Skinny Legs and All (61 page)

Meanwhile, there was so much to think about. All that had been revealed to her—and to who knew how many others?—when Salome danced the Dance of the Seven Veils. Those revelations might require her to grow in unexpected directions. The others might similarly grow. What effect, if any, that mutant growth might have on the culture at large, in the earth’s “Final Days,” remained to be seen. Meanwhile, the garden there in Jerusalem, the sunny patio there at the cervix of the world, was a fine place to ponder it all.

Ellen Cherry was relaxed, calm, at peace. The roller coaster ride was over. Those years of feeling on top of things one week, squashed by them the next, had fallen away like the pages of a calendar. Those bizarre events that had haunted her in New York were swiftly fading memories. From now on—she could sense it—her existence would be stable, maybe even staunch; the life of a relatively normal artist in which relatively normal events transpired. She sighed like a feather pillow being fluffed by an old Norwegian maid. She took a long, slow sip of tea.

Moments later, Boomer bolted into the garden. It didn’t much look like Boomer but it was he. He was carrying something, presenting it to her like a gift. God, she hoped it wasn’t the tail of a dead rat.

“Looky here, bagel britches!” he practically shouted. “Looky what I found for you lying in the rubble on the edge of Pales Plaza. It’s a spoon! A little ol’ spoon! Exactly like the one we lost in that cave that day! I mean
exactly
!”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TOM ROBBINS has been called “a vital natural resource” by The Portland Oregonian, “one of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world” by the Financial Times of London, and “the most dangerous writer in the world today” by Fernanda Pivano of Italy’s Corriere della Sera. A Southerner by birth, Robbins has lived in and around Seattle since 1962.

BOOKS BY TOM ROBBINS

Another Roadside Attraction

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Still Life with Woodpecker

Jitterbug Perfume

Skinny Legs and All

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates

Villa Incognito

Nationwide Praise for

SKINNY LEGS AND ALL

“A PHANTASMAGORICAL, POLITICALLY CHARGED TALE YOU WISH WOULD NEVER END

ROBBINS’S LUST FOR LAUGHS IS UNDIMINISHED; THIS PRESCRIPTION FOR SANITY COULDN’T BE BETTER.”—

Publishers Weekly

“TOM ROBBINS AT HIS BEST—PLAYFUL, SWEET, SMART, AND FULL OF THAT OLD ROBBINS MAGIC.”—

Seattle Post Intelligencer

“A GOD OF ELOQUENCE

ROBBINS REFINES THE GOOFY INTO REVELATIONS.”

—San Jose Mercury News

“AN ENCYCLOPEDIC MASTERWORK RIGHT UP THERE WITH PYNCHON AND JOYCE.”—

Timothy Leary

“DAZZLING . . . SERIOUS . . . BUT VERY FUNNY.”—
The Bergen Record

“HILARIOUS. WHO BUT ROBBINS CAN MAKE A BOOK OF IDEAS SO MUCH FUN TO READ?"—

Milwaukee Journal

“FUNNY, SEXY, IMAGINATIVE AND PLAYFUL, YET HAS AN UNDERLYING TEXTURE BOTH BEAUTIFUL AND PROFOUND.”—

Neil Peart, lyricist, Rush

Some of the works of art described in these pages are fictionalized exaggerations of pieces originally created by Patti Warashina, Fred Bauer, and Norma Rosen. The author salutes them.

SKINNY LEGS AND ALL

A Bantam Book

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Bantam hardcover edition published May 1990

Bantam paperback edition / April 1991

Bantam trade paperback edition / December 1995

Bantam trade paperback reissue / May 2003

Published by Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 1990 by Tibetan Peach Pie, Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 89-18309

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eISBN: 978-0-553-89793-7

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