Curse the Names (18 page)

Hello, my name is James. I am not crazy. I am not afraid to close my eyes.

All across Los Alamos, a thousand Mr. Coffees gurgle on at split-second intervals.

It is a minute past sunrise and it is already hot, a bright summer morning on the Hill. Gracious homes left and right.

Ten thousand people waking up. People with high blood pressure read the paper. People with clean teeth go jogging. People with skin cancer that hasn’t been detected yet get ready to go to their jobs.

It is dawn, and Ned, he of the Weedwacker, is already out on his immaculate lawn.

Here I am, barefoot, coming to meet my neighbor between our fields of green. My front lawn is not as nice as Ned’s. The grass is shaggy, riddled with dandelions, pocked with old Oppie shits. Ned keeps his lawn closecropped and free of crabgrass.

“Good morning!”

Ned looks up, waves. He is stringing up his Weedwacker, wearing work boots, eye protection, noisecancelling headphones.

“Did you hear something?”

He squints at me through the plastic goggles. I make a no-worries gesture. Of course he didn’t hear anything. Let me think about this for a second. Was what woke me a sound, or was that just the sound of myself jerking awake?

Ned stoops to yank the cord, once, twice. He is having trouble getting the Weedwacker started. Over Ned’s shoulder, down Pajarito Road, the streetlamps are burning in the dawn’s early light.

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