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Show Anting Alone Page 280 "Did you know, Dr. Edwine, that the amount of dollars spent on research and development alone for MX could have paid for half the construction of a modern subway system in a major Industrial Corridor city, and created 70,000 new jobs in the bargain?" "So you're going to Washington, D.C, huh?" blurted the professor, focusing his thought processes and his speech in vaguely similar directions for a moment, probably by random accident. He added, in a quiet, thoughtful tone, "Washington, Dilation and Curettage," and chuckled at himself with great affection and tenderness. "What a way with women I have, huh? Nuns, too, huh? Say, whyn't you look up my mom's family back there and say hi? Find out what shitty fucking things they say about me behind my back." He wrote down a name and managed to hand it to her before sinking back into his strange, helpless, semi-hypnogogic state. She politely stuck the Ding Dong wrapper into her sleeve and continued. "The numbers alone are incredible, Dr. Edwine. For instance, if one of our aircraft carriers were made shorter by one foot, it would pay the salaries of every schoolteacher in the United States for three -" He interrupted again. "Yes, well that may be, but I got news for you, sis - " He suddenly began flapping his arms around. He launched into a new manic phase that she hadn't seen before but had somehow been expecting. So far this strange man had spent the entire busride alternating devout, tearful, motionless, attentive silences with rude and obscene blasts of almost pure non-sequitur. Though mostly babble, his outbursts occasionally displayed a more or less lucid, coherent surface tension, like water that s muddy only deep down. But now he nearly elbowed her across the seat and |