Chapter 23
SUNLIGHT WARMED my face.
My tongue tasted like bad brandy somehow gone worse. Wet grass cooled my cheek, my flank, my buttocks, my outstretched arm.
I’m naked on the lawn.
The thought spasmed through me, lifting me to a sitting position even before I could get my eyes open.
“Easy,” someone said.
A hollow metallic pop and hiss sounded behind me.
My hands found a blanket. Someone had covered me. I clutched it to my chest and worked my gummy eyes open.
A heavyset man knelt before me, one knee on the cracked sidewalk, the other pressed to his chest as he leaned into my face. I needed a moment to recognize the flat chin and broad nose flattened by a fist many years before. “Fred?”
Fireman Fred Pearson’s slow, thoughtful nod hadn’t changed from before. “Kevin. How do you feel
