TH
J:
TE RR
~
C E.
J,7)
se~med
to wake up and started talking again about the fugi.tive
madman:
"He cliqlbed up that distant smokestack. Don't you see it?
From here you can see it, way over there above the neon
)igh~.
And the firemen made him come down. Meanwhile the factory
~as.
paralyzed
an~
then the workers demanded their wages and
went on strike. That man caused great confusion in the city.
~n,c;l
behind the photo, you see?"
. Amer thought, surprised : "Yes, behind, the infinite
nigh~.
On the other hand, Bob had it in front of him." He turned
his
chair sideways, facing the dance floor. Between Matilda and
*~
girls around them he was becoming aware of subtle relationships.
One of them also removed the lampshade, leaving the bulb un–
c;overed. At the next table another did likewise. They all wanted
to have the light in their faces.
ArI),er was puzzled. He wanted to dance again and the girl
rose indolently. Always girls who go to dances rise indolently.
Arner 'asked Matilda why she didn't get a copy of the
pi~ture, and she said she preferred the negative with the body black
and hair and eyes white. She continued talking and it was evi:–
dent that the subject obsessed her:
"He
is
on the other side of the sanatorium, in the men's
pavilion, on the fourth floor. He has only seen me once and
{TOW
a distance. During the lunar days when I fall into the black;well
he knows, from far away, what's happening to llJ.e and in his
pavilion he starts howling and moaning. They have to tie
him
up and put him in a padded cell,
~e
they do me. Even so
his
screams are heard all over the sanatorium at night. The doctors
don't understand. That's the bad thing· about medicine. You
doctors fix up everything with drugs, baths and injections, bl,lt
you can't understand. About what happens to us women, you
don't understand a thing. pardon me for talking like this. I say
so thinking of the doctors,who work in the sanatorium."
All the table lamps were now shadeless. Supposing that the
medical director was following them with
his
fishing bird's look,
