A Garden of Earthly Delights Author:Joyce Carol Oates I. CARLETON — He was to live for two months yet, in a strange bed, and there would be whole hours when he would feel almost no pain. But during those hours his mind would be empty and baked clean and he would have nothing to think about anyway. — II. LOWRY — She had to be careful or she would go crazy, Carla thought. She had to be careful. The boy... more »'s face, drawn and strangely old, seemed to her suddenly the one thing she had to hate, the only thing that had lost her Lowry.
III. SWAN
She seemed to like best the programs that showed men fighting, swinging from ropes, shooting guns and driving fast cats, killing the enemy again and again until the dying gasps of evil men were only a certain familiar rhythm away from the opening blasts of the commercials, which changed only gradually over the years.« less