“That’d be Miss Southern Charm over at the university.” Slidel .

“Hmm. I should have cal ed her after Wal y’s col apse, but…” Looper flexed an ankle, causing his flip-flop to make smal popping sounds “…I didn’t.”

“And why is that?” Slidel ’s voice had that edge.

“I don’t like Dolores.”

“And why is that?”

Looper looked Slidel straight in the eye. “She doesn’t like me.”

The ankle flicked several times.

“And Wal y never wants anyone to know when he isn’t feeling wel . He has…” Looper hesitated “…complaints.”Pop. Pop. Pop.“The man likes to keep the state of his health private, so I didn’t broadcast that he’d taken il . I thought he’d prefer it that way.” Pop. Pop.

“But when you two showed up, and Dolores cal ed, wel , I couldn’t lie about it.” Looper put three extraI’s in the word “lie.” “That would have been pointless.”

“Please tel us what happened,” I said.

“There isn’t much to tel . I came home Thursday night and found Wal y curled up on the bathroom floor.” A hand came up, and a finger pointed through a second archway at right angles to the one through which we’d entered the living room.

“In there. He was having trouble breathing, and his face was flushed, and he could hardly speak, but I did get out of him that he felt tightness in his chest.

That scared me to death. And I could see that he’d thrown up.”

The hand fluttered to Looper’s chest.

“I got him into the car, which, let me tel you, wasn’t easy with his legs al shaky and him moaning that he was going to die.” I wondered why Looper hadn’t cal ed for an ambulance, but I didn’t ask him.

“When we got to the ER, he just stopped breathing.”

We waited for Looper to go on. He didn’t.

“They placed him on a respirator?” I prompted.

“Hmm. Wal y started breathing on his own, but he wouldn’t wake up. Stil won’t.”

“Was it a heart attack?” I asked softly.

“I suppose so. The doctors don’t real y want to tel me much.”Pop. Pop.“I’m not family, you know.” Overhead, the fan hummed softly. The artificial bouquet was beginning to cloy.

“Wal y and I have been together a long time. I real y hope he’s going to pul through.” Looper’s eyes had reddened around the rims.

“I hope so, too. He’s a fine man.”

Bril iant, Brennan.

Looper laced his fingers, and one thumb began picking at the other.

“I suppose I should phone his sister, but they aren’t close. And I keep thinking that any minute he’s going to wake up and ask for his pipe and everything wil be fine.”

Looper recrossed his legs, and gave the flip-flop a few flicks.