It can't happen this time around, because this...
By mattiastsk, 22:01It
can't happen this time around, because this year
Miss Eastlake's going to be far less capable of
pitching inAt least the Mean Dogs are returners,
known quantities, and so are the BaumgartensI
like the Baumgartens
"Either of them girls?" I asked, thinking about
Elizabeth's prejudice concerning daughters and
Duma"Nope, both the kind of boys who ought to have GOT
IT MADE BUT DON'T HOLD IT AGAINST US stamped on
their foreheadsThe people coming into the other
four houses are all newI can hope that none of
them will be the rock-and-roll-all-night, partyevery-
day type, but what are the odds?"
"Not good, but you can at least hope they left
their Slipknot CDs home
"Who's Slipknot? What's Slipknot?"
"Wireman, you don't want to knowEspecially not
while you're busy working yourself into a stateWireman is just explaining dior monogram bag February on
Duma Key, muchachoI'm going to be fielding
everything from emergency queries about what to do
if one of the Baumgarten boys gets stung by a
jellyfish to where Rita Mean Dog can get a fan for
her grandmother, who they'll probably stash in the
back bedroom again for a week or soYou think
Miss Eastlake's getting on? I've seen Mexican
mummies hauled through the streets of Guadalajara
on the Day of the Dead who looked better than
Gramma Mean DogShe's got two basic lines of
conversationThere's the inquisitive line - 'Did
you bring me a cookie?' - and the declarative -
'Get me a towel, Rita, I think that last fart had
a lump in it'"
I burst out laughingWireman scraped a sneaker through the shells,
creating a smile with his footBeyond us, our
shadows lay on Duma Key Road, which was paved and
smooth and omega replica watches evenFarther south was
a different story"The answer to the fan problem,
should you care, is Dan's Fan CityIs that a
great name, or what? And I'll tell you something:
I actually like solving these problemsDefusing
341
little crisesI make folks a hell of a lot
happier here on Duma Key than I ever did in
court
But you haven't lost the knack for leading people
away from the things you don't want to discuss, I
thought"Wireman, it would only take half an hour
to get a physician to look into your eyes and tap
your skull-"
"You're wrong, muchacho," he said patiently"At
this time of year it takes a minimum of two hours
to get looked at in a roadside Doc-in-the-Box for
a lousy strep throatWhen you add on an hour of
travel time - more now, because it's Snowbird
Season and none of them know where they're going -
you're talking about dior replica handbags three daylight hours I just
can't give upNot with appointments to see the
air conditioning guy at 17the meter-reader at
27the cable guy right here, if he ever shows
up He pointed to the next house down the road,
which happened to be 39"Youngsters from Toledo
are taking that one until March fifteenth, and
they're paying an extra seven hundred bucks for
something called Wi-Fi, which I don't even know
what it is
342
"Wave of the future, that's what it isWave of the fatherraping,
mother-stabbing future
"Movie was 1969, I think," I said"Whenever it was, viva the wave of the motherraping,
froggy-stabbing futureDoesn't change the
fact that I'm busier than a one-legged man in an
ass-kicking contestYou
know it's going to be more than a quick tap and
peek with the old doctor-flashlightThat's just
where it starts
"But if d


