[b]Shirley Jackson
I had made sure of what to say to him before I came to the table. The Amanita phalloides, I said to him, holds three different poisons. There is amanitin, which works slowly and is most potent. There is phalloidin, which acts at once, and there is phallin, which dissolves red corpuscles, although it is the least potent. The first symptoms do not appear until seven to twelve hours after eating, in some cases not before twenty-four or even forty hours. The symptoms begin with violent stomach pains, cold sweat, vomiting.[/b]
You never know when this stuff might be useful.
You see, said Tony, her voice still soft so as not to be overheard, but somehow fierce and angry, it frightens me when people try to grab at us like that. I can’t sit still and just let people watch me and talk to me and ask me questions. You see, she said again, as though trying to moderate her words and explain, they want to pull us back, and start us all over again just like them and doing the things they want to do and acting the way they want to act and saying and thinking and wanting all the things they live with every day.
For a start, let’s file this one under, “fuck them”.
We are all measured, good or evil, by the wrong we do to others…
But not all others of course.
Name? the desk clerk said to me politely, her pencil poised.
Name, I said vaguely. I remembered, and told her.
Age? she asked. Sex? Occupation?
Writer, I said.
Housewife, she said.
Writer, I said.
I’ll just put down housewife, she said.
This either resonates or it doesn’t.
I hated them anyway, and wondered why it had been worth while creating them in the first place.
This either resonates or it doesn’t.
Duty and conscience were, for Theodora, attributes which belonged properly to Girl Scouts.
And [even more so] to Boy Scouts. Though, sure, no knows exactly why.