'I am not.'

Will slid his breakfast onto a plate, tossed two slices of stale bread on top of it, and came to sit at the table opposite Cornelius.

'You know what's wrong with this town?' Cornelius asked.

'Give me an A, B or C.'

This was a popular guessing game amongst the trio, the trick being to dream up alternatives more believable than the truth.

'No problem,' Cornelius said. He sipped a mouthful of beer and then said: 'Okay. A, right? There aren't any good-looking women in two hundred miles, besides Adrianna, and that'd be like fucking my sister. Okay? So, B. You can't get any decent acid. And C

'It's B.'

'Wait, I haven't finished.'

'You don't have to.'

'Fuck, man. I got a great C.'

'It's the acid,' Will said. He leaned towards Cornelius. 'Right?'

'Yeah.' He peered at Will's plate. 'What the hell's that?'

'Omelette.'

'What did you make it with? Penguin eggs?'

Will laughed, and was still laughing when Adrianna came in out of the cold. 'Hey, we got more bears at the dump,' she said, her Southern drawl perfectly mismatched with every other detail of her appearance and manner, from her badly trimmed bangs to her heavy-booted stomp. 'At least four of 'em. Two adolescents, a female and a huge male.' She looked first at Will, then at Cornelius, then back at Will. 'A little enthusiasm, please?'

'Just give me a few minutes,' Will said, 'I need a couple of cups of coffee first.'

'You've got to see this male. I mean-' she was struggling for the words - this is the biggest damn bear I ever saw.'

'Maybe the one I saw last night,' Will said. 'Actually we saw each other. Outside Guthrie's place.'

Adrianna unzipped her parka and sat down on the beaten-up sofa, flinging aside a pillow and blanket to do so. 'He kept you talking for quite a while,' she said. 'What was the old fuck like?'