I swung my legs out of bed and reached for the
phoneIf you really need me, call me, Kamen had
saidAny time, day or nightAnd if his number
had been in the bedroom phone's memory, I probably
would'veBut as reality re-asserted itself - the
cottage by Lake Phalen, not the house in Mendota
Heights, no croaking voice downstairs - the urge
passed
59
Reba the Anger-Management Doll in the Boston
rocker, and grown to the size of an actual child
Well, why not? I had been angry, although at Mrs
Fevereau rather than at poor Gandalf, and I had no
idea what toothy frogs had to do with the price of
beans in BostonThe real question, it seemed to
me, was about Monica's dogHad I killed cartier tank louis Gandalf,
or had he just expired?
Or maybe the question was why I'd been so hungry
afterwardMaybe that was the question
"I took him in my arms," I whispered
Your arm, you mean, because now one is all you've
got
But my memory was taking him in my arms, plural
Channeling my anger
(it was RED)
away from that foolish woman with her cigarette
and cell phone and somehow back into myself, in
some kind of crazy closed looptaking him in my
armssurely a hallucination, but yes, that was
my memory
Taking him in my arms
60
Cradling his neck with my left elbow so I could
strangle him with my right hand
Strangle him and put him out of his misery
I slept shirtless, so it was easy to look at my
stumpI only bay bag chloe had to turn my headI could wiggle
it, but not much moreI did that a couple of
times, and then I looked up at the ceilingMy
heartbeat was slowing a little
"The dog died of his injuries," I said
An autopsy would confirm that
Except no one did autopsies on dogs that died
after being crushed to bones and jelly by Hummers
driven by careless, distracted women
I looked at the ceiling and I wished this life was
overThis unhappy life that had started out so
confidentlyI thought I would sleep no more that
night, but eventually I didIn the end we always
wear out our worries
That's what Wireman says
How to Draw a Picture (II)
Remember that the truth is in the detailsNo
matter how you see the mulberry bags world or what style it
61
imposes on your work as an artist, the truth is in
the detailsOf course the devil's there, too -
everyone says so - but maybe truth and the devil
are words for the same thingIt could be, you
know
Imagine that baby girl again, the one who fell
from the carriageShe struck the right side of
her head, but it was the left side of her brain
that suffered the worst insult - contracoup,
remember? The left side is where Broca's area is -
not that anyone knew that in the 1920sBroca's
area processes languageSmack it hard enough and
you lose your language, sometimes for a little
while, sometimes foreverBut - although they are
closely related - saying is not omega seamaster de ville seeing
The little girl still sees
She sees her five sistersHow
their hair is crazy-combed by the wind when they
come in from outsideShe sees her father's
mustache, now threaded with grayShe sees Nan
Melda - not just the housekeeper but the closest
thing to a mother this little girl knowsShe sees
the scarf Nanny wraps around her head when she
cleans; she sees the knot in the front, at the
62
very top of Nan Melda's high brown forehead; she
sees Nan Melda's silver bracelets, and how they
flash starpoints in the sunshine that falls
through the windows
Details, details, the truth is in the details
And does seeing cry out to saying, even in a
damaged mind? A wounded brain? Oh, it must, chanel purses it
mu

"The two of you bunk together with a blanket and a poncho, and I'll take one from each of you Brown returned to Wilson, covered him with his own blanket, and the blanket and poncho the others had donated"You feel better, boy?"
Wilson's shuddering was becoming less frequent"Feels good," he murmured
Neither of them said anything for a moment or two, and then Wilson began talking once more"Ah want you to know Ah 'preciate what you men are doin' A spasm, of gratefulness welled in him, and tears formed in his eyes"You're pretty goddam good men, an' they ain't a damn thing good enough for yaThe on'y thing worth a damn is when a man's got good buddies, an' you men are really stickin' to meAh swear, Brown, we maybe got a little pissed off replica pasha cartier at each other from time to time, but they ain't a thing Ah won' do for ya when Ah git fixed upAh always knew you was a buddy
"No, a man wants, wants In his eagerness he began to stutter"Ah 'preciate it, an' Ah jus' want you to know that Ah'm always gonna be your buddyYou're gonna be able to know that they's one man, Wilson, who'll never have a bad thing to say about ya
"Better take it easy, boy," Brown saidWilson's voice was rising
"Ah'm gone to sleep, but don' think Ah don' 'preciate it He was beginning to ramble again
After a few minutes he became silent
Brown stared into the darknessOnce more he swore to himselfMore than anything else it was a plea to whatever powers had formed him



