PARTISAN REVIEW
"Come on," Enoch whispered. The drum noises in
his
blood
were getting closer and closer. He went past the two cases in the
middle of the floor and toward the third one. He went to the farthest
end of it and stopped. He stood looking down with his neck thrust
forward and his hands clutched together; Hazel Weaver moved up
beside him.
The two of them stood there, Enoch rigid and Hazel Weaver
bent slightly forward. There were three bowls and a row of blunt
weapons and a man in the case. It was the man Enoch was looking
at. He was about three feet long. He was naked and a dried yellow
color and his eyes were squinched shut as if a giant block of steel were
falling down on top of him.
"See theter notice," Enoch said in a church whisper, pointing
to a typewritten card at the man's foot, "it says he was once as tall
as us. Some A-rabs did it to him in six months." He turned his head
cautiously to see Hazel Weaver.
All he could tell was that Hazel Weaver's eyes were on the
shrunken man. He was bent forward so that his face was reflected
in the glass top of the case. The reflection was pale and the eyes were
like two clean bullet holes. Enoch waited, rigid. He heard footsteps
in the hall. Oh Jesus Jesus, he prayed, let him hurry up and do what–
ever he's going to do! The footsteps came in the door. He saw the
woman with the two little boys. She had one by each hand, and
she was grinning. Hazel Weaver had not raised his eyes once from
the shrunken man. The woman came toward them. She stopped on
the other side of the case and looked down into it, and the reflection
of her face appeared grinning on the glass, over Hazel Weaver's.
She snickered and put two fingers in front of her teeth. The little
boys' faces were like pans set on either side to catch the grins that
overflowed from her. Haze's neck jerked back and he made a noise.
It was a noise like Enoch hadn't ever heard before. It might have
come from the man inside the case. In a second Enoch knew
it
had.
"Wait!" he screamed, and tore out the room after Hazel Weaver.
He overtook him half way up the hill. He caught him by the
arm and swung him around and then he stood there, suddenly weak
and light as a balloon, and stared. Hazel Weaver grabbed him by the
shoulders and shook him. "What is that .address!" he shouted. "Give
me that address!"
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