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82 Jack Fritscher

“That a fact.” Floyd combed and clipped at Robert’s head. “Get-
ting kind of thin on the top.”
“Yeah,” Robert said. “So it goes.”
Floyd clipped at one small hair growing in Robert’s left ear. “Do
you suppose,” he said, “that they put out their eyes when they’re kids?”
“Who?” Robert looked up from the magazine in his lap.
“Those pianists on TV. The ones that can’t see because it makes
them play better.”
“I don’t know,” Robert said. “Most people’ll do most anything.”
“Sometimes in India they put out a kid’s eyes so he can hustle
more from tourists. Hear the Mex do that too.”
“Sounds to me,” Robert said, “something like the boys who sang
soprano for the pope. I got an article I tore out of some magazine at
home on that. They’d take these altar boys and, you know, sort of spay
them, operate on them, you know, down there, so they’d keep their
real high voices. Their families were happy. Even the kids were happy.
A kid with a real high voice could make a fortune in those days.”
“That a fact,” Floyd said. “Maybe then that’s why they do it. Just
so ‘Mr. and Mrs. America’ can sit at home in front of their ‘T and V’
and watch those black boys who can’t even see play the piano.” He
reached for the talcum. “Dagos really did that stuff, huh?”
“Lots of people do lots of things that sound cruel to us but not
to them. Anybody who’s not an orphan knows that.” On the shelf,
between Bach and Liszt, Robert spied a fresh half-eaten deli sandwich.
He shifted nervously in the chair.
“Hold still,” Floyd said. He reached for the shaving cream. “I’m
finishing up around your ears.”
On the end-table next to the chromium-and-leatherette couch
lay a second half-eaten sandwich. Blood sausage, the same color as
the burgundy couch, hung bitten out of the white bread. In a Coke
with no more than two swigs out of it, small bubbles fizzed noise-
lessly to the top.
“One of your customers left his lunch.”
“Some customers leave stuff. Some take it. There’s losers and
there’s claimers. You want it?” He arced his razor in a smooth crescent
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