The Last Gasps of Indian Summer by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

PLEASE NOTE: This is an HTML preview only and some elements such as links or page numbers may be incorrect.
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.

The gift goes on

In silence

In a bell jar

Still a song...

You've got to shake your fists at lightning now You've got to roar like forest fire

You've got to spread your light like blazes All across the sky

They're going to aim the hoses on you

Show them you won't expire

Not till you burn up every passion

Not even when you die

Come on now

You've got to try

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 681

If you're feeling contempt

Well then you tell it

If you're tired of the silent night

Jesus, well then you yell it

Condemned to wires and hammers

Strike every chord that you fell

That broken trees

And elephant ivories

Conceal

Written by Joni Mitchell.

The punk doesn’t feel lucky, and Harry shows him that he knew he had no bullets left, by shooting blankly into his temple and laughing.

Harry is assigned a rookie partner, Chico Gonzalez, against his opposition to working with yet another inexperienced police officer. Meanwhile, Scorpio is spotted by a police helicopter near Saints Peter and Paul Church while staking for potential victims, but he escapes. Harry and Gonzalez are unsuccessful in finding him, and Harry is beaten after being mistaken for a peeping tom. After assisting in preventing a suicide, Harry and Gonzalez learn that Scorpio has murdered a 10 year old boy.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 682

Based on Scorpio's letter, the police think his next victim will be a Catholic priest, and set a trap for him.

Scorpio eventually arrives, kills a police officer in the shootout that follows, and flees. The next day, the police receive another letter in which Scorpio claims to have kidnapped a teenager named Ann Mary Deacon. He threatens to kill her if he is not given a ransom of $200,000. Harry is assigned to deliver the money, wearing a radio earpiece so Gonzalez can secretly follow him. Scorpio instructs Harry via payphones to run around the city. They meet at the Mount Davidson cross, where Scorpio beats Harry and admits he intends to kill him and let Ann Mary die. Gonzalez intervenes and gets shot in the chest. Harry uses a concealed knife to stab Scorpio in the leg, but he escapes.

Harry learns of Scorpio's hospital visit and a doctor reveals to him that the killer lives in a room at Kezar Stadium. Harry finds him there and chases Scorpio, shooting him in the leg.

Harry tortures Scorpio into confessing where Ann Mary is being held, but the police only find her corpse. The district attorney reprimands Harry for his conduct, explaining that because Harry obtained his evidence against Scorpio; principally a rifle in Scorpio's possession, illegally, all of it is inadmissible in court and Scorpio is to be released as a free man. His shooting of Gonzalez is not mentioned. An outraged Harry continues to

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 683

shadow Scorpio on his own time. Scorpio pays a man $200 to beat him severely and frames Harry for it, forcing Harry to stop following him. Meanwhile, Gonzalez tells Harry he's not cut out for police work and plans to become a teacher instead.

Scorpio steals a pistol from a liquor store owner and hijacks a school bus. He contacts the police with another ransom demand that includes a flight out of the Santa Rosa airport. Harry waits for him, then jumps onto the roof of the bus from an overpass. Scorpio crashes the bus into a dirt mound and flees to a nearby quarry, where he takes a hostage before Harry wounds him with a fast draw. Harry aims his revolver and reprises his ultimatum about losing count of his shots. Scorpio reaches for his gun, but Harry shoots and kills him with his last bullet.

Harry removes his police badge from his wallet, throws it into the nearby water, and walks away.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 684

097 - Valley of the Dolls – Bell Buckle, Tennessee Valley of the Dolls

Recent Radcliffe graduate Anne Welles is hired as a secretary at a theatrical agency which represents Helen Lawson, a cutthroat Broadway diva. Helen fears newcomer Neely O'Hara will upstage her, so she has Anne's boss pressure Neely to quit their upcoming show. Anne sours on show business after seeing Helen's cruelty toward Neely, but her boss's business partner, Lyon Burke, dissuades her from quitting the agency.

Anne and Neely meet Jennifer North, a beautiful chorus girl with limited talent. They become fast friends, sharing the bonds of ambition and the tendency to fall in love with the wrong men.

After Lyon lands her an appearance on a telethon, Neely mounts a nightclub act. Buoyed by her overnight success, she moves to Hollywood to pursue a lucrative film career. Neely soon succumbs to alcoholism and abuse of the "dolls." She betrays her husband, Mel Anderson, by having an affair with fashion designer Ted Casablanca. After Mel leaves her, Neely divorces him and marries Ted. Neely's spiralling drug and alcohol use eventually sabotages her career and ends her second marriage.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 685

The Band

Virgil Kane is the name

And I served on the Danville train

'Till Stoneman's cavalry came

And tore up the tracks again

In the winter of '65

We were hungry, just barely alive

By May the 10th, Richmond had fell

It's a time I remember, oh so well

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the people were singing

They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

Back with my wife in Tennessee

When one day she called to me

"Virgil, quick, come see,

There goes Robert E. Lee!"

Now, I don't mind chopping wood

And I don't care if the money's no good You take what you need

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 686

And you leave the rest

But they should never

Have taken the very best

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down

And all the people were singing

They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

Like my father before me

I will work the land

And like my brother above me

Who took a rebel stand

He was just 18, proud and brave

But a Yankee laid him in his grave

I swear by the mud below my feet

You can't raise a Kane back up

When he's in defeat

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down

And all the people were singing

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 687

They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

The night they drove old Dixie down

And all the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down

And the people were singing

They went, "Na, na, la, na, na, la"

Written by Robbie Robertson.

Anne and Lyon start a romance, but Lyon resists Anne's wish to marry. When he abruptly leaves for England, Anne is distraught.

She is further upset when her mother dies. Soon Anne's poise and natural beauty attract the attention of her boss's client, Kevin Gillmore, who hires her to promote his line of cosmetics in television and print ads. Kevin falls in love with Anne, but their relationship ends amicably when Anne realizes they are incompatible.

Jennifer follows Neely's path to Hollywood, where she marries nightclub singer Tony Polar. She becomes pregnant but gets an abortion after learning that Tony has the hereditary condition Huntington's chorea; a fact his domineering half-sister and manager Miriam had been concealing. When Tony's mental and physical health decline, Miriam and Jennifer place him in a

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 688

sanitarium. Faced with Tony's mounting medical expenses, Jennifer makes French "art films," soft-core pornography, to pay the bills. Jennifer learns she has breast cancer and thinking her body is her only currency, commits suicide rather than face a mastectomy.

Neely's drug and alcohol abuse lands her in the same sanitarium as Tony, where they discover each other when Neely begins singing in the common area and he joins her.

King Harvest (Has Surely Come)

The Band

Corn in the fields

Listen to the rice when the wind blows 'cross the water King Harvest has surely come

I work for the union

'Cause she's so good to me

And I'm bound to come out on top

That's where she said I should be

I will hear every word the boss may say For he's the one who hands me down my pay Looks like this time I'm gonna get to stay

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 689

I'm a union man, now, all the way

The smell of the leaves

From the magnolia trees in the meadow

King Harvest has surely come

Dry summer

Then comes fall

Which I depend on most of all

Hey, rainmaker, can't you hear the call?

Please let these crops grow tall

Long enough I've been up on Skid Row

And it's plain to see, I've nothing to show I'm glad to pay those union dues

Just don't judge me by my shoes

Scarecrow and a yellow moon

And pretty soon a carnival on the edge of town King Harvest has surely come

Last year, this time, wasn't no joke

My whole barn went up in smoke

Our horse Jethro

Well he went mad

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 690

And I can't ever remember things bein' that bad

Then here come a man with a paper and a pen Tellin' us our hard times are about to end And then, if they don't give us what we like He said, "Men, that's when you gotta go on strike"

Corn in the fields

Listen to the rice when the wind blows 'cross the water King Harvest has surely come

Written by Robbie Robertson.

After she is released, Lyon gets her a role in a Broadway play.

Neely soon causes trouble by having an affair with Lyon and attending a press party for Helen Lawson. During a catfight in the ladies' room, Neely removes Helen's wig and throws it in the toilet. Lyon ends his relationship with Neely when she relapses and is replaced by her understudy. Neely continues her bender at a nearby bar and is left screaming and sobbing in a deserted alley when the bar closes.

Upset by Lyon's betrayal, Anne dabbles in "dolls" and almost drowns in the ocean while high. She returns to New England to live with her Aunt Amy. Lyon follows Anne to New England and

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 691

asks her to marry him. She declines his offer and remains happily single and independent.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 692

098 - Two for the Road – Romney Marsh, Kent, England, UK

Two for the Road

The story begins in 1966 in Romney Marsh, Kent. The wealthy and successful architect Mark Wallace and his wife Joanna drive their 1965 Mercedes 230SL past a wedding on the way to Lydd Airport, where they take a British United Air Ferries flight to France. Upon arriving in France, they begin a drive to Saint Tropez to meet with Mark's longtime client, Maurice Dalbret. As they make their way to the south of France, the unhappy couple reflect on four previous trips they made along the same route.

The film jumps between their present and past trips to show how their relationship has broken down over time.

