metriious33

@@@@@ "You talking about bribes?" My new young employee looked glum"Well, I'm sure it happens, especially down here "Don't be so cynicalSometimes it's just a matter of friendshipYour builders, your contractors, your building-code inspectors, even your OSHA guysthey usually drink in the same bars, and they all went to the same schools "Reform schools, in some cases Jack said, "They condemned a couple beach houses at the north end of Casey Key when the erosion 74 there sped upOne of em actually did fall into the drink "Well, as you say, I'll probably hear it groaning, and it looks safe enough for the time beingLet's get my stuff inside I opened my door, got out, then staggered as my bad hip locked upIf I hadn't gotten my crutch planted in time, I would have said hello to Big Pink by sprawling on her stone doorstep "I'll get the stuff in," Jack said"You better go in and sit down, MrA cold drink wouldn't hurt, eitherYou look really tired iv The traveling had caught up with me, and I was more than tiredBy the time I eased into a living room armchair (listing to the left, as usual, and trying to keep my right leg as straight as possible), I was willing to admit to myself that I was exhausted Yet not homesick, at least not yetAs Jack went back and forth, stowing my bags in the bigger of the two bedrooms and putting the laptop on the 75 desk in the smaller one, my eye kept being drawn to the living room's western wall, which was all glass, and the Florida room beyond it, and the Gulf of Mexico beyond thatIt was a vast blue expanse, flat as a plate on that hot November afternoon, and even with the sliding glass windowwall shut, I could hear its mild and steady sighingI thought, It has no memoryIt was an odd thought, and strangely optimisticWhen it came to memory - and anger - I still had my issue