Tightfisted fade argue“Oh!” the missus replies in a fury. “If youwill pay him compliments!” It used to drive Hickey mental when M. Deauville and I conversed in what he called foreign— it was second nature to me to respond to M. Deauville in his languagedu jour, which depended on what part of the world he was calling from, for he travelled constantly too. Hickey thought I was concealing something from him and generally I was, just as generally he was concealing something from me. In short, I was recognised as the best at what I do, and had I spent the rest of my life on the international conference circuit, I would not be before you giving evidence today. They said my gift was uncanny. That was the word my clients used in their various mother tongues.?trange, unheimlich, uncanny. Sometimes I thought they intended it as a compliment, but other times I wasn’t so sure. “Lester,” Mrs. May said. “This is Sandy Peel. She’s a friend of our Myrtle.” Walter Mosley The lover who lives in a secret place. “My full stage name is Debbie Dare,” I said. “Have you ever heard that name?” The extra-wide door of the mortuary swung inward and the lean mortician bowed for me to enter. ‘Da!’ the kid shouted again, pointing at the grill. Sibbi was hovering outside my room, warbling one of his songs:There goes Harpa-larpa-lo. She’s ugly from head to toe. Hei?ur slammed the door in Sibbi’s face, already defending her dark little friend. “My full stage name is Debbie Dare,” I said. “Have you ever heard that name?” How far down does she have to go in order to change direction? “Well,” he said. He cracked his knuckles and let all the air out of his nose. “You’ve got a lot of work to do.” He pulled down on the rope until he disappeared. “I always like the way you talk, Deb. Most people... most people say one thing and then somebody else has to ask for more. You know, like if you said your real name was Sandy Peel and stopped there. But it’s like you tell the whole story. Like you were on a stage or somethin’ and the rest ofus were at the play.” “No.” ‘I said,’ Hickey said, ‘whose is it?’ Why did you stick out your tongue at my friend? I’m fucking ashamed of you. “Then why did you have one that day?”. |