“Would it be all right if I put on some music while I work?” I asked.

The woman looked up from where she crouched. “Fine by me. I like music myself.”

Immediately I set about picking up whatever stones lay around the yard, and only then started up the lawn mower. Stones can really damage the blades. The mower was fitted with a plastic receptacle to collect all the clippings. I’d remove this receptacle whenever it got too full and empty the clippings into the garbage bag. With two thousand square feet to mow, even a short growth can amount to a lot of clippings. The sun kept broiling down on me. I stripped off my sweat-soaked T-shirt and kept working. In my shorts, I must have looked dressed down for some barbecue. I was all sweat. At this rate, I could have kept drinking water and drinking water and still not pissed a drop.

After about an hour of mowing, I took a break and sat myself down under the camphor tree to drink some iced coffee. I could feel my entire body just drinking up the sugar. Cicadas were droning overhead. I turned on the radio and poked around the dial for a decent disc jockey. I stopped when I came to a station playing Three Dog Night’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” lay down on my back, and just looked up through my shades at the sun filtering between the branches.

The woman came and planted herself by my head. Viewed from below, she resembled the camphor tree. Her right hand held a glass, and in it whiskey and ice were aswirl in the summer light.

“Hot, eh?” she said.

“You said it,” I replied.

“So what’s a guy like you do for lunch?”

I looked at my watch. It was 11:20.

“When noon rolls around, I’ll go get myself something to eat somewhere. I think there’s a hamburger stand nearby.”

“No need to go out of your way. I’ll fix you a sandwich or something.”

“Really, it’s all right. I always go off to get a bite.”

She raised the glass of whiskey to her mouth and downed half of it in one swallow. Then she pursed her lips and let out a sigh. “No bother to me. I was going to make something for myself anyway. C’mon, let me get you something.”

“Well, then, all right. Much obliged.”

“That’s okay,” she said, and trudged back into the house, slowly swaying at the shoulders.