Infinite Jest Part 41

'Well Henri, Ennet House, in the years I've been on Staff here, we've had aliens, resident aliens, E.S.L.'s whose English was worse than yours by a long shot.' She stood on the thicker leg to reach into this cabinet deeply for some item. Marathe took the opportunity of her inattention to commit to his memory the office's facts. The office's door had a decoration of a triangle within a circle, and no bolt of death for locking, but merely a sadly cheap recess-lock in the k.n.o.b. Nowhere the small nozzle of standard 10.525 GHz microwave alarming. The large windows had no small ends of wires about their frames. This left the possibility only of a magnet-contact alarm, which if so was difficult to jumper but also possible. Marathe felt himself missing his wife intensely, which always signalled his deep fatigue. Twice he sniffed.

The woman was speaking into the cabinet to him: '... get you to sign some releases for me so we can make copies of your O.I.N.S. proofs and get an Outtake faxed from your detox, which was in...?'

'The Chit Chat Farms Rehabilitation of Pennsylvania State. Last month.' The A.F.R.'s data liaison in Montreal had promised to arrange all records without some delay.

'In, what, Wernersdale, something?'

Marathe c.o.c.ked his veiled head ever so slightly. 'Wernersberg of Pennsylvania.'

'Well we know Chit Chat, we've had some Chit Chat graduates come through the House. Highest... respect.' Her head was inside the cabinet, with an arm. It appeared difficult for her to rummage inside the cabinet and keep at the same time her balance. Deciding the bay windows were the optimal office's entry if required, Marathe looked at the woman's attempt to balance and the old cabinet. Then he blinked slowly. In this cabinet visibly, in twin stacks near the front of the open cabinet, were many cartridges of TP entertainment.

The woman said 'And we've been Disabled-Accessible since the beginning. One of only a handful of Houses in the metro area that are fully equipped to take disabled clients, I a.s.sume they told you down at Chit Chat.' The wall banged with the impact of boisterousness in the outside room, and somebody either laughed or was in pain. Marathe sniffed. The woman was continuing to speak: '... why I got to come here in the first place. Which I came in in a chair, too, originally, by the way.' She teetered back out from the cabinet with a folder of Manila. 'At the time I declared up and down I was too disabled to kneel and pray, to give you an idea of where I was at.' She laughed gaily. She was attractive.

'Me,' Marathe responded, 'I will attempt to pray at a moment's order.' Aiding the ruse of application, he and Fortier discovered, was that U.S.A. recovery from the addictions was somewhat paramilitary in nature. There were orders and the obeying of orders. The A.F.R. had reviewed cartridges of antique U.S.A. programming, which they had found through luck in the inventory of Ant.i.toi, and had watched to learn many things. But casting his veiled face desperately upward while saying allowed that Marathe could scan along the plastic cases of cartridges' spines. Among the small-of-font t.i.tles such as Focal Length Parameters X-XL Focal Length Parameters X-XL and and Drop Volley Ex. II Drop Volley Ex. II were two cases of plain brown plastic, blank, except for - this was why his veil, it remained tilted upward for so much longer that he was concerned that this woman of authority - except for - but it was difficult of sureness, for the office's light was the deadening fluorescence of U.S.A., and the cabinet's mouth in the shadow of the lid and the cheesecloth veil made less his focus - except maybe for tiny round faces of embossed smiles upon the brown cases. Marathe felt suddenly the excitement of himself - M. Hugh Steeply's wording for this had been were two cases of plain brown plastic, blank, except for - this was why his veil, it remained tilted upward for so much longer that he was concerned that this woman of authority - except for - but it was difficult of sureness, for the office's light was the deadening fluorescence of U.S.A., and the cabinet's mouth in the shadow of the lid and the cheesecloth veil made less his focus - except maybe for tiny round faces of embossed smiles upon the brown cases. Marathe felt suddenly the excitement of himself - M. Hugh Steeply's wording for this had been from somewhere blue from somewhere blue.

