“Fucking like a couple of dogs in heat. Get out a hose. You know, everybody does it, but they don’t want the world to see it. And the reason they don’t want the world to see it is because love manifested on this vibration is of a low order. It really isn’t love, it’s just lust, one of the cardinal vices in the Buddhist scheme. Don’t you just envy them?”

“God, no! What are the other…cardinal vices?”

“Anger, avarice, and indolence. The cardinal virtues bein’ chastity, generosity, gentleness, and humility. Plato’s celebrated virtues would be justice—”

“Valor, temperance, and wisdom.”

“Very good. I thought propriety was in there but you may be right. The prison library is rather inadequate. That’s neither here nor there. Carl and Maizie. Together they feel as one. This is rapture in the back seat of a car. You feel like you’re missing out on something? Smellin’ kinda funky in that back seat.”

“What are the Christian virtues?”

“What is this? You tell me.”

“Faith, love, hope—”

“I’m not a Christian, but it seems to me that if you can have sympathy for another human being, the walls break down.”

She took a deep breath and swallowed hot salty tears. “He took her to heaven. And you’re right, she acts like she is in heaven, remember? Don’t try to give me aversion therapy—‘it stinks in the back seat.’ ”

“You say you wanna set them on fire out in the desert—that’s the downside of all this shit. Part and parcel. That’s all I’m saying. Think of them like dogs in heat, it’s easier that way. And never, but never, get involved with a married man.”

“My options are very limited,” she said. “I always imagined being carried away by the passion. Swept up in kisses. You’re wrecking the whole deal for me.”

“This is not Gone With the Wind. This is a couple of dogs in heat. These two are bad. Give me the match. Has Carl got kids?”

“Three.”

“That’s splashing bad karma all over the place. Poor Carl, he needs this and he needs that. Fucks his kids, fucks his wife, fucks you—he’s a sorry motherfucker. And you feel guilty crapping around with a married guy, right? Why would you mess around with a married man? You are not without blame, here. I get caught boosting and I do my time. I know the rules.”

“You’re right,” she said absently. “He always needs this and that.”

“And he didn’t have the balls to come right out with it. He’s doing it incrementally. I could go over there now and shoot him right between the eyes if you have an aversion to flame. He won’t know what hit him. Where does he live?”

“I’d like that. In a way I’d like that, but—”