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 3em

with me getting up feeling fair and going down to the creek to slurp up water in my palms and wash up, seeing the languid waving of one large brown thigh over the mass of Dave's nylons indicative of an early morning love scene, in fact Romana telling us later at breakfast “When I woke up this morning and saw all those trees and water and clouds I told Dave ‘It’s a beautiful universe we created―A real Adam and Eve waking up, in fact this being one of Dave’s gladdest days because he’d really wanted to get away from the City again anyway and this time with a pretty doll, and’s brought his surf casting gear planning a big day―And we’ve brought a lot of good food―The only trouble is there’s no more wine so Dave and Romana go off in Willie to get some more anyway at a store 13 miles south down the highway—Billie and I are alone talking by the fire—I begin to feel extremely low as soon as last night’s alcohol wears off.

Everything is trembly again, the trembling hand, I cant for a fact even light the fire and Billie has to do it—“I cant light a fire any more!” I yell—“Well I can” she says in a rare instance when she lets me have it for being such a nut—Little Elliott is constantly pulling at her asking this and that, “What is that stick for, to put in the fire? why? how does it burn? why does it burn? where are we? when are we leaving” and the pattern develops where she begins to talk to him instead of me anyway because I’m just sitting there staring at the floor sighing—Later when he takes his nap we go down the path to the beach, about 148