“Let me tell you something else. At first with Charlie, whenever I’d feel guilty, so I couldn’t relax, I’d just think of your mother, how she’s not only treated me but treated Nelson, her own grandson, and I’d say to myself, O.K., fella, sock it to me, and I’d just come.”

“O.K., O.K. Spare me the fine print.”

“I’m sick, so sick, of sparing you things. There’ve been a lot of days”—and this makes her too sad to confess, so that a constraint slips like a net over her face, which goes ugly under the pull—“when I was sorry you came back that time. You were a beautiful brainless guy and I’ve had to watch that guy die day by day.”

“It wasn’t so bad last night, was it?”

“No. It was so good I’m angry. I’m all confused.”

“You’ve been confused from birth, kid.” He adds, “Any dying I’ve been doing around here, you’ve been helping it right along.” At the same time, he wants to fuck her again, to see if she can turn inside out again. For some minutes last night she turned all tongue and his mouth was glued to hers as if in an embryo the first cell division had not yet occurred.

The phone rings. Janice plucks it from its carriage on the kitchen wall and says, “Hi, Daddy. How was the Poconos? Good. I knew she would. She just needed to feel appreciated. Of course he’s here. Here he is.” She holds it out to Rabbit. “For you.”

Old man Springer’s voice is reedy, coaxing, deferential. “Harry, how’s everything?”

“Not bad.”

“You still game for the ball game? Janice mentioned you asked about the tickets to the Blasts today. They’re in my hand, three right behind first base. The manager’s been a client of mine for twenty years.”

“Yeah, great. The kid spent the night at the Fosnachts, but I’ll get him back. You want to meet at the stadium?”

“Let me pick you up, Harry. I’ll be happy to pick you up in my car. That way we’ll leave Janice yours.” A note in his voice that didn’t used to be there, gentle, faintly wheedling: nursing along an invalid. He knows too. The world knows. It’ll be in the Vat next week. LINOTYPER’S WIFE LAYS LOCAL SALES REP. Greek Takes Strong Anti-Viet Stand.

“Tell me, Harry,” Springer wheedles on, “how is your mother’s health? Rebecca and I are naturally very concerned. Very concerned.”

“My father says it’s about the same. It’s a slow process, you know. They have drugs now that make it even slower. I’ve been meaning this week to get up to Mt. Judge to see her but we haven’t managed.”

“When you do, Harry, give her our love. Give her our love.”

Saying everything twice: he probably swung the Toyota franchise because the Japs could understand him second time around.

“O.K., sure enough. Want Janice back?”

“No, Harry, you can keep her.” A joke. “I’ll be by twelve-twenty, twelve-thirty.”