Characters in Mister Yummy

… if he had asked, would have given him the room where their son Jerome had once lived, but Peter and Alicia were getting on themselves now, and he would not inflict himself on them. One warm day in early November, he went out onto the flagstone …

… some for me, Bob. Do you promise?” He raised his hand, palm out. “So help me God.” Satisfied, she shuffled on, digging in the pocket of her shapeless day dress for her butts and her Bic. Ollie raised his own eyebrows. “Since when are you Bob?” “He was her husband.

The smell of the flowers was strong, heavenly. When Dave Calhoun thought of death—not so far off now—the prospect he regretted most was the loss of the sensory world and all its ordinary luxuries.

Why would he look at us with all those lovely young men vying for his attention? “And Frank Diamond said, ‘He’ll be dead in a year. See how pretty he is then.’ Only he didn’t just say it; he spit it out. Like that was some kind of weird .

They did—no fool like an old fool, right? Some were my friends. But they were fewer than the younger fellows who jammed the clubs every night. “My own clique—Noah, Henry Reed, John Rubin, Frank Diamond—sometimes went out just to watch those young guys do their mating dances.

… wife would have done that for Dave if he had asked, would have given him the room where their son Jerome had once lived, but Peter and Alicia were getting on themselves now, and he would not inflict himself on them. One warm day in early …

“My own clique—Noah, Henry Reed, John Rubin, Frank Diamond—sometimes went out just to watch those young guys do their mating dances. We didn’t drool, but we watched.

He fished for the name, and it came to him: Tom. And the niece was Martha. Over the bed was a charcoal drawing of a handsome young man with his hair combed high and spangles on his cheeks.

… Although there was a real Mister Yummy once. That’s what my friends and I called him that night in Highpockets. I never knew his real name.

“I guess, but not the yummy boy. And my best friend—his name was Noah Freemont, died just last year, I went to the funeral—turned to me and said, ‘They don’t even see us anymore, do they?’ I agreed.

… I Dave Calhoun was helping Olga Glukhov construct the Eiffel Tower. They had been at it for six mornings now, six early mornings, in the common room of the Lakeview Assisted …

… quarter past eleven (Fox News had given way to Drew Carey flogging prizes on The Price Is Right), Ollie Franklin returned and made his way to the cribbage board. A shave and a neat short-sleeved shirt made him look almost dapper. “Hey, Olga. I have …

The strong beating heart of beauty and desire. Next time she would be closer. V Peter came into town the following week, and they went out to dinner at a nice place close by. Dave ate well, and drank two glasses of wine.

The family thing. Since I have no wife or children myself, that means leaving everything to Tom. Except this. This is for you. You’ve been a good friend to me, so please. Take it.”