Удушье (Choke)

What would Jesus NOT do?

And the cop smiles and says, 'I'll see what's possible.'

And I shut the door in his face.

Now Denny heaves the rock onto the floor, and he asks do I have a couple bucks to spare. There's a chunk of ashlar granite at a stone supply yard. Good building rock, rock with good com­pression strength, costs so much per ton, and Denny figures he can get this one rock for ten bucks.

'A rock is a rock,' he says, 'but a square rock is a blessing.'

The living room looks filled up by an avalanche. First the rocks were up around the bottom of the sofa. Then the end tables were buried with just the lampshades poking up out of the rocks. Granite and sandstone. Gray and blue and black and brown rocks. In some rooms, we walk around stooped against the ceil­ ing.

So I ask, what's he going to build?

And Denny says, 'Give me the ten bucks,' Denny says, 'and I'll let you help.'

'All these stupid rocks,' I say, 'what's your goal?'

'This isn't about getting something done,' Denny says. 'It's about the doing, you know, the process.'

'But what are you going to do with all these rocks?'

And Denny says, 'I don't know until I collect enough.'

'But what's enough?' I say.

'I don't know, dude,' Denny says, 'I just want the days of my life to add up to something.'

The way every day of your life, the way it can just disappear in front of the television, Denny says he wants a rock to show for each day. Something tangible. Just one thing. A little monument to mark the end of each day. Each day he doesn't spend jacking himself off.

'Tombstone' isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.

'This way, maybe my life will add up to something,' he says, 'something that will last.'

I say there needs to be a twelve-step program for rock addicts.

And Denny says, 'As if that would help.' He says, 'When was the last time you even thought about your fourth step?'

Chapter 30

The Mommy and the stupid little shit-heel kid

, they stopped at a zoo one time. This zoo was so famous it was surrounded by acres of parking lot. This was in some city you can drive to, where a line of kids and moms were waiting to get inside with their money.

This was after the false alarm at the police station, when the detectives let the kid go find the bathroom by himself, and out­side parked at the curb was the Mommy saying, 'You want to help liberate the animals?'

This was the fourth or fifth time she came back to claim him.

This is what the courts would later call 'Reckless Abuse of City Property.'

That day, the Mommy's face looked the same as those dogs where the corner of each eye