Geek Love

by Katherine Dunn

while all the camp fell dark and the midway lights cooled in their sockets and the night guards shifted and spit and sighed at their scattered posts,

When you hear, it’s not just with your ears. A sound actually affects every cell of your body, making it vibrate and pass that vibration to all your other cells. That’s why they say a sound is ‘piercing’ or a scream ‘goes right through you.’ It does. It actually does.”

He was a poor boy, he said, so he knew how to take care of himself. I thought how good it would be … like you’d be proud to clean and cook for a man who knew how to clean and cook. It would feel right taking care of a man who could take care of himself.

He scalded or smothered anyone he needed, but his needing and the hurt that it caused me were the most life I have ever had.