Thousand: Six Hundred Forty-Two

stump with a spatula. The head might have been a tree stump charred in a wildfire which someone fancied looked like a head and said, “Hey, let’s put it on top of this roadkill skunk and call it Pinocchio.” “You’re wrong about everything,” the odd thing says. The girl sneers, “Yeah? What are you, just another complainer? There’s this room here, seems to be empty, could use a complainer, it’s a complainer apartment, give you a good deal on it.” The odd thing laughs, not quite a merry laugh, but not entirely calculated. The girl laughs, too, maybe out of