埃尔住在隔壁埃德娜家的地下室里，在埃德娜每年都要漆成绿色的花箱后面，在那些灰蒙蒙的天竺葵后面。我们以前常坐在花箱上，直到有一天，提陀看到一只脑袋上有一点绿漆的蟑螂。现在我们坐在拐向埃尔住的地下室的楼梯步上。

埃尔上夜班。他的百叶窗在白天总是合上的。有时他会出来叫我们保持安静。已经开裂的小木门把黑暗关在里面那么久，现在它打开了，呀的一声叹息，吐出一口潮湿的霉气，就像放在外面淋过雨的书。这是惟一一次我们不是在他回来和去上班的时候看到他。他有两条与他形影不离的小黑犬。它们不是像平常的狗那么走路，而是一蹦一跳，翻着筋斗前进，像一个撇号和一个逗号。

夜里，蕾妮和我能听到埃尔下班回家的声音。先是汽车门打开时的喀哒声和低鸣，接着是走过水泥地的嚓嚓脚步声、小狗身上坠饰兴奋的丁零声，跟着是钥匙沉重的当啷声。最后是木门开启吐出湿气时的呻吟声。

埃尔是一个自动唱机修理工。他在南边的时候学了这门手艺。他说。他说话带南方口音，抽粗肥的雪茄，戴一顶毡帽，无论冬夏炎凉，都是这一顶。在他的寓所里是一盒一盒的45转唱片，潮湿发霉，像他每次开门时寓所里出来的气味一样。他把唱片全都送给我们，除了乡村和西部的。

据说埃尔结婚了，在哪里有个妻子。埃德娜说埃尔带她回公寓的时候她见过她一次。妈妈说她是个细瘦的人，金发淡肤，苍白得像从未见过阳光的蝾螈。可我也见过她一次，根本不是那样的。街对面的男孩说她是一个高个红发女郎，穿粉红紧身裤，戴绿眼镜。我们从来没在她的长相上达成一致，可我们确实知道这事。她每次来，他都紧紧握着她的胳膊肘。他们飞快地走进寓所，在身后锁上门，从来不久待。

The Earl of Tennessee

Earl lives next door in Edna's basement, behind the flower boxes Edna paints green each year, behind the dusty geraniums. We used to sit on the flower boxes until the day Tito saw a cockroach with a spot of green paint on its head. Now we sit on the steps that swing around the basement apartment where Earl lives.

Earl works nights. His blinds are always closed during the day. Sometimes he comes out and tells us to keep quiet. The little wooden door that has wedged shut the dark for so long opens with a sigh and lets out a breath of mold and dampness, like books that have been left out in the rain. This is the only time we see Earl except for when he comes and goes to work. He has two little black dogs that go everywhere with him. They don't walk like ordinary dogs, but leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma.

At night Nenny and I can hear when Earl comes home from work. First the click and whine of the car door opening, then the scrape of concrete, the excited tinkling of dog tags, followed by the heavy jingling of keys, and finally the moan of the wooden door as it opens and lets loose its sigh of dampness.

Earl is a jukebox repairman. He learned his trade in the South, he says. He speaks with a Southern accent, smokes fat cigars and wears a felt hat——winter or summer, hot or cold, don't matter——a felt hat. In his apartment are boxes and boxes of 45 records, moldy and damp like the smell that comes out of his apartment whenever he opens the door. He gives the records away to us——all except the country and western.

The word is that Earl is married and has a wife somewhere. Edna says she saw her once when Earl brought her to the apartment. Mama says she is a skinny thing, blond and pale like salamanders that have never seen the sun. But I saw her once too and she's not that way at all. And the boys across the street say she is a tall red-headed lady who wears tight pink pants and green glasses. We never agree on what she looks like, but we do know this. Whenever she arrives, he holds her tight by the crook of the arm. They walk fast into the apartment, lock the door behind them and never stay long.