The authority spoke also: 'Not to mention U.H.I.D. members, you might want to know.' Gesturing then at the veil of Marathe neither was mentioning. The woman attempted to affix a sheet of faint toner to a board with a clip. 'In fact we have a U.H.I.D. member in early residency right now.'

Marathe blinked twice more. He said 'I am deformed, me.'

'She might be able to help you adjust, identify. Be good for her, too.' Marathe had begun locking down in RAM every detail of every moment since his entering the Ennet House demi-maison. demi-maison. He in another part of his brain considered whether he would report truly first to M. Fortier or to the Steeply of U.S.B.S.S., whose contact number had always the prefix of 8000, he had jested. In another part was whether to seem eager for meeting the Entertainment's performer here now, a fellow veil. To think of what a desperate addict would have eagerness in. Marathe was throughout this thinking smiling largely at the woman, forgetting she could not witness it. 'This is happy,' finally he said. He in another part of his brain considered whether he would report truly first to M. Fortier or to the Steeply of U.S.B.S.S., whose contact number had always the prefix of 8000, he had jested. In another part was whether to seem eager for meeting the Entertainment's performer here now, a fellow veil. To think of what a desperate addict would have eagerness in. Marathe was throughout this thinking smiling largely at the woman, forgetting she could not witness it. 'This is happy,' finally he said.

'Your facial issues -' the person stated, leaning in over the crossed legs in her chair. 'Are they connected to your use and abuse? Did they work with you on progression and Y.E.T.s 312 312 and owning consequences at Chit Chat?' and owning consequences at Chit Chat?'

Marathe was in little hurry now to leave for returning to chez Ant.i.toi. He utilized his abilities to recite complex lines of covering-story on addiction while also at the time reviewed locking down the face and locations of every person at the Ennet House he had regarded. For they would come here again, the A.F.R., and maybe Services Without Specificity of Steeply and Tine, as well. He had the ability of splitting his mind's thinking along several parallel tracks.

'The legs - I do an overdose in Berne, which is in my home of Switzerland, while alone, and I fall down face-down while my legs, they remain how you say tangle, tangled in the chair on which occurred this injection, fix. A stupid. I lie down without conscious or to move for many days, and my legs, they - comment-on-dit? comment-on-dit? - they are sleepy, lose the circulating, suffer gangrene, become infectious.' Marathe sniffed while stoically shrugging. 'As well the nose and mouth, from facial squis.h.i.+ng of lying face-down in a position without conscious for days. I die almost. All is amputated, for my life. I withdraw from the scag, smack, and H, in - they are sleepy, lose the circulating, suffer gangrene, become infectious.' Marathe sniffed while stoically shrugging. 'As well the nose and mouth, from facial squis.h.i.+ng of lying face-down in a position without conscious for days. I die almost. All is amputated, for my life. I withdraw from the scag, smack, and H, in l'infirmiere. l'infirmiere. A result of abuse of the drugs.' A result of abuse of the drugs.'

'This is your story. This is your first step.'

