Hide and Seek

I don't believe in omens, but I think you can know when you're in

trouble.

Follow me on this, even if it sounds like bullshit.

I was working the stacks of two-by-four furring. What we needed was an

eight-foot length off the top. We were nearly into the next bundle

down but you could still see a couple of lengths left up there that

didn't look too weathered, so I climbed up after one. I had my hands

on one when the steel cable snapped on the bundle I was walking on. A

sound like a whip cracking. Damn near took my head off too. And

naturally I lost my footing. I fell ten feet to the tarmac in ash ower

of heavy lumber.

Not a scratch on me.

I was lucky.

But the boss gave me hell. You weren't supposed to go up there -though

everybody did--you were supposed to use the forklift There was an

insurance problem. So I was breaking the rules.

That was the first thing. Getting damn near killed breaking the

rules.

That same week I had the Chevy pickup on the coast road, doing maybe

sixty, when a big black tanker passed me on the downgrade. I let him

have the highway. But then on the upgrade he slowed to a