Have you seen my tin, my Sweet Owen tin?" "I...
Have you seen my
tin, my Sweet Owen tin?"
"I think it was in the kitchenShould I bring
it?"
"Not on such a wet day," she said"I thought I'd
have you throw her in the pond, the pond would do,
but I've changed my mindIt seems unnecessary on
such a wet dayThe quality of mercy is not
strained, you knowIt droppeth like the gentle
rain
"From heaven," I said She flapped her hand as if that part
were of no matter
"Why don't you arrange your chinas, Elizabeth?
They're all mixed up today
She cast a glance at the table, then looked at the
window when an especially strong gust of wind
slapped it with rain"I'm so
fucking confused And then, with a spite I would
not have guessed she had in her: "They all died
and left me to this
I was the last one rolex swiss watches to be repulsed by her lapse
into vulgarity; I understood it too wellMaybe
the quality of mercy isn't strained, there are
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millions of us who live and die by the idea, but
we have things like this waiting
She said, "He never should have got that thing,
but he didn't know
"What thing?"
"What thing," she agreed, and noddedI want to get out of here before the big
boy comes
After that we both lapsed into silenceElizabeth
closed her eyes and appeared to doze off in her
wheelchair
For something to do, I got out of my own chair,
which would have looked at home in a gentlemen's
club, and approached the tableI plucked up a
china girl and boy, looked at them, then put them
asideI scratched absently at the arm that wasn't
there, studying the dolce and gabbana bucket handbag senseless litter before me
There had to be at least a hundred figures on the
polished length of oakAmong
them was a china woman with an old-fashioned cap
on - a milkmaid's cap, I thought - but I didn't
want her, eitherThe cap was wrong, and besides,
she was too youngI found another woman with long
373
painted hair, and she was betterThat hair was a
little too long and a little too dark, but -
No it wasn't, because Pam had been to the beauty
parlor, sometimes known as the Midlife Crisis
Fountain of Youth
I held the china figure, wishing I had a house to
put her in and a book for her to read
I tried to switch the figurine to my right hand -
perfectly natural because my right hand was there,
I could feel it - and it fell to the table with tiffany heart lock necklace a
clackIt didn't break, but Elizabeth's eyes
opened"Dick! Was that the train? Did it whistle?
Did it cry?"
"Not yet," I said"Why don't you nap a little?"
"Oh, you'll find it on the second floor landing,"
she said as if I had asked her something else, and
closed her eyes again"Call me when the train
comesI'm so sick of this stationAnd watch for
the big boy, that cuntlicker could be anywhereMy right arm itched horriblyI
reached into my back pocket, hoping my notebook
was thereI'd left it on the kitchen
counter back at Big PinkBut that made me think
of the Palacio kitchenThere was a notepad for
374
messages on the counter where I'd left the tinI
hurried back, snatched up the pad, stuck it
between my teeth, then almost ran back to the
China vintage cartier watch Parlor, already pulling my Uni-ball pen from
my breast pocketI sat down in my wingback chair
and began to sketch the china doll rapidly while
the rain whipped the windows and Elizabeth sat
leaning in her wheelchair across the table from me,
dozing with her mouth ajarThe wind-driven
shadows of the palms flew around the walls like
bats
It didn't take long, and I realized something as I
worked: I was pouring the itch out through the tip
of the pen, decanting it onto the pageThe woman
in my drawing was the china figure, but she was
also PamThe woman was Pam, but she was also the
china figureHer hair was longer than when I'd
last seen her, and spread out on her shoulders
She was sitting in
(the BURN, the CHAR)
a chairWhat chair? A rocking cheap chanel watches chair