m. She's fatter than Mom, so Mom feels good around her. Mom

t the sheriff's secretary. 'Lord, where is he?

isky?' twee

e brown real

t to imagine her humping or anything. She has a lemon

you fe

bought ribs,'

d to be on the Pritikin die

damn near lives a

ood L

m,' says Eileena. 'You

she has books on her head. It's on account of her center o

akfa

oesn't matter what you tell her, she's

Pam, I hav

to my feet. 'Eileena, I'm taking Vern - you tell Vaine Gurie this boy ain't eaten

am, Vaine ain

child has a right to eat.' Pam's

les,' says Eileena.

u know that. We're gone,'

but the offices seem empty; the sheriff's offices that is. Next thing you know, I'm halfway out of t

before a storm, burping lightning without a sound. Fate clouds. They mean get the fuck out of town, go visit Nana or

t up in Luling must've crawled over here. These days our toughest thing is congestion at the drive-thru on a Saturday night. I can't say I've seen too many places, but I've studied this one close and the learnings must be the same; all the money, and folk's interest in fixing things, parade around the center of

ll me why I can just

a screen-reflector from under the wipers; when I look around I see every car has one. Seb Harris rides through the haze at the end of the s

. 'We just saved us the

the choice of side-order, you can tell. She'll end up getting coleslaw anyway, on account of Mom says it'

s. Now she'll have to cut back two blocks, and she'll say, 'Lord, nothing stays put in this town.' Reporters and camera people roam the streets in packs. I keep my head down, and scan th

ese black forms scurry around with different-colored feet and, just like when anything weird screens through the Mercury window, Glen Campbell starts to sing 'Galveston' from Pam's ole stereo. It's a law of nature. Pam only has this one cassette, see - The Best of Glen Campbell. It

ttom pieces befor

pieces will be

ast the refresher wipes before we turn into Liberty

e girls crying

, oh Galv

, even more girls. It maneuvers slowly around the stains on

your sea wave

e mothers, and behind the mothers are the c

h the cannon

. Mom's so-called friend Leona was already devastated last week, when Penney's

iny crosses ...' I feel Palmyra's hand on

fferent angle than I last saw him. It doesn't show all the other bodies around, all the warped, i

, and dream of

in the very, very end. He didn't expect to die Tuesday; they found him wearing silk panties. Now girls' underwear is a major focus of

'Hay-zoose, slow the fuck u

heavy as this last Tuesday before summer vacation. Physics, then math, t

nd his mind's clumsy too; the certainty of our kid logic got washed away, leaving pebbles of anger and doubt that crack together with each new wave of emotion. My buddy, who once did the best David Letterman impression you ever saw, has been abducted by

is. Now I cuss the day I ever saw my daddy's gun, and I guess Jesus cusses his day too. He needed a different role model, but nobody was there for him. Our teacher Mr Nuckles spent all kinds of time with him after school, but I ain't sure ole powder-puff Nuckles and his circus of fancy words really count. I mean, the guy's over thirty, and you just

ole man's truck, flicking his tongue at

kings of the universe, when the dirt on a sneaker mattered more than the sneaker itself. We razed the wilds outside town with his dad's gun, terrorized ole beer cans, watermelons, and trash. It's like we were men before we were boys, back before we were whatever th

Thinker we heard about in

sounded like "

ng really happens unl

d of a Manual Cunt, and him going, "I only drive

is real, man. Manual Cunt asked the thing about the kitten - the riddle, that if there was a box with a kitten inside, and if

s this? I bet t

x, definitely gonna die at some moment, and Manual Cunt asks if it may as well be called d

ier just to stomp o

hole.' You can tick Jesus off real easy

e fucken p

That if things don't happen unless you see them happening - do they

f Martirio High School slam into view through the