Aluminum Essay -- essays research papers

Aluminum, symbol Al, the most abundant metallic element in the earth's crust. The atomic number of aluminum is 13; the element is in group 13 (IIIa) of the periodic table. Hans Christian Orstead, Danish chemist, first isolated aluminum in 1825, using a chemical process involving potassium amalgam. Between 1827 and 1845, Friedrich WÃ ¶hler, a German chemist, improved Oersted's process by using metallic potassium. He was the first to measure the specific gravity of aluminum and show its lightness. In 1854 Henri Sainte-Claire Deville, in France, obtained the metal by reducing aluminum chloride with sodium. Aided by the financial backing of Napoleon III, Deville established a large-scale experimental plant and displayed pure aluminum at the Paris Exposition of 1855. Aluminum is a lightweight, silvery metal. The atomic weight of aluminum is 26.9815; the element melts at 660Â ° C (1220Â ° F), boils at 2467Â ° C (4473Â ° F), and has a specific gravity of 2.7. Aluminum is a strongly electropositive metal and extremely reactive. In contact with air, aluminum rapidly becomes covered with a tough, transparent layer of aluminum oxide that resists further corrosive action. For this reason, materials made of aluminum do not tarnish or rust. The metal reduces many other metallic compounds to their base metals. For example, when thermite (a mixture of powdered iron oxide and aluminum) is heated, the aluminum rapidly removes the oxygen from the iron; the heat of the reaction is sufficient to melt the iron. This phenomenon is used in the thermite process for welding iron . The oxide of aluminum is amphoteric—showing both acidic and basic properties. The most important compounds include the oxide, hydroxide, sulfate, and mixed sulfate compounds. Anhydrous aluminum chloride is important in the oil and synthetic-chemical industries. Many gemstones—ruby and sapphire, for example—consist mainly of crystalline aluminum oxide. Aluminum is the most abundant metallic constituent in the crust of the earth; only the nonmetals oxygen and silicon are more abundant. Aluminum is never found as a free metal; commonly as aluminum silicate or as a silicate of aluminum mixed with other metals such as sodium, potassium, iron, calcium, and magnesium. These silicates are not useful ores, for it is chemically difficult, and therefore an expensive process, to extract aluminum from them. bauxite an impure h... ...cling of such containers is an increasingly important energy-conservation measure. Aluminum's resistance to corrosion in salt water also makes it useful in boat hulls and various aquatic devices. A wide variety of coating alloys and wrought alloys can be prepared that give the metal greater strength, castability, or resistance to corrosion or high temperatures. Some new alloys can be used as armor plate for tanks, personnel carriers, and other military vehicles. In 1886 the world production of aluminum was less than 45 kg (less than 100 lb), and its price was more than $11 per kg (more than $5 per lb). In 1989, by contrast, the estimated world production of primary aluminum was 18 million metric tons and an estimated 4 million metric tons was produced in the United States alone, whereas the price of aluminum was less than $2 per kg. U.S. consumption, by major markets, consisted of containers and packaging, 31 percent; building and construction, 20 percent; transportation, 24 percent; electric equipment, 10 percent; consumer durables, 9 percent; and miscellaneous, 6 percent. In 1989, recycled aluminum accounted for over 20 percent of total aluminum consumption in the United States.

