front yard, now barren and waiting for snow-real snow-to cover it. The driveway was asphalt,
freshly hot-topped the previous spring.
He went inside and heard the TV, the new Zenith cabinet model they had gotten in the
summer. There was a motorized antenna on the roof which he had put up himself. She had not
wanted that, because of what was supposed to happen, but he had insisted. If it could be mounted,
he had reasoned, it could be dismounted when they moved. Bart, don't be silly. It's just extra
expense . . . just extra work for you. But he had outlasted her, and finally she said she would
"humor" him. That's what she said on the rare occasions when he cared enough about something
to force it through the sticky molasses of her arguments. All right, Bart. This time I'll "humor"
you.
At the moment she was watching Merv Griffin chat with a celebrity. The celebrity was Lorne
Green, who was talking about his new police series, Griff. Lorne was telling Merv how much he
loved doing the show. Soon a black singer (a negress songstress, he thought) who no one had ever
heard of would come on and sing a song. "I left My Heart in San Francisco," perhaps.
"Hi, Mary," he called.
"Hi, Bart."
Mail on the table. He flipped through it. A letter to Mary from her slightly psycho sister in
Baltimore. A Gulf credit card bill-thirty-eight dollars. A checking account statement: 49 debits, 9
credits, $954.47 balance. A good thing he had used American Express at the gun shop.
"The coffee's hot," Mary called. "Or did you want a drink?"
"Drink," he said. "I'll get it."
Three other pieces of mail: An overdue notice from the library. Facing the Lions, by Tom
Wicker. Wicker had spoken to a Rotary luncheon a month ago, and he was the best speaker they'd
had in years.
A personal note from Stephan Ordner, one of the managerial bigwigs in Amroco, the
corporation that now owned the Blue Ribbon almost outright. Ordner wanted him to drop by and
discuss the Waterford deal-would Friday be okay, or was he planning to be away for
Thanksgiving? If so, give a call. If not, bring Mary.
Carla always enjoyed the chance to see Mary and blah-blah and bullshit-bullshit, etc., et al.
And another letter from the highway department.
He stood looking down at it for along time in the gray afternoon light that fell through the
windows, and then put all the mail on the sideboard. He made himself a scotch-rocks and took it
into the living room.
Merv was still chatting with Lorne. The color on the new Zenith was more than good; it was
nearly occult. He thought, if our ICBM's are as good as our color TV, there's going to be a hell of
a big bang someday. Lorne's hair was silver, the most impossible shade of silver conceivable. Boy,
I'll snatch you bald-headed, he thought, and chuckled. It had been one of his mother's favorite
sayings. He could not say why the image of Lorne Green bald-headed was so amusing. A light
attack of belated hysteria over the gun shop episode, maybe.
Mary looked up, a smile on her lips. "A funny?"
"Nothing," he said. "Just my thinks."
He sat down beside her and pecked her cheek. She was a tall woman, thirty-eight now, and at