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Saving Betty


I like her hats, but Bernice says for her it's the glasses: some wide and darkly bookish, others light and frameless, depending on her disposition. I don't know how Bernice can translate her moods since Betty never speaks to us, but she says it's a woman thing, a reading of the signs.


Physician's Luggage


"Max, stop the press!" I showboated for Ruthie. Truth was, the press never ran until the Union crew staggered in, usually after midnight, usually late and happy, usually after two or three rounds...


Cowboy


When you said cowboy I thought of the traditional image: lean, tanned virile Marine Corps vet smoking roll your owns, listening to Merle Haggard tapes in his custom Ford pickup, calling women pals darlin', standing at attention with his hand over his heart for the national anthem at rodeos--


'Merican


Little Jumbo lit a cigarette, and they smoked and looked at each one of the customers in the Four Corners Cafe. Some looked back, but most sober-breakfast-eating faces didn't, because this was every day for them.


A Marker...


This remote, alien city, with which I have had no intimacy, had, over the years, silently insinuated itself into my consciousness as a deeply beloved place. It is a love born out of nothing...



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