"And the eight
o'clock Oxycontin, too
"How bad's the pain?"
"Nothing a couple of Tylenol won't handleAt
least until midnight
"It's probably the change in climate," she said
I had no doubt those things were part of it, but I
didn't think they were all of itMaybe it was
crazy, but I thought drawing had played a partIn
fact, it was something I sort of knewWe talked for awhile, and little by little I could
hear that concern going out of her voiceWhat
replaced it was unhappinessShe was understanding,
I suppose, that this thing was really happening,
that her mother and father weren't just going to
wake up one morning and take it backBut she
promised to call Pam and e-mail Melinda, let
classic chanel handbag them
know I was still in the land of the living"Don't you have e-mail there, Dad?"
"I do, but tonight you're my e-mail, Cookie
91
She laughed, sniffed, laughed againI thought to
ask if she was crying, then thought againBetter
not to, maybe"Ilse? I better let you go now, honeyI want to
shower off the dayThen she burst out: "I
hate to think of you all the way down there in
Florida by yourself! Maybe falling on your ass in
the shower! It's not right!"
"Cookie, I'm fineThe kid - his
name's Hurricanes, I thought"His name's Jim Cantori But that was a case of
right church, wrong pew
"That's not the same, and you know itDo you want
me to come?"
"Not unless you want your mother to scalp us
women's rolex watch both
bald," I said"What I want is for you to stay
right where you are and TCB, darlinBut take care of yourself
"Huh?"
"Never mind
"I still want to hear you promise, Dad
92
For one terrible and surpassingly eerie moment I
saw Ilse at eleven, Ilse dressed in a Girl Scout's
uniform and looking at me with Monica Goldstein's
shocked eyesBefore I could stop the words, I
heard myself saying, "Promise"Never heard that one before
"There's a lot about me you don't know
I put the phone gently back into its cradle and
stared at it for a long timevii
Instead of showering, I walked down the beach to
the waterI quickly discovered my crutch was no
help on the sand - was, in fact, a hindrance -
coco chanel handbags but
once I was around the corner of the house, the
water's edge was less than two dozen steps awayThat was easy if I went slowThe surge was mild,
the incoming wavelets only inches highIt was
hard to imagine this water whipped into a
93
destructive hurricane frenzyLater, Wireman would tell me God always punishes
us for what we can't imagineThat was one of his better onesI turned to go back to the house, then pausedThere was just enough light to see a deep carpet
of shells - a drift of shells - under the jutting
Florida roomAt high tide, I realized, the front
half of my new house would be almost like the
foredeck of a shipI remembered Jack saying I'd
get plenty of warning if the Gulf
tiffany and co jewelry of Mexico
decided to eat the place, that I'd hear it
groaningHe was probably rightbut then, I was
also supposed to get plenty of warning on a job
site when a heavy piece of equipment was backing
upI limped back to where my crutch leaned against
the side of the house and took the short plank
walk around to the doorI thought about the
shower and took a bath instead, going in and
coming out in the careful sidesaddle way Kathi
Green had shown me in my other life, both of us
dressed in bathing suits, me with my right leg
looking like a badly butchered cut of meatNow
94
the butchery was in the past