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was an ingenious liar and accepted no punishment meekly. The more blatant his crimes, the more brilliant he became in his own defense. Duane began to get a headache. He felt like strangling his son. He wondered if the stewardesses realized that his beautiful little daughter was playing with her crotch. Dallas-Fort Worth seemed very far away.
    “Duane, don’t sulk, it was a real nice trip in some ways,” Karla said.

CHAPTER 3
    D UANE WAS WELL AWARE THAT HIS IGNORANCE OF the world, and his unwillingness to go and see much of it, were shortcomings that particularly enraged Karla, though why they enraged her he had no idea, since she was every bit as ignorant of the world beyond Texas. He had been to California three times, and she had only been once. He had been to Las Vegas twice and had asked her to go both times. Both invitations had led to fits—the fit being one of Karla’s favorite forms of self-expression.
    “No, thanks, the only reason you’re going is to get laid, and I’m not giving you a chance to accuse me of standing in the way of that,” she said.
    Duane knew perfectly well she wasn’t standing in the way of it. Karla was a firm believer in sexual freedom, especially for her.
    “I just thought you might like to see one of those shows,” he said.
    “If I wanta see tits all I have to do is take my bra off,” Karla said.
    She didn’t really even have to do that, since her daughterNellie’s fine young bosom was frequently on view around the house. For almost a year dinner had been eaten to the sound of Little Mike slurping at his mother. Nellie was too lazy to wean him, despite repeated entreaties from Karla, who had not cared for breast-feeding and didn’t enjoy watching it take place.
    Bobby Lee, Duane’s number one tool pusher, was the only one who got much of a thrill out of watching Nellie nurse Little Mike or Barbette, the baby girl. With oil at twenty-one dollars a barrel and sinking, there wasn’t too much drilling to do. Bobby Lee had plenty of leisure to devote to watching Nellie nurse her kids. His desire was obvious, but so far Nellie had refused him—and being refused by Nellie was virtually a unique distinction.
    Bobby Lee had worked for Duane for over twenty years and made it plain that he hoped to marry into the family someday, although he was already married.
    “I don’t know why you’d want to, except that you never have been in your right mind,” Duane said.
    He had no serious objections, though. Bobby Lee would make at least as good a son-in-law as the first three Nellie had presented them with.
    Karla, however, had plenty of objections, which she aired whenever she could get Bobby Lee alone. Unbeknownst to Duane, she and Bobby Lee had had a messy one-night stand several years back. Duane had been off deer hunting. It left Karla unaffected but caused Bobby Lee to fall madly in love.
    The fact that she was completely uninterested in him as a boyfriend didn’t mean—as Karla repeatedly pointed out—that she wanted him sleeping with her daughter, or daughters. Bobby Lee was a small man with mournful brown eyes. If Nellie wasn’t around, the mournful eyes would frequently linger on Julie, who was just coming into bud.
    “It does look like, with all the horny women there are in this country, you could find someone not related to me, if you’d just look,” Karla told him.
    “What horny women?” Bobby Lee asked. He liked to project an image of asceticism, although he could be found every night at Aunt Jimmie’s Lounge, and Aunt Jimmie’s was not exactly a monastery.
    When Barbette was born, two months previously, Karla decidedshe was going to have to take the weaning of Little Mike into her own hands. In his two years he had shown no interest in restraint, and if he felt his food source threatened there was no telling what he might do to his baby sister.
    Karla started kidnapping him every day. She drove him around in her new BMW, plugged in via Walkman to the loudest