In those days what Dr Kamen called inappropriate...
In those days what Dr
Kamen called inappropriate anger was my ugly
friendAnd hey, what I was feeling right then did
not seem inappropriate at allMy right arm ended three and a
half inches below the shoulderI twitched it at
her - a twitch was the best I could do with the
muscle that was left"This is me," I said,
"giving you the fingerGet out of here if that's
how you feelGet out, you quitting birch
The first tears had started rolling down her face,
but she tried to smileIt was a pretty ghastly
effort"Bitch, Edgar," she said
17
"The word is what I say it is," I said, and began
to do crunches againIt's harder than balenciaga blue hell to do
them with an arm gone; your body wants to pull and
corkscrew to that side"I wouldn't have left you,
that's the pointI wouldn't have left youI
would have gone on through the mud and the blood
and the piss and the spilled beer
"It's different," she saidShe made no effort to
wipe her face"It's different and you know itI
couldn't break you in two if I got into a rage
"I'd have a hell of a job breaking you in two with
only one amp," I said, doing crunches faster
"You stuck me with a knife As if that were the
pointIt wasn't, and we both knew it
"A plastic rudder knife is what it was, I was half
out of my mind, chanel shopping bag and it'll be your last words on
your fucking beth-dead, 'Eddie staffed me with a
plastic fife, goodbye cruel world'"
"You choked me," she said in a voice I could
barely hear
I stopped doing crunches and gaped at herThe
clock-shop started up in my head; bang-a-gong, get
it on"What are you saying, I choked you? I never
choked you!"
18
"I know you don't remember, but you didAnd
you're not the sameSave the New Age bullshit for the" I knew the word and I
could see the man it stood for, but it wouldn't
come"For that bald fuck you see in his office
"My therapist," she said, and of course that made
me angrier: she had the replicas de bolsas word and I didn'tBecause
her brain hadn't been shaken like Jell-O
"You want a divorce, you can have a divorceThrow
it all away, why not? Only go do the alligator
somewhere else
She went up the stairs and closed the door without
looking backAnd it wasn't until she was gone
that I realized I'd meant to say crocodile tears
Go cry your crocodile tears somewhere elseClose enough for rock and rollThat's
what Wireman says
And I was the one who ended up getting out
iii
Except for Pam, I never had a partner in my other
lifeEdgar Freemantle's Four Rules for Success
19
(feel free to take notes) were: never borrow more
than your chanel cc necklace IQ times a hundred, never borrow from a
man who calls you by your first name on first
acquaintance, never take a drink while the sun's
still up, and never take a partner you wouldn't be
willing to embrace naked on a waterbed
I did have an accountant I trusted, however, and
it was Tom Riley who helped me move the few things
I needed from Mendota Heights to our smaller place
on Lake PhalenTom, a sad two-time loser in the
marriage game, worried at me all the way out"You
don't give up the house in a situation like this,"
he said"Not unless the judge kicks you outIt's
like giving up home field advantage in a uhr rolex playoff
game