The Passenger (The Passenger #1)

by Cormac McCarthy

for divorce and the judge looks down and he says: I understand that it is your contention that your wife Minnie Mouse is mentally deranged. Is that correct? And Mickey says: No, Your Honor, that’s not what I said. What I said was she’s fucking nuts.

will only get me in trouble is both deep and abiding. I’m going to say that it is just damn near a religion.

I suppose the genetic predisposition must vary with the breeds, said John, but in any case the selfimmolatory tendencies of cats does seem to be a known factor in the feline equation. Noted in the writings of Asclepius, among others of the ancients.

To the seasoned traveler a destination is at best a rumor.

When you carry a child in your arms it will turn its head to see where it’s going. Not sure why. It’s going there anyway.

How do you propose that we measure two inches? It’s pitch black down there. Just use your dick. Which way is it pointed? Your dick?

I was in Knoxville a while back and there was this wino got hit by a bus. He was lying on the sidewalk where he’d been carried and people were just sort of standing around. Gay Street. In front of the S & W. Someone had gone to call. And I bent down and asked him if he was all right. I mean he damn sure wasnt all right. He’d just been run over by a bus. And he opened his eyes and looked up at me and he said: My sands are run. Jesus. My sands are run? The ambulance came and they took him away and I scoured the papers for several days but I couldnt find anything about the incident. Maybe he was sent to carry a message to you. Maybe. Life is brief. Carpe diem. Or maybe just watch out for buses.

I’d thought to give my body to science but obviously they draw the line somewhere. Dykes is on record that there can be no burial without an environmental impact study. One might think cremation an option but there is the danger of the toxins taking out their scrubbers and leaving a swath of death and disease among dogs and children downwind for an unforeseeable distance.