Critical Thinking Questions Essay

Labeling is a societal way of correcting wrongs within the community by giving names related to the kind of wrong committed. Unfortunately, this does not always correct the deviant’s behavior. The labeled character internalizes the label and gets accustomed to it so as behave as labeled. Once one is called a thief they become one because the society is already aware of their character and they have no fear. They abide to the ascribed label, (Labeling and Crime, 2001). 2). What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance? Primary deviance, according to Edwin Lemert, is the initial act in which a person is identified to have committed a social wrong. When the society tries to correct it by punishing the offender they may or not stop committing this act depending on their perception of the form of correction. Secondary deviance is a kind of deviance that results from the reaction of the offender to the initial societal corrective measures. The offender tends to acquaint themselves with stubbornness against first hand correction to mistakes. As result of being labeled they develop a mind set that they are deviants. The community may try to punish them harder only to realize that they harden and commit the crime more frequently and fully become criminals rather than just deviants, (Crime and Criminology, 2010). 3). What are some examples of master status not in the text? A master status is acquired when one is successfully labeled and develops that particular kind of label making it his/her personality. For example, one may acquire a master status as a prostitute, rapist, gay or homosexual. This may have resulted from an act out of curiosity, desperation or poverty. When it is known to the public they may be labeled. The community does not want to associate with them and they may not get jobs due to the label and they decided to make it their personality for survival. 4). What are traits associated with them? Master status may result to a complete change in the character and personality of an individual. The new state makes them express low self esteem, shyness to the public, wild reactions that make them commit the crime more even after harsh punishment. They may tend to be closely associated with other criminals and may indulge in other related crimes other than the one they were labeled after. This mixed reaction results from victimization of the labeled person by capitalizing on his weakness rather than promoting their strengths. 5). How do those assumed traits affect our perceptions of people with that status? The perception of the community on a person who has acquired master status is transformed towards the description of this person in accordance to their label. They are called thieves other than teacher or father which would still be his other roles in the society. The community perceives them as evil and criminals despite any attempt to act well. 6). What are decision-making types used by rational choice theory? Decision making in rational theory may be in two types. Criminal event decision type and criminal involvement decision type. Criminal involvement type of decision making involve the criminal weighing options on whether participating in a criminal activity would yield more benefits or negatives. A cost benefit analysis is first taken before one commits crime. Crime event type of decision making involve the issues related to a particular crime that respond to the questions where, when, and how. The person must have decided to commit a crime and but they are either held back by either of the above mentioned situations which would promote the success of the crime, (Vito, Maahs, & Holmes, 2007). 7). How do these decisions apply to crime? The rational decision making applies in crime in a number of ways. If a criminal decides that it would be beneficial, advantageous, and lucrative to commit the crime then they would commit it at particular location and specific time as deemed appropriate. When the analysis is completed the criminal does not fear any punishment emanating for the crime they intend to commit. This is applicable in theft and burglary cases. References Crime and Criminology: retrieved in 2010. http://www. sociologyindex. com/crime. htm 2010 Labeling and Crime: edited in March 2001: http://www. le. ac. uk/education/resources/SocSci/labelling. html 09 Vito, GT F. , Maahs, J. R. & Holmes, R. M. (2007). Criminology: theory, research, and policy. Canada: Jones and Bartlett’s publisher.

Attitude Legislation And Litigation Education Essay

