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“Tell me something I don’t know,” I said. “Until the end of the season all aphids are born female and pregnant.” “Something pertinent.”
“He is one of those men my babushka used to tell me about.” “ What men?” “The tightrope walkers who have their death on one side and yours on the other.”
“That’s what boxers do, right?” “ What?” “They get knocked down and stand up again.” “Yeah. If you’ve never been knocked down, then you’ve never been in a fight.”
“By my eyes? Maybe you should take the back office and I could be out here takin’ the calls.” “No,” she said, shaking her head with sudden gravitas. “No. I can read things but I can’t translate them.” I have never in my life heard a more cogent or succinct understanding of true detective work.
“Capital,” I said, raising up my left thumb, “The Interpretation of Dreams, The Descent of Man, and the collected essays that explain the Theory of Relativity.” “And why those books?” Tourquois asked, suddenly engaged. “Because,” I said, “those books tell us why we don’t know what’s happening but that it happens, and continues to happen, in spite of our necessary ignorance.”
These guys were not only professional, they were expensive. Imported, probably from Eastern Europe, like smelly cheese.”
Kit watched me for a few moments before saying, “That was some impressive killing you did. Naked too.” “I hope I didn’t embarrass Officer Palmer.” “She said that after all she heard about you she thought your johnson would be bigger.” “Tell her that the air conditioner was on.”
The transition was like one of the old black-and-white movies where Mr. Hyde slowly turns back into Dr. Jekyll. The physics of the change were all internal. The killer in my chest slowly ebbing, leaving its human husk spent and exhausted on the shores of civilization.
Racism is a luxury in a world where resources are scarce, where economic competition is an armed sport, in a world where even the atmosphere is plotting against you. In an arena like that racism is more a halftime entertainment, a favorite sitcom when the day is done.