Marathe shrugged. 'My legs, my nose and oral. All as a consequence of the progression. At the Chit Chat, I admit all the things, I realize I am addicted desperately.' Marathe was trying to decide if to find ways to make the authority woman briefly leave the office, so that Marathe might rapidly arm-climb up to the cabinet to regard the smiling cases of cartridge closely before the cabinet's locking. Or instead also to return on pretext to remain and hang roundly in the living room for waiting persons, to find a glimpse of who is this mentioned resident with her female U.H.I.D. veil; for this is the purpose of coming to demi-maisons demi-maisons M. Fortier gave. Marathe could give the fact of the cartridges to Fortier and the veiled girl to Steeply, or oppositely. The fatigue returned. But Steeply, before committing to overt action, will wish for confirmation that those in the cabinet were items of the true Entertainment, not the blank and joking F.L.Q. displays. There was truly a faint whirring noise coming from the head, he imagined. Marathe's sidearm sat in its holster under the seat of him, hidden by the plaid-colored blanket of his lap. To easily kill the person in authority was M. Fortier gave. Marathe could give the fact of the cartridges to Fortier and the veiled girl to Steeply, or oppositely. The fatigue returned. But Steeply, before committing to overt action, will wish for confirmation that those in the cabinet were items of the true Entertainment, not the blank and joking F.L.Q. displays. There was truly a faint whirring noise coming from the head, he imagined. Marathe's sidearm sat in its holster under the seat of him, hidden by the plaid-colored blanket of his lap. To easily kill the person in authority was inutile inutile at this time of not glimpsing the girl, he had decided, plus impractical of surrounding witness. Marathe's at this time of not glimpsing the girl, he had decided, plus impractical of surrounding witness. Marathe's fauteuil fauteuil could travel 45 kph on a level surface over short distance. The authority figure liked to comb at the bright hair with her claw of the deformed hand. She was telling Marathe the false addict that she found his honesty encouraging and saying to sign these forms, for releasing. As Marathe signed slowly the name of a deceased Health-Benefits administrator at the could travel 45 kph on a level surface over short distance. The authority figure liked to comb at the bright hair with her claw of the deformed hand. She was telling Marathe the false addict that she found his honesty encouraging and saying to sign these forms, for releasing. As Marathe signed slowly the name of a deceased Health-Benefits administrator at the Caisse de Depot et Placement, Caisse de Depot et Placement,313 the woman began to ask about what lengths he believed he was willing to go to. the woman began to ask about what lengths he believed he was willing to go to.

The whole family was lousy with secrets, she'd decided, was part of the nonturkey dinner's sadness. From each other, themselves, itself. A big one being this pretense that overt eccentricity was the same as openness. I.e. that they were all 'exactly as crazy as they seem' - the punter's phrase.

We're all a lot more intuitive about our lovers' families than we are about our own families, she knew. Charlotte Treat's face glistened; her cheek's deep scars were a more violent red than the rest. Her ribs under the wet Michelob Dry T-s.h.i.+rt were starting to stand out, her neck to get that skinny stemmy look of katexia. She looked like a ravaged fowl. Kate Gompert's bed sat unmade, a copy of some yellow paperback called Feeling Good Feeling Good open face-down on the mattress and starting to curl. Joelle had this weird fear that Gompert, who made Joelle extremely nervous at the best of times, would come home and walk in and find Joelle cleaning with her hair in a kerchief and veil damply clinging. She used the last of the room's Kleenex dusting all five bedside tables, wiping in careful rings around objects she wasn't to touch. open face-down on the mattress and starting to curl. Joelle had this weird fear that Gompert, who made Joelle extremely nervous at the best of times, would come home and walk in and find Joelle cleaning with her hair in a kerchief and veil damply clinging. She used the last of the room's Kleenex dusting all five bedside tables, wiping in careful rings around objects she wasn't to touch.

