Michael Malone - Weebly

place, but still. It makes it kind of hard for me to keep
telling people, 'Oh, listen, his bark is worse than his
bite,' when they hear stories about you eating off ears."
Suddenly Henry smiled, shifting the bony surfaces
of his face into the youth it had almost never revealed. It
was that rare, oddly sweet smile that Winslow
Abernathy had noticed in the visitors' room of the
Argyle jail. "Hey," he said. "Thanks, okay?"
"Well, just don't yell at Judith like that. She'll drop
dead. She's not used to it the way I am. The nuns raised
her."
In the bathroom, Limus Barnum still waited. He
waited until after a long silence, then he slowly opened
the door. On the shelf under the wall phone was a
chewing gum wrapper with a number written on it. No
one was in the corridor when Barnum dialed. The
phone rang at least eight times, then a female voice,
catching its breath as it spoke, said, "Hello?" Barnum
said nothing. "Hello?" the voice repeated. "Hello? I'm
sorry, is someone there? Hello?" Then she was silent.
He waited. Each could hear the other's breath. Quietly
he replaced the receiver.