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the end-all, and then they turn to something else. For me, Chambers Bay was simply one more adventure, one more exploration into the fascinating world of the bizarre and unusual, one more unexplainable situation to be defused with logic. For Jake, it had evolved into something decidedly different. My detachment was my sanity. His involvement was his reality. For me, Vernice, Jake, Caleb, Harlan, Bert and Polly were all living, breathing human beings, but there was a time, still some way off, when they would be little more than carefully scribed recollections over Scotch in front of a crackling fire. For Jake, they were a very real part of tomorrowand the day after and the day after. |
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The big man checked his watch, sauntered back into the kitchen, fixed each of us a cup of coffee and drifted out on the back porch. He stood there for several seconds before I heard the protest. ''Oh, God . . . no,'' he cried. |
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He stared across the narrow expanse of oil-stained gravel at the front door of Vernice's faded silver and gray house trailer. The front door was open. On the top step was Vernice's robe-clad body. |
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Jake bolted for her with me on his heels. |
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He bent over the woman's lifeless body and tenderly cradled her head in his bearlike paws. The look on his face betrayed the unbridled gamut of his emotionsdisbelief, |
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