45
War with Iraq dominated the news and people became familiar with UN resolutions. Hans Blix was as famous as Bono. The pool run by the sentry in Nestor’s, as to when Bush would invade, had been abandoned. I asked him,
“What happens to all the money in the pot?”
He was staring into his Guinness, snapped,
“All bets are off.”
Pithy. Put it on a tombstone and you were downright ironic. Refunds weren’t mentioned.
The rupture in my friendship with Jeff began to mend and I resumed my visits. The hard chair and table that served as my office were back in action. I heard that Pat, Jeff’s friend who’d been castrated, had been moved to Dublin to be treated there. Sometimes, his fate shadowed our conversations, but we never met it head on.
To my surprise, Cathy asked me to mind their toddler,