Provision of instruction in the current universe has been faced with many challenges particularly sing the equality issues in the society. This paper addresses the societal deductions of attitude, statute law and judicial proceeding on the lives of pupils with disablements. Introduction Over the old ages, handicapped people in the society have been forced to populate with many challenges sing their handicapped position. Disabled people have several jobs in footings of motion, instruction and many other societal activities as they are non able to take part and be able to be involved in these activities. The instruction sector has non been left out as the handicapped pupils are faced with many challenges in larning compared to their fellow pupils who are non disabled. The society has been forced to come up with ways in which the handicappeds can be given discriminatory intervention and services compared to the other members of the society through debut of statute law and extenuations to regulate the instruction of the handicapped. For the past old ages, the services given to people with disablement particularly in the instruction sector have been uneffective as a consequence of several grounds that cause hapless service bringing to the disabled in the particular instruction sector. Fiscal issue has been a major hinderance in proviso of services in the particular instruction sector as there have been issues of fewer financess allocated to this sector. There is besides a job sing logistics as the aid and services offered by several bureaus require a batch of attempt for them to move and give the necessary aid needed ( Gordon, 2004 p.72-89 ) . The attitude of people towards people with disablements has several impacts on the lives of the people populating with disablements. The handicapped have been forced to populate with the impacts of negative societal attitude towards them and a farther societal stigma apart from the larger job they are confronting sing their mental or physical hindrances as a consequence of their disablement. The negative attitude towards people with disablements can be seen through societal rejection of handicapped people by the society members a frailty that is present across several civilizations. Peoples with disablements have several more demands than that of a normal individual and therefore there is development of a impression in the society that people with disablements are a load to the society. This factor helps nature the negative attitude towards people with disablements in the society. This negative attitude impacts negatively on the lives of pupils with disablements as it makes them see themselves as a load to the society from their many demands and furthers the societal stigma these pupils are faced with a factor that impacts negatively on their instruction. Attitude towards people with disablement has been negatively displayed through several civilizations that see mental deceleration as psyches that are possessed by evil liquors or punished by God and therefore require spiritual intercessions or dispossession. Such attitudes vested in the heads of people impacts negatively on their attitude towards the disabled as they are forced to see the handicapped as less human existences and farther the societal stigma faced by people with disablement ( Gordon, 2004 p.72-89 ) Students without disablement have negative societal response to other pupils with disablements particularly the mentally retarded as a consequence O f their negative attitude towards them despite the several steps that have been developed to change this that include legislative support, improved attention and the improved and sophisticated ways to give a medical history of the beginning of different disablements. The fact that disabled pupils were treated otherwise from the other pupils by debut of particular instruction that was chiefly provided in particular schoolrooms or even particular schools a fact that furthered the stigma among the handicapped pupils as these meant they were non equal to their opposite numbers who are non disabled ( Ramirez ) . Provision of instruction to the handicapped pupils has become a major challenge to different authoritiess and provinces. Educators have been faced with challenges of how best they can supply instruction to the handicapped and has seen the debut of particular instruction that meant that handicapped pupils were non included in schoolrooms with other able pupils and meant arrangement in separate schoolrooms or schools. The societal attitude that the handicapped pupils should be treated individually as a consequence of their disablement is wholly incorrect and it discouraged the formation of Torahs that would regulate the general instruction of exceeding pupils or handicapped pupils on the footing that dividing the pupils with disablements from those who are non disabled is far from doing them equal and that all the pupils had equal protection from the jurisprudence. The thought that the handicapped pupils should be separated from their fellow pupils has greatly changed as a consequence inequality that consequences from this action and hence there was demand to develop the statute laws and judicial proceedings that govern the instruction of pupils with disablements ( Ramirez, 2003 p. 12 ) . Several opinions against segregation by the United States Supreme Court set the gait in the hunt for equality in the instruction sector that included people with disablement. The celebrated Fourteen Amendment provides the right to equal instruction for any member of the province