The first trip takes place in 1954 when Mark and Joanna catch sight of each other on a ferry from England to Dieppe. Mark is a young architect on a photography trip, while Joanna is travelling with her choir to a festival in Menton. When the ferry arrives in Dieppe, Mark becomes alarmed thinking he has lost his passport, but Joanna finds it in the top of his backpack. On the road to Abbeville, Mark and Joanna cross paths again after the choir's Volkswagen Microbus runs off the road and he stops to help them. Mark travels with the girls to

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 693

Abbeville, and after everyone but Joanna and him catches chickenpox, the two go on alone together southwards. Mark tries repeatedly to ditch Joanna, but she stays with him. She finally tells Mark she loves him, and they spend the night together.

Eventually they arrive at the Mediterranean where they stay in cheap hotels and spend their days at the beach. At the end of their week together, Mark asks Joanna to marry him.

On the Road Again

Willie Nelson

On the road again

Just can't wait to get on the road again The life I love is makin' music with my friends And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again

Goin' places that I've never been

Seein' things that I may never see again And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again

Like a band of gypsies, we go down the highway We're the best of friends

Insisting that the world keep turnin'

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 694

our way, and our way

Is on the road again

I just can't wait to get on the road again The life I love is makin' music with my friends And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again

Like a band of gypsies, we go down the highway We're the best of friends

Insisting that the world keep turnin'

our way, and our way

Is on the road again

Just can't wait to get on the road again The life I love is makin' music with my friends And I can't wait to get on the road again And I can't wait to get on the road again

Written by Willie Nelson.

The second trip is in 1957 when the Wallaces have been married two years. On this trip, they travel with an American family in a 1957 Ford Country Squire. The family consists of Mark's former girlfriend from the University of Chicago, Cathy Seligman, her

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 695

husband Howard Maxwell-Manchester, and their spoiled young daughter Ruthie. The relationship between the Wallaces and Maxwell-Manchesters is notably strained, in large part due to Ruthie's disagreeableness. After Ruthie says out loud in the car that Cathy called Joanna a "suburban English nobody," Mark and Joanna leave the Maxwell-Manchesters and continue travelling by themselves.

The third trip takes place in June 1959, when the Wallaces travel for the first time on their own as a married couple, driving a rundown 1950 MG TD. This is the happiest of the couple's trips in France. Along the way, Joanna announces that she is pregnant. After the MG catches fire while driving, the Wallaces pull into a luxury hotel, the Domaine Saint Just. They stay the night at the hotel and in the morning push the burnt out car away. On the road, they are picked up in a 1955 Bentley S1 by a wealthy couple who were also staying at the Domaine. The couple, Maurice and Françoise Dalbret, mention that they need an architect, and after learning that this is Mark's profession, ask if he would help them. The Wallaces travel south with the Dalbrets and stay at the latter's villa in Ramatuelle, where Maurice gives Mark the details of the project and introduces him to his Greek partner, Nikos Palamos. At the end of the trip Maurice hires Mark to work for him.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 696

Sometime after the birth of the Wallaces' daughter, Mark travels alone to France in a red 1961 Triumph Herald. During the trip he spends a night in a hotel with a woman named Simone. This sequence includes a voiceover of Mark reading a letter to Joanna, in which he lies about his activities and claims disingenuously to miss her.

In 1963, Mark and Joanna travel in the Triumph, now with their daughter Caroline, to see the project Mark is working on for Dalbret and Palamos. The Wallaces fight continually during the trip. When they arrive at the Dalbret property, Joanna meets Françoise's brother, David, and begins an affair with him. After she and David spend the night together Mark confronts them, and Joanna confesses she is in love with David. David later gives her the choice to leave Mark and come with him, however, she elects to return to Mark.

On their present trip in 1966, the Wallaces stay at or pass through many of the same locations from previous trips. During the drive, they discuss their failing marriage and the possibility of a divorce. When they stop for the night in a hotel, Mark is engrossed in work and pays little attention to Joanna. They arrive finally at the house Mark designed for the Comte and Comtesse de Florac on the fictional Cap Valéry. There is a party at the house and the guests include David and his

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 697

fiancée Sylvia, and Maurice. During the party, Mark receives a phone call from the potential client Hal Van Benius, who says that he has hired Mark for a job that will require him to be in the United States for two years. Mark and Joanna sneak out of the party and take a slow drive through the forest. While they drive, they admit to one another that despite their frequent unhappiness and past unfaithfulness, they love one another and could never be apart.

In the final scene, the couple is crossing the France–Italy border on the way to meet Van Benius in Rome. At the border, Mark believes he has lost his passport, but Joanna holds it and leaves it for him on the steering wheel while he searches the trunk. The film ends as the Wallaces call each other "bitch" and

"bastard" and drive into Italy.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 698

099 - Alphaville – Moab, Utah

Alphaville

Lemmy Caution is a secret agent with the code number of 003 from

"the Outlands." Entering Alphaville in his Ford Galaxy, he poses as a journalist named Ivan Johnson and claims to work for the Figaro-Pravda. Caution is on a series of missions. First, he searches for the missing agent Henri Dickson; second, he is to capture or kill the creator of Alphaville, Professor von Braun.

Lastly, he aims to destroy Alphaville and its dictatorial computer, Alpha 60. Alpha 60 is a sentient computer system created by von Braun, portrayed using an actual Bull Gamma 60

computer in the movie, which is in complete control of all of Alphaville.

Alpha 60 has outlawed free thought and individualist concepts like love, poetry, and emotion in the city, replacing them with contradictory concepts or eliminating them altogether. One of Alpha 60's dictates is that "people should not ask 'why.' but only say 'because'". People who show signs of emotion are presumed to be acting illogically and are executed. There is a dictionary in every hotel room that is continuously updated when words that are deemed to evoke emotion become banned. As a result, Alphaville is an inhuman, alienated society.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 699

Images of the E = mc2 and E = hf; the equations of, respectively, special relativity and quantum mechanics, are displayed several times to refer to the scientism that underpins Alphaville. At one point, Caution passes through a place called the Grand Omega Minus, from where brainwashed people are sent out to the other "galaxies" to start strikes, revolutions, family rows, and student revolts.

As an archetypal American anti-hero private eye, in trenchcoat and with weathered visage, Lemmy Caution's old fashioned machismo conflicts with the puritanical computer. The opposition of his role to logic; and that of other dissidents to the regime, is represented by faux quotations from “Capitale de la douleur” - "Capital of Pain,” a book of poems by Paul Éluard.

Caution meets Dickson, who soon dies in the process of making love to a "Seductress Third Class." Caution then enlists the assistance of Natacha von Braun, a programmer of Alpha 60 and daughter of Professor von Braun. Natacha is a citizen of Alphaville and when questioned, says that she does not know the meaning of "love" or "conscience." Caution falls in love with her, and his love introduces emotion and unpredictability into the city. Natacha discovers, with the help of Lemmy Caution, that she was actually born outside Alphaville.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 700

Professor von Braun was originally known as Leonard Nosferatu, but Caution is repeatedly told that Nosferatu no longer exists.

The Professor himself talks infrequently, referring only vaguely to his hatred for journalists, and offering Caution the chance to join Alphaville, even going so far as to offer him the opportunity to rule a galaxy. When he refuses Caution's offer to go back to "the outlands," Caution kills him.

Alpha 60 converses with Lemmy Caution several times, and its mechanically produced voice is seemingly ever present in the city. Caution eventually destroys or incapacitates it by telling it a riddle that involves something that Alpha 60 cannot comprehend; poetry. The concept of the individual self has been lost to the collectivized citizens of Alphaville, and this is the key to Caution's riddle.

At the end, Natacha realizes that it is her understanding of herself as an individual with desires. The film ends with her line "Je vous aime" ("I love you").

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 701

100 - Butch Cassidy ..... – Hole in the Wall, Wyoming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

In 1899 Wyoming, Butch Cassidy is the affable, clever, talkative leader of the outlaw Hole in the Wall Gang. His closest companion is the laconic dead shot "Sundance Kid." The two return to their hideout at Hole in the Wall to discover that the rest of the gang, irked at Cassidy's long absences, have selected Harvey Logan as their new leader.

Logan challenges Cassidy to a knife fight over the gang's leadership. Cassidy defeats him using trickery, but embraces Logan's idea to rob a Union Pacific train on both its eastward and westward runs, agreeing that the second robbery would be unexpected and likely reap more money than the first.

The first robbery goes well. To celebrate, Cassidy visits a favorite brothel in a nearby town, where the town marshal unsuccessfully attempts to organize a posse to track down the gang, only to have his address to the townsfolk hijacked by a friendly bicycle salesman. Sundance, meanwhile, visits his lover, schoolteacher Etta Place. Cassidy joins up with them the next morning, and takes Place for a ride on his new bike.

Statesboro Blues

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 702

The Allman Brothers Band

Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low

Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low

You got no nerve, baby

To turn uncle John from your door

I woke up this morning,

I had them Statesboro Blues

I woke up this morning,

I had them Statesboro Blues

Well, I looked over in the corner, baby And Grandpa seemed to have them too

Well, my momma died and left me

My poppa died and left me

I ain't good looking, baby

But I'm somewhat sweet and kind

I'm goin' to the country

Baby, do you want to go?na

'Cause if you can't make it, baby

Your sister Lucille said she wanna go

And I sure will take her

I love that woman

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 703

Better than any woman I've ever seen

Well, I love that woman

Better than any woman I've ever seen

Well, she treat me like a king,

yeah, yeah, yeah

And she look like a doggone queen

Oh, wake up momma, turn your lamp down low Wake up momma, turn your lamp down low

You got no nerve, baby

To turn uncle John from your door

Written by Taj Mahal.

