“O.K.,” I said. He took the magazine out of my hand. He rolled it up and said, “Whatever you’re thinking, stop thinking it.”

“I’m not thinking it.”

“The doctor does the transfer, not you.” He started to get pissed. “Getting worked up” is what we call it in my family, pistols firing off every ten seconds. Watch out, run for cover. He said, “Stop smiling.”

“Didn’t I mention that I’m a doctor?”

“Shut up, asshole.”

“I’m not smiling. I had to yawn. You brought it up, idiot. Not me.”

“O.K., forget I said it.” I didn’t answer him. “How’s the article?” He handed the magazine back to me.

“It’s O.K. I haven’t gotten very far,” I said. It was an article about how much money you should give bums. Dave nodded. He didn’t care one single shit about quality writing.

We sat there biting the insides of our mouths. Then we said a few more things and went to bed. I didn’t feel like going to bed—it was still early—but my brother went around and shut off all the lights in the house. I waited until ten o’clock and phoned Kiff from Dave’s office.

She said she was on her way out. I asked her how the bruise on her head was. I whispered, because Dave and Denise were sleeping. She said it had disappeared. She asked me if I was glad to be there. “Yeah,” I said. “They’re getting a pool.”

“That’s lovely,” she said.

“They have an incredible life here.”

“I’m glad,” she said, but I could tell by her voice how sad she was. I said, “That was the worst thing I ever did in my life—you know? How can I tell you how sorry I am?”

“It’s O.K.”

“Anybody else did that to you, I’d kill him.”

“Yeah—isn’t that funny?” she said.

“No, it’s not,” I said. “Nothing’s funny about it.”

“Oh, Vince,” she said.

“I’m sorry.”

“Me, too.”

So it was ten o’clock on Saturday night, and Kiffany was going out. She didn’t say where or with who. I didn’t ask. It didn’t necessarily mean anything. It couldn’t be that there was someone else. I’d just seen her a few days earlier. After a minute, thank God, I hung up. My stomach was hurting. I tried to burp, but then I remembered reading that burping was bad for stomach pains.