asy1952

@@@@@Usually the shepherdess with her face chipped off "Did she say anything else?" "She wanted food, I told youBy then she'd stopped looking at the chinas, and she was getting confused again Had she gotten confused because Percy wasn't there? Or the Perse? Maybebut if she'd ever had a china boat, I'd never seen itI thought - not for the first time - that Perse was a funny wordYou couldn't trust it 641 Wireman said, "At one point she told me the table was leaking "And was it?" There was a brief pauseThen he said, not very humorously: "Are we having a little joke at Wireman's expense, mi amigo?" "No, I'm curiousWhat did she say? Exactly?" "Just that'The table is leaking' But her chinas are on a table-table, as you well know, not a water-tableDon't lose your good thoughts "I'm trying not to, but I have to say you seem a little off your conversational game, Edster "Don't call me Edster, it sounds like a vintage FordYou brought her soup, and she waswhat? Gone again?" "Pretty much, yeahShe'd broken a couple of her china figures on the floor - a horse and a rodeo girl "Did she say 'It's leaking' before or after you brought her the food?" "After, before, what does it matter?" "I don't know," I said"Which was it?" 642 "BeforeAfterward, she'd pretty much lost interest in everything, including chucking the Sweet Owen tin into the pond for the umpteenth timeI brought the soup in her favorite mug, but she pushed it away so hard she slopped some on her poor old armShe didn't even seem to feel itEdgar, why are you asking these questions? What do you know?" He was pacing around with the cell phone to his ear