On the second train robbery, Cassidy uses too much dynamite to blow open the safe. The explosion demolishes the baggage car in the process and the money flies everywhere. As the gang scrambles to gather it, a second train arrives carrying a six man team of lawmen. The crack squad pursues Cassidy and Sundance, who try to hide out in the brothel, and then to seek amnesty from the Sheriff Bledsoe, to no avail.

The posse remains in pursuit, and it includes renowned Indian tracker "Lord Baltimore" and lawman Joe Lefors, recognizable by his white skimmer. Cassidy and Sundance elude their pursuers by jumping from a cliff into a river far below. They learn from

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 704

Place that the posse has been paid by Union Pacific head E. H.

Harriman to remain on their trail until they are both killed.

Cassidy convinces Sundance and Place that the three should go to Bolivia, which he envisions as a robber's paradise. On their arrival there, Sundance is dismayed by the living conditions and regards the country with contempt, but Cassidy remains optimistic. However, they know too little Spanish to pull off a bank robbery, so Place attempts to teach them the language. With her as an accomplice, they become successful bank robbers known as Los Bandidos Yanquis. However, their confidence drops after seeing a man wearing a white skimmer and fear that Harriman's posse is still after them.

Cassidy suggests "going straight," and he and Sundance land their first honest job as payroll guards for a mining company.

However, they are ambushed by local bandits on their first run and their boss, Percy Garris, is killed. They kill the bandits, the first time Cassidy has ever shot someone. The duo concludes the straight life is not for them. Sensing they will be killed should they return to robbery, Place decides to return to the United States.

Cassidy and Sundance steal a payroll and a burro used to carry it, and arrive in a small town. A boy recognizes the burro's

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 705

livestock branding and alerts the police, leading to a gunfight with the outlaws. Cassidy has to make a desperate run to the burro to get ammunition, while Sundance provides covering fire.

Wounded, the two take cover inside a building. Cassidy suggests their next destination should be Australia. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the two men, the local police have called on the Bolivian Army. The pair charge out of the building, guns blazing, into a hail of bullets from the massed troops who have occupied all the surrounding vantage points. The film ends with the sound of gunfire on a freeze frame shot of the two bandits.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 706

101 - Damn Yankees – Stone Ridge, Virginia Damn Yankees – the musical

Joe Boyd is a middle aged fan of the unsuccessful Washington Senators baseball team. His obsession with baseball is driving a wedge between him and his wife, a Meg—a problem shared by many other wives of Senators supporters. Meg leads them in lamenting their husbands' fixation with the sport ("Six Months Out of Every Year").

After seeing his team lose yet again, Joe rashly declares that he would sell his soul to the devil to see his team beat the Yankees.

The Yankees he is referring to are the teams of Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Charlie (King Kong) Keller, Gene Woodling, Tommy (Old Reliable) Henrich, Johnny Mize, Phil Rizzuto, Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds, Eddie Lopat, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and more. From 1949 through 1953, five consecutive seasons, they won every World Championship, a feat that has never been nor will ever be matched. Casey Stengel was the Manager every year. The only players to be on all five teams were Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Hank Bauer, Gene Woodling, Johnny Mize, Allie Reynolds, Eddie Lopat and Vic Raschi. “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?”

indeed.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 707

No sooner has he spoken than the devil appears before him in the guise of a suave conman, Applegate. Applegate claims he can go one better; he can restore Joe's youth, making him the player who wins them the pennant. Joe agrees, but persuades Applegate to give him an escape clause. Applegate declares that Joe can back out, but only the day before the last game of the season.

Afterwards, his soul belongs to the devil.

Joe bids an emotional farewell to a sleeping Meg ("Goodbye Old Girl"), after which Applegate transforms him into a dashing young man, now called Joe Hardy.

The next day, the Senators' practice is a fiasco. Their manager, Ben Van Buren, gives the team a rousing pep talk ("Heart").

Applegate arrives and, introducing himself as a scout, presents his new discovery; Joe Hardy from Hannibal, Missouri. Joe promptly hits baseball after baseball out of the park in an impromptu batting practice. As he is signed to a Senators contract, female sportswriter Gloria Thorpe plans to quickly get Joe into the public eye ("Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.").

With tremendous home runs and game saving catches, Joe leads the Senators on a long winning streak into pennant contention and becomes a national hero. Joe misses Meg dreadfully, however, and keeps sneaking back to his old neighborhood for a glimpse of

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 708

her. Realizing this could ruin his plans, Applegate summons his demonic right hand girl, Lola, a seductress who was once known as the ugliest woman in her territory, but sold her soul to Applegate in exchange for eternal youth and beauty. She is ordered to make Joe forget his wife, a task Lola is confident she can carry out ("A Little Brains, A Little Talent").

Joe succeeds in getting close to Meg by renting a room in his old house. Meg is unaware of his baseball stardom. Applegate and Lola corner Joe in the baseball team's locker room, where Lola confidently tries to seduce Joe ("Whatever Lola Wants"). But she has her first failure. Joe dearly loves Meg, and does not fall for Lola's tempting ways. Applegate angrily banishes Lola.

By the end of the season, the Senators are on the verge of overtaking the Yankees, so the Washington fans hold a lavish tribute ("Who's Got the Pain?"). Gloria, having returned from Hannibal, Missouri, where no residents remember a Joe Hardy, confronts Applegate about the player's true identity. Applegate implies that Joe is actually Shifty McCoy, a corrupt minor leaguer playing under a pseudonym. By the end of the tribute, newspapers arrive accusing Joe of being Shifty. He must meet with the baseball commissioner for a hearing or else be thrown out of baseball on the day he plans to switch back to being Joe Boyd.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 709

At the hearing, Meg and her female neighbors arrive as material witnesses, attesting to Joe's honesty and falsely claiming he grew up with them in Hannibal. The commissioner acquits Joe, but as everyone celebrates, midnight strikes and Joe realizes he is doomed.

Applegate has planned for the Senators to lose the pennant on the last day of the season, resulting in thousands of heart attacks, nervous breakdowns and suicides of Yankee haters across the country. He is reminded of his other evil misdeeds throughout history ("Those Were the Good Old Days").

Following the hearing, Lola lets Joe know she's drugged Applegate so that he will sleep through the last game. They commiserate over their condemned situation at a nightclub ("Two Lost Souls").

Late the next afternoon, Applegate awakens to find the Senators/Yankees game well underway. Realizing Lola has tricked him; and worse, that Lola has actually fallen in love with Joe, he turns her back into an ugly hag.

They arrive at the ballpark by the ninth inning, the Senators up by a run. With two outs, one of the Yankee sluggers hits a long drive to the outfield. As he backs up to make the catch, Applegate impulsively switches Joe Hardy back into Joe Boyd in

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 710

full view of the stadium. Now paunchy and middle aged, Joe makes a final lunge at the ball and catches it, winning the pennant for Washington. As his teammates celebrate and fans storm the field, an unrecognized Joe escapes from the ballpark.

Late that night, as the public wonders why Joe Hardy has disappeared, Joe Boyd meekly returns to his house. A tearful Meg hugs him and they sing to each other ("There's Something about an Empty Chair"). Applegate materializes once again and offers Joe the chance to resume being Joe Hardy in time for the World Series. He also makes Lola young and beautiful again to tempt Joe. Joe ignores him, and a tantrum throwing Applegate vanishes for good.

So Far Away

Carole King

So far away

Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?

It would be so fine to see your face at my door Doesn't help to know you're just time away Long ago, I reached for you and there you stood Holding you again could only do me good How I wish I could, but you're so far away One more song about movin' along the highway

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 711

Can't say much of anything that's new

If I could only work this life out my way I'd rather spend it bein' close to you

But you're so far away

Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?

It would be so fine to see your face at my door Doesn't help to know you're so far away Yeah, you're so far away

Traveling around sure gets me down and lonely Nothing else to do but close my mind

I sure hope the road don't come to own me There's so many dreams I've yet to find But you're so far away

Doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?

It would be so fine to see your face at my door It doesn't help to know you're so far away Yeah, you're so far away

Hey, you're so far away

Thank you, you were very kind

Written by Carole King.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 712

102 - The Glass Menagerie – St. Louis, Missouri The Glass Menagerie

While on duty, Merchant Mariner Tom Wingfield recalls his life in a dilapidated St. Louis apartment with his delusional mother Amanda and crippled younger sister Laura, and their story unfolds via flashback.

California Dreamin'

The Mamas and The Papas

All the leaves are brown

All the leaves are brown

And the sky is grey

And the sky is grey

I've been for a walk

I've been for a walk

On a winter's day

On a winter's day

I'd be safe and warm

I'd be safe and warm

If I was in L.A.

If I was in L.A.

California dreamin'

California dreamin'

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 713

On such a winter's day

Stopped into a church

I passed along the way

Well, I got down on my knees

Got down on my knees

And I pretend to pray

I pretend to pray

You know the preacher liked the cold

Preacher liked the cold

He knows I'm gonna stay

Knows I'm gonna stay

California dreamin'

California dreamin'

On such a winter's day

All the leaves are brown

All the leaves are brown

And the sky is grey

And the sky is grey

I've been for a walk

I've been for a walk

On a winter's day

On a winter's day

If I didn't tell her

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 714

If I didn't tell her

I could leave today

I could leave today

California dreamin'

California dreamin'

On such a winter's day

California dreamin'

On such a winter's day

California dreamin'

On such a winter's day

Written by John Edmund Andrew Phillips and Michelle Gilliam Phillips.