and no province may deny equal right to education to any individual within its legal power. Students with disablements have a right to equal instruction like their nondisabled opposite numbers as provided by the jurisprudence. The proviso of particular instruction that was ab initio provided outside the regular schoolroom is now provided in the regular schoolroom and there is no separation of the handicapped pupils from the schoolroom hence they learn together a system referred to as inclusion ( Ramirez, 2003 p. 13 ) . Legislations and judicial proceedings have been passed to regulate the instruction of the handicapped pupils. The construct of particular instruction by the Congress as it passed an act that instruction would be provided for all the disabled kids and guaranteed the proviso of public instruction to all pupils irrespective of their ability which provided the footing for inclusive acquisition. It provided that every pupil was eligible to have appropriate public instruction and have the chance to larn in a no limitation environment. In inclusive acquisition, general instruction provided to pupils plants in cooperation with particular instruction with the chief purpose of proviso of quality instruction plans to the pupils irrespective of their disablement. Such statute laws provided that pupils with disablements both in public and private establishments would have instruction with the nondisabled pupils, there should be no particular categories, separate schooling and that no pupil should be removed in their categories unless the badness of the disablement hinders the proviso of instruction to that pupil wholly ( Ramirez, 2003 p. 12 ) . The inclusion of the handicapped pupils into mainstream categories with other chap nondisabled pupils has some positive and negative impacts to the pupils with disablement. Though we may state that the handicapped pupils benefit in this environment through societal and academic interaction with the other pupils, it is difficult to disregard the fact that they are forced to meet rough academic competition from their chap nondisabled pupils. The inclusion of the handicapped pupils in the same categories as the nondisabled pupils increases the force per unit area on both the instructor and the handicapped pupils to be at par with their chap nondisabled pupils and failure to make so may increase the stigma in the pupil. The current instruction clime may non prefer much the instruction and public presentation of certain disablement instances like the mentally retarded hence particular instruction will better flatly in the hereafter. Decision Students with disablement are faced with many challenges in life as a consequence of their disable position. Introduction of statute laws and judicial proceeding to regulate their instruction is a first positive measure in guaranting they benefit from instruction provided in establishments. Social forums and public instruction should besides be encouraged so as to assist alter the attitude of the society towards people with disablement hence bettering their lives.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 1

This one's for Mom Prologue September in Pine Cove is a sigh of relief, a nightcap, a long-deserved nap. Soft autumn light filters through the trees, the tourists go back to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Pine Cove's five thousand residents wake up to discover that they can once again find a parking place, get a table in a restaurant, and walk the beaches without being conked by an errant Frisbee. September is a promise. Rain will come at last and turn the golden pastures around Pine Cove green, the tall Monterey pines that cover the hills will stop dropping their needles, the forests of Big Sur will stop burning, the grim smile developed over the summer by the waitresses and clerks will bloom into something resembling real human expression, children will return to school and the joy of old friends, drugs, and weapons that they missed over the summer, and everyone, at last, will get some rest. Come September, Theophilus Crowe, the town constable, lovingly clips the sticky purple buds from his sensimilla plants. Mavis, down at the Head of the Slug Saloon, funnels her top-shelf liquors back into the well from whence they came. The tree service guys, with their chain saws, take down the dead and dying pines lest they crash through someone's roof with the winter storms. Woodpiles grow tall and wide around Pine Cove homes and the chimney sweep goes to a twelve-hour workday. The sunscreen and needless souvenir shit shelf at Brine's Bait, Tackle, and Fine Wines is cleared and restocked with candles, flashlight batteries, and lamp oil. (Monterey pine trees have notoriously shallow root systems and an affinity for falling on power lines.) At the Pine Cove Boutique, the hideous reindeer sweater is marked up for winter to await being marked back down for the tenth consecutive spring. In Pine Cove, where nothing happens (or at least nothing has happened for a long time), September is an event: a quiet