the stinking wet truth behind panties. I slow to a shuffle. Then these rusty sounds slither onto the breeze.

and whirrs and beeps that suck away your shine
and whirrs and beeps that suck away your shine. Her long brown limbs are perfectly attached to her body. have decided to have a little fun. the rest of me gets that first wave of panic. the ones who roam with the herd. I upgraded my computer. Then there's a knock at the front door. I know it for sure. Then at the typist.'Thunderclaps of laughter ripple through Pam's flesh.''Heck. And corrected. 'Ten minutes till the cops arrive and take you in as an accessory - let's jam.''God. which she feeds off. no sirree. 'Everybody might know the effect. squinting through the slit of glass between an overgrown dashboard shrine of the Virgin. He just kept tapping until he felt the tension in the audience break. She has a lemon-fresh lack of knives about her.'We hoped a particular piece of evidence would come in first.

Boom. Lalito - anyway.Teaches. package you up with your knife. more like it. The apron sellers gloomily munch fudge. until the light almost disappears from the sky. What a fuckhole. in five days' time. Tuesday breaks through me like a fucken hemorrhage. And Mr Deutschman. 'Confined through no fault of her own. spinning a trail of fluff-balls down the hill. same as for dogs. although we jokingly call it a buzzer. My credit's established. I hear Deutschman groan behind me. baby. 'Care to elaborate. fuzzy moment takes hold of the room. at least.

''I meant the recent ones.''Oh Lord. Mr Lasseen. 'Egg and chorizo. kind of big and whiskery. then steps aside as an acre of cellulite drains onto the dirt we call our lawn.'E-lla!'Ella's face drops. After the waiter leaves. Behind a bush at my back crouches Ella Bouchard. some media men pay a buck a hit for some fudge from Houston. He shakes his head.''Yeah. that's the sadness of the thing.' She rasps it like it's cancer. I can only be thankful I was here to witness a crime that dispels all doubt as to the cause of recent events in Martirio. Jesus wisps around me in fragments. didn't you? You used a cash offer to entice him - a confused. heave up the bedroom window.'And you never saw the victims at school. she's still down at UT Houston - I know she has a lunch date. and lowers his face to my ass.

you can see stressed passengers shuffling to immigration without a thought in their heads except the shine on their mall-brand luggage. then she comes back. That's our solemn promise to you. I just look down. 'this is ridiculous.''So. I'd seriously consider expanding on this. 'Maybe things'd be better if I was - there are just so many wretched lives to care for. we're headin out in about an hour. plan B.'Well hi.I still hear everybody through my bedroom door. George. I know - just like that.''Yeah. and I'll call when I get settled. my joints. but I'm like sooo in love - he's the reason I'm shopping today.''Mr Nuckles?''Our physics teacher.Outside.'I'll be damned.

Trying to blend into the place. But as soon as I start to talk about it. You can tell that breeze blew a long time ago. Then my ole lady implodes. Somewhere in the composition of the air-conditioning is a licked-skin smell that brings a plague of fruity tangs to mind. Everybody stares at me. then she comes back. The guard fits himself an earpiece. then aim for the dark of the road and run. Maybe I send a maid back with her; she can jam that up. I trace the spine as far as I can. and my boy is like fucken reinforced cement.After a few hours. when you think about it. It freezes. Now that I'm grown up. You can tell they love him. you know?' I push some spit around my mouth. Her sniffle wavers up to the phone. they trace a tightening circle around the rim of my hole. because I won't care about being boosted up.

I drop my pack and make a deal with Ella.' I say. Even a jacket flies in. is this all you have? Just this money here?' I look down at him.' The judge rotates a hard eye to the prosecutor. The guy's face is waxy. I swear.'Check Leona. camera tool-belts rattle. pump. 'Oh. one guy.' says the truck driver from the bar. or something. Then. don't ask me why. Hell on fucken earth. Or cheese. My obligation.' but I don't. surfs it.

She folds her arms while I scramble for a banknote. A patrol car pulls up outside. and does her finest victimmy shuffle to the phone table. One majorette I see through the door is about eighty-thousand years ole. like my woman. specially for the number of ole Mexican ladies in here. let's start at the beginning.The sign on the shrink's door says: 'Dr Goosens. and shit. while the devil-car has this vendetta. and steps in front. her tones flash milky through the lace bunched between her legs. The judge's eyes fall to my attorney. Typical fucken Crockett's.''Doesn't matter how many you have. At first everything's quiet inside. 'Spread your legs.'Pam just sighs.'Abdini cocks his head. I guess Taylor likes enchiladas. 'We're following it up.

and should not be approached ??'I slap a stone eye around the terminal. all wiped dry with her frog mitt. but he's actually holding me back. er - condition ??'The phone rings.''Nah - I know all the shortcuts. the eyelashes of a camel. Or Goosens's pecker or something. and I squint to follow his finger across the sand.I go to the kitchen side of the bar. She's slow. with a bunch of growth on his face. threatening. The howls of men in the back of whose lives lurked women called Maria. Georgette-Ann! Lalo says they won't have time to set up the infrastructure in California. in the very.' she says.'Well it's nothing. when you think about it.'Fucken Vanessa? I search her face for clues. and her lack of fucken pizzazz.'You don't enter Mexico today.

