On the night of the third day, the darkness surrounding out-of-sight became a horrifying yellow. Hundreds of eyeholes encircled NOW-HERE. It was the Free-Lance Pallbearers. (Better late den never.) They had come to cut me down. But you see they couldn’t get through. There was this great ball of manure suspended above Klang-a-Lang-a-Ding-Dong. Held down by spikes and rope it stank to high heaven. The Pallbearers consulted the maps provided by the martyred neighbor’s son and his sidekick, Joel O. A little figure hobbled on crutches moving through these deadly professionals. It was U2 Polyglot making his way toward a mailbox behind the Free-Lance Pallbearers. His arm was in a sling. He had been winged while U-twoing through Indochina but nothing can stand in the way of scholarship.
So he dropped the greenish-brown envelope containing his manuscript into the mail. He sat down to contemplate his next paper. It was a beautiful night and U2 lit up a pipe and marveled at the motel standing on the mountain, across the bay. Helicopters bounced up and down on its roof and the sign of the new regime blinked on and off:
EATS-SAVE GREEN STAMPS-BINGO-WED-EATS-SAVE GREEN STAMPS-BINGO-WED-EATS-SAVE GREEN STAMPS-BINGO-WED-EATS-SAVE GREEN STAMPS-BINGO-WED-EATS-SAVE
WRITTEN IN CHINESE NO LESS
Aug. 13, 1966,
HELL’S Kitchen, New York
* Readers will note that U2 Polyglot is quite adept at the use of slang. This is because his position at the Harry Sam College was that of Chairman of the Department of American Studies.