Abandoned by her husband, Amanda is forced to sell magazine subscriptions, but still considers herself superior to her working class neighbors. Concerned about her daughter, a shy loner who is training to be a secretary, but whose real interest is her collection of glass animal figurines, Amanda urges Tom to bring home a friend who might be interested in dating his sister. He finally relents and invites Jim O'Connor to dinner.

Amanda is thrilled that her daughter finally will have a

"gentleman caller" courting her. Determined to make a good first impression, she makes elaborate preparations for the meal, but complications arise when Laura learns the name of their expected

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 715

guest, a boy she recalls was one of the most popular in high school. Feigning illness, she initially refuses to join everyone at the dinner table, but eventually Amanda encourages her to join the group, then arranges for Laura and Jim to be alone.

Realizing she suffers from an inferiority complex, he draws her out of her shell by expressing interest in her collection and then persuading her to dance with him. Stumbling, Laura causes a glass unicorn to fall to the floor and lose its horn. At first upset by the damage, she realizes the loss of the horn makes the unicorn more like the horses and therefore less noticeable, as she feels she herself is because of her pronounced limp.

Jim suggests he and Laura go to the Paradise Ballroom, and Amanda is delighted, until he mentions he is engaged to a woman named Betty. Laura gives him the broken unicorn and invites him to return some day with his fiancée, but after he leaves her devastated mother berates Tom for raising her hopes. Laura is more understanding and reminds her brother she loves him.

Seemingly free of her limp and brimming with self-confidence, Laura awaits a visit from another "gentleman caller" in an upbeat ending.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 716

103 - Death Wish – Bronx, New York City, New York Death Wish

Paul Kersey is a successful, middle aged architect and family man who lives happily in Manhattan with his wife, Joanna. One day, Joanna and their grown daughter Carol, who is married to Jack Toby, are followed home from D'Agostino's by three muggers.

The trio invade the Kersey apartment by posing as deliverymen.

Discovering that Carol and Joanna only have $7 on them, the goons attack them, beating Joanna and sexually assaulting Carol before fleeing. Upon arriving at the hospital, Paul is devastated to learn that Joanna has died from her injuries.

Shortly after his wife's funeral, Paul has an encounter with a mugger in a darkened street. Paul fights back with a homemade weapon, causing the mugger to run away, while Paul is shaken but also energized by the encounter. Paul's boss sends him to Tucson, Arizona, to visit Ames Jainchill, a client with a residential development project. A few days later, Paul is invited to dinner by Ames at his gun club. Ames is impressed with Paul's pistol marksmanship at the target range.

Paul reveals that he was a conscientious objector during the Korean War, when he served as a combat medic. He had been taught to handle firearms by his hunter-father, but after the senior

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 717

Kersey was mortally wounded by a second hunter, who mistook Paul's father for a deer, Paul's mother made him swear never to use guns again. Paul is successful in helping Ames plan his residential housing development. Ames drives Paul back to Tucson Airport and presents Paul with a gift for his work on the development, which he places into Paul's checked luggage. Back in Manhattan, Paul learns from Jack that Carol's mind has snapped due to the trauma and her mother's death. Carol is now catatonic, and an effective mute.

With Paul's blessing, Jack commits Carol to a mental rehabilitation institute. Paul learns that Ames has given him a nickel plated Colt Police Positive revolver and a box of ammunition.

Gimme Back My Bullets

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Life is so strange

when it's changin', yes indeed

Well I've seen the hard times

and the pressure's been on me

But I keep on workin'

like the workin' man do

And I've got my act together,

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 718

gonna walk all over you

Gimme back my bullets

Put 'em back where they belong

Ain't foolin' around '

cause I've done had my fun

Ain't gonna see no more damage done

Gimme back my bullets

Sweet talkin' people

done ran me out of town

And I've drink enough whiskey

to float a battleship around

But I'm leavin' this game

one step ahead of you

And you will not hear me cry

'cause I do not sing the blues

Gimme back my bullets

Put 'em back where they belong

Ain't foolin' around

'cause I've done had my fun

Ain't gonna see no more damage done

Gimme back, gimme back my bullets

Oh, put 'em back

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 719

Where they belong

Been up and down

since I've turned seventeen

Well, I've been on top,

and then it seems I lost my dream

But I got it back,

I'm feelin' better everyday

Tell all those pencil pushers,

better get out of my way

Gimme back my bullets

Put 'em back where they belong

Ain't foolin' around,

'cause I've done had my fun

Ain't gonna see no more damage done

Gimme back, gimme back my bullets

Oh, put 'em back where they belong

Gimme back my bullets

Written by Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Robert Rossington.

Jack loads his new revolver and takes a late night walk during which he is mugged at gunpoint. Paul fatally shoots the mugger and, in a state of shock, runs home and vomits. The next

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 720

evening, Paul finds that he has a strong taste for retribution, and walks through the city looking for dangerous and violent criminals. Sure enough, he kills several muggers over the next few weeks, either luring them into a confrontation by presenting himself as an affluent victim, or when he sees them attacking other innocent people.

NYPD Inspector Frank Ochoa investigates the vigilante killings.

His department narrows it down to a list of men who have had a family member recently killed by muggers, and/or are war veterans. Investigators also get hold of Paul's grocery receipts that he left on the subway following a mugging and deduce that the vigilante lives close to said grocery store.

Ochoa soon suspects Paul and is about to make an arrest when the district attorney intervenes and tells Ochoa that "we don't want him." The district attorney and the police commissioner do not want the statistics to get out that Paul's vigilantism has led to a drastic decrease in street crime. They fear that if said information becomes public knowledge, the whole city will descend into vigilante chaos. If Paul is arrested, he will surely be labeled a martyr. Ochoa does not like the idea, but relents and opts for "scaring him off" instead. One night, Paul shoots two more muggers before being wounded in the leg himself by a third. Paul pursues the mugger and corners the hood at a

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 721

warehouse. He boldly challenges the mugger to a fast draw, Wild West-style, only to faint because of blood loss while the mugger escapes.

Paul's gun is discovered by young patrolman Jackson Reilly, who hands it to Ochoa, who orders him to forget that he found it.

Ochoa visits Paul at the hospital where he's recovering, and agrees to surreptitiously dispose of Paul's revolver in exchange for Paul's exile from NYC permanently. Paul takes Ochoa's deal, and his company agrees to transfer him to Chicago, while the press is informed that Paul is just another mugging victim. Paul arrives in Chicago Union Station by train. Being greeted by a company representative, he notices a group of hoodlums harassing a young woman. He excuses himself and helps the young woman. As the hoodlums make obscene gestures, Paul just smiles while making a finger gun at them.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 722

104 - Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol – Aurora, New York Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol

Mr. Magoo is heading to a theater on Broadway, where he is starring as Ebenezer Scrooge in a musical production based on A Christmas Carol. Due to Magoo's nearsightedness, he arrives thirty minutes late and accidentally injures the director ("It's Great to Be Back on Broadway").

Scrooge is a miserly money lender in Victorian London on Christmas Eve, counting money while his clerk Bob Cratchit is underpaid and has no coal for his fire ("Ringle, Ringle"). After rudely refusing two men who ask him for a donation to charity, Scrooge reluctantly allows Cratchit to take the holiday off.

Scrooge goes home and gets ready for bed, but is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who has been dead for seven years. Marley is bound in heavy chains due to his misdeeds in life and warns Scrooge that he risks the same fate unless he heeds the advice of three spirits who will visit him over the course of the night.

The Ghost of Christmas Present visits Scrooge first and takes him to observe Cratchit and his family, who are counting their blessings despite their poor situation ("The Lord's Bright Blessing"). The Ghost warns Scrooge that Cratchit's young son

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 723

Tiny Tim, who is sickly, will not survive to next Christmas if things do not change.

The Ghost of Christmas Past visits Scrooge next and takes him back to his boyhood, where Scrooge was a lonely schoolboy ("Alone in the World"). The Ghost also shows him Belle, a woman whom Scrooge, as a young man, had been courting. The moments he sees are those in which she sadly explains that she is leaving him due to his greed for money ("Winter Was Warm").

Scrooge encounters the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and is shown a vision of the future, where an unloved man has recently died. Scrooge sees his charwoman, his laundress, and the local undertaker sell his belongings to a fence named Old Joe ("We're Despicable (Plunderer's March)"). Scrooge begs to be shown

"tenderness connected with death," but discovers that Tiny Tim has died. The Ghost takes Scrooge to a cemetery and shows him his own grave, revealing that this deceased man is him. Scrooge realizes in anguish that he has spent his life poorly, and repents ("Alone in the World (Reprise)").

Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning with a renewed purpose. He meets the two men from the previous day and makes a generous donation, then anonymously sends Cratchit a Christmas turkey. He later visits Cratchit to give him a raise in pay and help nurse

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 724

Tiny Tim back to health, and shares Christmas together with them ("The Lord's Bright Blessing (Reprise)").

The musical concludes and the audience applauds. Magoo brings the director out on stage, but the stage's props, lights and scenery fall on him. Magoo proudly exclaims "Oh, Magoo, you've done it again, and by George, I've brought down the house!" and wishes both his audience and the television audience a Merry Christmas.

Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

John Lennon

Happy Christmas, Kyoko

Happy Christmas, Julian

So this is Christmas

And what have you done

Another year over

And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas

I hope you have fun

The near and the dear one

The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Christmas

(War is over)

For weak and for strong

(If you want it)

For rich and the poor ones

(War is over)

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 725

The road is so long

(Now)

And so happy Christmas

(War is over)

For black and for white

(If you want it)

For yellow and red ones

(War is over)

Let's stop all the fight

(Now)

A very Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

And so this is Christmas

(War is over)

And what have we done

(If you want it)

Another year over

(War is over)

And a new one just begun

(Now)

And so happy Christmas

(War is over)

We hope you have fun

(If you want it)

The near and the dear one

(War is over)

The old and the young

(Now)

A very Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

War is over, if you want it

War is over now

Happy Christmas!

Written by John Lennon.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 726

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 727

105 - Genevieve Goes Underground – Terre Haute, Indiana Genevieve Goes Underground

Genevieve, an aging, White Maltese and Pablo, a young afrench poodle entered Bunny Park. It seemed empty just prior to daybreak, but that would also have made it a very good hiding place for two Scottish terriers who wanted not to be found. They went through an opening in the densely packed trees and down a gradually dropping fifty foot hill. They came upon open land with a smattering of mature trees; winter or late autumnal in appearance. They were completely devoid of branch leaves. There was no longer any meaningful dissimilarity between the substantially dry and still clinging hopefuls with the faint and dying juveniles showing remnants of red, gold, or purple. They all congregated in undistinguished clusters on the ground which continued to lead bit by bit, gently down.

Genevieve and Pablo followed the downward slope into the unfenced field with increasing ease as the sun appeared behind them and started to illuminate the area. The half-moon remained visible in the sky in a showing that could fairly be characterized to a westerner as a generally un-noticed eastern mysticism or esotericism; through simultaneously being both the expected original and the unexpected, magical invention.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 728

At some point their trek slowed, as it was underwritten by the brittle, bothersome, tan blades they had to tolerate underfoot and sometimes overhead. In season, the natural beauty of the common grass was not ever mowed. Off season, some of it now extended two feet skyward; making their walk both plodding and short sighted, if not blinding.

Then they saw it. This had to be the unmistakable “one story ranch” they had heard of. Then, plop, plop, and a rude bottom bonk. Genevieve and Pablo no longer saw the ranch, as they had fallen through some sort of grassy covering over a well disguised excavation in the earth. Both on their feet and unharmed by the tumble; Genevieve said; “The rabbits are getting bigger and more considerate these days.”

Waiting Underground

Patti Smith

If you believe all your hope is gone

Down the drain of your humankind

The time has arrived

You'll be waiting here as I was

In a snow white shroud

Waiting underground

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 729

There by the ridge be a gathering

beneath the pilgrim moon

Where we shall await the beat of your feet hammering the earth

Where the great ones tremble

In their snow white shrouds

Waiting underground

If you seek the kingdom come, come along Waiting by the ridge there'll be a gathering Beneath the pilgrim moon

Where the railroad thunders

Oh where we shall await the beat

of your feet hammering the earth

And as the earth resounds

where the great ones tremble

And your humankind becomes as one

And then we will arise

In our snow white shrouds

When we'll be as one

But until that day we will just await

In our snow white shrouds

Waiting underground

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 730

In our snow-white shrouds

Waiting underground

Waiting underground

Waiting underground

Waiting underground

Waiting underground

Waiting underground

Waiting underground

Written by Patti Smith and Oliver Ray.

Pablo said; “We can hop back out easily.”

Genevieve said; “Why not try this a while. It looks like a good hiding spot.”

Pablo nodded and they walked. The light was filtered, but sufficiently floodlit as if the underground shelter had been fitted with watermarked skylights. They interspersed their concerns for sound footing with a curiosity about what might be splitting the darkness over their heads. Neither saw anything but dirt, apparently illuminated from some source undetectable to them.

In looking up they caught each other’s eye, and Pablo shrugged.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 731

Genevieve shrugged too, but added; “Glad it’s there; whatever it is.”

They turned a sharp bend and heard; “I do that all the time.” In a dark spot, they saw a dog sitting at a series of wheels. As he turned the crank the wheels went around, producing paper money.

Near him was a gigantic stack of hundred dollar bills.

The wheel-dog called out; “Come on over here. I’ll show you something much more interesting than any immaterial mystery.”

Genevieve and Pablo walked over to the elderly, well-groomed caller.

Pablo said; “You’re right. I’ve never seen such a big pile of that green stuff.”

Genevieve said; “I may be being overly picky here; but I wouldn’t use the word interesting. It seems more like an

........ like a ....... peculiar aberration. Please pardon my lack of precise eloquence.”

The wheel-dog indicated no interest in addressing Genevieve’s attempt at fine tuning. With an air of boredom mixed with confidence, he looked directly into her eyes and said; “I’m Mark and I can give you all you can carry out.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 732

Genevieve was confused, but wanted to remain polite. She said;

“That’s very tempting, but I’m not trying to get out of here.

Tell me, have you seen two Scotties?”

Mark, the wheel-dog said; “Wow. That doesn’t happen often.

Scotties? Sure. Many. Many. Brown boxers. Black Rotts. White Pugs. You name it. ....... All shapes and sizes.“ He slyly chuckled as if he had just heard a candidate for the dumbest of all possible questions, and at the same time wanted to stifle that possible interpretation, in a business-like recognition that some pooches require some sort of indirect justification for their actions. Mark continued; “Be assured that it is quite the socially acceptable rage. Always was and always will be. It has withstood the test of time, as it never goes out of style.

Do you have any idea of how much you can carry out of here? You could fill your pockets, hands and mouths.” Mark gestured toward Pablo with his head and said; “Him too.”

Pablo said; “I don’t have pockets or hands.”

Genevieve added; “And I don’t want to risk choking. The two Scotties I was talking about go by the names of Billy and Jack; and they’re something like cops.”

Mark said; “I never catch any names; and hey, I’m protected here. Cops can’t touch me.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 733

Pablo asked; “How long have you been down here?”

Mark said; “Since Alexander Hamilton was president. Great man.

Don’t make them like that anymore.”

Genevieve said; “That’s for sure. Now they’re the equivalent of a card game joker. ....... After all this time, can’t you just take the money and leave?”

Mark said; “Sure, I could. I think. But I want more. Guys like you keep coming through here and taking piles of it.”

Genevieve said; “Then why do you give the ‘piles’ to them?”

Incredulous, Mark said; “It’s my job,” as if it should have been understood without asking.

Genevieve and Pablo looked at each other. Each interpreted the other’s facial expression perfectly. They simultaneously said;

“Thank you,” and walked on.

Mark shrugged and once again got the wheels moving. He confidently and flatly said; “You’ll be back.”

Genevieve and Pablo were getting in deeper. The ground under paws became increasingly moist, making slides common. They actually enjoyed it. Since there was little or no risk of falling with four paws of stability, they began to play. They’d

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 734

get a running start and then slide; often coming to a stop after a complete 180 left them facing where they had come from.

A fork in the path demanded their attention. To their left it looked it would be more of the same. But, to their right was something quite different. It was gated and visibly contained other creatures. Pablo tried the gate and it opened easily. He shut it back tight when he saw five black, growling and salivating Dobermans, each with lots of big teeth, start toward Genevieve and him; sufficiently impeded only by the lack of traction their paws could find on a muddy surface.

Genevieve said; “I think left might be a better choice.”

Pablo said; “You’ve convinced me. Would you look at that?”

Genevieve said; “Keep looking. It gets worse.”

Three two foot long, black and white hawks circled the air in an unsettled, agitated way, confined and hungry. The edges of their beaks flashed intermittent, lurid replicas of what there was of light in their area of confinement, as those beaks were made of sharpened razors.

The two lions scared Pablo the most. Their faces showed no emotion whatsoever. They were merely ready to do business; the

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 735

business of killing. Their roars came from elsewhere and their manes were tinted with the pink of fading blood.

Genevieve and Pablo were compelled to take another look into the area. She said; “It’s weird how we find this horror fascinating?”

Pablo said; “Not to me. If it wasn’t it wouldn’t be all over movies and books.”

Genevieve said; “This isn’t a movie or a book. ..... Not yet anyway.”

They looked and saw about a hundred inch long black and red ants on the floor. Some were fighting, and some were already dead from it. Toward the back was a three headed, four legged creature devoid of color. It looked something like a dog born both albino and freakishly deformed. It must have also been devoid of blood, as its veins were rather obvious on the surface, yet they must have been ornamentally devised, as they were monochromatically uniform. The awkward being stood atop a black pedestal, which coincided with a wall, and contained gold letters saying “Cerberus.” It was clear that this beast was the one in charge, as it did nothing, but make an easily detectable charade of being fierce, while barking out contradictory

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 736

commands which confounded those condemned to listen to them; much like any senior politician.

Head one said; “Take positions at the back door.”

Head two said; “Go to the front door and take them as soon as they come in.”

Head three said; “Lions to the front; Dobermans to the back; everyone else in the center.”

The beasts were confused, no longer paid any attention to Genevieve and Pablo, stopped in their tracks and looked at Cerberus for clarification.

It was now or never. Pablo let go of the gate, and ushered Genevieve to the left fork. He looked around, wary of having to encounter an escaped nemesis.

“Whooooooo,” she declared in a surprised, but not disparaging voice.