The Time Machine:
WILLIAM BROWN
NO APPLE omega usa PIE TODAY

About medium size, a trifle fat, with a young boyish face, a snub nose, freckles, and reddish-brown hairBut wrinkles had formed about his eyes and there were jungle ulcers on his chinAt second glance he was easily twenty-eight years old

The neighbors always like Willie Brown, he is such an honest boy, he has such an average pleasant face, you can see it in all the stores, in the framed pictures on the desks of all the banks and offices in the country
Nice-looking boy you have there, they always say to his father, James Brown
Fine boy, but you ought to see my daughter, she's the bee-yootey
Willie Brown is very popularThe mothers of his friends always take to him, the teachers always make him a pet
But he has a knack gucci paolo watch for squaring itAw, that old crow, he says of the teacher, I wouldn't spit on her(Proceeding to spit on the dusty baked sod of the schoolyard I don' know why in tee hell she don' lea' me alone
And his family is niceThe father works for the railroad in Tulsa but he is an office man even if he has started in the yardsAnd they have their own house in the suburbs, a decent plot of ground behind itJim Brown is dependable, always improving his house a little bit, fixing the plumbing or planing the sill of a door that jams
Isn't the kind of man who runs into debt
Ella and me try to hold to one of those budgets, he says deprecatinglyIf we find we're gone a little over, we jus' cut down on the liquor for the week(Half-apologetically) I kinda look relojes omega on liquor as a luxury, especially now when you gotta break a law to get it, and you're never sure when it'll leave you blind
Keeps up with things tooThe Saturday Evening Post and Collier's and back in the early twenties a charter subscriber to Reader's DigestIt all comes in handy for small talk when you're visiting, and the only dishonesty people have ever noticed him in is that he has a habit of talking about the articles without crediting the source
Do you know thirty million people smoked cigarettes in 1928? he'll say
The Literary Digest keeps him informed on politicsI voted for Herbert Hoover in the last election, he admits pleasantly, even though I've been a Democrat as long as I can rememberBut I think I'll vote Democrat in the omega seamaster gold next

On the counter are two glass jars with metal covers and a bent ladling spoon containing essence of cherry, essence of orange(Coca-Cola is not yet in vogue Between them is a tan moist cube of halvah on a block of woodThe flies are sluggish, and one has to prod them before they fly away
There is no way to keep the place cleanGoldstein, Joey's mother, is an industrious woman, and every morning and night she sweeps out the place, washes the counter, dusts the candy, and scrubs the floor, but the grime is too ancient, it has bedded into the deepest crevices of the store, the house next door, the street beyond, it has spread into the pores and cells of everything alive and unaliveThe store cannot remain clean, and every week it is a little dirtier, a little more suppurated with the caries of the street

The c c purse old man Moshe Sefardnick sits in the rear of the place on a camp stoolThere is never any work for him to do and indeed he is too old for it, too bewilderedThe old man has never been able to understand AmericaIt is too large, too fast, the ordered suppressed castes of centuries wither here; people are always in fluxHis neighbors become wealthier, move away from the East Side to Brooklyn, to the Bronx, to the upper West Side; some of them lose their little businesses, drift farther down the street to another hovel, or migrate to the countryHe has been a peddler himself; in the spring before the first World War, he has carried his goods on his back, tramped the dirt roads through small New Jersey towns, selling scissors and thread and needlesBut he has never understood it and now in his sixties he is gold gucci watches prematurely senile, an old man relegated to the back of a tiny candy store, drifting in Talmudic halls of thought(If a man hath a worm on his brain, it may be removed by laying a cabbage leaf near the orifice onto which the worm will crawl
His grandson, Joey, now seven, comes home from school weeping, a bruise on his faceMa, they beat me up, they beat me up, they called me sheenie
Who did, who was it?
It was the Italian kids, a whole gang, they beat me up
The sounds move in the old man's mind, alter his thought streamAn undependable people; in the Inquisition they let the Jews in at Genoa, but at Naples
He shrugs, watches the mother wash the blood away, fit a patch of adhesive to the cut
The old man laughs to himself, the delicate filtered laughter of a pessimist who is reassured that things have turned out chanel logo earrings badlyNu, this America is not so differentThe old man sees the goy faces staring at the victims
Joey, he calls in a harsh cracked voice
What is it, zaydee?
The goyim, what did they call you?
Sheenie
The grandfather shrugs againFor a moment an ancient buried anger moves himHe stares at the unformed features of the boy, the bright blond hairIn America even the Juden look like goyimThe old man rouses himself to speech, talks in YiddishThey beat you because you're a Jew, he saysDo you know what a Jew is?
Yes
The grandfather feels a spasm of warmth for his grandchildHe is an old man and he will die soon, and the child is too young to understand himThere is so much wisdom he could give
It's a difficult question, the meaning of a JewIt's not a race, he says, it's not even a religion any more, maybe it mens gucci watches will never be a nationDimly, he knows he has lost the child already, but he continues talking, musing aloud
What is it, then? Yehudah Halevy said Israel is the heart of all nationsWhat attacks the body attacks the heartAnd the heart is also the conscience, which suffers for the sins of the nationsHe shrugs once more, does not differentiate between saying aloud what he thinks or merely moving his lipsIt's an interesting problem, but personally I think a Jew is a Jew because he suffers
Why?
So we will deserve the Messiah? The old man no longer knowsIt makes us better and worse than the goyim, he thinks
But the child must always be given an answerHe rouses himself, concentrates and says without certainty, It is so we will lastHe speaks again, wholly lucid for a momentWe are a harried people, beset by cartier tank must oppresso