There was then some trickiness in the situation when the demi-maison demi-maison's woman offered the extension of a place for Marathe. Desperately addicted Henri the Swiss could sleep upon the Convertisofa in the rear office this very P.M., she said, if he was willing to endure the mess and sometimes insects of the rear office. The woman had a ripe spot of sympathique sympathique for the disableds, Marathe could see. For trickiness in the situation, no lines had been prepared by Fortier to defer this offer of the extension of the spot of treatment in the for the disableds, Marathe could see. For trickiness in the situation, no lines had been prepared by Fortier to defer this offer of the extension of the spot of treatment in the demi-maison. demi-maison. The woman in authority smiled that she could see in his playing with the The woman in authority smiled that she could see in his playing with the fauteuil fauteuil's wheels the addicted struggle between desperation and denial, she said. Marathe was rapidly calculating should he falsely accept and remain here for one night to observe for himself the description of the veiled patient from U.H.I.D., against should he exit and roll like no person's business to the nearest place of private telephoning to alert the A.F.R. at the shop that here at this demi-maison demi-maison were of possibility real cartridges of the Entertainment, perhaps including a duplicatable Master or the anti- were of possibility real cartridges of the Entertainment, perhaps including a duplicatable Master or the anti-samizdat remedy cartridge of F.L.Q.'s allegation, to return to chez Ant.i.toi and return later in squeaking force to the remedy cartridge of F.L.Q.'s allegation, to return to chez Ant.i.toi and return later in squeaking force to the demi-maison demi-maison and acquire both the cartridges and the veiled performer, if the U.H.I.D. patient of treatment is revealed as the disguised performer. The engineer of radio had spoken volubly of this person's veil and screen. Or calculating also whether to telephone not Ant.i.toi Entertainent but the 24-hour costless prefix of M./Mlle. Steeply and convey the very same information instead, finally, first, to and acquire both the cartridges and the veiled performer, if the U.H.I.D. patient of treatment is revealed as the disguised performer. The engineer of radio had spoken volubly of this person's veil and screen. Or calculating also whether to telephone not Ant.i.toi Entertainent but the 24-hour costless prefix of M./Mlle. Steeply and convey the very same information instead, finally, first, to Bureau des Services sans Specificite, Bureau des Services sans Specificite, placing bets on O.N.A.N. and against Fortier, casting his lots finally with one side only, conveying his restenotic wife and entertainment-hungry children down from St.-Remid'Amherst's Convexity-ravaged wastes to live with him the rest of their lives down here among U.S.A.'s confusion of choices, demanding hidden protection from Steeply and high-income medical care for the heart- and head-difficulties of beloved Gertraude. placing bets on O.N.A.N. and against Fortier, casting his lots finally with one side only, conveying his restenotic wife and entertainment-hungry children down from St.-Remid'Amherst's Convexity-ravaged wastes to live with him the rest of their lives down here among U.S.A.'s confusion of choices, demanding hidden protection from Steeply and high-income medical care for the heart- and head-difficulties of beloved Gertraude.

Or to tell this figure of medical authority to look out behind for a large spider and thereupon snap her slim neck with one hand and use the telephone console in this office to summon Fortier and an A.F.R. elite detail directly to this demi-maison. demi-maison. Or else to summon directly Steeply and the white-suiting forces of O.N.A.N.. The authority made a spire of her fingers beneath her chin and gazed at Marathe's c.o.c.ked head with a face of respect and sympathy but not solicitude, also which made snapping her neck with one hand seem a sad choice for Marathe. He pretended that it was necessary to sniff. Mssrs. Fortier and Broullime, the A.F.R. others he had known well since the days of when they stood together tensed at the crossings of many trains, beneath the sky's moon - none of them sensed truly that Marathe has lost the belly for this type of work. That Marathe, he must fight the nausea of the stomach as he pushed the sharpened handle of the Or else to summon directly Steeply and the white-suiting forces of O.N.A.N.. The authority made a spire of her fingers beneath her chin and gazed at Marathe's c.o.c.ked head with a face of respect and sympathy but not solicitude, also which made snapping her neck with one hand seem a sad choice for Marathe. He pretended that it was necessary to sniff. Mssrs. Fortier and Broullime, the A.F.R. others he had known well since the days of when they stood together tensed at the crossings of many trains, beneath the sky's moon - none of them sensed truly that Marathe has lost the belly for this type of work. That Marathe, he must fight the nausea of the stomach as he pushed the sharpened handle of the manche a balai manche a balai broomstick through the Ant.i.toi's insides during the technical interview of the Ant.i.toi, and later had vomited out into the alley under secrecy. One of the Office's dogs chewed at its haunch with great ferocity, in misery. In the U.S.A. of O.N.A.N., M./Mlle. Hugh/Helen Steeply of the clandestine U.S.O.U.S./U.S.B.S.S. would hide the family of Marathe in obscure suburban locales, with papers of ident.i.ty fas.h.i.+oned by specialists in above reproach and no suspicion; and Marathe, his familiarity with the knowledge of Quebecois insurgency would be comfortably rewarded once broomstick through the Ant.i.toi's insides during the technical interview of the Ant.i.toi, and later had vomited out into the alley under secrecy. One of the Office's dogs chewed at its haunch with great ferocity, in misery. In the U.S.A. of O.N.A.N., M./Mlle. Hugh/Helen Steeply of the clandestine U.S.O.U.S./U.S.B.S.S. would hide the family of Marathe in obscure suburban locales, with papers of ident.i.ty fas.h.i.+oned by specialists in above reproach and no suspicion; and Marathe, his familiarity with the knowledge of Quebecois insurgency would be comfortably rewarded once Notre Rai Pays Notre Rai Pays seceded to alone draw down the wrath of seceded to alone draw down the wrath of chanteur-fou chanteur-fou Gentle's anger. The A.F.R.'s triumph of dissemination of the lethal Entertainment would ensure Marathe's valuable welcome by Gentle and his wife's beloved treatments for the ventricle and lack of skull. Marathe pictured Gertraude with a helmet and hook of gold, breathing easily through expensive tubes. The variable of calculus was how long to remain and work for dissemination against when to jump to the safety of American welcome. Fortier's wrath would be implacable at Marathe's ' Gentle's anger. The A.F.R.'s triumph of dissemination of the lethal Entertainment would ensure Marathe's valuable welcome by Gentle and his wife's beloved treatments for the ventricle and lack of skull. Marathe pictured Gertraude with a helmet and hook of gold, breathing easily through expensive tubes. The variable of calculus was how long to remain and work for dissemination against when to jump to the safety of American welcome. Fortier's wrath would be implacable at Marathe's 'perdant son coeur,' 314 314 and it may be far wiser of waiting until Quebec had been evicted and the A.F.R. were fully engaged to reveal his quadrupling for O.N.A.N., Marathe. and it may be far wiser of waiting until Quebec had been evicted and the A.F.R. were fully engaged to reveal his quadrupling for O.N.A.N., Marathe.

