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Show 66 I wandered past Stubie's to the old mansion on the corner where the three old maids lived. They had an old brick xxxxaxxaxg house surrounded by a small field that they never cut aw down, and lots of £x of trees too, peach trees, cherry trees, apple trees, xxixxixixxax horse chestnut trees, xxi It was a good place to play, especially since they didn't want anybody in there. Me and 8axx£ Georgie and Stubie had a good time stealing fruit and building shacks and yelling back at the old maids when we got caught, and once Stubie even led an expedition inside the house when they were all away. We didn't really have anything specific in mind and we didn't get too far either because an old man chased us out of there with a b-b gun. Got Georgie right in the buns, which served him right after getting away free that night in Funly's yard when I got shot. Stubie sterilized his switch-blade with a match and took the b-b's out of g Georgie's ass, then put iodine on the bleeding holes. Georgie cried and then Stubie punched him out for being a baby. None of the old maids were on the front porch so I took the farthest path from the house down to the orchard. I must have been about sixty feet from the fruit trees when I noticed something hanging from a tree./j sometimes Stubie put sacks of treasure in the trees, which was a secret way we kept the a midget-spirits x away from our stuff when we pretended the field was the dark side of the moon. That's when we were getting along with the ice giants who lived there too, and not with the fire giants who lived on the other side. But the closer I got to the orchard the more it looked like somebody human was hanging from the rope. So I got cautious. I sat down in the high grass and watched for awhile, but nothing happened. I didn't know if that made me feel kxia better or worse. The wind came through the trees and the thing swayed a little bit. I remembered that the last time I noticed the wind I got shot in the leg. Still, maybe I was seeing things. When I was little I saw all kinds of things when I went to bed; faces floating in the air, clothes, hanging from hooks or door knobs, looked like people all the time. So I stood up. Nothing happened. I walked forward a little bit. It sure did look like a body, one not too much bigger than mine, and black. I looked behind me and acroos the street I could see the sand bags |