@@@@@That's just where it starts "But if you
@@@@@That's just
where it starts
"But if you need it-"
"For the time being I'm good to goThat's why I'm the one reading her poems
every afternoon
"A little literary culture won't hurt you, you
fucking cannibal
"I know it won't, and you know that's not what I'm
talking about I thought - and not for the first
time - that Wireman was one of the very few men I
ever met in my adult life who could consistently
tell me no without making me angryHe was a
genius of noSometimes I thought it was him;
343
sometimes I thought the accident had changed
something in me; sometimes I thought it was both
"I can read, you know," Wireman saidMedicine bottle labels,
phone numbers, things like thatAnd I will get
looked at, so relax that Type-A compulsion of
yours to set the whole world straightChrist, you
must have driven your wife crazy He glanced at
me sideways and said, "OopsDid Wireman step on a
corn there?"
"Ready to talk about that little round scar on the
side of your head yet? Muchacho?"
He grinned
"Kurt Cobain," I said"Really? I would have said '95, but
rock music has largely left me behindWireman got
old, sad but trueAs for the seizure thing
sorry, Edgar, I just don't believe itI could see it in his eyesBut
before I could say anything else, he climbed down
from the sawhorse and pointed north"Look! White
van! I think the Forces of Cable TV have arrived!"
ii
344
I believed Wireman when he said he had no idea
what Elizabeth Eastlake had been talking about on
the answering machine tape after I played it for
himHe continued to think that her concern for my
daughter had something to do with her own longdeceased
sistersHe professed to be completely
puzzled about why she didn't want me to stockpile
my pictures on the islandAbout that, he said, he
didn't have a clue