guthdru0308

@@@@@ "No more messages," the phone robot said"The message tape is full I stood staring down at the machine, thought of erasing the tape, then decided to save it and play it for WiremanI undressed, brushed my teeth, and went to bedI lay in the dark, feeling the soft throb of my head, while below me the shells whispered the last thing she'd said over and over: My father was a skin diver 8 - Family Portrait i Things slowed down for awhileSometimes that happensThe pot boils, and then, just before it can boil over, some hand - God, fate, maybe plain coincidence - lowers the heatI mentioned this once to Wireman and he said life is like Friday on 337 a soap operaIt gives you the illusion that everything is going to wrap up, and then the same old shit starts up on Monday I thought he'd go with me to see a doctor and we'd find out what was wrong with himI thought he'd tell me why he'd shot himself in the head and how a man survives that sort of thingThe answer seemed to be, "With seizures and a lot of trouble reading the fine print Maybe he'd even be able to tell me why his employer had a bee in her bonnet about keeping Ilse off the islandAnd the capper: I'd decide on what came next in the life of Edgar Freemantle, the Great American Primitive None of those things actually happened, at least for awhileLife does produce changes, and the end results are sometimes explosive, but in soap operas and in real life, big bangs often have a long fuse Wireman did agree to go see a doctor with me and "get his head examined," but not until March February was too busy, he saidWinter residents - what Wireman called "the monthlies," as if they were menstrual periods instead of tenants - would start moving into all the Eastlake properties the 338 coming weekendThe first snowbirds to arrive would be the ones Wireman liked leastThese were the Godfreys from Rhode Island, known to Wireman (and hence to me) as Joe and Rita Mean DogThey came for ten weeks every winter and stayed in the house closest to the Eastlake estateThe signs warning of their Rotties and their Pit Bull were out; Ilse and I had seen themWireman said Joe Mean Dog was an ex-Green Beret, in a tone of voice which seemed to indicate that explained everyth