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Show 374 of bones floating in water, drifting into random patterns as invisible currents cut beneath the surface and gradually dissipated. A femur nudged a translucent scapula before making a three-quarter turn to click against an entire ribcage that drifted past. Some ribs were missing, like the teeth of a comb; the remaining ones hung like fingers and gradually disappeared toward the ends where the murk blurred them. Someone's pelvis bobbed against a lily pad, and further away he saw the horseshoe of a lower jaw darting from side to side. The mystery cleared when he could make out that a dozen or so grey fish, carp possibly, were nibbling at it on different sides, scouring it for crumbs of flesh, or snails, or algae. Probably not flesh, he decided. Flesh would have whitened and congealed a long time ago, and algae would have grown into the crevices between the remaining teeth. Algae, then. When he woke up and peered through the palm prints of dust on his windshield the first thing he saw was a construction worker pissing against his front left tire and grinning at him. Three or four others were standing by a pile of lumber under the trees watching. Still holding the army blanket closed around his chest, he reached over and groped for his shirt on the back seat while the construction worker shook himself dry and zipped up. Lorin buttoned his shirt and struggled into his pants, and still barefoot started his car and drove down the canyon while the unfinished house and the construction workers vanished in a billow of smoke and flame through which bloody arms and legs spun from the grenade he had coolly tossed over his shoulder on the way past. Over breakfast in a motel coffee shop he felt panic lick at his heart. He watched the Mexican busboy wipe the end of the counter and reflected that even if he got a job today he was going to need lunch in a few hours. It was also time to have a room to sleep in, with walls and a door. He |