Frogmouth Read Free Page A

and a half seconds."
    "WHAT?"
    "More or less."
    "I couldn't get to the bank from the other side of the street in twelve and a half seconds!" Auden said, "He's hit the bank six times in two days. He isn't slow, he's like fucking greased lightning! Even if he gave me twenty yards start I still couldn't—"
    "You could."
    "I couldn't!"
    "You could." Spencer said entreatingly, "Do it for P.C. Wang!"
    "P.C. Wang is happy! P.C. Wang has inner peace!"
    "P.C. Wang hasn't got any money! P.C. Wang isn't going to get any inner peace until he gets a decent stake from—" Spencer said suddenly, "Phil, if you could have seen him lying there in that public ward looking so pathetic and broken . . ."
    Auden said, 'Tough."
    ". . . all his youth and dreams gone in a single cruel twist of fate . . ."
    Auden said, "Huh."
    ". . . with nothing to look forward to but a lifetime of friendless penury and a pension so niggardly and . . ." Spencer said, "Beaten by an unwinnable challenge, defeated by odds so great that only a man of superhuman muscle development and . . ."
    Auden said, "Oh, no."
    Spencer said, ". . . viselike endurance and—"
    Auden said, "You've bet on me, haven't you?"
    ". . . a will to win . . ."
    "You've found a goddamned bookie and you've laid Wang's pension on me, haven't you?" He could hardly hear himself bawl for the violins and hearts and flowers, "Haven't you!"
    Spencer said, "Poor P.C. Wang was so—"
    "Haven't you!?"
    Spencer said, "Yes!" Spencer, admitting it, said, "Yes! I bet on you! They all said it couldn't be done, that the only way to catch the Tibetan Tornado on Sagarmatha Hill was to shoot him and then—"
    Auden said, "Whoever they are, they're right."
    "—but I told them that out there there was a man to whom no battle was too great, no call too distant, no cause too lost, no burden too great . . ."
    Auden said, "I don't even like P.C. Wang—"
    "—no fellow human too low, no cur too loathsome that he—"
    "Bill, I don't think I can do it."
    Spencer said, "You can do it." Spencer said, shrugging, "Anyway, it's only a small pension. Considering that Wang was going to have to try to support his wife and three children and his wife's grandmother on it, he's probably better off without it. The medical bills would have swallowed it all up anyway." He said, nodding, "You're right, you can't do it. P.C. Wang is better off just dying quietly in the hospital with no hope of recovery at all. It's kinder on his family. At least they'll have one little moment of importance at his funeral." Spencer said, "If 11 give them a little glow, all the pageantry, to warm them on their cold, friendless, ragged walk back from the cemetery to their doorway or cardboard crate in the street."
    Auden looked up at the hill. It was like looking up at the Eiffel Tower. At the top of the hill there was a haze of carbon monoxide where it met Wyang Street. Either that or it was a mist of cloud where it met the sky. There was a flash of lightning. Either that or it was a comet. Auden said, shrugging, "Maybe I could do it . . ." Auden said, "The guy at the gym did say if I hadn't been a cop I could have been a pro footballer or a—" Auden said, "I keep myself fit and clean, you know . . ."
    Spencer said, "I know."
    Auden said, "I read books too. It's just that you have to choose sometimes between the mind and the body and there are some of us—"
    Spencer said, "Lucky for the poor and downtrodden and sick like P.C. Wang—"
    Auden said, "This Tibetan character or whatever he is, he probably doesn't keep himself in shape anyway. If he has to grab money off people at autobanks he obviously can't afford to go to a good gym or—" Auden said, "I'll do it."
    Spencer said, "I knew you would."
    Auden, getting excited, said, "Did you see that movie Rocky ? Did you see the way he went up those stairs in Philadelphia? Did you see—"
    Spencer said, "No, I missed that one."
    Auden said, "I'll do it! I'll do it for P.C. Wang and I'll do it for me and I'll do