OCR Text |
Show -82 boards into a c i r c u l a r saw; i t screeched, let up for a moment, and screeched again, a long i r r i t a t i n g mournful yowl, melancholy and mechanical. "Tell me Jacob," I said. "Have you ever been with any other woman besides Kathleen?" "Sure. I had dates in high-school." "Not very many," I said. "But that isn't what I mean anyhow. After that- Since you were married." He shook his head no. "Do you ever wish you had?" "No. What are you getting at?" "I don't know." Carlo and Morgan were talking at the far end of the deck, their heads close together. "Does life make sense to you?" I said. "Sure." "You and Morgan. Before you came along she was trying to tell me that she's not afraid to die." •9 "Of course everybody's afraid," Jacob said. "But only kids think it's worth talking about. There aren't any answers because there aren't any questions. Life is li-e, that's all. The rest is for Germans and bar-room philosophers." "Why do we love the people we love, for instance?" I said. "I lived with a girl named Fancy once; I was certain we were going to live together forever, but we didn't." I leaned my elbows on the rail beside my brother and |