5-19-11 3:42 P.M.

Stuart, a giant of a man, an el-cheapo, not albino but close to it, forever a bachelor, took his bowl of cereal and turned it up, forcing it down his gullet with maybe eight or nine desperate-sounding gulps. Raymond looked away, seeing in his mind’s eye a hog devouring its soupy slop. Rent-free, he told himself. Rent-free.