atropos might be creeping up behind her , completely unseen , diamond-cluster earrings glittering from his tiny lobes ... scalpel outstretched ... then , instead of lois 's earrings or mcgovern 's panama , his mind 's eye had conjured the jumprope atropos had been using when ralph had spotted him ( three-six-nine lion the goose drank wine ) in the vacant lot between the bakery and the tanning salon , the jumprope which had once been the prized possession of a little girl who had stumbled during a game of apartment-tag , fallen out of a second-story window , and died of a broken neck ( what a dreadful accident , she had her whole life ahead of her , if there 's a god why does he let things like that happen , and so on and so on , not to mention blah-blah-blah ) .