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It was quite a wait

Well, I had known it would take a while The burial had taken place as late in the afternoon as we had been able to arrange it, but the unburial could not possibly occur before nightfall Cover of darkness and all, and absence of visitors to other graves I was able to gettube, and while there was predictably little to see through six feet of narrowing tubing, I could tell that it was light up there at first, and later on I looked and it seemed to be a little darker, and later still I looked and it was black That was as close as I ca what time it was I didn’t have a watch I could have been buried with a watch – people get buried atches all the tiin with, and it had never occurred to et one to be buried in

"The important considerance is to relax," Karp had said "You’ll have some cheese, maybe a sandwich Also a bottle of water You will breathe through the tube All the coht if you wanted to read, or for passing the time you could just stretch out and have a sleep"

There was cheese concealed by ht foot and a tiny flashlight in one pocket and a book in another pocket and a half pint of water betweento reach them There just wasn’t that muchor drinking or reading

As for sleeping-

Hoo Sleeping sickness He ain’t dead, he’s only sleeping You could just stretch out and have a sleep

Hoo

I haven’t slept since Korea I was in the Army, and the Army was in Korea, and a North Korean shell exploded closer to ments of the shell went into my head, which is no pleasanter than it sounds Somewhere inside there it found its way into the sleep center

The sleep center is a clever little rascal that makes you sleep Doctors don’t know much about it, except that this is what it does, and that everyone has one Except me, that is I don’t have one, and consequently I don’t sleep

This is overnot the figure, or how) And I have tis that people don’t have tiht or ten, the rest get very easy) and getting involved with political causes (like the return of the House of Stuart to the English throne, or the restoration of Cilician Aration of the beliefs of the Flat Earth Society, or the destruction of the white supres) When you stop to think about it, eight hours out of twenty-four is a lot of ti than unconsciousness

But there are ti awake is not that much of a joy There are times, in truth, when the raveled sleeve of care could use a little knitting up

This was one of them

And it went on and on and on, until I felt that ti this slowly Obviously I had lost my sense of time I had also lost my sense of humor, and I only wished I could lose ain, because the air holes in the casket facilitated a certain ae, and, not to put too fine a point on it, that casket was no bed of roses

Until finally I heard footsteps, heard theh all that earth, and they cale set of footsteps, and a voice shouted out my na The earth was a uessed It was like a loud noise under water, only worse I called back through the breathing tube, saying things like "Not so loud"

More gently: "Evan?" It was Plum "It’s Plum," she said, unnecessarily "I’m here," she said, pointlessly " Plum," she said, redundantly

"Where is everybody?"

"They’re not here Evan-"

"What time is it?"

"A little after eleven Evan-"

"Eleven! What the hell happened? Where did everybody go? Why am I still here?"

Silence

" Plu

" Plum -"

"You won’t let me tell you"

"I’m sorry"

"They can’t, they aren’t, they can’t come for you"

"They what?"

"The wake," she said, and sobbed again "There was a wake For you Your wake A party after the funeral At Armand’s house A wake"

"So?"

"There was a lot to drink There was, oh, there were other people besides the MMM people, and it had to be authentic, you know, and so too much to drink"

"That’ll do it"

"PardonGo on What happened?"

"I guess it was very noisy there"

"Oh"

"Singing and carrying on, you know"

"Oh"

"And sohbors – and sohbor called the police, and you kno the police feel about us all And they caether at the party, as a , Black and White Together, We Shall Not Be Moved, and the police came in"

"Oh, God"

"And arrested everybody"

"Oh, shit"

"And they can’t come, because they’re all in jail, all but et a shovel, and I don’t think, I don’t, I don’t-"

She began crying again