The paper reminded me it was Thanksgiving, and I gave thanks I’d had the good sense not to sleep with Karlynn Slade.
Nancy asked Tim to give a blessing, and to his credit it was mercifully short. I smiled as I remembered a prayer Scott McCutcheon had taught me. He liked to say, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. And if that ain’t a square deal you can kiss my ass.”
Her makeup was still perfect. Karlynn was right—Kendra was high-maintenance, at least in terms of the time spent on her personal appearance. On the other hand, feminine beauty can make up for a multitude of shortcomings. Probably why they call it makeup.
“Karlynn’s being briefed by a man from the Marshals Service,” I said. “I’m just riding the elevator up and down, trying to pick up women.” “Any luck?” “Not yet,” I said, “but I just started.” The elevator stopped on her floor, and the doors opened. “Well,” she said as she exited the elevator, “I’m sorry your first at bat has to go into the books as a strikeout.” “Lot of innings left,” I said.
I noticed Troy had put a sticker on his locker that read: Jerry’s Dead Phish Sucks Get a job.
“She’ll be glad to get rid of me for a week. A woman can only stand so much pleasure.”
“Kind of funny how the phone went dead just when we really needed the clerk to focus on getting us a room,” I said. “The Lord works in mysterious ways,” he said. “And sometimes He works through your pocket knife?” “I’m just His instrument,” Scott said with a smile. I sat down on one of the beds and started taking my shoes off. “Besides,” Scott added, “I’m tired of waiting in lines because businesses are too cheap to hire enough help. All I did was shift the cost created by inadequate staffing back to the owner. Instead of us paying the cost by waiting in line, he can pay the cost by having someone come out here and fix his phone line. That’s how the free market is supposed to work.”
“We’re going to record it,” Matt said. “That’s the deal.” “We take good notes,” Livingston said. “I don’t want there to be any disagreement about what was said,” Matt explained. “The Bureau’s policy is—” “Take a good look at me,” Matt said. “Do I look like I give a shit about the Bureau’s policy?”
price of tea in China?”
Jack Dempsey, one of my all-time heroes. Any man who would walk thirty miles across a desert to fight another man in a saloon for twenty bucks has a quality not many men possess these days.
Why climb the highest mountain? Why fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? I was really starting to like that as a potential response to any “why” question.
She was waiting outside the Federal Building when I pulled up in front of it. Actually, you can’t pull up in front of it, because the security people will assume you are a terrorist. Rather than make them nervous, I parked across the street and waited for her to cross. Sometimes it is better to be prudent than to be a gentleman.