celebration. The people like their events quiet. The reason they came here from the cities in the first place was to get away from things happening. September is a celebration of sameness. Each September is like the last. Except for this year. This year three things happened. Not big things, by city standards, but three things that coldcocked the beloved status quo nonetheless: forty miles to the south, a tiny and not very dangerous leak opened in a cooling pipe at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant; Mavis Sand advertised in Songwriter magazine for a Blues singer to play through the winter at the Head of the Slug Saloon; and Bess Leander, wife and mother of two, hung herself. Three things, omens if you will. September is a promise of what is to come. Admitting You Have a Problem â€Å"Dear, dear, how queer everything is today! And yesterday everything went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is: Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!† – LEWIS CARROLL, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland One Theophilus Crowe As dead people went, Bess Leander smelled pretty good: lavender, sage, and a hint of clove. There were seven Shaker chairs hung on pegs on the walls of the Leanders' dining room. The eighth was overturned under Bess, who hung from the peg by a calico cloth rope around her neck. Dried flowers, baskets of various shapes and sizes, and bundles of dried herbs hung from the open ceiling beams. Theophilus Crowe knew he should be doing cop stuff, but he just stood there with two emergency medical technicians from the Pine Cove Fire Department, staring up at Bess as if they were inspecting the newly installed angel on a Christmas tree. Theo thought the pastel blue of Bess's skin went nicely with her cornflower-blue dress and the patterns of the English china displayed on simple wooden shelves at the end of the room. It was 7 A.M. and Theo, as usual, was a little stoned. Theo could hear sobs coming from upstairs, where Joseph Leander held his two daughters, who were still in their nightgowns. There was no evid-ence of a masculine presence anywhere in the house. It was Country Cute: bare pine floors and bent willow baskets, flowers and rag dolls and herb-flavored vinegars in blown-glass bottles; Shaker antiques, copper kettles, embroidery samplers, spinning wheels, lace doilies, and porcelain placards with prayers from the Dutch. Not a sports page or remote control in sight. Not a thing out of place or a speck of dust anywhere. Joseph Leander must have walked very light to live in this house without leaving tracks. A man less sensitive than Theo might have called him whipped. â€Å"That guy's whipped,† one of the EMTs said. His name was Vance McNally. He was fifty-one, short and muscular, and wore his hair slicked back with oil, just as he had in high school. Occasionally, in his capacity as an EMT, he saved lives, which was his rationalization for being a dolt the rest of the time. â€Å"He just found his wife hanging in the dining room, Vance,† Theo pronounced over the heads of the EMTs. He was six-foot-six, and even in his flannel shirt and sneakers he could loom large when he needed to assert some authority. â€Å"She looks like Raggedy Ann,† said Mike, the other EMT, who was in his early twenties and excited to be on his first suicide call. â€Å"I heard she was Amish,† Vance said. â€Å"She's not Amish,† Theo said. â€Å"I didn't say she was Amish, I just said I heard that. I figured she wasn't Amish when I saw the blender in the kitchen. Amish don't believe in blenders, do they?† â€Å"Mennonite,† Mike said with as much authority as his junior status would afford. â€Å"What's a Mennonite?† Vance asked. â€Å"Amish with blenders.† â€Å"She wasn't Amish,† Theo said. â€Å"She looks Amish,† Vance said. â€Å"Well, her husband's not Amish,† Mike said. â€Å"How can you tell?† Vance said. â€Å"He has a beard.† â€Å"Zipper on his jacket,† Mike said. â€Å"Amish don't have zippers.† Vance shook his head. â€Å"Mixed marriages. They never work.† â€Å"She wasn't Amish!† Theo shouted. â€Å"Think what you want, Theo, there's a butter churn in the living room. I think that says it all.† Mike rubbed at a mark on the wall beneath Bess's feet where her black buckled shoes had scraped as she convulsed. â€Å"Don't touch anything,† Theo said. â€Å"Why? She can't yell at us, she's dead. We wiped our feet on the way in,† Vance said. Mike stepped away from the wall. â€Å"Maybe she couldn't stand anything touching her floors. Hanging was the only way.† Not to be outdone by the detective work of his protg, Vance said, â€Å"You know, the sphincters usually open up on a hanging victim – leave an awful mess. I'm wondering if she actually hanged herself.† â€Å"Shouldn't we call the police?† Mike said. â€Å"I am the police,† Theo said. He was Pine Cove's only constable, duly elected eight years ago and reelected every other year thereafter. â€Å"No, I mean the real police,† Mike said. â€Å"I'll radio the sheriff,† Theo said. â€Å"I don't think there's anything you can do here, guys. Would you mind calling Pastor Williams from the Presby-terian church to come over? I need to talk to Joseph and I need someone to stay with the girls.