THE DEATH OF US ALL

THE ONE WITH THE CONVERSATION

We were sitting in the living room with the TV off, just talking.

Once again he started talking about houses for sale.

“There’s a place in the hills for 85 G’s. A real good hide-out.” He grinned.

“Shit; your sitting in a joint that’s paid for.”

“Across the street from the cop shop.”

“I know, you forgot about that when you bought it.”

“It didn’t matter, we bought it to flip it, not to live in.”

The front yard is a desert in the 100 august heat; inside the mammoth and ancient Carrier refrigerates the whole house to 70, and removed a bucket of water full of condensed humidity today. From the old houses I’ve seen, he’s sitting in a Cadillac.

The cement job with Darnell got started in casual conversation. I mentioned how some “experts” had told me it was impossible to repair the crumbling sidewalk without removing all the cement and starting over. Darnell said if the mixture is done right it will adhere to existing concrete. So far he is right!