like himself. We bowled right through the endless swamp country at a steady forty-five. .Sal, I think the country wont change for a long time. If youll drive, Ill sleep now.. I took the wheel and drove among reveries of my own, through Linares, t canada goose black coat hrough hot, flat swamp country, across the steaming Rio Soto la Marina near Hidalgo, and on. A great verdant jungle valley with long fields of green crops opened before me. Groups of men watched us pass from a narrow old-fashioned bridge. The hot river flowed. Then we rose in altitude till a kind of desert country began reappearing canada goose black coat . The city of Gregoria was ahead. The boys were sleeping, and 1 was alone in my eternity at the wheel, and the road ran straight as an arrow. Not like driving across Carolina, or Texas, or Arizona, or Illinois; but like
this might not happe canada goose black coat n. Rabbit likes the idea of walking up from his mothers place with his boy. Two-and-a-half, Nelson walks like a trooper, with choppy stubborn steps. Theyd walk along under the trees and then like magic there would be Daddys car at a curb. But it will take longer this way, what with his own mother talking slyly an canada goose black coat d roundabout about how incompetent Janice is. He hated it when his mother went on like that; maybe she did it just to kid him, but he couldnt take her lightly, she was somehow too powerful, at least with him. He had better go for the car first and pick the kid up with it. But he doesnt want to do it this way. He just doesnt. The problem knits in front of him and he feels sickened by the intricacy. Janice calls from the kitchen, And honey pick up a pack of
Three Daiquiri, one double whisky Scotch onthe rock, and goes.Rabbit asks Ruth, Whens your birthday?August. Why?Mines February, he says. I win.You win. She agrees as if she knows how he canada goose black coat feels: that you cantbe master, quite, of a woman whos older.If you recognized me, he asks, why didn canada goose black coat t you recognize Mr.Tothero? He was coach of that team.Who looks at coaches? They dont do any good, do they?Dont do any good? A high-school team is all coach; isnt it?Tothero answers, Its all boy, Harry. You cant make gold out oflead. You cant make gold out of lead.Sure you can, Rabbit says. When I came out in my freshman year I didnt know my head from myhe stops himself; after all these are ladies of a sortelbow. Yes you did, Harry, yes you did. I had nothing to teach you; I just let you run. He keeps looking
after youre first-rate at something, no matter what, it kind of takes the kick o canada goose black coat ut of being second-rate. And that little thing Janice and I had going, boy, it was really second-rate. The dashboard lighter pops. Eccles uses it and quickly returns his eyes to his driving. Theyve come down into the outskirts of Brewer. He asks, Do you believe in God? Having rehearsed that this morning, Rabbit answers without hes canada goose black coat itation, Yes. Eccles blinks in surprise. The furry lid in his one-eyed profile shutters, but his face does not turn. Do you think, then, that God wants you to make your wife suffer? Let me ask you. Do you think God wants a waterfall to be a tree? This question of Jimmies sounds, Rabbit realizes, ridiculous; he is annoyed that Eccles simply takes it in, with a sad drag of smoke. He
buckle; as if the wide world is participating in Nelsons readjustment. I dont know why the boy is such a sissy, Mrs. Springer says. Or maybe I do. Her sly adding this irks Eccles. Why? The liverish skin under her eyes lifts and the corners of her mouth pull down in an appraising scowl. Well, hes like his dad: spoiled. Hes been made too much of and thinks the world ow canada goose black coat es him what he wants. It was the other boy; Nelson only wanted what was his. Yes and canada goose black coat I suppose you think with his dad it was all Janices fault. The way she pronounces Janice makes the girl seem more substantial, precious, and important than the pathetic shadow in Eccles mind. He wonders if shes not, after all, right: if he hasnt gone over to the other side. No I dont, he says. I think his behavior has no justification. This
stiffly nods at Eccles; seeing Harry in the corner of her eye makes her stumble on her sore legs and tumbledown saddle shoes. Eccles gets up and goes canada goose black coat with her through the door to the outside. Afte canada goose black coat r a while the two of them come back in along with Mr. Springer, who wears a tiny-knotted necktie and a laundry-fresh shirt. His little sandy mustache has been trimmed so often his upper lip has kind of shrivelled under it. He says, Hello, Harry. This acknowledgment from her husband, despite some talking-to theyve probably had from Eccles, goads the fat hag into turning on Harry and telling him, If youre sitting there like a buzzard young man hoping shes going to die, you might as well go back to where youve been living because shes doing fine without you and has been all along. The two men hustle
walls of a prison. Outside, the wide sky hosts a high sun, blue through the hours, and Rabbit is further paincked by the thought that on such a day his parents used to take him and Mim on walks to the quarrythey are wasting a beautiful Sunday. But they cant get organized enough to get out. He and Nelson could go but Nelsons strange fright makes him reluctant to leave his mother, and Rabbit, hoping to possess her eventually, hovers near her like a miser near tre canada goose black coat asure. His lust glues them together. She feels this and is oppressed by canada goose black coat it. Why dont you go out? Youre making the baby nervous. Youre makingmenervous. Dont you want a drink? No. No.I just wish youd sit down or stop smoking or rock the baby or something. And stop touching me. Its too hot. I think I should be back at the hospital. Do
His parents are canada goose black coat not here. Invisible hands bonelessly trail up and down the keys of an electric organ. The unnatural coloring of the interior comes to a violent head in the hothouse flowers arranged around a little white coffin. The coffin, with handles of painted gold, rests on a platform draped with a deep purple curtain; he thinks the curtain might draw apart and reveal, like a magicians trick, the living baby underneath. Janice looks in and yields a whimper and an undertakers man, blond and young with an unnaturally red face, conjures a bottle of spirits of ammonia out of his side pocket. Her mother holds it under her nos canada goose black coat e and Janice suppresses a face of disgust; her eyebrows stretch up, showing the bumps her eyeballs make under the thin membrane. Harry takes her arm and turns her so