† â€Å"They were Presbyterians?† Vance seemed shocked. He had really put his heart into the Amish theory. â€Å"Please call,† Theo said. He left the EMTs and went out through the kitchen to his Volvo, where he switched the radio over to the frequency used by the San Junipero Sheriff's Department, then sat there staring at the mike. He was going to catch hell from Sheriff Burton for this. â€Å"North Coast is yours, Theo. All yours,† the sheriff had said. My deputies will pick up suspects, answer robbery calls, and let the Highway Patrol investigate traffic accidents on Highway 1, that's it. Otherwise, you keep them out of Pine Cove and your little secret stays secret.† Theo was forty-one years old and he still felt as if he was hiding from the junior high vice principal, laying low. Things like this weren't supposed to happen in Pine Cove. Nothing happened in Pine Cove. He took a quick hit from his Sneaky Pete smokeless pot pipe before keying the mike and calling in the deputies. Joseph Leander sat on the edge of the bed. He'd changed out of his pajamas into a blue business suit, but his thinning hair was still sticking out in sleep horns on the side. He was thirty-five, sandy-haired, thin but working on a paunch that strained the buttons of his vest. Theo sat across from him on a chair, holding a notepad. They could hear the sheriff's deputies moving around downstairs. â€Å"I can't believe she'd do this,† Joseph said. Theo reached over and squeezed the grieving husband's bicep. â€Å"I'm really sorry, Joe. She didn't say anything that would indicate she was thinking about doing something like this?† Joseph shook his head without looking up. â€Å"She was getting better. Val had given her some pills and she seemed to be getting better.† â€Å"She was seeing Valerie Riordan?† Theo asked. Valerie was Pine Cove's only clinical psychiatrist. â€Å"Do you know what kind of pills?† â€Å"Zoloft,† Joseph said. â€Å"I think it's an antidepressant.† Theo wrote down the name of the drug on his notepad. â€Å"Then Bess was depressed?† â€Å"No, she just had this cleaning thing. Everything had to be cleaned every day. She'd clean something, then go back five minutes later and clean it again. She was making life miserable for the girls and me. She'd make us take our shoes and socks off, then wash our feet in a basin before we came into the house. But she wasn't depressed.† Theo wrote down â€Å"crazy† on his notepad. â€Å"When was the last time Bess went to see Val?† â€Å"Maybe six weeks ago. When she first got the pills. She really seemed to be doing better. She even left the dishes in the sink overnight once. I was proud of her.† â€Å"Where are her pills, Joseph?† â€Å"Medicine cabinet.† Joseph gestured to the bathroom. Theo excused himself and went to the bathroom. The brown prescription bottle was the only thing in the medicine cabinet other than disinfectants and some Q-Tips. The bottle was about half-full. â€Å"I'm going to take these with me,† Theo said, pocketing the pills. â€Å"The sheriff's deputies are going to ask you some of these same questions, Joseph. You just tell them what you told me, okay? Joseph nodded. â€Å"I think I should be with the girls.† â€Å"Just a bit longer, okay? I'll send up the deputy in charge.† Theo heard a car start outside and went to the window to see an ambulance pulling away, the lights and siren off. Bess Leander's body riding off to the morgue. He turned back to Joseph. â€Å"Call me if you need anything. I'm going to go talk to Val Riordan.† Joseph stood up. â€Å"Theo, don't tell anyone that Bess was on antidepressants. She didn't want anyone to know. She was ashamed.† â€Å"I won't. Call me if you need me.† Theo left the room. A sharply dressed plainclothes deputy met him at the bottom of the steps. Theo saw by the badge on his belt that he was a detective sergeant. â€Å"You're Crowe. John Voss.† He extended his hand and Theo shook it. â€Å"We're supposed to take it from here,† Voss said. â€Å"What have you got?† Theo was at once relieved and offended. Sheriff Burton was going to push him off the case without even talking to him. â€Å"No note,† Theo said. â€Å"I called you guys ten minutes after I got the call. Joseph said she wasn't depressed, but she was on medication. He came downstairs to have breakfast and found her.† â€Å"Did you look around?† Voss asked. â€Å"This place has been scoured. There isn't a smudge or a spot anywhere. It's like someone cleaned up the scene.† â€Å"She did that,† Theo said. â€Å"She was a clean freak.† Voss scoffed. â€Å"She cleaned the house, then hung herself? Please.† Theo shrugged. He really didn't like this cop stuff. â€Å"I'm going to go talk to her psychiatrist. I'll let you know what she says.† â€Å"Don't talk to anybody, Crowe. This is my investigation.† Theo smiled. â€Å"Okay. But she hung herself and that's all there is. Don't make it into anything it's not. The family is in pretty bad shape.