two fingers of each hand into
little quotation marks"It's what discount louis vuitton makes children
intoAlso what gives English teachers
something to bull**** about in first year Each time with the air-quotes
251
Okay, he didn't want to talk about it, at least
not thenSo I asked him how much of my story he
believed
He rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair
"Don't try my patience, vatoYou might be
mistaken about a few things, but you ain't nutsI
got a lady up theresweetest lady in the world
and I love her, but sometimes she thinks I'm her
Dad and it's Miami circa nineteen thirty-four
Sometimes she pops one of her china people into a
Sweet Owen cookie-tin and tosses it into the koi
pond behind the tennis courtI have to get em out
when she naps, otherwise she pitches a bitchI vintage fendi bag think by this summer she may be
wearing an adult didey full-time
"Point?"
"The point is I know loco, I know Duma, and I'm
getting to know youI'm perfectly willing to
believe you had a vision of your friend dead
"No bull****?"
"No bull****The question is what you're
going to do about it, assuming you're not eager to
see him into the ground for - may I be vulgar? -
buttering what used to be your loafI did have this momentary thingI
don't know how to describe it
"Was it a momentary thing where you felt like
chopping off his dick, then putting out his eyes
with a hot toasting-fork? Was it that momentary
thing, muchacho?" Wireman made the thumb and
forefinger of one hand into a gun and pointed fake cartier roadster it
at
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