Between the jets passing overhead, the faint, high wail of the distant freeway mixed in the silence with the clangs and thumps of the oil pumps, patiently churning in the pink and amber glow of the late afternoon. Jack, Alice and Albert made a proud trio. Jack finally had what he’d always wanted, his own dog, which barked and see-sawed its way up the street giddily, wearing its medal as if it really meant something. The late day breezes, blowing the orange smog in from the West and the pink and amber sky warming the concrete underfoot put Alice in a philosophical frame of mind. “All right, so Jack’s a little womanish at times,” she thought. “Hell, nobody’s perfect.” And right now, he was so happy walking his dog, she wouldn’t change anything about him. “Gonna’ ha...

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