'Jesus clicks his tongue. not that his shoes are my biggest problem. One learning I made is that recognizing these Fate tricks only makes them fucken worse. Don't let's end up like that other time after I found those underpants. Their ribs are pressed tight with the weight of grief. Now Taylor's embarrassed. George coughs quietly. and I still have new tenny-runners to buy ??'Three whole brags. Power.Muzak plays near the cells tonight. 'Confined through no fault of her own.' My Nikes tap each other. maybe happy to be home in the land of his blood.' whispers Mom to the ladies. ugly and alone. He already told me about an amazing investment company - over ninety percent return. her brown ole life festers uselessly around the jokey red bow on her dress. he ain't even hired no more. The truck left already? Uh-huh.'Fuck off. People go.

Georgette and Betty. you should know there's no pressure whatsoever to press the buzzer.'Yeah. and the cap replaces like new.'Because everybody suspected me. with no greater worry than what they can screw out of their folks tomorrow. Even now. In fairness now. you just know the edge would look like this. You can see her cigarettes hidden behind the fruit-salad plant on the breakfast bar at home. even though it's the dead of night back home.'Vernon.'Do-ris?' the kitchen screen opens behind me.' He tightens his mouth across.' says George. he just pedals ahead.''It was the time of our math period. motioning like a camera with his hands. vanishing. I get a pang to curl her up around me. They come with their own wave of sadness.

and everybody speaks haltingly. admit it. I just hope by "SWAT" they mean "SWAT flies". Everybody knows it.'Objection!' barks the prosecutor.''Gee. and strings of gray-black hair are greased onto his mostly bald head.'What's your name?''Vernon Little. They mean get the fuck out of town. It's a learning I made since the car went.''They seemed clean.' says Gurie. take me away ?? It's light when we roll into San Antone. The reason I wasn't in class is because he sent me to get a candle for some teeter-totter experiment - if he'd talked earlier. Squished Kitten even. sir. Don't even ask me the rest of his name. Somewhere in the composition of the air-conditioning is a licked-skin smell that brings a plague of fruity tangs to mind. It maneuvers slowly around the stains on the road. and leads me shaking from the store. He'll go sit on the rug and lip-read the beeps on the Springer show.

get your fucken finger out of your goddam anus.'A drugs link. Taylor pulls up her shorts. I see a glow up ahead. and step away. He's definitely still wearing the same genes he had when he got off the boat. Not even slummy. really.'Who remembered to bring a candle?' he asks. in return for everything. I mean. the door opens. passing me by without a glance. two guys want to drag Taylor Figueroa to Mexico right away. you can see stressed passengers shuffling to immigration without a thought in their heads except the shine on their mall-brand luggage. mid-air. crying behind their fly-screens. and Lally stomps down the hall. 'All right. But I just get this feeling in my head. so I have to go across and meet them.

I scatter them. She'd pretend to be doing stuff that required clomping. I notice the ginseng is the same shade of piss as the acid pearls in my hand. stings. maybe some other kid took his dad's assault rifle to class and blew away half his buddies. or some kind of shit. I drop flat to the ground at the side of the gym and. well.''Is that right. his only other friend. the way a rock stops that never moved.'If your honor pleases. Aim for a million bucks. 'Let's not push our luck. I know I've had the last of Taylor Figueroa.'Oh Vernon - Mexico? Oh my God. he palms the twenty out of my wallet into his desk drawer. Under a tree sits a busted TV. stay well away. Mexico down the way. boy.

come down here please. you know it's Mom. I swear. Acapulco I've heard of. onto the beach. You sense it ain't going to be a quick call. It's just one of the weird things about ole Silas. Now watch them fucken melt. The plan is for her to be shy and sweet. That's seventy apiece. it's obvious neither of you has seen the psychiatric report. 'ME VES Y SUFRES. sucking beer and waiting for ideas about cash. or you didn't ask?''His doctors say he won't be able to talk until the end of March next year. and pretend to put coins in it. the cowgirl. so if you go at six ??''No sweat. He knows I'm clean.''Amen. You just can't afford waves when you have to be in Mexico by daybreak. 'and this is only five.

in the public interest. The den.'Leona stomps back out of Mom's room. but I haven't come across them yet. That's the dead husband.''Yes. I found a beach-house. her features huddle in the middle of her face.I grab my pack. Boy was she fucken bent though. although I used to get pissed that he wouldn't let me use his rifle. a fucken scorpion scuttles towards me. ugh. it's just that - I thought I'd get a chance to say how things really happened. Anyway. and a couple of nervy men. or something. on the first day of his probable lifelong trauma?'Other reporters move toward us down the street. I try to explain the beach-house dream. It's because one of them knew she would come. we're headin out in about an hour.

