Stony finished his coffee. "Just remember, Butler, no matter whatever else you forget in your life, always remember that when you're wipin' an old guy's ass, always do it gently and make sure the strokes are all upwards towards the spine. You got that?"

Butler belched into his napkin.

"This afternoon, they assigned us one-on-one to lifters who've been there a while, so they could show us the ropes, right? I got assigned to this guy Reynard, a very hip spic about twenny, twenny-one. The cat's goin' to hairdresser school on the sly. I tell him what happened in the classroom. He cracked up. He says to me, 'Churchill's the meanest fuck in the whole place.' He takes me down to the locker room. There's nobody around. He opens his locker and whips some bad shit on me, we split a big jay sittin' on this bench. He says, 'This'll make it easier,' then he takes me up to geriatrics. I got a mean buzz on. We're walkin' through the halls in baggy whites, all these people in wheelchairs or staggerin' aroun' in their bathrobes. I realize right away gettin' stoned was a big mistake. I'm comin' down with a bad case of the horrors. I start trippin' out on death, an' what's it all mean, an' I'm gonna do myself in before I get on this stage, an' I'm really fuckin' scared, Butler. See, Reynard, he's been there two years, so like he's immune, you know? He can function like he's at an office somewheres an' I don't wanna tell him what I'm feelin', right? Anyways, he takes me into this long room with maybe twenty beds. All I hear is moans and gags an' screamin'. There probably ain't one guy in this room who got six months to live, all old, old." Stony rubbed his nose with the heel of his palm. "An' I'm blitzed outta my skull, right? I don't wanna look right or left, up or down, I just look straight ahead at the far wall, an' all these guys are yellin' out, 'Hiya, Reynard, hiya, Reynard,' but like babies, you know? So I'm just walkin' with my eyes straight ahead, an' all of a sudden I trip over somethin' an' almost break my ass. I look down, an' I swear, Butler, I scream like a cunt. There's this fuckin' leg layin' in the middle of the floor. Reynard laughs an' he picks it up. It's an artificial leg. He puts it next to this guy's nightstand an' he says, 'Be cool, baby.' I just flipped. I said, 'Reynard, I gotta get outta here.' He says, 'Don't sweat it. You'll get used to it,' and then he tells me the first day he was workin' there he got so sick he puked all over this old guy's head. Then he asks me if I want more grass."