Dr Jew

die than go back to that. Or try anything else."
    "So that 's why you went to this other guy? You got to get back on your meds, man."
    "I should."
    "What did this new guy tell you?"
    "He gave me a formula to take. Every day."
    "Do you notice any changes?"
    "I haven't taken it. I wasn't going to. The guy creeped me out, honestly. But he is a doctor, right? He seemed more interested in talking to you and showing me his poetry than in helping me."
    "God, sounds like a fucknut. Keep him away from me."
    "You don 't want his new screenplay, then?"
    "I hope you 're kidding."
    "I 'll take that as a no."
    "Thank you."
    "I may as well give his medicine a try."
    "Know what it is?"
    "No."
    "I wash my hands of the matter."
    "Okay. I'm going home. I'll get to work on the dolphin scene. No loops this time."
    "You should really take a break, Philip . We can finish this."
    "No, no , I don't collaborate. Really, Sergio – I work best when I'm dying."

XXVII.

    "This is where you r real education begins," said Dave.
    "Okay," said Swan.
    " Okay , he says," said Vinny. "Listen to this guy. I could crap my pants and I been doing this for years, but you, Swan, are a piece of work."
    "Shut up," said Dave. "I haven't told him."
    "Told me what?" said Swan.
    "You haven't – well, that seems like one hell of a calculated risk," said Vinny.
    "He 'll learn soon enough. Just you do what you do, I'll do what I do, and Swan, you do as I tell you and we'll all be doing dee-light-fully."
    " On my first run with you, Dave," said Vinny, "and you bring this rookie along. If Larry Fisher didn't trust you –"
    "You can leave if you want," said Dave.
    Dave stopped the car. Vinny stayed in his seat and looked straight ahead.
    "That 's what I thought," said Dave. "You got a big mouth for such a little body and mainly it likes to whine like a sheep."
    "Sheep don't whine," said Swan.
    "Shut up, Swan" said Dave.
    "Yeah, shut up," said Vinny.
    Dave looked at Vinny, then slapped him, and said, "You don't talk to him like that."
    "Jesus! Where do you get off – where did that come from?"
    Swan was frightened by the violence.
    "You don 't talk to him or me or any of my family like that," said Dave. "You can get out of my car right now and we'll be okay. You just get out right now."
    "What? What the hell? We're good and then I tell the kid to shut up and you explode!"
    "And I 'll do it again anytime I hear words like that coming this way."
    "Jesus, alright, alright. Look, I'm real sorry. I am."
    "Say it to the kid."
    "Alright." Vinny turned around. "Look, Swan, I'm sorry I told you to shut up. I'm sorry. Okay? We're good?"
    "Sure , Vinny," said Swan. "I know you don't mean nothing."
    "That 's right. See? The kid and I are square as pie."
    "Whatever t he hell that's supposed to mean," said Dave. "Anyway, as long as he's happy, I'm happy."
    Dave 's hideous grin and laugh… Vinny wondered if he should have left the car after all.
    "Let 's get down to business, boys!" said Dave.

XXVIII.

    Jimmy, t he thin man with shark teeth, was on his own minding the apartment. The other two men who used the apartment in the day had gone to lunch and promised to call him when they saw the menu of wherever they ate and phone him with his options. He waited, as he often did, by doing the puzzle section in the newspaper. Sometimes he tried the crossword but usually found it too difficult, and sometimes he tried the cryptogram or the sudoku, but found them too time-consuming. The only one he did consistently was the "Omelet": scrambled words. They often looked deceptively easy and sometimes were. He would look at the scrambled words and a place in his mind spat the answers almost immediately. Only sometimes it failed to spit. Today's words were easy (YIHFS, DROAH, and MOCHER became FISHY, HOARD, and CHROME), but TUSACC had him stumped. He stared into the word and found himself trying to unscramble it and when he had to try he knew he was done for.
    "Damn it, " he said.
    A knock on the front door pulled him away from the Omelet. He walked with lingering distraction as his brain continued restructuring the letters (SCATUC) and had a constipated quality, a sexual eagerness that would remain till his mind saw through the word. It wasn't coming.
    He looked through the peephole. A middle-aged Southerner, that Dave prick whose voice he could never stomach, and more often than not came out ahead in his winnings. Both he and his associates disliked the man, but he had been working bets for