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Show Blue Run/24 comfort, and that's when Anti-girl gets nauseated and starts to vomit right up on all the gifts, so that somebody screams and people clear a big circle. Meg glares, and I see her catch herself-all those iffy moments entertaining dingbat Officer wives, all that training, she recovers in an instant Cap never even sees I'm here. I've managed that much, and I haven't been shitty to anybody, that much I've achieved And all's well with the Anti-girl now, and Meg's going on with Thelma about baby Luis. Renee, immersed entirely with her brother in the old promise to buy back the family farm house up in New Jersey. It's a day from an otherworld dream, where everything has already happened and it's okay to let your breath out for a second, sip beer, look at the water and be. Just be. The new you-the you you are now Summer, June, the month of weddings, and in that other world you're best man in Dee's makeshift wedding for O W and Mama, on the thirteenth floor of the Himalaya House apartment, the elevator door just opening to the mirrored hall and it's thirty-five years ago. Me and O.W. wear spit-shined shoes and matching suits and clip-on ties The apartment windows are open. And it's a bright day, let me tell you, Mama so happy She keeps dabbing the corners of her eyes with lace gloves We'll have our own house with a swing and slide soon, and I can set up a tent and sleep in the backyard all night if I like. My brother Jimmy, he's on the way. Mama's wedding day, she wears white chiffon. Her black hair is tied back-I see her widow's peak. She's lithe and smells of gardenia; maybe this is when it starts to get all mixed-up in my head I'm best man. "Joey, sweety," Mama says, "I love you with all my heart," and maybe this is the exact split-second when I get it backwards in my head. I'm standing in front of the preacher in a shirt and tie, |