15 The Indian’s Book
16 The Bigger They Are the Higher They Burn
17 The Weeping Water Farm Insurance Office
20 The Bottle-Shaped Tombstone
22 The Dermatologist in the Wild Wood
30 The Troubles of Celestial Bodies
40 The Gallbladders of Black Bears
43 The Skeleton with Its Dress Pulled Up
44 The Runty Rider Curses Judges
53 The Fulgurite Shaped Like a Bone
57 The Jet Trail in the Windshield
‘But that’s the part of it I always liked. He adjusted himself to beams falling, and then no more of them fell, and he adjusted himself to them not falling.’
DASHIELL HAMMETT, The Maltese Falcon
EVEN BEFORE HE GOT UP he knew he was on his way. Even in the midst of the involuntary orgasmic jerking he knew. Knew she was dead, knew he was on his way. Even standing there on shaking legs, trying to push the copper buttons through the stiff buttonholes he knew that everything he had done or thought in his life had to be started over again. Even if he got away.
He
