"Buenos días, mi amigo," Wireman saidAnd... "Buenos días, mi amigo," Wireman saidAnd to
Elizabeth: "It's Edgar, Miss EastlakeWant to say hello?"
"Piss shit head rat," she saidIn any
case, she said it to the Gulf, which was still
dark blue and mostly asleep
"Still not so good, I take it," I saidShe's gone down before and come back up, but
she's never gone down so far
"I still haven't brought her any of my pictures to
look at
"No point right now He handed me a cup of black
coffeeGet your bad self around this
I passed him the envelope with the sample contract
in itAs Wireman pulled it out, I turned to
Elizabeth"Would you like some poems later
today?" I asked herShe only looked out at the Gulf with that
stony frown: Captain Bligh about to order
chanel purses someone
strapped to the foremast and flogged raw
494
For no reason at all, I asked: "Was your father a
skin diver, Elizabeth?"
She turned her head slightly and cut her ancient
eyes in my directionHer upper lip lifted in a
dog's grinThere was a moment - it was brief, but
seemed long - when I felt another person looking
at meOr not a person at allAn entity that was
wearing Elizabeth Eastlake's old, doughy body like
a sockMy right hand clenched briefly, and once
more I felt nonexistent, too-long fingernails bite
into a nonexistent palmThen she looked back at
the Gulf, simultaneously feeling across the tray
until her fingers happened on a piece of the
breakfast pastry, and I was calling myself an
idiot who
fake fendi handbags had to stop letting his nerves get the
best of himThere were undoubtedly strange forces
at work here, but not every shadow was a ghost
"He was," Wireman said absently, unfolding the
contract"John Eastlake was a regular Ricou
Browning - you know, the guy who played the
Creature from the Black Lagoon back in the
fifties
"Wireman, you're an artesian well of useless
information
495
"Yeah, ain't I cool? Her old man didn't buy that
harpoon pistol in a store, you know; Miss Eastlake
says he had it commissionedIt probably ought to
be in a museum
But I didn't care about John Eastlake's harpoon
gun, not just then"Are you reading that
contract?"
He dropped it on the tray and looked at me,
bemused
"And your
daytona rolex left eye?"
"NothingBut hey, no reason to be disappointed
The doctor said-"
"Do me a favorCover your left peeper
"What do you see?"
"You, Edgar"Now I just see black He dropped his hand again
"I can't tell for sureThese days I can't
separate the truth from the wishful thinking He
shook his head hard enough to make his hair fly,
496
then thumped his forehead with the heel of his
hand
"Easy for you to say He sat silent for a few
moments, then picked the piece of breakfast pastry
out of Elizabeth's hand and fed it to herWhen it
was tucked safely away in her mouth, he turned to
me"Would you mind her while I go get something?"
"Happy to
He jogged up the boardwalk and I was left with
ElizabethI tried feeding
cheap replica chanel handbag her one of the
remaining pieces of breakfast pastry and she
nibbled it out of my hand, bringing back a
fleeting recollection of a rabbit I'd had when I
was seven or eightHitchens had been its name,
although I no longer knew why - memory's a funny
thing, isn't it? Her lips were toothless and soft,
but not unpleasantI stroked the side of her head,
where her white hair - wiry, rather coarse - was
pulled back toward a bunIt occurred to me that
Wireman must comb that hair each morning, and make
that bunThat Wireman must have dressed her this
morning, including diapers, for surely she wasn't
continent when she was like thisI wondered if he
497
thought of Esmeralda when he pinned the pins or
secured the
cheap fake louis vuitton bags tie