I put my plastic bag - it was indeed a bread-bag... I put my plastic bag - it was indeed a bread-bag -
on the table and reached across to him
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His hand was short, the fingers blunt, the grip
strongI go by Wireman, mostly
I looked at the beach chair meant for meIt was
the kind with a high back and a low fanny-sling,
like the bucket seat in a Porsche
"Something wrong with that, muchacho?" Wireman
asked, raising an eyebrowHe had a lot of eyebrow
to raise, tufted and half-gray
"Not as long as you don't laugh when I have to get
out of it," I said"Honey, live like you got to live
Chuck Berry, nineteen sixty-nine
I positioned myself beside the empty chair, said a
little prayer, and droppedI leaned left as
always, to spare my bad hipI didn't land quite
square, but I grabbed the wooden arms,
chanel quilted handbag pushed with
my strong foot, and the chair only teeteredA
month before I would have spilled, but I was
stronger nowI could imagine Kathi Green
applauding
"Good job, Edgar," he said"Or are you an Eddie?"
"Pick your poison, I answer to eitherWhat might
you have in that pitcher?"
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"Iced green tea," he saidTry
some?"
"I'd love to
He poured me a glass, then topped up his own and
raised itThe tea was only faintly greenHis
eyes, caught in fine nets of wrinkles, were
greenerHis hair was black, streaking in white at
the temples, and quite long indeedWhen the wind
lifted it, I could see a scar at the top of his
hairline on the right side, coin-shaped but
smallerHe was wearing a bathing suit today, and
his legs were as brown as his armsHe
chanel pearl necklace looked fit,
but I thought he also looked tired
"Let's drink to you, muchacho
"All right," I said
We clinked glasses and drankI'd had green tea
before and thought it was okay, but this was
heavenly - like drinking cold silk, with just a
faint tang of sweetness
"Do you taste the honey?" he asked, and smiled
when I noddedI just put in a
tablespoonful per pitcherIt releases the natural
sweetness of the teaI learned that cooking on a
tramp steamer in the China Sea He held up his
215
glass and squinted through it"We fought off many
pirates and mated with strange and dusky women
'neath tropic skies
"That sounds a trifle bullshitty to me, Mr"I actually read about the honey thing
in one of Miss Eastlake's cookery books
"Is she the lady you come out
chanel bags to buy with in the mornings?
The one in the wheelchair?"
"Indeed she is
And without thinking much about what I was saying
- it was her enormous blue sneakers propped up on
the chrome footrests of her wheelchair I was
thinking about - I said: "The Bride of the
Godfather
Wireman gaped, those green eyes of his so wide I
was about to apologize for my faux pasThen he
really began to laughIt was the kind of ballsto-
the-wall bellowing you give out on those rare
occasions when something sneaks past all your
defenses and gets to the sweet spot of your
funnyboneI mean the man was busting a gut, and
when he saw I didn't have the slightest idea what
had gotten him, he laughed even harder, his not
216
inconsiderable belly heavingHe tried to put his
glass
chanel j12 watches back on the little table and missedThe
glass plummeted straight down to the sand and
stuck there, perfectly upright, like a cigarettebutt
in one of those urns of sand you used to see
beside the elevators in hotel lobbiesThat struck
him even funnier, and he pointed at it
"I couldn't have done that if I was trying!" he
managed, and then was off again, gale upon gale,
heaving in his chair, one hand clutching his
stomach, the other planted on his chestA snatch
of poetry read in high school, over thirty years
before, suddenly came back to me with haunting
clarity: Men do not sham convulsion, Nor simulate
a throe
I was smiling myself, smiling and chuckling,
because that kind of high hilarity is catching,
even when you don't know what the joke
chanel watches is