'Meet you?' said Siggy. 'Meet Graff's little raggy drab! Meet you for what?'
And big steps were taking up the hallway, huffs like tractor breath stirred the doorway air.
'Get out, Siggy,' I said.
'I want my sleeping bag and my toothbrush, Graff. Please can I have my things back?'
'Oh, Christ, Sig!' I said. 'Get out of here!'
And thump! said Keff to the door. Thump.
'Oh! Enter the heavy!' said Siggy. 'Enter the crusher of spines!'
Keff thumped.
'I'm coming back for my things,' said Siggy.
'Oh, you're crazy!' said Gallen. 'You bald goon,' she said. 'You mean terrible queer!'
'Oh, Graff,' he said - he was backing between the beds - 'oh, Graff, I had this beautiful plan.'
'Siggy, listen,' I said.
'Oh, damn you, Graff,' he said so softly - he was on the sunset on the window ledge.
'Sig, I'm really going to meet you,' I said.
'Oh, Keff!' said Gallen. 'Keff.' He was thumping very hard.
'Sig, say where you'll meet me.'
'Where did I meet you, Graff? You watched girls in the Rathaus Park,' he said. 'You watched me too.'
'Siggy,' I said.
'You've had a good laugh over me,' he said. 'You and this tender young slip-in you've made the whole trip for.'
And the hinge pins sprouted fro
m the door. Oh, how Keff could thump!
'You got a job!' said Siggy. And he jumped, splotz in the awful garden-muck.
The sunset struck his terrible, hairless dome. Shadows deepened his skull dents, and the skeleton gape of his mouth - scooped the life from his eyes.
'Graff?' said Gallen.
'You shut up,' I said. 'You tell me when he comes back, Gallen - if you have to walk the orchards to St Leonhard, you find me and tell me when he's come back.'
'Oh damn, Graff!' she cried. Then she said, 'Oh, Keff' - who now appeared round the hinge side of the door, swinging the door with him until the knob side snapped free of the jamb. Surprised, he still held the door - not knowing where to lay it down.
'Oh, Christ!' I said.
But no one spoke up.
Denying the Animal
AS THE NOTEBOOK says: