tamgani1971

@@@@@So why do I hear lead in your voice?" "She wanted to know how I knew "Not how you knew she was bumping uglies with this guy, but-" "How I diagnosed his suicidal depression from fifteen hundred miles away "Ah! And what did you say?" "Not having a good lawyer present, I was reduced to the truth "And she thought you were un poco loco "No, Wireman, she thought I was muy loco "Does it matter?" "NoBut she's going to brood about this - believe me when I say Pam's UOlympic Brooding Team material - and I'm afraid my good deed could explode in my younger daughter's face "Assuming your wife's looking for someone to blame "It's a safe assumption "It'd rock Ilse's world more than it deserves to be rockedTom's been like an uncle to her and Melinda their whole lives 366 "Then you'll have to convince your wife that you really saw what you saw, and your daughter had nothing to do with it "How do I do that?" "How about you tell her something about herself you have no way of knowing?" "Wireman, you're crazy! I can't just make something like that happen!" "How do you know? I have to get off the phone, amigo - by the sound, Miss Eastlake's lunch just went on the floorI'll see you later?" "Yeah," I saidI was about to add goodbye, but he was already goneI hung up, wondering where I had put Pam's gardening gloves, the ones that said HANDS OFFMaybe if I had those, Wireman's idea might not turn out to be so crazy after all I looked for them all over the house and came up emptyMaybe I threw them away after making the Friends with Benefits drawing, but I couldn't remember doing itI can't remember nowAll I know is that I never saw them again vii 367 The room which Wireman and Elizabeth called the China Parlor was filled with a sad, subtropical winterlight that afternoonThe rain was heavier now, drumming against the walls and windows in waves, and a wind had gotten up, clattering through the palms surrounding El Palacio and sending shadows flying across the wallsFor the first time since I'd been coming there, I could see no sense to the china figures on the long table; there were no tableaux, only a clutter of people, animals, and buildi