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Show •179 You can't tell me that was a normal way to act. And Adam's sculpture-look at it. Jesus, Buck, look at it." "I tried to kill Adam the night before I left home and I'm not crazy. For that matter I wasn't particularly crazy then, except maybe for a minute or two." I held a dustpan while Jacob swept up the stone fragments into it. I reached down and picked one out. "Look," I said, "here's Adam's nose, or anyway the tip. Want to keep it for a souvenir?" Jacob shuddered and looked away. "Not me." "I guess I don't want it either." I tossed it into the trash barrel along with the rest. We sat at the kitchen table and Morgan washed the side of my head with a cold cloth while I fumbled with my cup. "Family comes first," I said to Jacob. "Who'll suffer if you and I protect him? Listen to me: do you want him locked up in Salem with sex maniacs and people who eat pennies to make their eyes shine?" But my older brother was deeply schooled in respect for society. If we make personal exceptions it will all end in chaos; I could hear him repeating it to himself in gloomy prophecy. "Say that Carlo is_ a little mad." Morgan stared at me reproachfully. "It doesn't make him a monster. We could help him," I said. "You're sure he's mad, then, " Jacob said sadly. |