Knocking at the Office's door at the same time as entering came a young girl with missing teeth, radiating coldness from the exterior outside the demi-maison, demi-maison, leaning only her upper half of the body into the office through the doorway she had opened. leaning only her upper half of the body into the office through the doorway she had opened.

'Clocking in, boss,' the young girl stated in the flat nasality of Boston U.S.A.

The woman in authority smiled in return. 'Two more to interview, Johnette, then I'm off.'

'p.i.s.ser.'

'Can you let the people in from the shed when they come for Mrs. Lopate?'

The young and inclined girl nodded her slim head. In a nostril a generic diaper-pin was transperce, transperce, which glittered in the fluorescence of the light as she nodded. 'And Janice says she's s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g out of here now and any message for her before she goes.' The authority negated with her head at this. The young girl in the door looked down upon Marathe and said 'Hey' or 'Eh' in a greeting of neutral emotions. Marathe smiled with desperation and pretended to sniff. Visible smoke's odor came through the open door from the noisy salon beyond it. Marathe decided firmly against the snapping of any necks upon this visit, because of bodies leaning with suddenness into the office unexpectedly. The torso of the person began to withdraw as suddenly the authority looked up and stated 'Oh and Johnette?' which glittered in the fluorescence of the light as she nodded. 'And Janice says she's s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g out of here now and any message for her before she goes.' The authority negated with her head at this. The young girl in the door looked down upon Marathe and said 'Hey' or 'Eh' in a greeting of neutral emotions. Marathe smiled with desperation and pretended to sniff. Visible smoke's odor came through the open door from the noisy salon beyond it. Marathe decided firmly against the snapping of any necks upon this visit, because of bodies leaning with suddenness into the office unexpectedly. The torso of the person began to withdraw as suddenly the authority looked up and stated 'Oh and Johnette?'

The door swung more open once more as the returned upper half replied 'Yo.'

'Do me a favor? Clenette H. brought some donie-cartridges down from E.T.A. this afternoon?'

'Let me guess.'

'The natives are restless.' The authority laughed aloud. 'Something new.'

The torso laughed as well. 'Did you see McDade's watching that Korean thing again again out here?' out here?'

'So can you just run them through after lights-out, as many as you can, check and make sure they're appropriate?'

'No skin, no substances, light drinking only,' the young girl said in the manner of reviewing the rehearsal of something learned.

'As many as you can get through, and leave them on Janice's desk, and I'll have her put them out at the start of the day-s.h.i.+ft tomorrow.'

