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Show 177 grotesque. These were not dreams, exactly, because he wasn't quite asleep, but they behaved something l i k e dreams except that they were subject to moderate adjustment. They were scenes, sharply-defined and swimming with color, and they passed in front of him uninvited and without e f f o r t . His head propped against the armrest, he f e l t himself sinking through the odorous cushions, conscious of sweat in his ears but no longer able to feel whether his ankles were crossed or p a r a l l e l , or whether his hands were laced across his stomach or behind his head or for that matter whether they lay at arms' length on either side of his body. The longer he sank the more i t seemed to him the sinking was l a t e r a l , and presently a row of windows swept by through which he could see families dressed in their Sunday clothes getting out of cars and walking toward the building whose corridor he was evidently in. It was pleasant to find that i f he didn't t r y . he could pause and inspect the details at close range: the leading between panes of glass, the face of a husband and wife stopping in the parking lot to talk with another couple, the grillwork on the t h i r d car from the lamp pole, the white zebra lines painted on the asphalt, a torn scrap of brightly-colored Sunday funnies fluttering under a t i r e , even the l e t t e r i ng in the balloons and the minute red ink dots that made up the flesh tones. If he t r i e d , a curious thing would happen. The scene not only would vanish but would cease to have ever been there at a l l in visual form, but would have been a l l along the product of his own voice interminably explaining what he was seeing. His voice persisted even now in describing the concrete steps leading down from the parking l o t to the sunken patio, and the doorway to the recreation h a l l, and the parquet floor of the corridor leading past the basketball court to the foyer between the chapel and the bishop's o f f i c e , but he saw only the scarlet i n t e r i o r of his eyelids, which t o ld him the afternoon sun had fallen across his face as he lay on the couch. When he l e t up, even s l i g h t l y, |