† â€Å"I'm a professional,† Voss said, throwing it like an insult, implying that Theo was just dicking around in law enforcement, which, in a way, he was. â€Å"Did you check out the Amish cult angle?† Theo asked, trying to keep a straight face. Maybe he shouldn't have gotten high today. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Right, you're the pro,† Theo said. â€Å"I forgot.† And he walked out of the house. In the Volvo, Theo pulled the thin Pine Cove phone directory out of the glove compartment and was looking up Dr. Valerie Riordan's number when a call came in on the radio. Fight at the Head of the Slug Saloon. It was 8:30 A.M. Mavis It was rumored among the regulars at the Head of the Slug that under Mavis Sand's slack, wrinkled, liver-spot ted skin lay the gleaming metal skeleton of a Terminator. Mavis first began augmenting her parts in the fifties, first out of vanity: breasts, eyelashes, hair. Later, as she aged and the concept of maintenance eluded her, she began having parts replaced as they failed, until almost half of her body weight was composed of stainless steel (hips, elbows, shoulders, finger joints, rods fused to vertebrae five through twelve), silicon wafers (hearing aids, pacemaker, insulin pump), advanced polymer resins (cataract replace-ment lenses, dentures), Kevlar fabric (abdominal wall reinforcement), ti-tanium (knees, ankles), and pork (ventricular heart valve). In fact, if not for the pig valve, Mavis would have jumped classes directly from animal to mineral, without the traditional stop at vegetable taken by most. The more inventive drunks at the Slug (little more than vegetables themsel ves) swore that sometimes, between songs on the jukebox, one could hear tiny but powerful servomotors whirring Mavis around behind the bar. Mavis was careful never to crush a beer can or move a full keg in plain sight of the customers lest she feed the rumors and ruin her image of girlish vulner-ability. When Theo entered the Head of the Slug, he saw ex-scream-queen Molly Michon on the floor with her teeth locked into the calf of a gray-haired man who was screeching like a mashed cat. Mavis stood over them both, brandishing her Louisville Slugger, ready to belt one of them out of the park. â€Å"Theo,† Mavis shrilled, â€Å"you got ten seconds to get this wacko out of my bar before I brain her.† â€Å"No, Mavis.† Theo raced forward and knocked Mavis's bat aside while reaching into his back pocket for his handcuffs. He pried Molly's hands from around the man's ankle and shackled them behind her back. The gray-haired man's screams hit a higher pitch. Theo got down on the floor and spoke into Molly's ear. â€Å"Let go, Molly. You've got to let go of the man's leg.† An animal sound emanated from Molly's throat and bubbled out through blood and saliva. Theo stroked her hair out of her face. â€Å"I can't fix the problem if you don't tell me what it is, Molly. I can't understand you with that guy's leg in your mouth.† â€Å"Stand back, Theo,† Mavis said. â€Å"I'm going to brain her.† Theo waved Mavis away. The gray-haired man screamed even louder. â€Å"Hey!† Theo shouted. â€Å"Pipe down. I'm trying to have a conversation here.† The gray-haired man lowered his volume. â€Å"Molly, look at me.† Theo saw a blue eye look away from the leg and the bloodlust faded from it. He had her back. â€Å"That's right, Molly. It's me, Theo. Now what's the problem?† She spit out the man's leg and turned to look at Theo. Mavis helped the man to a bar stool. â€Å"Get her out of here,† Mavis said. â€Å"She's eighty-sixed. This time forever.† Theo kept his eyes locked on Molly's. â€Å"Are you okay?† She nodded. Bloody drool was running down her chin. Theo grabbed a bar napkin and wiped it away, careful to keep his fingers away from her mouth. â€Å"I'm going to help you up now and we're going to go outside and talk about this, okay?† Molly nodded and Theo picked her up by the shoulders, set her on her feet, and steered her toward the door. He looked over his shoulder at the bitten man. â€Å"You okay? You need a doctor?† â€Å"I didn't do anything to her. I've never seen that woman before in my life. I just stopped in for a drink.† Theo looked at Mavis for confirmation. â€Å"He hit on her,† Mavis said. â€Å"But that's no excuse. A girl should appreciate the attention.† She turned and batted her spiderlike false eyelashes at the bitten man. â€Å"I could show you some appreciation, sweetie.† The bitten man looked around in a panic. â€Å"No, I'm fine. No doctor. I'm just fine. My wife's waiting for me.† â€Å"As long as you're okay,† Theo said. â€Å"And you don't want to press charges or anything?† â€Å"No, just a misunderstanding. Soon as you get her out of here, I'll be heading out of town.† There was a collective sigh of disappointment from the regulars who had been placing side bets on who Mavis would hit with her bat. â€Å"Thanks,† Theo said. He shot Mavis a surreptitious wink and led Molly out to the street, excusing himself and his prisoner as they passed an old Black man who was coming through the door carrying a guitar case. â€Å"I ‘spose a man run outta sweet talk and liquor, he gots to go to mo' direct measures,† the old Black man said to the bar with a dazzling grin. â€Å"Someone here lookin fo' a Bluesman?