| OCR Text |
Show Acting Alone Page 23 Mailer would already be there in Kiev before them, remembering to swallow it when Sgt. Spikey came in his mouth (figuratively speaking); but Sam had some personal connections for once, was almost a made-member of the family, for heck's sake. So step aside, Norman. Sam hoped that Shannon would not spoil everything for him. He hoped Shannon had not been paying attention to the various standard pinko jokes, the juvenile indiscretions that he'd uttered during comp lectures before the hostages' release (Keep Those Freshpeople Entertained was Sam's motto), sort of sick, hip jokes such as: (Speaking in an Emily Litella falsetto voice) - "Now, I keep hearing all this fol-de-rol about bringing the fifty-two ostriches home. Why, I've seen ostriches in the zoo, and, believe you me, they are nothing but big dirty smelly chickens. I never in all my days -" (Interrupted by an awake, game freshman - usually Shannon, come to think of it) - "But, Mr. Edwine, it's hostages. Not ostriches. Hostages!" "Hos - ? 0-o-oh. That's very different. . ." (sweetly preening) "Never mind." That had been good for killing about a minute and a half of class time. But, would Shannon repeat it to Spikey? If so, would it possibly make the young sergeant take a harder line in negotiating Sam's commission? Would Sgt. Spikey use that joke as an index of how deeply Sam had cared about the hostages before their joyous release and their spontaneous transubstantiation into walking literary gold mines? Another thing that Sam hoped had slipped out of Shannon's sweet girlish mind was the afternoon lecture he'd delivered to the comp class delineating |
