Gravity's Rainbow

by Thomas Pynchon

“I’ve saved you for last. But—goodness, I don’t seem to have any urine left, here. Not even a drop. I’m so sorry. Nothing left for you at all. Do you understand? If it means giving my life,” the words have just come out, and maybe Roger’s exaggerating, but maybe not, “there will be nothing anywhere for you. What you get, I’ll take. If you go higher in this, I’ll come and get you, and take you back down. Wherever you go. Even should you find a spare moment of rest, with an understanding woman in a quiet room, I’ll be at the window. I’ll always be just outside. You will never cancel me. If you come out, I’ll go in, and the room will be defiled for you, haunted, and you’ll have to find another. If you stay inside I’ll come in anyway—I’ll stalk you room to room till I corner you in the last. You’ll have the last room, Pointsman, and you’ll have to live in it the rest of your scum, prostituted life.”