Michael Malone - Weebly

that would get him in good with everybody. The
scenario toward which he raced, rehearsing, was vivid
in his mind. But, in fact, all Barnum really knew was that
finally something was going to happen. He was going to
press his hand against life and feel that it had the glaring
intensity of the world in the mirror.
chapter 53
Judith sat in the dark and waited for the phone to
ring again. Since the anonymous call, she had sat, her
legs tucked up in the green armchair, with the lights off,
because it was more frightening to her to be seen than
not to be able to see. She continued to knit by feel,
soothed by the orderly sound. She had closed the
doors to the family room so that in less space she might
feel less vulnerable. One of her discomforts with her
husband's new house was that there were so few doors
to close; rooms gaped into one another as if their
occupants, smothering under the pressure of the low
ceilings and close, windowless sides, had snatched
sledgehammers and bashed down the walls. The living
room drifted into the dinette and so into the kitchen and