...two weeks later i was suffering... i was beside myself with the torments of a spanish boot clamping my heart... no telling what was the cause and what the occasion but i fell head over heels for a girl a love that arose unexpectedly and absolutely without reason... my tower was knocked out my roof slid off i forgot my name my life and everything connected with them... among other things i forgot punctuation... only dots in every line all on the letter l... before me and inside me there was only her... everything else vanished under the rays of her gray eyes... i was broken and beheaded... another organ became my guide... i felt myself turning into an animal seized by passion wanting only one thing only to possess her... probably the vitamin-rich food was working on me... probably if a bespectacled fat girl with a gap-toothed grin from ear to ear pimply skin and bandy little legs had stood in her place i would have dripped with desire just the same... maybe it is sperm toxicosis pressing on me and i am ready to plunge into any old female snag... i don’t know...
A hefty pillow came flying from her half of the room and rattled my skull.
Aha!
My musings had struck a nerve! She wasn’t indifferent to me!
I flung the pillow aside and — to hell with the whip! — rushed toward her.
She jumped up and started lashing my arms, shoulders, and back. Hellish pain sliced through my body, as if one, two… five… ten rods heated in hellfire had been pressed against it. Out of the corner of my eye I caught drops of blood flying past my shoulders. No matter!
I saw only her, only her gray eyes and the body fighting me off.
I saw, but I couldn’t manage it. She fought me off.
Spent, exhausted, whipped raw from every angle, drained of strength but not of desire, I collapsed… fell still. I still wanted to possess her, but only in my thoughts now. My body craved rest. Tears of helplessness welled up in my eyes. I think I hated her, just then.
— There, there, — she said suddenly, running her palm over my head. — Calm down, it’ll pass.
