Dr Jew

that passed for eyes, then turned away and went back into her apartment, leaving the door open.
    "Come on," said Dave to Swan.
    Inside the apartment strange witch paraphernalia and tea smells tried to mask the unsavory truth, the reptilian fungus that carpeted all space even the air in the architecture of the place's being.
    "God, that smell," said Dave. "Take a seat, Swan."
    "You notice the smell of the place but can 't smell your own foulness," said the old woman.
    "I can shower," said Dave.
    "And who is this boy?"
    Swan averted his eyes from her gaze.
    "He is not polluted as you are, David Parker," she said.
    "Well, I keep him here any longer and he 'll be polluted enough for all the city. Where's the stuff?"
    She looked from Dave to Swan again. "It is only for you?" she said. "Not for the boy?"
    Swan didn 't know what she meant by "stuff" but he could feel something from the woman that was the opposite of whatever came from his uncle.
    "For the boy?" said Dave. "Aw, hell no. Not that it's any of your business."
    "It is precisely my business, " she said. "I have no problem pumping poison into monsters like you and taking your money for it, and you can always go buy it from the boys on the street. No one drags you here. But if I find out you're giving it to children like him then you can leave now."
    "Hey now, hold on. No one said anything about him using it."
    "Then why bring him here?" she said.
    "Hell, he 's just along for the ride. I can't just leave him outside. He's from the sticks. Can't tell right from left. I'll keep him close till he's straightened out."
    She snorted and spat in a bowl. Swan saw what looked like a tooth in the bowl. "He will be hurt by being near you. Maybe not now and not tomorrow but your stain touches all who come near you."
    "Alright, alright," said Dave.
    She snorted again and went to a cabinet and took out a bag of white powder. She put it in front of Dave. He opened the bag and licked his finger, dipped it in the powder, and tasted.
    "Is it sugar?" said Swan.
    The old woman looked at Swan and cackled.
    "Yeah, Swan," said Dave. "Why don't you go wait in the hall? I'll be right out."
    "Okay," said Swan.
    Out in the hall Swan listened. The woman asked Dave if he wanted to try the sugar and Dave said yes and then Swan heard Dave blow his nose it sounded like and a minute later Dave emerged with a grin.
    "Where is your sugar?" said Swan.
    "Got it right here, boy."
    "Is it good sugar, Uncle Dave?"
    "Hell yes it is."
    "Is that why you get it he re? Because in Mississippi ma would buy sugar but she'd get it at the store in town."
    "Well yeah, we got sugar in stores too but when I want really good sugar I come here."
    "Okay."
    "And I'll tell you one more thing, boy. Your aunt Anne don't know about this place and we're gonna keep it that way just between the two of us. Alright?"
    Swan thought about this. "But if she knew about this place she could buy better sugar."
    Dave smiled again. "That's you using your head. But if she knew where to get this sugar she'd be getting it all the time and I'd be getting fat, and one thing I don't need is to be getting fat. Right?"
    "Oh, okay," said Swan.
    They came out of the building and the man who'd been swimming and singing on the sidewalk was urinating on Dave's car.
    "Goddamn," said Dave and let out a growl and punched the man in the side of the head. The man shrieked, fell down, and rolled away without looking back at his assailant.
    "I tell you, y ou got to watch out for the trash of the city. Get in, boy, we're going to the carwash."
    And even the carwash fascinated Swan who had never seen on e before. He looked a little frightened as the spinning brushes whipped down upon the car. Dave was calm and had his mind elsewhere and Swan did his best to imitate his uncle's cool.
    From the carwash they went to North Beach and found parking just north of Broadwa y. They walked up a hill and went up more stairs to another apartment, but this building was nicer and cleaner. Dave rang a doorbell and a thin pale man almost as tall as Swan but built more like a skeleton opened the door. He said nothing to them and only acknowledged them with his eyes, giving a slightly longer glance at Swan. Dave followed the thin man to the kitchen table where a small metal box sat. The thin man unlocked the box and said, "Would you like a drink?"
    "No," said Dave. "But one for the boy."
    "Boy?" said the thin man. "He seems a little bigger than a boy. You bring him in case of