The Sisters Brothers

hurrying off to some other crucial location.

Stamm might have been walking to an outhouse, for all the concern he displayed.

What would the world be, I thought, without money hung around our necks, hung around our very souls?

he reminded me of a mole or some other type of burrowing animal:

As she ducked behind the beaded curtain separating the lobby from the kitchen and boilers, I noticed a sliver of her dress was stuck between her buttocks. She removed this with a single dainty tug—a thoughtless, automatic action on her part, but I felt a great fortune to have witnessed it and began whistling a wild, snappy tune.

me. I pinned a suicide note to my front door and left town in one hell of a shameful hurry.

We did not ask that he elaborate, but he needed no invitation to continue:

she laughed once more, and the sound was bright and diamond shaped.

Now a pregnant and markedly ugly young girl emerged from behind the curtain with a steaming cloth in her hand.