The young girl of subst.i.tute authority made a curious circle with two of her fingers in the air of the doorway. Some kind of signal of the hand to the chief authority. Every finger of the hand of the girl wore a ring of different type. 'The natives'll be grateful, for once.'

'They're in the cabinet with the intakes,' the authority told her.

'I'll watch them during Dream Duty, as many as there's time.'

'And Johnette?'

Once more the torso reextended inward.

The woman with authority said 'And keep Emil and Wade from tormenting David K., will you please?'

Marathe smiled largely as the door closed entirely and the authority made a small motion of apologies for being interrupted. 'I do not have these meanings donie donie and and natives, natives, if I may boldly ask,' he said. 'Nor if I may boldly ask,' he said. 'Nor etier etier.'

A laugh of friendliness. It occurred to Marathe that this was a happy person. 'Donies are donated goods. Which we depend on more than we'd like. The residents and alums are always on the lookout. Sometimes we call the current residents the natives; we mean it as affectionate. That was Johnette, she's living 315 315 staff. We've got two living staff, alums of the house. One's under the weather, but Johnette's - you'll like Johnette. Johnette's a keeper. staff. We've got two living staff, alums of the house. One's under the weather, but Johnette's - you'll like Johnette. Johnette's a keeper. E.T.A. E.T.A. is letters, E-T-A.' is letters, E-T-A.'

Marathe pretended to laugh aloud. 'I beg a pardon, for I thought some etier etier in the p.r.o.nunciation of my native Swiss.' in the p.r.o.nunciation of my native Swiss.'

The authority smiled with understanding. 'E.T.A.'s a private school. We usually get some residents on up there, part-time. It's just up the hill.' Seeing the deep intake of veil which his inhaling caused for one moment only, the authority expressed surprise of the face and said 'But you did know Ennet's a working house. Residents have a month to find work, normally.'

Exhaling with care, Marathe gestured faintly as in But of course.

11 NOVEMBER.

YEAR OF THE DEPEND ADULT UNDERGARMENT.

Part of Mario's footage for the doc.u.mentary they're letting him do on this fall's E.T.A. consists of Mario just walking around different parts of the Academy with the Bolex H64 camera strapped to his head and joined by coax cable to the foot-treadle, which he holds against his sweatered chest with one hand and operates with the other. At 2100 at night it's cold out. The Center Courts are brightly lit, but only one court is being used, Gretchen Holt and Jolene Criess still winding up some sort of marathon challenge from the P.M. session, the hands around their grips bluish and sweaty hair frozen into electrified spikes, pausing between points to blow noses on sleeves, wearing so many layers of sweats they look barrel-bodied out there, and Mario doesn't bother with the change in film-speed he'd need to record them through the steamed window of Scht.i.tt's room, where he is. The room's noise is deafening.

Coach Scht.i.tt's room is 106, next to his office on the first floor of Comm.-Ad., past Dr. Rusk's office and down a two-corner hall from the lobby.

It's a big empty room, built for its stereo. Hardwood floor in need of sanding, a wooden chair and a cane chair, an army cot. A little low table just big enough for Scht.i.tt's pipe rack. A folding card table folded up and leaning against the wall. Acoustic damping-tile on all the walls and nothing decorative hanging or mounted on the walls. Acoustic tiling on the ceiling also, with a bare overhead light with a long chain mounted in a dirty ceiling fan with a short chain. The fan never rotates but sometimes emits a sound of faulty wiring. There's a faint odor of Magic Marker in the room. There is nothing upholstered, no pillow on the cot, nothing soft to absorb or deflect the sound of the equipment stacked on the floor, the black Germanness of a top-shelf sound system, a Mario-sized speaker in each corner of the room with the cloth cover removed so each woofer's cone is exposed and mightily throbbing. Scht.i.tt's room is soundproofed. The window faces the Center Courts, the transom and observatory directly overhead and mangling the shadows of the courts' lights. The window is right over the radiator, which when the stereo is off makes odd hollow ringing clanky clunks as if someone deep underground were having at the pipes with a hammer. The cold window over the radiator is steamed and trembles slightly with Wagnerian ba.s.s. Gerhardt Scht.i.tt is asleep in the cane chair in the middle of the empty room, his head thrown back and arms hanging, hands treed with arteries you can see his slow pulse in. His feet are stolidly on the floor, his knees spread way out wide, the way Scht.i.tt always has to sit, on account of his varicoceles. His mouth is partly open and a dead pipe hangs at an alarming angle from its corner. Mario records him sleeping for a little while, looking very old and white and frail, yet also obscenely fit. What's on and making the window s.h.i.+ver and condensed droplets gather and run in little bullet-headed lines down the gla.s.s is a duet that keeps climbing in pitch and emotion: a German second tenor and a German soprano are either very happy or very unhappy or both. Mario's ears are extremely sensitive. Scht.i.tt sleeps only amid excruciatingly loud European opera. He's shared with Mario several different tales of grim childhood experiences at a BMW-sponsored 'Quality-Control-Orientated' Austrian Akademie to account for his REM-peculiarities. The soprano leaves the baritone and goes up to a high D and just hangs there, either shattered or ecstatic. Scht.i.tt doesn't stir, not even when Mario falls twice, loudly, trying to get to the door with his hands over his ears.

