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“That’s her, Dick,”
“She says it as if it means something, though. It’s got cadence.”
Boy, did it start!”
“Amphetamines? LSD?”
“Extremely suggestible,”
“Are you the person in Regan?” asked the psychiatrist. Regan nodded.
“Do you like her?” No. “Dislike her?” Yes. “Do you hate her?” Yes. “Over something she’s done?” Yes.
Fingers in her lap started fumbling with the handkerchief, telling stitches in the hem like linen rosary beads.
thanatophobia—a
“And so what’s the bottom line?” “A bit squiggly.
thought again about death and the worm and the void and the unspeakable loneliness, the stillness and the silence and the darkness that awaited beneath the sod: no, no movement; no breathing; nothing. Too much … too much.
WILLIAM F. KINDERMAN,
LIEUTENANT OF DETECTIVES.
Homicide Division.
She seemed to attract them as strongly as priests attracted derelicts and drunks.
the detective said, following with a gait that bordered on a waddle.
You know, I looked at my wife just a couple of days ago—or maybe weeks, I forget—I
was a record of a felony charge against Engstrom on August 27, 1963, alleging he had stolen a quantity of narcotics over a period of months
Elvira,
to the dreamless cabinet used for the filing of sightless eyes.
“Have—have we met?” asked the Jesuit. “No, Father. No, we haven’t. But they said that you looked like a boxer;
Excuse me, but that scar there right over your eye?”
“Just like Marlon Brando, it looks, in On the Waterfront, Father; yes, almost exactly Marlon Brando!
that made his eye look a little bit closed, a little dr...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Ever done any boxing?” the detective asked him. “Oh, a little.” “Where? In college? Here in town?” “No, in New York.” “Ah, I thought so! Golden Gloves! Am I right?”
“Sorry.”
“Yes, kick me again, Father Karras. I enjoy it.”
“Never mind, Marlon Brando. People tell you for a priest you’re a little bit smart-ass?”
“That’s the Order.”
“That a threat?”
‘Rabies are Jewish priests and I would do anything that I possibly could for them.’
“And the psychiatric name for the disorder in which the person is always having to have the last word?”
I’m just playing devil’s advocate.” “You do it so well.”
They had come to the parking lot, and for a brief space of time they walked in silence until at last, when they had come to the squad car, the detective turned a mournful, moody look to the priest. “And so what am I looking for, Father?”
“Listen Father, where are you going? Want a ride?”
“I get passes for the very best shows, but Mrs. K., she gets tired very early. She never goes.” “That’s too bad.” “Yes, I hate to go alone. You know, afterward I love to talk film; to discuss; to critique.”
Moments passed. And then Kinderman asked in a wistful tone of voice, “Would you like to see a film with me sometime? It’s free.”
“Would you like to?” “As Elwood P. Dowd says in Harvey, ‘When?’ ” “Oh, I’ll call you!”
Looking suddenly grave, his stare intense, the priest leaned his face in close to the detective’s.
“Yeah, sure. Jesus, eighty-eight doctors and all you can tell me with all of your bullshit is…!”
“Have you ever heard of exorcism, Mrs. MacNeil?”
If you only knew half the crazy things that used to happen in my family,
no one gets to take a bath on account of my mother has the carp in the bathtub, it’s swimming back and forth, back and forth, because my mother said this cleaned out the poison in its system. I mean, really, who knew! Who knew that carp the whole time are all thinking all these horrible and evil, vindictive thoughts!
“You do not believe although you have seen.”
“I’ve taken her to every god-damn, fucking doctor, psychiatrist in the world and they sent me to you; now you send me to them?”
“Jesus Christ, won’t somebody help me?”
“Oh my God, someone help me!”
“Oh, please help me! Please! Please, help!”
“It wants no straps.”
thing
