All That I Have Page 15

  “That was the place you had Daddy find out about,” said Clemmie.

  “That’s right,” I said. I was taking off my shoes.

  “The place with the Russians,” said Clemmie.

  “Same place.”

  “The place with that guy that Sean — that guy that got beaten up.”

  “The nude male,” I said. I was unbuttoning my shirt.

  “I remember,” Clemmie said. “I thought it was the new male. On the radio. I thought the radio said the new male.”

  “Not new,” I said. “Nude.”

  “That’s right,” said Clemmie. “And you said you were the new male. I didn’t get it.”

  “But you do now.” I was unbuckling my belt.

  “I guess I do,” said Clemmie. “You were joking.”

  “I was.”

  “You aren’t the new male.”

  “No.”

  “You aren’t the nude male, either, are you?” Clemmie asked.

  “Give me a minute,” I said.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  It is a pleasure to acknowledge the contributions to All That I Have of its principal editors, Chip Fleischer and Roland Pease of Steerforth Press. They have understood the book as well as, and sometimes better than, its author, and their responses and suggestions, through several readings, have been a model of editorial intelligence and tact.

  Table of Contents

  1

  The New Male and the Morning Back

  2

  The Russians at Disneyland

  3

  Sheriffing

  4

  The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi

  5

  It Is What It Is

  6

  Dark Lady

  7

  The Issue

  8

  Sheriffing II

  9

  Big Lookers on the Downside

  10

  The Cossacks

  11

  The Seans of this World

  12

  Negative

  13

  Six Rigs at the Ethan Allen

  14

  There She Was

  15

  More Cossacks

  16

  The Star

  17

  Everybody Loves Honey

  18

  Another World

  19

  A Student of Human Nature

  20

  There She Was (Again)

  EPILOGUE

  The New Male and the End

  Acknowledgments