Michael Malone - Weebly

But the Abernathys' home had no air conditioners.
The thought of having to keep her windows closed and
having to smell machine-forced air for even such a
summer night as this had been intolerable to Beanie.
She could always, thought Winslow, endure a higher
degree of reality than he could; for he had been forced
to come outside to walk tonight, unable to function
under the heavy weight of heated air that hung over his
study. He wondered how he could have forgotten for
so many years that he was a person who habitually took
walks.
Winslow Abernathy, while entirely sober, was
feeling lightheaded. Wryly he considered the possibility
that he had poisoned himself inadvertently in his novice
but seemingly innocuous broiling of a steak and tossing
of a salad. In this mood he decided that he, like a
postman with special delivery news, would call on each
of his neighbors in turn and preempt their speculations
on his private life by declaring in their front halls that
Mr. and Mrs. Winslow Abernathy wished to announce
the separation of Beatrice Rose Dingley from Winslow
Edward Abernathy on June 4. Private ceremony. No