The
Baumgartens also moved in, and I often began... The
Baumgartens also moved in, and I often began to
pass their boys playing Frisbee on the beachThey
were just as Wireman had said: sturdy, handsome,
and polite, one maybe eleven and the other maybe
thirteen, with builds that would soon make them
gigglebait among the junior high cheerleader set,
if not alreadyThey were always willing to share
their Frisbee with me for a throw or two as I
limped past, and the older - Jeff - usually called
something encouraging like "Yo, MrFreemantle,
nice chuck!"
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A couple with a sports car moved into the house
just south of Big Pink, and the distressing
strains of Toby Keith began to waft to me around
the cocktail hourOn the whole, I might have
preferred SlipknotThe quartet of young people
from Toledo had a golf cart they raced up and down
the beach when they weren't playing volleyball or
off on fishing expeditions
Wireman was more than busy; he was a dervish
Luckily, he had helpOne day Jack lent him a hand
unclogging the Mean Dog lawn-sprinklersA day or
two later, I helped him push the Toledo visitors'
golf cart out of a
balenciaga knockoff dune in which it had gotten
stuck - those responsible had left it to go get a
six-pack, and the tide was threatening to take it
My hip and leg were still mending, but there was
nothing wrong with my remaining arm
Bad hip and leg or not, I took Great Beach Walks
Some days - mostly when the fog came in during the
late afternoon, first obliterating the Gulf with
cold amnesia and then taking the houses, as well -
I took pain pills from my diminishing stockWireman was rarely parked in his
beach chair drinking green tea that February, but
346
Elizabeth Eastlake was always in her parlor, she
almost always knew who I was, and she usually had
a book of poetry near to handIt wasn't always
Keillor's Good Poems, but that was the one she
liked the bestMerwin and Sexton
and Frost, oh-my
I did plenty of reading myself that February and
MarchI read more than I had in years - novels,
short stories, three long nonfiction books about
how we had stumbled into the Iraq mess (the short
answer appeared to have W for a middle initial and
a dick for a Vice President)But mostly what I
did
louis vuitton bag sale was paintEvery afternoon and evening I
painted until I could barely lift my strengthening
armBeachscapes, seascapes, still lifes, and
sunsets, sunsets, sunsets
But that fuse continued to smolderThe heat had
been turned down but not offThe matter of Candy
Brown wasn't the next thing, only the next obvious
thingAnd that didn't come until Valentine's Day
A hideous irony when you think of it
iii
347
ifsogirl88 to EFree19
10:19 AM
February 3
Dear Daddy, It was great to hear you got a "thumbs
up" on your paintings! Hooray! And if they DO
offer you a show, I'll catch the next plane and be
there in my "little black dress" (I have one,
believe it or not)Got to stay put for now and
study my butt off because - here is a secret - I'm
hoping to surprise Carson when Spring Break rolls
around in AprilThe Hummingbirds will be in
Tennessee and Arkansas then (he sez the tour is
off to a great start)I'm thinking that if I do
okay on my mid-terms, I could catch up with the
tour in either Memphis or Little RockWhat do you
think?
Ilse
My misgivings about the Baptist Hummingbird
chanel replica handbags hadn't
faded, and what I thought was she was asking for
troubleBut if she was making a mistake about him,
348
it might be better for her to find out sooner
rather than laterSo - hoping to God I wasn't
making a mistake - I e-mailed back and told her
that sounded like an interesting idea, assuming
she was okay on her course-work(I couldn't bring
myself to go balls-out and tell my beloved younger
daughter that spending a week in the company of
her boyfriend, even assuming said boyfriend was
chaperoned by hardshell Baptists, was a good idea
I also suggested it might be bad policy to share
her plan with her motherThis brought a prompt
response
ifsogirl88 to EFree19
12:02 PM
February 3
Daddy Dearest: Do you think I've lost my freakin'
MIND???
Illy
No, I didn't think thatbut if she caught her
tenor doing the horizontal bop with one of the
altos when she got to Little Rock, she was going
349
to be one very unhappy If-So-GirlI had no doubt
that everything would then come out to her mother,
engagement and all, and Pam would find a lot to
say on the subject of my
cartier ballon bleu price own sanityI had already
asked myself some questions on that score, and
mostly decided to give myself a passWhen it
comes to your kids, you find yourself making some
weird calls from time to time and just hoping they
turn out all right - calls and kidsParenting is
the greatest of hum-a-few-bars-and-I'll-fake-it
skills
Then there was Sandy Smith, the RealtorOn my
answering machine, Elizabeth had said I must be
one of those who believed in art for art's sake,
or Duma Key would not have called meWhat I
wanted from Sandy was confirmation that the only
thing calling me had been a glossy brochure, one
that had probably been shown to potential renters
with deep pockets all over the United States
Maybe all over the world
The response I got wasn't what I had hoped for,
but I'd be lying if I said I was completely
surprisedThat was my bad-memory year, after all
And then there's the desire to believe things
350
happened a certain way; when it comes to the past
we all stack the deck
SmithRealty9505 to EFree19
2:17 PM
February 8
Dear Edgar: I am so glad you're enjoying the
chanel clutch place