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Harry had cohts of passion to exhaustion once ain
He shut down the cohts, closed the office door, and filed copies of the reports in the front office
Driving holy leaden fall of rain, he hoped to God that he could sleep, and that his sleep would be without drea, perhaps the answer to the mystery of the crimsoneyed hobo would be apparent
Halfway ho music
Just before he touched the controls, he stayed his hand He was afraid that, instead of sorant chanting: ticktock, ticktock, ticktock
Jennifer must have dozed off It was ordinary sleep, however, not the delirium of the fantasy worlds that so frequently offered her escape
When she woke, she did not have to shake off clinging visions of e audiences enthralled with her vocal virtuosity in a Carnegie Hall of the mind
She was sticky because of the hue juice and heavy sleep
Rain was still falling It drummed complicated rhythms on the roof of the hospital Private sanitariu atonal htless, Jennifer had no easy way to knoith certainty the hour of the day or the season However, blind for twenty years, she had developed a refined awareness of her circadian rhythuess the ti accuracy
She knew that spring was drawing near Perhaps it was March, the end of the rainy season in southern California She knew not the day oc of the week, but she suspected it was early evening, between six and eight o’clock
Perhaps she’d eaten dinner, though she did not reh to shen they spoonfed her, but not sufficiently aware to enjoy what she ate On other occasions, when in a deeper catatonic state, she received nutrients intravenously
Although the room was cast in silence, she are of another presence, either because of some indefinable peculiarity of the air pressure or an odor only subconsciously perceived She re to breathe as if sound asleep, waiting for the unknown person to h and, thereby, provide her with a clue to identity
Her coe her Gradually, Jennifer came to suspect that she was alone with higled to stay perfectly still
Finally she could no longer tolerate continued ignorance She said, "Margaret?"
No one responded
She knew the silence was false She strove to recall the naelina?"
No reply Only the rain
He was torturing her It was psychological torture, but that was by far the ainst her She had known so much physical and eainst those forms of abuse
"Who’s there?" she demanded
"It’s entle, even , yet it caused ice to form in her blood
She said, "Where’s the nurse?"
"I asked her to leave us alone"
"What do you want?"
"Just to be with you"
"Why?"
"Because I love you"
He sounded sincere, but she knew that he was not He was congenitally incapable of sincerity
"Go away," she pleaded
"Why do you hurry? I knohat you are"
"What am I?"
She did not respond
He said, "How can you knohat I am?"
"Who better to know?" she said harshly, consuing by the sound of his voice, he was standing near the , closer to the plink and paradiddle of the rain than to the faint noises in the corridor She was terrified that he would come to the bed, take her hand, touch her cheek or brow
She said, "I want Angelina"
"Not yet
"Please"
"No"
"Then go away"
"Why do you hurt entle as ever, er or frustration, only sorrow "I come twice a week I sit with you
Without you, ould I be? Nothing I’m aware of that"
Jennifer bit her lip and did not reply
Suddenly she sensed that he was arments He could be quieter than a cat when he wished to be
She kneas approaching the bed
Desperately she sought the oblivion of her delusions, either the bright fantasies or dark terrors within her da other than the horror of reality in that too, too private sanitarium room But she could not retreat at will into those interior realreatest curse of her pathetic, debilitated condition
n She waited, trehostsilent
The thunderous pu of rain on the roof was cut off from one second to the next, but she understood that the rain had not actually ceased to fall Abruptly the world was clutched in the grip of an uncanny silence, stillness
Jennifer brimmed with fear, even into the paralyzed extreht hand
She gasped and tried to pull away
"No," he said, and tightened his grip He was strong
She called for the nurse, knowing it was useless to do so
He held her with one hand and caressed her fingers with the other He tenderly ed her wrist He stroked the withered flesh of her forear not to speculate upon what cruelties would ensue