The Community-Administration stairwells are narrow and no-nonsense. Red railings of cold iron whose red is one coat of primer. Steps and walls of raw-colored rough cement. The sort of sandy echo in there that makes you take stairs as fast as possible. The salve makes a sucking sound. The upper halls are empty. Low voices and lights from under the doors on the second floor. 2100 is still mandatory Study Period. There won't be serious movement till 2200, when the girls will drift from room to room, congregating, doing whatever packs of girls in robes and furry slippers do late at night, until deLint kills all the dormitory lights at the dorms' main breaker around 2300. Isolated movement: a door down the hall opens and shuts, the Vaught twins are heading down the hall to the bathroom at the far end, wearing only an enormous towel, one of their heads in curlers. One of the falls in Mr. Scht.i.tt's room had been on the burnt hip, and squunched salve from the bandage is starting to darken the corduroys at that side of the pelvis, though there is zero pain. Three tense voices behind Carol Spodek and Shoshana Abram's door, lists of degrees and focal lengths, a study group for Mr. Ogilvie's 'Reflections on Refraction' exam tomorrow. A girl's voice from he can't tell which room says 'Steep hot beach sea' twice very distinctly and then is still. Mario is leaning back against a wall in the hallway, panning idly. Felicity Zweig emerges from her door by the stairwell carrying a soap-dish and wearing a towel tied at that breast-level, as if there were b.r.e.a.s.t.s, moving toward Mario on her way to the head. She puts her hand out straight at his head's camera, a kind of distant stiff-arm as she pa.s.ses: 'I'm wearing a towel.'

'I understand,' Mario says, using his arms to turn himself around and pointing the lens at the bare wall.

'I'm wearing a towel. towel.'

Brisk controlled sounds of retching from behind Diane Prins's door. Mario gets a couple seconds of Zweig hurrying away in the towel, tiny little bird steps, looking terribly fragile.

The stairwells smell like the cement they're made of.

Behind 310, Ingersoll and Penn's door, is the faint rubbery squeak of somebody moving around on crutches. Someone in 311 is yelling 'b.o.n.e.r check! b.o.n.e.r check!' A lot of the third floor is for boys under fourteen. The hall carpet up here is ectoplasmically stained, the expanses of wall between doors hung with posters of professional players endorsing gear. Someone has drawn a goatee and fangs on an old Donnay poster of Mats Wilander, and the poster of Gilbert Treffert is defaced with anti-Canadian slurs. Otis Lord's door has Infirmary Infirmary next to his name on the door's name-card. Penn's room's door's card's name also had next to his name on the door's name-card. Penn's room's door's card's name also had Infirmary Infirmary. Sounds of someone talking low to someone who's sobbing from Beak, Whale, and Virgilio's room, and Mario resists an impulse to knock. LaMont Chu's door next door is completely covered with magazines' action-shots of matches. Mario is leaning back to get footage of the door when LaMont Chu exits the bathroom at this end in a terry robe and thongs and wet hair, literally whistling 'Dixie.'