As they walk home, he thinks of the quarrel Alice will start over the doll(Aw, shoot, Ah don' give a damnShe starts messin' up, an' Ah'll jus' throw a little ol' fit, and she'll quit right fastJus' git 'em afraid, that's only way a woman understands
He walks back along the street with her, nodding and calling to his friends(Ah jus' don' understand how screwin' makes a kid, one thing's one thing, and t'other's t'otherIt's jus' too damn confusin' when you set down and try to start thinkin' things out, wonderin' what you're gonna do nextHell, ya jus' let it happen to ya and you go along all right that way
The child's steps lag, and he picks her upCome on, honey, you hold the doll and Ah'll hold you, and we'll git along okay
(All a man got to do is take it easy an' he'll enjoy himself Feeling pleased and content, he continued homeWhen Alice started complaining about the price of the doll, he threw his little ole fit, and poured himself a drink



13

CUMMINGS put in a busy week after Hearn was transferred to Dalleson's sectionThe final and major assault on the Toyaku Line, which Cummings had been postponing for black chanel handbag almost a month, had become virtually a necessityThe character of the messages he had been receiving from Corps and Army permitted no further delay and Cummings had his informants in higher echelons as well; he knew he would have to produce some success in the next week or twoHis staff had developed the attack plan through its final variations and details, and the assault was scheduled to start in three days
But Cummings was unhappy with itThe force he could muster would be relatively powerful for the few thousand men involved, but it was a frontal attack and there was no reason to assume it would be any more successful than the attack that had preceded it and failedThe men would advance, and halt probably to a crawl at the first serious resistanceThere would be no compulsion for them to keep moving
Cummings had been toying with another plan for several weeks, but it depended on receiving some naval support, and that was always doubtfulHe sent out a few cautious feelers and received some contradictory answers which had left him undecided; the secondary plan had been sidetracked in his mind before the need to produce something dior rasta bag tangible and effectiveBut it was this other plan that intrigued him, and at a conference of his staff officers one morning he decided to draw up an additional set of plans which would incorporate the naval support
This other plan was simple but powerfulThe extreme right flank of the Toyaku Line was anchored on the water's edge a mile or two behind the point where the peninsula joined the islandSix miles to the rear of that was a small cove called Botoi BayThe General's new plan was to land about a thousand men at Botoi and have them drive inland on a diagonal to take the center of the Toyaku Line from the rearAt the same time his frontal attack, reduced in strength, of course, would drive forward to meet the invading troopsThat invasion could work if the landing was successful
Only that was the doubtful part of itThe General had enough landing craft assigned him for ferrying supplies from freighters off the island to be able to transport his invasion troops in one wave if necessary, but Botoi Bay was almost out of range of his artillery, and air reconnaissance had shown that fifty or perhaps even a hundred Japanese chanel classic bag troops were entrenched in bunkers and pillboxes on that stretch of beachArtillery couldn't drive them out nor dive bombersIt would take at least one destroyer and preferably two firing at point-blank range, perhaps a thousand yards offshoreIf he were to send a battalion in without naval support a bloody and disastrous massacre would occur
And the beach at Botoi Bay was the only place where he could land troops for at least fifty miles down the coastPast Botoi some of the densest jungle forests on Anopopei grew virtually into the water, and nearer his own front line were bluffs too steep to be scaled by invasion troopsThere was no alternativeTo take the Toyaku Line from the rear they would need the Navy
The thing that appealed to Cummings about this flanking invasion was what he called its "psychological soundness The men who would land at Botoi would be in the enemy rear without any safe way to retreat, and their only security would be to drive ahead and meet their own troopsThey would have to advanceAnd, conversely, the troops attacking frontally would do so with more enthusiasmCummings had found from experience that men see by chloe bag fought better when they believed their share of an assignment was the easy partThey would be pleased they missed the invasion, and even more important, they would believe that the resistance before them would be softer, less decisive, because of the movement in the rear
After the battle plan for the frontal assault had been completed, and it was merely a question of waiting a few days until all the supplies had been brought up to the front, Cummings called a special conference of his staff officers, outlined the new plan to them, and gave orders that it should be developed as a corollary of the major attack, to be used as opportunity grantedAt the same time he sent a request through channels for three destroyersThen he put his staff to work
After a hurried lunch, Major Dalleson returned to his G-3 tent, and began to draw up the plans for the Botoi invasionHe sat himself down before his desk, opened his collar, sharpened a few pencils with slow absorbed motions, his heavy lower lip dangling pensively and moistly, and then he selected a blank piece of paper and wrote "Operation Coda" in large block letters at the top of his gucci watch bands shee

