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Show 141 hand went out and touched Karl Jr. lightly on the head, tossling his xaaxxaixx brown-red hair. Beema and Maggie, Karl's twin daughters were dancing in unison behind Karl. "Red found the cannon ball. Red found the cannon ball." "This isn't a celebration," Red said to Karl. "Kind of portentuous though, wouldn't you say?" I could see Red was trying to control himself. He had lots of feelings lots of times but i not too many different ways of expressing them. And Karl was more nervous than he was trying to act. The few fingers he had were twitching and his tongue xx was roving through his mouth over his left-over teeth. "You tell those Pioneers," said Red, "that if my family's ever endangered again, I don't care if it's a cannon ball or a misplaced fart, I'll ram my fist down every one of those son-of-a-bitches' throats. " By that time nobody wanted to look xxx at anybody so everybody was looking at me. "You have a nice Christmas now, Karl," I said. "Thanks, Jarvis. Give our best to Helen and the kids." Red was already down the steps. Red wasn't much of a drinker, that is he didn't do it very often, holidays or a few snorts with Bush, but that night he was pretty juiced up and on his way down so we decided to have a beer to smooth it out. The rest of the family went upstairs, axgai rxxaxxxxxxkxx except for Helen who decided to stay up with me and Red so fell asleep on the couch in front of the TV. Red sat next to the Zenith and I gave him his beer and took a chair to his right. I couldn't see much out the big front window because we had the light on, but for the faded blare of street lights axaxaxikaxa XBxXBBiiBXXX and their reflection sparkling faintly on the snow. Red and me just sat quiet for awhile, watching Helen sleep. It would have been nice to have a conversation, but I knew Red didn't know what to say, he was either mad at me or he left me alone. He didn't know anything about me anymore and even if he did he still wouldn't know anything really. That was all gone. We were long passed him being able to know anything about me. Red watched Helen. His eyes rested on her like soft thoughts. "You didn't tell Karl you'd smash him," I said to Red. |