'Mario!'

Mario gets him bearing down, his calves hairless and muscular, hair-water dripping onto his robe's shoulders with each step. 'LaMont Chu!'

'What's happening?'

'Nothing's happening!'

Chu stands there just within conversation-range. He's only slightly taller than Mario. A door down the hall opens and a head sticks out and scans and then withdraws.

'Well.' Chu squares his shoulders and looks into the camera atop Mario's head. 'You want me to say something for posterity?'

'Sure!'

'What should I say?'

'You can say anything you want!'

Chu draws himself way up and looks penetrating. Mario checks the meter on his belt and uses the treadle to shorten the focal length and adjust the angle of the camera's lens slightly downward, right at Chu, and there are tiny grinding adjustment-sounds from the Bolex.

Chu's still just standing there. 'I can't think what to say.'

'That happens to me all the time.'

'The minute your invitation became official my mind went blank.'

'That can happen.'

'There's just this staticky blank field in there now.'

'I know just what you mean.'

They stand there silent, the camera's mechanism emitting a tiny whir.

Mario says 'You just got out of the shower, I can tell.'

'I was talking with good old Lyle downstairs.'

'Lyle's terrific!'

'I was going to just whip right over into the showers, but the locker room's got this, like, odor.'

'It's always great to talk with good old Lyle.'

'So I came up here.'

'Everything you're saying is very good.'

LaMont Chu stands there a moment looking at Mario, who's smiling and Chu can tell wants to nod furiously, but can't, because he needs to keep the Bolex steady. 'What I was doing, I was filling Lyle in on the Eschaton debacle, telling him about the lack of hard info, the conflicted rumors that are going around, about how Kittenplan and some of the Big Buds are going to get blamed. About disciplinary action for the Buds.'

'Lyle's just an outstanding person to go to with concerns,' Mario says, fighting not to nod furiously.

'Lord's head and Penn's leg, the Postman's broken nose. What's going to happen to the Incster?'

'You're acting perfectly natural. This is very good.'

'I'm asking if you've heard from Hal what they're going to do, if he's in on the blame from Tavis. Pemulis and Kittenplan I can see, but I'm having trouble with the idea of Struck or your brother taking discipline for what happened out there. They were strictly from spectation for the whole thing. Kittenplan's Bud is Spodek, and she wasn't even out there.'

'I'm getting all this, you'll be glad to know.'

Chu is now looking at Mario, which for Mario is weird because he's looking through the viewfinder, a lens-eye view, which means when Chu looks down from the lens to look at Mario it looks to Mario like he's looking down south somewhere along Mario's thorax.

'Mario, I'm asking if Hal's told you what they're going to do to anybody.'

'Is this what you're saying, or are you asking me?'

'Asking.'

Chu's face looks slightly oval and convex through the lens's fish-eye, a jutting aspect. 'So what if I want to use this that you're saying for the doc.u.mentary I've been asked to make?'

'Jesus, Mario, use whatever you want. I'm just saying I have conscience-trouble with the idea of Hal and Troeltsch. And Struck didn't even seem like he was conscious for the debacle itself.'

'I should tell you I feel like we're getting the totally real LaMont Chu here.'

'Mario, camera to one side, I'm standing here dripping asking you for Hal's impressions of when Tavis called them in, as in did he give you impressions. Van Vleck at lunch said he yesterday saw Pemulis and Hal coming out of Tavis's office with the a.s.sociation urine-guy holding them both by the ear. Van Vleck said Hal's face was the color of Kaopectate.'

Mario directs the lens at Chu's shower-thongs so he can look over the viewfinder at Chu. 'Are you saying this, or is this what happened?'

'That's what I'm asking you, you, Mario, if Hal told you what happened.' Mario, if Hal told you what happened.'

'I follow what you're saying.'

'So you asked whether I was asking, and I'm asking you about it.' Mario zooms in very tight: Chu's complexion is a kind of creamy green, with not one follicle in view. 'LaMont, I'm going to find you and tell you whatever Hal tells me, this is so good.'