Gallagher felt a chill"What is it, Father?"
"You know, son, there're a lot of things which are difficult to understandYou just have to believe that it's right, and that there's a good reason for it, that God understands and sees and does what is best, even if we don't understand right away
Gallagher was ill at ease and then abruptly franticAll kinds of wild thoughts passed through his mindHe blurted out, "My wife didn't leave me, did she?" He felt shame as soon as he had spoken
"No, son, but there has been a death
"My mother?"
Father Leary shook his head
Gallagher thought his child had died in birthHe felt a quick passage of reliefThat ain't so bad, went through his mindFor an instant he miu miu bow bag wondered again dumbly if Father Leary had called him in to give him the job as chaplain's assistant
"No, son, I'm afraid it was your wife
The words passed through Gallagher numblyHe sat there without any response, without thinking of anything at allAn insect buzzed in through the folded flaps of the tent, and he watched it"Wha-a-a-at?" he asked
"Your wife died in childbirth, Gallagher Father Leary looked away"They were able to save your child, though
"Mary wasn't very big," Gallagher saidThe word "dead" formed for him, and because it now had only one meaning to him, he saw Mary quivering and twitching like the Japanese soldier who had been killed in the drawHe began to shiver uncontrollablyThe chanel bags collection word had no senseHe sat there very numb; his thoughts had retreated into some deep secure closet of his mind and the words of the chaplain fell abstractly on the anesthetized surface of his brainFor a few seconds he felt as if he were hearing a story about someone else in which he was not very interestedOddly, the only thing he told himself was that he had to look alert to impress the chaplain"Ohhhhhh," he said at last
"The information they gave me was very slight, but I'll give you the details when I hear them, sonIt's terribly hard to be so far away from home, and be unable to see your beloved ones for a last time
"Yeah, it's hard, Father," Gallagher said automaticallyLike the rising of the dawn, omega quartz Gallagher was slowly becoming able to distinguish the objects about him, and understand the news he had heardHis mind was telling him something bad had happened, and he thought, I hope Mary don't worry over the newsHe realized suddenly that Mary would not be worrying, and before the contradiction, he retreated; he gazed dully at the wood of the chair upon which the chaplain was sittingHe felt as if he were in a church, and mechanically he looked at his hands and tried to assume a serious expressionIt's not without meaning that your child was savedIf you wish, I'll inquire for you as to who will take care of herPerhaps we can arrange a furlough for you
Gallagher's spirits roseHe would be seeing his prada milano wifeBut Mary was dead; this time his mind did not retreat quite so farHe sat there thinking of how pleasant the sunlight had been that morning as he climbed on the truck, and dumbly he understood that he wanted to go back to that moment
"Son, you've got to have courageHe could not feel the soles of his feet, and when he rubbed his mouth it felt swollen and alien under his fingersHe had a moment of panic, and he thought of the snake in the caveI bet a fuggin Yid was the doctor, he said to himself, and then forgot the thoughtIt left him with a pleasant glow of righteousness, however"Well, thanks, Father," he said
"Go to your tent, son, and lie down," Father Leary said Gallagher walked through the bivouac mulberry roxanne a