“Sorry,” he said. I thought it was best to get out of there before they regrouped and got their act together.”

Genevieve said; “I’m sure that you were right. Now, we’ll see what’s on this side.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 737

They walked for a bit, in time completely forgetting about Cerberus, the lions, the vicious dogs, and the whole caged scenario. They resumed their play, sliding in the mud underfoot; this time bumping into each other and laughing as they fell down in the mud. Their white coats became mostly brown, despite the shake-offs which always sprayed their uncomplaining companion.

Their coats remained largely as the mud had left them as much of his shake off landed on her; and much of her shake off landed on him.

After a slight bend in their leftward path, they saw something which wasn’t as initially disturbing as the gated slaughterers and their incomprehensible and confusing, sham master.

He was in the lotus position in the middle of the leftward path.

He appeared to be an aged, Indian man. His long, white hair was tied back in a pigtail, which protruded only slightly from the back of his plain Jamaican tam. His beard was also white and had been cut no time in recent history, thereby reaching his emaciated stomach. His bones were to a certain extent covered with a dirty blue outfit of matching pants and cummerbund, seemingly denim. He had bare feet and was looking down at a large open book on the floor in front of him. Perhaps most significantly, he didn’t look exactly like someone who was all that thrilled with the world or his place in it.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 738

Genevieve and Pablo could have hopped the human roadblock if they wanted to. But, they had come here for information about the two Scotties, and suspected that it was possible for him to have some.

Pablo nervously decided to venture a friendly opening and said;

“Good book?”

The holy man impassively responded; “I’ve read better. The unknown author of this one seems to think that everything boils down to fate. He never uses the word, but there is a strong suggestion of predestination.”

Pablo said; “Beckett?”

The holy man said; “Maybe Pynchon. You can see that it’s a goddam big book despite someone having ripped off the cover and the first one hundred pages, and it still just goes on forever.

......... Christ, it’s worse than all the Vedas and Upanishads put together.”

Genevieve said; “You don’t believe in predestination, I take it.”

The holy man said; “I don’t believe and I don’t not believe.

However, if predestination is the case, one doesn’t have to write a nine hundred page book about it, as it doesn’t matter.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 739

Genevieve said; “Why?”

The holy man said; “If you have no effect on anything and no matter what you do, you get the same outcome; the logic suggests that you should do whatever you want all the time. What kind of nut wants to spend their time writing long stupid books?”

Almost quietly offended because of his love for books, Pablo said; “Right. I’d rather sit down here in the dark in my drawers. Who are you and what do you know?”

The holy man said; “My name is Sadhu Calabrese and I know all the stories of life on earth. You may have correctly guessed that my father was Italian.”

Pablo said; “Do you know mine?”

Sadhu said; “No, your father never got down here.”

Pablo said; “No, I mean my life story.”

Sadhu said; “Up until now.”

Pablo said; “Then you knew I’d get here!”

Sadhu said; “Only when you did. You made a mistake, but it was relatively small and didn’t do any harm. I can give you all the knowledge of the world. Stay here.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 740

Pablo said; “What was my mistake?”

Sadhu said; “Monsters are figments of your imagination. They only exist on the mental plane and therefore can only hurt you on the mental plane.”

Genevieve said; “Well, if we might stay here a short time; we were looking for two Scottish terriers who may go by the names of Billy and Jack. Where might they be?”

Sadhu seemed amused when he said; “Your specificity is indicative of a low rate of sensitivity. Sensitivity enables one to IDENTIFY the true positive rate of the beings and their placement while specificity is merely indicative of the true negative rate which is everywhere but the correct placement.

Tsk. Tsk. If you would merely reverse yourself you would know exactly where they are.”

Genevieve bristled; “Well, I never. The perception of one is only considered necessitating of a discredited zero-sum-game tradeoff against the other by those lacking in experience and with the most rudimentary of book ‘knowledge.’ I’ll have you know that I am not the least bit insensitive.”

Sadhu sighed and said; “I didn’t say you were. This sensitivity and specificity is math. Your personal sensitivity is another issue. ......... I think.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 741

Pablo said; “Umm, Genevieve; all the books aren’t quite that bad. Take my word on that one. Sadhu, how long were you out in the world?”

Sadhu said; “I was born in this room and I will die in it.”

Pablo said; “Have it your way. Have you seen any Scottish terriers?”

Sadhu said; “I’ll have to refer to my notes. ...... Where did I put my notes? ....... Have you seen them? ........ Have you taken them?”

It was Genevieve and Pablo’s turn to sigh; which they did in unison. Genevieve looked at Pablo and said; ”Ready to hop?”

Pablo said; “Yeah,” and together they cleared the road obstruction which called itself Sadhu.

As they made their way, they faintly heard Sadhu in the distance. He called out; “Can either of you direct me out of here? Maybe somewhere near a Burger King.” His sound increasingly faded with each step they took.

Genevieve said; “What’s a Burger King?”

Pablo said; “I really don’t know. Sounds like the deceptively tasty manifestation of a gastronomic assault wearing a crown.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 742

They again commenced their sliding mud play; oblivious to the blank darkness which seemed to be getting more extensive in scope.

They encountered a rabbit; a large rabbit who’s ears reached the ceiling. She wore a dress, a lavender blazer, and sported two big buck teeth which protruded from her mouth and finally came to a kindhearted end somewhere near her chin. She seemed to be smiling, but said; “You’ve reached the end of the line.”

Genevieve said; “There’s no Billy and Jack here?” quickly adding; “They’re two Scottish terriers.”

The rabbit said; “No. You’re the only ones who have made it this far. ........ Well, besides me and Red; and he’s been long gone.

....... I’m Hawa, the last big bunny. ..... Some used to call me Mo.”

Genevieve and Pablo introduced themselves, and then drew a bit of a blank. Eventually, Pablo said; “So, there’s no way for us to get out ahead.”

Hawa said; “No. You’ll have to go back the way you came. If you’re tired you can rest here for a while.”

Genevieve first checked with Pablo, and then said; “No thank you. We’ll leave.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 743

Hawa nodded and watched them walk away slowly.

In too short a time the couple re-engaged Sadhu, who was still sitting in the middle of the road, this time with his back to them. Pablo said; “You scoot right and I’ll scoot left.”

Genevieve said; “Fine.”

Sadhu wasn’t startled, as if it was expected. As they passed him, he said; “Boy, can she move.”

Pablo wasn’t sure if that was a question or not. He stopped and thought a bit, not wanting to appear ignorant and finally said;

“You say you know all the stories. Why ask me?”

Genevieve said; “Would you please just keep moving. That guy can go on all day.”

Pablo said; “Okay, okay. It’s just that ...... “ and at that point decided it was best to just shut up and keep moving.

They came to the fork again. Genevieve said; “Do you want to take another look at the monsters?”

Pablo said; “No, not really. Do you?”

Genevieve said; “No. Just checking.”

They glided in tandem, much like ice skaters.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 744

Old Mark was too busy cranking the wheels to take any notice of them.

They found the hole in the roof and jumped out, the sun now directly on them.

The sun was directly in Genevieve’s face as she awoke in her wicker bed. Genevieve groaned a bit as she saw the light of the new day. Her Maltese’ furry, white snout released a low murmur, perhaps a combination of noncommittal happiness to see the new day, a sadness that her dream had ended, and an annoying, achy back paw, that didn’t want to be stretched just yet. But, the little aggravation was not yet allowed to make any big decisions.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 745

106 - Taxi Driver – Manhasset, Long Island, New York Taxi Driver

In New York City, Travis Bickle takes a job as a night shift taxi driver to cope with his chronic insomnia and loneliness. He frequently goes to the porn theaters on 42nd Street and keeps a diary in which he consciously attempts to include aphorisms such as "you're only as healthy as you feel." He becomes disgusted with the liberally sanctioned crime and urban decay that he witnesses in the city and dreams about ridding "the scum off the streets."

Travis becomes infatuated with Betsy, a campaign volunteer for Senator and Presidential candidate Charles Palantine. Travis enters the campaign office where she works and asks her out for coffee, to which she agrees. Betsy confesses that she feels a special connection to Travis and agrees to go on another date with him. During their date, Travis takes Betsy to a porn theater, which repulses her and causes her to leave. He says that “many couples go here.” He attempts to reconcile with her, but to no avail. Enraged, he storms into the campaign office where she works and berates her before he is ordered to leave.

Late For the Sky

Jackson Browne

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 746

All the words had all been spoken

And somehow the feeling still wasn't right And still we continued on through the night Tracing our steps from the beginning

Until they vanished into the air

Trying to understand how our lives had led us there

Looking hard into your eyes

There was nobody I'd ever known

Such an empty surprise to feel so alone Now, for me some words come easy

But I know that they don't mean that much Compared with the things that are said when lovers touch

You never knew what I loved in you

I don't know what you loved in me

Maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be Awake again, I can't pretend

And I know I'm alone and close to the end Of the feeling we've known

How long have I been sleeping?

How long have I been drifting alone through the night?

How long have I been dreaming I could make it right?

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 747

If I closed my eyes and tried with all my might To be the the one you need

Awake again, I can't pretend

And I know I'm alone and close to the end Of the feeling we've known

How long have I been sleeping?

How long have I been drifting alone through the night?

How long have I been running for that morning flight?

Through the whispered promises and the changing light Of the bed where we both lie

Late for the sky

Written by Jackson Browne.

