"Ten fifteen," I said brightly. "Practically time for lunch." Perhaps he wasn't really awake, or perhaps he thought it was so funny it was worth saying again, but in any case he repeated himself: "Jesus' tits." "May I come in?" I asked him politely, and he blinked a few more times and then pushed the door open all the way. "This better be good," he said, and I followed him in, past the hideous art-thing in his foyer and on to his perch by the window. He hopped up onto his stool, and I sat on the one opposite.

"I need to talk to you about my wedding," I said, and he shook his head very grumpily and squealed out, "Franky!" There was no answer and he leaned on one tiny hand and tapped the other on the table. "That little bitch had better-Goddamn it, Franky!" he called out in something like a very high-pitched bellow.

A moment later there was a scurrying sound from the back of the apartment, and then a young man came out, pulling a robe closed as he hurried in and brushing back his lank brown hair as he came to a halt in front of Manny. "Hi," he said. "I mean, you know. Good morning."

"Get coffee very quickly," Manny said without looking up at him.

"Um," Franky said. "Sure. Okay." He hesitated for half a second, just long enough to give Manny time to fling out his minuscule fist and shriek, "Now, goddamn it!" Franky gulped and lurched away toward the kitchen, and Manny went back to leaning his full eighty-five pounds of towering grumpiness on his fist and closing his eyes with a sigh, as though he were tormented by numberless hordes of truly idiotic demons.

Since it seemed obvious that there could be no possibility of conversation without coffee, I looked out the window and enjoyed the view. There were three large freighters on the horizon, sending up plumes of smoke, and closer in to shore a good scattering of pleasure boats, ranging from the multimillion-dollar playtoys headed for the Bahamas all the way down to a cluster of Windsurfers in close to the beach. A bright yellow kayak was offshore, apparently heading out to meet the freighters. The sun shone, the gulls flew by searching for garbage, and I waited for Manny to receive his transfusion.

There was a shattering crash from the kitchen, and Franky's muted wail of "Oh, shit." Manny tried to close his eyes tighter, as if he could seal out all the agony of being surrounded by terrible stupidity. And only a few minutes later, Franky arrived with the coffee service, a silver semi-shapeless pot and three squat stoneware cups, perched on a transparent platter shaped like an artist's palette.