milli2017ize

@@@@@Our closest neighbors were the Goldsteins In the middle of October, I finally took Kathi Green's advice and began to walkThese were not the Great Beach Walks I took later, and I came back from even these short outings with my bad hip crying for mercy (and more than once with tears standing in my eyes), but they were steps in the right directionI was returning from one of these walks when MrsFevereau hit Monica's dog I was three-quarters of the way home when the Fevereau woman went past me in her ridiculous mustard-colored HummerAs always, she had her cell phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other; as always she was going too fastI barely 41 noticed, and I certainly didn't see Gandalf dash into the street up ahead, concentrating only on Monica, coming down the other side of the street in Full Girl ScoutI was concentrating on my reconstructed hipAs always near the end of my short strolls, this so-called medical marvel felt packed with roughly ten thousand tiny points of broken glass Then tires yowled, and a little girl's scream joined them: "GANDALF, NO!" For a moment I had a clear and unearthly vision of the crane that had almost killed me, the world I'd always lived in suddenly eaten up by a yellow much brighter than MrsFevereau's Hummer, and black letters floating in it, swelling, getting larger: LINK-BELT Then Gandalf began to scream, too, and the flashback - what DrKamen would have called a recovered memory, I suppose - was goneUntil that afternoon in October four years ago, I hadn't known dogs could scream I broke into a lurching, crabwise run, pounding the sidewalk with my red crutchI'm sure it would have appeared ludicrous to an onlooker, but no one 42 was paying any attention to meMonica Goldstein was kneeling in the middle of the street beside her dog, which lay in front of the Hummer's high, boxy grilleHer face was white above her forestgreen uniform, from which a sash of badges and medals hungThe end of this sash was soaking in a spreading pool of Gandalf's bloodFevereau half-jumped and half-fell from the Hummer's ridiculously high driver's seatAva Goldstein came running from the front door of the Goldstein house, crying her daughter's name Goldstein's blouse was half-buttoned "Don't touch him, honey, don't touch him," MrsShe was still holding her cigarette and she puffed nervously a