Experiencing an existential crisis and seeing various acts of open prostitution throughout the city, Travis confides in a fellow taxi driver nicknamed Wizard, who is considered the wisest in the group, about his violent thoughts. However, Wizard dismisses them and assures him that he will be fine. Wizard says; “A man takes a job, and then the job takes a man. The man becomes the job.” Travis smirks and says; “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Wizard retorts; “What do you want from me. I’m just a cabbie.”

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 748

In an attempt to find an outlet for his rage, Travis begins a program of intense physical training. A fellow taxi driver recommends him to a black market gun dealer, Easy Andy, from whom Travis buys four handguns. At home, Travis practices drawing his weapons, and modifies one to allow him to hide and quickly deploy it from his sleeve. He begins attending Palantine's rallies to scope out his security. One night, Travis shoots and kills a man attempting to rob a convenience store run by a friend of his.

On his trips around the city, Travis regularly encounters Iris, a 12 year old child prostitute. He solicits her and tries to persuade her to stop prostituting herself. Soon after, Travis cuts his hair into a mohawk and attends a public rally where he plans to assassinate Palantine. However, he is chased away by Secret Service agents, who he has spoken with telling them that they are obvious, when they see him unzipping his jacket and putting his hand inside.

That evening, Travis drives to the brothel where Iris works to shoot her pimp, Sport. He enters the building and engages in a shootout with Sport and one of Iris's clients, a mafioso. Travis is shot several times, but manages to kill the two men. He then brawls with the bouncer, whom he manages to stab through the hand with his knife located in his shoe and finish off with a

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 749

gunshot to the head. Travis attempts to commit suicide, but is out of bullets. Severely injured, he slumps on a couch next to a sobbing Iris. As police respond to the scene, a delirious Travis imitates shooting himself in the head using his finger.

Travis goes into a coma due to his injuries. He is heralded by the press as a heroic vigilante and is not prosecuted for the murders, also receiving a letter from Iris's parents, thanking him. After recovering, Travis grows his hair out and returns to work, where he encounters Betsy as a fare. They interact cordially, with Betsy saying she followed his story in the newspapers. Travis drops her at home, and declines to take her money, driving off with a smile. He suddenly becomes agitated after noticing something in his rearview mirror.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 750

107 - The Happening – Miami, Florida

The Happening

Four bored beach bums from Miami come across kids playing with toy guns. They chase one of them into a house, which, by chance, belongs to one Roc Delmonico, a former gangster who is now retired from organized crime and has become a respectable businessman.

Delmonico assumes it to be a kidnapping and volunteers to go quietly. The hippies like the idea, particularly their leader, Taurus, a gigolo who lives off rich ladies. He and his accomplices, Sureshot, Herby, and Sandy, drive off with Delmonico in the trunk of their car. They hide out and seizing their opportunity, demand a ransom of $200,000.

Free Money

Patti Smith

Every night before I go to sleep

Find a ticket, win a lottery

Scoop the pearls up from the sea

Cash them in and buy you all the things you need Every night before I rest my head

See those dollar bills go swirling 'round my bed

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 751

I know they're stolen, but I don't feel bad I take that money, buy you things you never had Oh, baby, it would mean so much to me

Oh, baby, to buy you all the things you need for free

I'll buy you a jet plane, baby

Get you on a higher plane to a jet stream And take you through the stratosphere

And check out the planets there and then take you down Deep where it's hot, hot in Arabia, baby Then cool, cold fields of snow

And we'll roll, dream, roll, dream, roll, roll, dream, dream When we dream it, when we dream it, when we dream it We'll dream it, dream it for free, free money Free money, free money

Free money, free money

Free money, free money

Every night before I go to sleep (free money) Find a ticket, win a lottery (free money) Every night before I rest my head (free money) See those dollar bills go swirling 'round my bed Oh, baby, it would mean so much to me

Baby, I know our troubles will be gone

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 752

Oh, I know our troubles will be gone, goin' gone If we dream, dream, dream for free

And when we dream it, when we dream it, when we dream it Let's dream it, we'll dream it for free, free money Free money, free money

Free money, free money

Free money, money

Free money, free money, free money, free money Free money, free money, free money, free money Free money, free money, free money, free money Free money, free money, free money, free money Free money, free money, free money, free money Free money, free

Written by Patricia Lee Smith and Leonard J Kaye.

No one, unfortunately, will pay the ransom; not Delmonico's unhappy wife, Monica, or his business partner, Fred, or even Sam, his old mob boss. The frustrated crooks decide that it is hopeless, but Delmonico is so offended that he personally takes charge of his own kidnapping. He raises the demand to $3

million, vowing to reveal secrets that will ruin Monica, Fred and Sam.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 753

The money is paid, whereupon the greedy Taurus suggests to Delmonico that they kill the others, leaving a two way split.

However, Delmonico knows not only that the boy cannot be trusted, but also that the bank has marked the bills from the ransom and that the police will trace them. Delmonico sets fire to the money and walks away. When asked what he will do now, Delmonico responds, without looking back, "Who knows?"

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 754

108 - Goldfinger – Miami Beach, Florida

Goldfinger

After destroying a drug laboratory in Latin America, MI6 agent James Bond vacations in Miami Beach. His superior, M, via CIA agent Felix Leiter, directs Bond to observe bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger at the hotel there. Bond discovers Goldfinger cheating at a high stakes gin rummy game, aided remotely by his employee, Jill Masterson. Bond interrupts Jill and blackmails Goldfinger into losing. After a night with Jill, Bond is knocked out by Goldfinger's Korean manservant Oddjob. Bond awakens to find Jill covered in gold paint, dead from "skin suffocation."

Goldfinger

Shirley Bassey

Goldfinger

He's the man, the man with the Midas touch A spider's touch

Such a cold finger

Beckons you to enter his web of sin

But don't go in

Golden words he will pour in your ear

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 755

But his lies can't disguise what you fear For a golden girl knows when he's kissed her It's the kiss of death from

Mister Goldfinger

Pretty girl beware of this heart of gold This heart is cold

Golden words he will pour in your ear

But his lies can't disguise what you fear For a golden girl knows when he's kissed her It's the kiss of death from

Mister Goldfinger

Pretty girl beware of this heart of gold This heart is cold

He loves only gold

Only gold

He loves gold

He loves only gold

Only gold

He loves gold!

Written by John Barry, Anthony Newley, and Leslie Bricusse..

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 756

In London, M tasks Bond with determining how Goldfinger smuggles gold internationally. Q supplies Bond with a modified Aston Martin DB5 and two tracking devices. Bond plays a round of golf with Goldfinger at his country club in Kent, wagering a bar of recovered Nazi gold supplied to him by the Bank of England.

Goldfinger attempts to cheat, but Bond tricks him into losing the match. Goldfinger warns Bond against interfering in his affairs, and Oddjob demonstrates his formidable strength.

Bond trails Goldfinger to Switzerland, where he meets Jill's sister, Tilly, who fails to assassinate Goldfinger. Bond sneaks into Goldfinger's refinery and overhears him telling a Chinese nuclear physicist, Ling, that he incorporates gold into the bodywork of his Rolls Royce Phantom III to smuggle out of England. Bond overhears Goldfinger mention "Operation Grand Slam," and encounters Tilly, who again tries to kill Goldfinger.

An alarm is tripped and Oddjob kills Tilly with his steel rimmed hat. Bond is captured and strapped to a table with an overhead industrial laser, the beam slicing toward him. Bond lies to Goldfinger that MI6 knows about Operation Grand Slam, and Goldfinger spares his life so MI6 can think Bond is safe.

Pilot Pussy Galore flies the captive Bond to Goldfinger's stud farm near Lexington, Kentucky in a private jet. Once there, Bond escapes his cell and witnesses Goldfinger's meeting with

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 757

American mafiosi, who are supplying materials for Operation Grand Slam. Goldfinger plans to breach the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox by releasing delta-9 nerve gas into the atmosphere, which Goldfinger claims induces unconsciousness for 24 hours, but in reality will kill all who are exposed.

The mobsters ridicule Goldfinger's scheme, particularly a Mr.

Solo who demands to be paid immediately and leaves before the others are gassed to death by Goldfinger. Bond is captured by Pussy Galore, but attempts to alert the CIA by planting his homing device in Solo's pocket as he leaves. Solo is killed by Oddjob and his body destroyed in a car crusher along with the homing device. Bond confronts Goldfinger over the logistical implausibility of moving the gold. As Goldfinger denies an intent to steal it, Bond deduces from the presence of Mr. Ling that Goldfinger has been offered a dirty bomb by the Chinese government, to detonate inside the vault to irradiate the gold for decades. Goldfinger's own gold will increase in value and the Chinese gain an advantage from the economic chaos.

Goldfinger warns that any attempt to interfere will result in the bomb being detonated at another vital US location.

Operation Grand Slam launches with Pussy Galore's Flying Circus spraying gas over Fort Knox, seemingly killing the military guards and government personnel. Goldfinger's private army

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 758

breaks into Fort Knox and accesses the vault as Goldfinger arrives in a helicopter with the bomb. In the vault, Goldfinger's henchman, Kisch, handcuffs Bond to the bomb.

Unbeknownst to Goldfinger, Bond convinced Pussy to alert the US

authorities and replace the gas with a harmless substance.

Goldfinger locks the vault with Bond, Oddjob, and Kisch inside.