† Molly Michon Theo put Molly into the passenger side of the Volvo. She sat with her head down, her great mane of gray-streaked blonde hair hanging in her face. She wore an oversized green sweater, tights, and high-top sneakers, one red, one blue. She could have been thirty or fifty – and she told Theo a different age every time he picked her up. Theo went around the car and climbed in. He said, â€Å"You know, Molly, when you bite a guy on the leg, you're right on the edge of ‘a danger to others or yourself,' you know that?† She nodded and sniffled. A tear dropped out of the mass of hair and spotted her sweater. â€Å"Before I start driving, I need to know that you're calmed down. Do I need to put you in the backseat?† â€Å"It wasn't a fit,† Molly said. â€Å"I was defending myself. He wanted a piece of me.† She lifted her head and turned to Theo, but her hair still covered her face. â€Å"Are you taking your drugs?† â€Å"Meds, they call them meds.† â€Å"Sorry,† Theo said. â€Å"Are you taking your meds?† She nodded. â€Å"Wipe your hair out of your face, Molly, I can barely understand you.† â€Å"Handcuffs, whiz kid.† Theo almost slapped his forehead: idiot! He really needed to stop getting stoned on the job. He reached up and carefully brushed her hair away from her face. The expression he found there was one of bemusement. â€Å"You don't have to be so careful. I don't bite.† Theo smiled. â€Å"Well, actually†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Oh fuck you. You going to take me to County?† â€Å"Should I?† â€Å"I'll just be back in seventy-two and the milk in my refrigerator will be spoiled.† â€Å"Then I'd better take you home.† He started the car and circled the block to head back to the Fly Rod Trailer Court. He would have taken a back way if he could, to save Molly some embarrassment, but the Fly Rod was right off Cypress, Pine Cove's main street. As they passed the bank, people getting out of their cars turned to stare. Molly made faces at them out the window. â€Å"That doesn't help, Molly.† â€Å"Fuck 'em. Fans just want a piece of me. I can give 'em that. I've got my soul.† â€Å"Mighty generous of you.† â€Å"If you weren't a fan, I wouldn't let you do this.† â€Å"Well, I am. Huge fan.† Actually, he'd never heard of her until the first time he was called to take her away from H.P.'s Cafe, where she had attacked the espresso machine because it wouldn't quit staring at her. â€Å"No one understands. Everyone takes a piece of you, then there's nothing left for you. Even the meds take a piece of you. Do you have any idea what I'm talking about here?† Theo looked at her. â€Å"I have such a mind-numbing fear of the future that the only way I can function at all is with equal amounts of denial and drugs.† â€Å"Jeez, Theo, you're really fucked up.† â€Å"Thanks.† â€Å"You can't go around saying crazy shit like that.† â€Å"I don't normally. It's been a tough day so far.† He turned into the Fly Rod Trailer Court: twenty run-down trailers perched on the bank of Santa Rosa Creek, which carried only a trickle of water after the long, dry summer. A grove of cypress trees hid the trailer park from the main street and the view of passing tourists. The chamber of commerce had made the owner of the park take down the sign at the entrance. The Fly Rod was a dirty little secret for Pine Cove, and they kept it well. Theo stopped in front of Molly's trailer, a vintage fifties single-wide with small louvered windows and streaks of rust running from the roof. He got Molly out of the car and took off the handcuffs. Theo said, â€Å"I'm going to see Val Riordan. You want me to have her call something in to the pharmacy for you?† â€Å"No, I've got my meds. I don't like 'em, but I got 'em.† She rubbed her wrists. â€Å"Why you going to see Val? You going nuts?† â€Å"Probably, but this is business. You going to be okay now?† â€Å"I have to study my lines.† â€Å"Right.† Theo started to go, then turned. â€Å"Molly, what were you doing at the Slug at eight in the morning?† â€Å"How should I know?† â€Å"If the guy at the Slug had been a local, I'd be taking you to County right now, you know that?† â€Å"I wasn't having a fit. He wanted a piece of me.† â€Å"Stay out of the Slug for a while. Stay home. Just groceries, okay?† â€Å"You won't talk to the tabloids?† He handed her a business card. â€Å"Next time someone tries to take a piece of you, call me. I always have the cell phone with me.† She pulled up her sweater and tucked the card into the waistband of her tights, then, still holding up her sweater, she turned and walked to her trailer with a slow sway. Thirty or fifty, under the sweater she still had a figure. Theo watched her walk, forgetting for a minute who she was. Without looking back, she said, â€Å"What if it's you, Theo? Who do I call then?† Theo shook his head like a dog trying to clear water from its ears, then crawled into the Volvo and drove away. I've been alone too long, he thought.

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