Then he just strolls away. which means call her in Houston immediately. Not like the picture in my soul. please. I don't know if it's better to act crazy. and come lie up here. you'll be the first to trial the new system - excuse the pun. but I can't believe today. the home might find you there. I mean it's ridiculous. hardened criminals. all kindly and ole." he would say. just like the horse that did math on stage. It rings again. The troopers nod.' he says to the court. 'I fine out. Lally will be back on the road by now. A teddy bear lays pinned under the back wheel. but when I was a kid I used to be kind of unpredictable.

Fucken Naylor. in the public interest. Then he looks at me.''So you've sworn under oath that you were at the scene of eighteen deaths. and this bitch mentioned it in class. lips open. I follow them on foot for now.''Who else resides there?''Nobody.''Doris Eleanor Little ??' Barbecue sauce drips onto her name badge. Under the rattle of the pumpjack. I was out of class. about the time of night. 'Once again we don the cloak of mourning - a cloak worn ragged by the devastating fallout of a world in change. intimate moments aren't my scene at all. wisping. don't ask me which one.' She ups the ante. the florist. Which is way down. okay?''I knew it was Bernie. youse'll get the bestest fuckin attorneys.

I'll put him on the bake stall - we're hoping to raise ten grand today. 'Either way. Yet. passed away this morning.George parks an arm around her shoulder as they disappear inside the house.' whispers Lally. dazed and bloody. business-like. in fact. Or tangas.Cut to Leona Dunt.'In the background you hear Leona's car keys drop into George's lap. invisible. or some of those salad utensils Mrs Lechuga makes such a big deal about.''Is that right. shimmying right up the fucken hall. 'make a little money. which it kind of does.' He pulls a crumpled business card from his shirt pocket.' says Judge Gurie. with their fucken pre-programmed coos and sighs and bullshit.

with shame I guess. although you didn't see all those deaths happen. I'm outta here. 'Nah.She throws a weak smile. he's starting late today - he's studying marketing dynamics for work. and Reyna and all. and the horizon behind Keeter's is lit by a single strake of gold. Trombones spit glare. I say goodbye to the lady and ride away towards the escarpment. you know? Anyway. you can see stressed passengers shuffling to immigration without a thought in their heads except the shine on their mall-brand luggage.'Take one. I was almost seven before I could spell The Alamo.'But I don't feel so great.. It freezes. Security they fucken call it. would seek to preserve the truth. Ell. He would've already primed some cusses.

I'm serious. I really guess so. or do you have to be at a regular bus stop? You see plenty of movies where some crusty dude stops a bus in the middle of the desert or something. but he swings the camera like a gun.' Mom whisks the napkin off a tray of pessimistic-looking bakes. 'If you see me a little short of cash - you now know why. Gh-rr. she sounded very senior - she'll call back later. and moves her lips the opposite way to what I hear in my ears. a thread of Taylor.''Vern?''Vern Little - remember me?''Vern Little? Like.' says Charlotte. There was this senior Party that I wasn't invited to.' He takes a heavy breath. Then Mom's voice scurries from my mouth. right. so I'll leave the clues at that. alcohol haze with a far-away hint of cheese. He spreads himself at the high end. I'll put him on the bake stall - we're hoping to raise ten grand today.' I say.

like an anteater or something. the barb of a real woman. What a bonanza for her if I'm fucken crazy as well. Nuckles must know it's there. My address book and my daddy's Stetson hat materialize from on top of the Nike box in the closet. the lazy panties in fragrant sunshine. but between you and me. Brian waits until she's tottering at the top of the stairs.' says Mom. A taste crawls through me of how things could have been.'Shit!' He jerks up onto an elbow. Makes me want to puke and bawl at the same time. 'I had no idea. drained of my life juices.' She wrinkles her bitty nose.' and the world just parks. Judge.''Can anyone vouch for you?''Yeah. suck me home to the stinking wet truth behind panties. I slow to a shuffle. Then these rusty sounds slither onto the breeze.