When the US army attacks, Goldfinger kills Ling in a ruse and escapes. Kisch attempts to disarm the bomb, but Oddjob tosses him off a gangway. Bond frees himself with Kisch's key, but Oddjob batters him. Bond electrocutes Oddjob to death, then forces the lock off the bomb, but is unsure how to disarm it.

After killing Goldfinger's men, US troops open the vault, and a specialist turns off the device with "007" seconds remaining.

En route with Pussy, Bond is flown to the White House for lunch with the President, but Goldfinger hijacks the plane. In a struggle for Goldfinger's revolver, the gun discharges and creates an explosive decompression that blows Goldfinger through the ruptured window to his death. Bond and Pussy parachute safely from the aircraft before it crashes. Leiter's search helicopter passes over the pair, who have landed in a wood. Bond declares; "This is no time to be rescued," and draws the parachute over himself and Galore.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 759

109 - Slaughterhouse Five – Dearborn, Michigan Slaughterhouse Five

In Ilium, New York, the middle aged Billy Pilgrim writes a letter to the editor claiming to have become "unstuck in time."

He finds himself as a young man behind enemy lines in Belgium during World War II, where he and a number of other American troops are captured by the Germans. A fellow prisoner of war, Paul Lazzaro, develops a grudge against Billy and vows to kill him. At a camp, Lazzaro attacks Billy but is intercepted by an older POW, Edgar Derby. Billy and Derby develop a friendship.

The Americans are set to be transferred to Dresden for the duration of the war and are asked to elect a leader. When Lazzaro nominates himself, Billy nominates Derby for the role, and Derby is acclaimed after Lazzaro steps down. In Dresden, the POWs are placed in a slaughterhouse, Slaughterhouse Five. During dinner, sirens sound off and the POWs head to shelter. The firebombing of Dresden commences, during which Billy believes 100,000 perish. The POWs emerge and the Germans have them sort through the ruins for survivors, warning looting will be punished. When Derby discovers a dancing figurine, he pockets it, and is executed by a Nazi firing squad.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 760

After the war, Billy marries the wealthy Valencia, whose father owns an optometry school, and Billy goes into the field. They have two children, Robert and Barbara.

Wedding Bell Blues

Laura Nyro

Bill, I love you so,

I always will

I look at you and I see

the passion, eyes of May

Eyes of May

Oh, but am I ever

gonna see my wedding day?

Wedding day

Oh, I was on your side Bill

When you were losing

When you were losing

I'd never scheme or lie Bill,

there's been no fooling

But kisses and love won't carry me

till you marry me Bill

Till you marry me Bill

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 761

I love you so,

I always will

And in your voice

I hear a choir of carousels

Oh, but am I ever

gonna hear my wedding bells?

Wedding bells

I was the one came running

When you were lonely

When you were lonely

I haven't lived one day

not loving you only

But kisses and love won't carry me,

till you marry me Bill

Till you marry me Bill

I've got the wedding bell blues

Got the wedding bell blues

Come on marry me Bill

Till you marry me Bill

I've got the wedding bell blues

Got the wedding bell blues

Come on marry me Bill

Till you marry me Bill

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 762

I've got the wedding bell blues

Got the wedding bell blues

Written by Laura Nyro.

Robert becomes a troubled adolescent, at one point caught by the police vandalizing a Catholic cemetery. Billy bribes the police into letting Robert go. Billy and his father-in-law Lionel Merble board a private jet for an optometry convention. When Billy looks out the window and sees men in ski masks, he has a premonition the plane will crash en route, which it does. Lionel is killed but Billy is found alive and taken to hospital. On her way to the hospital, a distressed Valencia has multiple accidents and her car's exhaust is destroyed, causing her to die of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Billy is released from the hospital and opts to live alone, over the objections of Barbara. Robert has reformed and enlisted for the Vietnam War. While alone, Billy is abducted to the alien planet of Tralfamadore, along with film actress Montana Wildhack. The Tralfamadorians live in the "fourth dimension" and teach Billy the universe is made up of random moments strung together. When one dies, they go back to another point in their life, and it is up to them to focus on good moments and ignore

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 763

the bad. The Tralfamadorians hope Billy and Montana will mate.

Billy and Montana fall in love and have a child, whom Montana names Billy Jr. On Earth, Billy argues with Barbara about the existence of Tralfamadore. Billy, being able to travel into the future as well as the past, shares a vision of his death, in which he is fatally shot by an elderly Lazzaro while giving a speech about Tralfamadore.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 764

110 - The Sting – Tulsa, Oklahoma

The Sting

In 1936 Great Depression America, Johnny Hooker, a grifter in Joliet, Illinois, with partners Luther Coleman and Joe Erie, cons $11,000 in cash from an unsuspecting victim. Buoyed by the windfall, Luther decides to retire and tells Hooker to seek out his old friend, Henry Gondorff, in Chicago to learn "the big con." However, corrupt Joliet police lieutenant William Snyder confronts Hooker, revealing that their mark was a courier for vicious Irish-American crime boss Doyle Lonnegan. Lonnegan's men murder both the courier and Luther, and Hooker flees to Chicago Erie's involvement remains unknown to Lonnegan.

Hooker finds Gondorff, now hiding from the FBI running a carousel, actually a front for a brothel, and asks for his help in taking down Lonnegan. Gondorff, aware of Lonnegan's reputation, is reluctant, but relents and recruits a team of experienced con men. They decide to resurrect an elaborate, obsolete scam known as "the wire," using a large crew to create a phony off-track betting parlor. Both Snyder and Lonnegan's men track Hooker to Chicago. Gondorff warns Hooker that if either of them find him, the con will have to fold.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 765

Aboard the opulent 20th Century Limited, Gondorff, posing as boorish Chicago bookie "Shaw," buys into Lonnegan's private, high stakes poker game and infuriates Lonnegan with obnoxious behavior, then cheats him out of $15,000. Hooker, posing as Shaw's disgruntled employee "Kelly," is sent to collect the winnings and instead convinces Lonnegan that he wants Lonnegan's help to take over "Shaw"'s operation. Lonnegan, sufficiently roused against "Shaw," takes the bait. Hooker returns home to find Lonnegan's men waiting for him, but avoids their pursuit.

Gondorff is spooked by their proximity, but Hooker convinces him to keep the con alive.

Snyder's pursuit of Hooker attracts the attention of undercover FBI agents led by Agent Polk, who orders Snyder to bring Hooker in to entrap Gondorff. At the same time, Lonnegan has grown frustrated with his men's inability to find and kill Hooker for the Joliet con, and orders Salino, his best assassin, be given the job. A mysterious figure with black leather gloves begins following and observing Hooker.

"Kelly" gives Lonnegan a tip on an 8 to 1 long shot that pays off. When Lonnegan presses him for details, he reveals that he has a partner, "Les Harmon," actually con man Kid Twist, in the Chicago Western Union office, who will help them topple "Shaw"

by winning bets he books on horse races through past posting.

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 766

Lonnegan is convinced after being provided the trifecta of another race, and agrees to finance a $500,000 bet to break

"Shaw" and get revenge. Shortly thereafter, Snyder captures Hooker and brings him before Polk, who forces Hooker to betray Gondorff by threatening to jail Luther Coleman's widow.

Feeling despondent the night before the sting, Hooker sleeps with a diner waitress named Loretta. The next morning, as she walks toward him in an alley, the black gloved man appears and shoots her dead. The man reveals that he was hired by Gondorff to protect Hooker and reveals that the waitress was in fact Salino.

Lonnegan bets $500,000 at "Shaw"'s parlor on Lucky Dan to win, at 4 to 1 odds. As the race begins, "Harmon" arrives and expresses shock at Lonnegan's bet. When he said "place it" he meant that Lucky Dan would "place," i.e., finish second. In a panic, Lonnegan rushes to the teller window and demands his money back, at which point Polk, Snyder, and a half dozen FBI agents storm the parlor. Polk tells Hooker he is free to go.

Shocked at the betrayal, Gondorff shoots Hooker in the back.

Polk shoots Gondorff and orders Snyder to get the ostensibly respectable Lonnegan away from the crime scene. With Lonnegan and Snyder safely away, Hooker and Gondorff rise amid cheers and laughter. "Polk" is actually Hickey, running a con within the

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 767

con to divert Snyder and ensure that Lonnegan abandons the money and never knows he was taken. As the con men strip the room of its contents, Hooker refuses his share of the money and walks away with Gondorff.

The Gambler

Kenny Rogers

On a warm summer's evening

On a train bound for nowhere

I met up with a gambler

We were both too tired to sleep

So we took turns a-staring

Out the window at the darkness

'Til boredom overtook us

And he began to speak

He said, "Son, I've made a life

Out of readin' people's faces

Knowing what the cards were

By the way they held their eyes

So if you don't mind my saying

I can see you're out of aces

For a taste of your whiskey

I'll give you some advice"

The Last Gasps of Indian Summer Page 768

So I handed him my bottle

And he drank down my last swallow

Then he bummed a cigarette

And asked me for a light

And the night got deathly quiet

And his face lost all expression

Said, "If you're gonna play the game, boy You gotta learn to play it right"

You got to know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold 'em

Know when to walk away

And know when to run

You never count your money

Find Your Next Great Read

Describe what you're looking for in as much detail as you'd like.
Our AI reads your request and finds the best matching books for you.

Showing results for ""

Popular searches:

Romance Mystery & Thriller Self-Help Sci-Fi Business