"You got a barnyard mouth, Ida, and it's nothing to be proud of,"said Minnie. She turned away, looking huffy.

When Rainie got back to the table with the chili, the men weretalking about her. "She got the last line, and it was a beaut, and soshe's first," said Tom. "That's the law."

"It may be the law," said Douglas, "but Ida Johnson isn't going towant to feed the baby."

"Maybe I do and maybe I don't," said Rainie.

Douglas closed his eyes.

"Dougie's just sore because he could never think of a line to topIda's," said Raymond.

"Retarded parrots could think of better lines than yours,Raymond," said the mechanic.

"Retarded parrot embryos," said another man.

"What baby do you feed, and what do you feed it?" asked Rainie.

"It's a game," said Tom. "We kind of made it up. Dougie and I."

"All of us," said Douglas.

"Dougie and me first, and then everybody together. It's called`Feed the Baby of Love Many Beans or Perish in the Flames of Hell.'"

"Greg had the idea in the first place," said Douglas.

"Yeah, well, Greg moved to California and so we spit upon hismemory," said Tom.

At once everybody made a show of spitting -- all to their left, allat once. But instead of actually spitting, they all said, in perfect unison,"Ptui."

"Come on, Ida," said Tom. "It's at Douglas's house. The game'sall about karma and reincarnation and trying to progress fromprimordial slime to newt to emu to human until finally you get to besupreme god."

"Or not," said the mechanic.

"In which case your karma decides your eternal fate."

"In Heaven with the Baby of Love!"

"Or in Hell with the Baby of Sorrows!"

"I don't think so," said Rainie. She was noticing how Douglasdidn't seem too eager to have her come. "I mean, if Douglas's wifeleaves town whenever you play, then it must be one of those male-