Just as much but not as often
I didn’t know what kind of hearing the sound possessed. It occurred to me that the sound might possess a very primitive hearing apparatus. I wanted to impress on it the fact that there was somebody on the other side of the wall. The sound might have been anything. I felt this was not the time to be subtle. I wanted to be sure the sound heard me.”
“Why were you tapping a few minutes ago?” I said. “Had you heard a sound?”
“I didn’t know I was tapping. I have only your word for it. I guess it was some kind of locomotor memory retrogression. As you know, I also wet the bed.”
“But not nearly as much as you used to.”
“Just as much but not as often,” he said. “The improvement, obviously, is due to my recent efforts to forge a new consciousness.”
“Right,” I said. “A sort of new man kind of thing. The new man. The nonethnic superrational man. That kind of thing, right?”
“That’s about right, Gary.”
“Your phrasing gets more precise every day. I’ve been noticing that.”
“I try to speak in complete sentences at least ninetyfive percent of the time. Subject, predicate, object. It’s a way of escaping the smelly undisciplined past with ah1 its ridiculous customs and all its craziness—centuries of middle European anxiety and guilt. I want to think clearly. I train myself toward that end with every living fiber of my being.”
“Anatole, forgive me but that seems a little bit simplistic. Speak straight and you’ll think straight.”
“There’s a relatedness. Take my word.”
“Where did you grow up?” I said. “I’ve always been reluctant to ask.”
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