Spotless toothbrush soapHe saw the manager, the bellboys and the porter standing in the hallway, looking at a picture in a gilt frame, which took up a large part of the wall. Hei?ur laughs her spasmodic laugh, which inspires more dread than cheer in those who aren’t used to it. I’ve often looked in the mirror, but I’m not there. The buses, all six of them, were parked in a single row. From where he stood, Phil could see the front ends, those big, bubbled headlights, the VW insignias between them. To save the flashlight’s battery, Phil kept the thing off unless he needed it, which meant that the only light on the gravel lot now came from the orange-bulbed arc lamps that lined Avenue I. In that strange, muted glow, the buses looked new. The spots where oxidation had done its job on the paint hid in it, reflecting and absorbing the hazy light just as the more polished areas did. The headlights, all twelve of them, crystallized the light back at Phil in a way that reminded him of the twinkling eyes of cartoon children. Potato leaped from Linda’s arms and into our golf balls. She batted them between her paws and messed up the neat piles. I’ve got to be careful not to let Edda intimidate me. She’s coming with us. I don’t look back; that would be fatal. If Edda noticed me looking back to check on her, she’d turn me into a little pillar of salt and rush off to Reykjav?k with her brain-damaged friends. All days are the end of something, even if only of themselves, and at the same time they’re a start, if we remember that they’re new. “You astound me Duncan. Jaho is dead, the gallows are up, and you risk your life coming to talk about the miller?” She saw the fierce light in his eyes. “Yes. The same, the man who disappeared after Ramsey’s men arrived.” Not as fancy as that, as far as I know. No, they grind up aspirin tablets and inject them. The poor Chicken definitely got hold of something stronger. He retracted his hand.‘What’s the problem?’ “No one seems spared the beatings. But a man could fake a limp or even take a bruise to avoid suspicion.” There’s no such thing as a cold in the beyond. “Red lapels,” Duncan said. “Marines. The Kraken Club started in the Admiralty. Where are the marines?” he asked the old native. Huh. The telephone cord is short. I can just barely slip inside the kitchen door, and speak with my mouth at the door crack as if I’m whispering an immense secret into the foyer. “That was a beautiful eulogy,” Lana whispered. Well? ‘Is that so?’ Wouldn’t you like to take a bath, Edda? I said, taking care not to be gruff, but she sprang to her feet like a wild animal and abruptly struck my upper arm with the back of her hand.. |