Bonnie kept a small Ninja Turtles notebook in her purse, which Ray had given her when he was twelve. There were only a few pages left, and she was going to hint that she needed a new one soon. She took out her red ballpoint pen and made a list of everything she had to do today.
Collect dry cleaning from Star-Tex
Remind Ralph about Moist-Your-Eyes promotion
Meet Susan for lunch 1:30
Collect truck tire
Buy pork chops, ice cream, bathroom tissue
Call Mike Paretti re insecticide
She had heard from Pfizer that there was a powerful new chemical for clearing out screwworms and she was interested to know if Mike had tried it. She was disgusted by maggots and blowflies and other parasitical insects, but at the same time she found them fascinating. An expert entomological pathologist could often tell from the parasites in a person’s body just when they had died, and how, and even where they had been killed. There was something else about parasites, too. It was their total disregard for human beauty and human tragedy. They were blind to everything but their own appetites.