Very Sharp Pains, 34 Weeks Pregnant

When Leonard arrived on the evening of Christmas Eve, on the home stereo His were the Kentucky Headhunters at full volume sang The Ballad of Davy Crockett , and Leonard, as a sort of celebration of Christmas was once again setting fire to the house next door.
I was hoping that he stopped doing it. The first time I had helped the second time he had done on his own, and now here I am present at the third, in the car. All this would have looked pretty damn suspicious, the cops when they arrived. Somebody had already phoned. Most probably they were the assholes from inside the house. I knew because I could hear the sirens in the distance.


Joe R. Lansdale
"The Bear Mambo"
Einaudi, 2001 [pg. 3]