Other Voices, Other Rooms

"Shoot, boy, the country's just fulla folks what knows everythin, and don't unnerstand nothin, just fullofem,

On these dangerous evening patrols, Joel had witnessed many peculiar spectacles, like the night he’d watched a young girl waltzing stark naked to victrola music; and again, an old lady drop dead while puffing at a fairyland of candles burning on a birthday cake; and most puzzling of all, two grown men standing in an ugly little room kissing each other.

Ha ha! Randolph could go jump in the lake. Ha ha!

Joel sat down in a cane-bottom chair at a large table spread with checkered oilcloth, while Miss Amy went out on the backstops and stood there calling, ‘ Yoo hoo, Missouri, yoo hoo,’ like an old screech owl.

God, let me be loved.
‘Amen,’ whispered Zoo.
And in this moment, like a swift intake of breath, the rain came.

when he spied the bluejay feather. It was fioating above his head, as if held by a spider's thread. He plucked it out of the air, carried it to the bureau and deposited it in the lacquered box, which was lined with red plush; it also occurred to him that this would be a good place to store Sam Radclif’s bullet.