JOYCE CAROL OATES
383
ing his hair in a ponytail, going to fat, the shoulders, the small of the
back, even the neck, weighed two hundred twenty pounds at least, a
girl next to him maybe eighteen years old, hair like broom sage and
wearing sunglasses in the bar, leaning against his big arm. Harvey
came over ready to buy them all another round, ready to be intro–
duced, the big guy's name was Terry and Jacky seemed to know him,
but it turned out it wasn't any kind of friendly discussion, it was ac–
tually an argument, about somebody Terry knew that Jacky also
knew, ran a gas station in Atlantic City, maybe, Harvey couldn't fol–
low it except he knew right away that Terry was the kind of asshole
he'd like to smash with his fists, you'd just like to see a wise guy fucker
like that laid out somewhere dead, wipe the grin off his face, put
some respect in his eyes, the fear of the Lord as Harvey's father said.
The argument continued for a while, Terry was calling Jacky
fuckface, and Harvey said to Terry go fuck yourself, and the bar–
tender who was listening who seemed to be a friend of Fritz's or
maybe a cousin, Harvey'd been introduced when they first came in
but hadn't exactly heard, he came over and told them to keep it down
please, he said to Terry maybe he'd better move on, there's lots of
places on the strip and it was still early. So Terry and his girl left
after a few minutes, Terry told them all to go to hell, go fuck them–
selves, bunch of assholes, etcetera, but he kept on moving, the girl
had to hurry after him in her high-heeled shoes and she looked scared.
So that happened, but again it was weird, Harvey didn't feel
angry he felt instead like it was all part of his life now, him being out
with his buddies, everybody having a good time, the way he'd planned
it in his head almost from the first hour when the news came about
the lottery, thinking of a place like this, maybe not in Lenape Sound
'cause he wasn't familiar with it like he was with Surf City, but a
place like this, him and his buddies, Pete and Stan and Jacky and
Fritz, then there was Gary who couldn't make it 'cause they were go–
ing out of town or something, he felt bad that Gary wasn't with them
but just for a second or a half-second, already the thought floated
away and his good happy feeling returned, Jacky was making them
all crack up with what he was saying about the guy with the pony–
tail, Harvey decided on another tequila and the bartender smiled at
him, said, Harv this is on me, okay? and he felt that kick of some–
thing special, something just right, meant only for him, some kind of
secret. Nah, he said, I can pay for it, but the bartender insisted, so
he gave in, then they were all eating oysters, the second time that
