“Oh sure, he breaks one thing of yours and you break about five of his.”

“Yeah well, you mess with the best, you lay with the rest. You know?” Floyd handed Leo another beer. Leo drank off half right away.

“So how come I haven’t heard from the smokeys? Chick coming after me himself, or what?”

“Forget it. Chick told me he feels bad he ever hit you.”

“You’re dickin’ me.”

“No way, soon as he’s better, he’s moving up to Vermont. The whole frigging family’s moving up.” Leo swallowed more beer. He thought how Floyd was right, a cold bath was going to feel good.

“Your girlfriend too?”

“Hey I don’t give a shit. She fucking does what she wants anyway.”

“She fucking does?” Floyd stuck his finger in his closed hand and pulled it out and pushed it in slow. He raised his eyebrows, making ridges all up his forehead.

Leo smiled. “Does a saw cut wood?”

Floyd laughed so hard he coughed. He lit up another cigarette, then he switched on the radio, got a news announcer, and switched it back off. “So Chicken Little is calling off the dogs then?”

“Yep.”

“And I can call up my boys and tell ’em?”

“What about Dewey?”

“What about him? You got his attention, but I can tell you first hand, he don’t have much of an attention span.”

They both laughed. Floyd put the truck in drive and spun out gravel as he turned onto the river road. Leo drained the last of his beer. He rolled down the window and threw the empty can out into the trees.

In the dream Leo’s back was on fire. He stood in a parlor that was half like the Suthers’, half like the Donovans’; there was the empty fireplace and the portrait of the bearded man above it, but off to the right, instead of the Donovans’ kitchen, was the Suthers’ parlor window overlooking the woods down to the river. And it was the river Leo wanted to get to. Nobody seemed to notice the fire. Jim and Mrs. Donovan stood over by her new painting, talking about it. Allie sat on the floor reading a book. She wore a T-shirt but no pants or underwear. Her legs were spread apart and Katie Faye Suther was wriggling out of her. His mother was dressed in a blouse and skirt and her hair was pinned up to the side of her head. She looked up at Leo and smiled, her red lipstick catching the light from the flames licking over his shoulders.