TWO CUCKOOS

BY ERIC PIMBLU

COPYRIGHT 2009
Author grants users the right to download
this novel for personal reading.

CHAPTER 1

“You’re lucky you ordered that uterine laparoscopy, doctor. It’s amazing she’s
had any children at all. The uterus walls, they’re chewed up with scars.”
“She must have had chronic streptococcus infections her whole life. Which
patient was that?”
“She was the one who complained to you that the doll in the waiting room was a
child and not an infant.”
“Oh yeah, the one who said something like, ‘Well, this is a baby-making clinic,
isn’t it?’ I’ve never seen anyone in such bad physical shape come in for artificial
insemination. She’s way too old anyway. Marguerite, you should never have let
her in the door—at her age . . . 55—if that’s her real age. She looks 68.”
“Well, I didn’t reject her, because you told me not to be judgmental.” The nurse
had raised her voice now, and had taken on the bitter tone of one too often accused
after merely obeying orders.
The doctor looked past her to be sure the door was shut completely and then said
loudly, “I didn’t tell you not to use professional good sense. I said you shouldn’t
scrutinize people’s motives too closely. I didn’t say you should ignore their
physical health!”
“You’re the doctor. How did I know what she was like inside? She seemed
strong enough.”
The doctor put his open hand to his face. “What about her hands. Didn’t you see
the crooked joints? She’s obviously ridden with rheumatism.”
Marguerite stood silently while the doctor shook the hand, waiting for her
reaction. The nurse merely sat down limply, making no retort. After a moment she
said plaintively, “Well, the first thing that occurred to me was that her motives
were very weird. What does she want with another child anyway? She’s already
had six, plus that stillborn. And one of her children is a retarded son who’s still
living with her—and she’s a widow.”
The doctor sat listening with a dismissive air, as the nurse continued, “She says
she hasn’t any money but she could use government benefits if you called the
procedure ‘gynecological treatment’.”
In disgust the doctor pretended to occupy himself with assembling the folders on
his desk, and said in a low voice, “What kind of scam is she running anyway?
She’s got an address in an expensive neighborhood. If she’s that poor, what’s she
doing trying to get pregnant anyway?”
Shoving a folder toward the nurse, he lifted his head and gazed directly at her, “I
don’t want her to step foot in this clinic again. She’s dangerous—the kind you
never want as a patient. Marguerite, I want you to go to the waiting room and bring
Mrs. Mackart into a consultation room. Write up a prescription for penicillin for
the streptococcus—then tell her to see another gynecologist for follow-up. Tell her
I cannot see her again, and another pregnancy would be out of the question. . . . ”
The nurse stood to leave.
“ . . . And don’t tell any other woman that sick—physically and morally—we can
help her get pregnant.” Saying that, the doctor grabbed another patient chart from a
stack on his desk, and engrossed himself in it.
Mrs. Colna Mackart and her son, Patrick, were sitting alone in the waiting room.
His psychological abnormality was evident from the manic way he would
repeatedly stand up and walk around the room, peering at pictures on the wall and
shuffling noisily through the stacks of magazines on the end tables. In his
rummaging through the magazines he found a tabloid article recounting a popular
actress’s fickle decision to have an abortion—after having been artificially
inseminated at a fertility clinic. Patrick had tastelessly told his mother about the
article, and she had angrily rebuked him—though, as the nurse entered the waiting
room, a faint smirk had begun to register on her face.
Colna Mackart’s wrinkled skin and thinning hair gave her a post-menopausal
look, but her firm jaw and active, steel-blue eyes gave her appearance an
undeniable vigorousness. The prompt, though somewhat stiff, manner in which she
rose from the couch as the nurse entered the waiting room, reassured the nurse that
her initial impression of the woman’s robustness had been well justified. The
kindly manner in which Mrs. Mackart asked her son to wait while she saw the
doctor, also belied the perfidy in which doctor had cast her. In fact, Mrs. Mackart
had seemed so gentle and honest that the nurse could not muster the courage to tell
her of the doctor’s rejection, but she merely gave the gentle lady the penicillin
prescription and told her they would have more examination results for her later.
Colna seemed quite surprised at hearing of the streptococcus infection, though
upon hearing of it she became suddenly quite pensive, and it was a moment before
she responded. “As a girl, I remember having ear infections all the time. I would
cry all night because of the pain. Eventually the pain would go away. I think my
mother thought it was a normal part of childhood to have such infections, so she
never took me to a doctor. You know, I’m not the type who complains or goes to
the doctor about every little thing.”
A suggestion of pity now entered the nurse’s perception of the woman, and she
reflexively put her hand on Colna’s shoulder. “Well, there’s no need now to suffer
from that kind of illness and pain.”
As if waiting for such a prompt, however, Colna asked the nurse to add some
strong pain relievers and tranquilizers, whose generic medical names she
pronounced effortlessly, to the penicillin the doctor had already prescribed. The
nurse winced at the woman’s seeming opportunism, but nonetheless assured her
that the doctor would call a pharmacy with the prescriptions—though she knew
she might have to endure another confrontation with the doctor to get them.
Having made that concession, the nurse was anxious to discourage the patient’s
hopes of insemination as much as possible, and so gave an exaggerated account of
the potential cost of an insemination, and told her the clinic would not accept
Medicaid or Medicare or whatever from her.
Colna had set her jaw all the more firmly upon hearing this and had raised her
head determinedly.
As she accompanied Mrs. Mackart, who was walking with stiff dignity out of the
consultation room, the nurse was left puzzled by thoughts of the woman’s true
motives in seeking a pregnancy—a puzzlement made all the more trenchant by the
pity she felt for the woman.
After the woman and her son had left, the nurse began straightening up the
waiting room, as if to rid herself of the feelings of confusion. She stacked the
magazines that the son had left strewn around, and adjusted the sofa cushions. As
she laid a loose cushion in the corner of one of the sofas, however, she noticed a
toy hand protruding from between the cushions. Instinctively, she looked toward
the reception desk for the plastic doll that normally stood on display in the waiting
room. It was gone, and this hand then obviously belonged to it. She pulled the doll
out, and straightened its dress. Who had stuffed it between the cushions, she
wondered—as if to hide it?

CHAPTER 2

Cats make excellent animals for research. The sparks of animation that enliven
their normally sedate lives come only in short bursts. The long periods cats remain
at rest give them ample opportunity to recover from experimental procedures.
Neal Mackart, the oldest of Colna Mackart’s three sons, valued the contributions
of such “volunteer” felines, and though they were his experimental subjects, he
treated them as if they were Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess.
A particularly sleek and beautiful black cat lay harnessed to a table in his lab that
morning. It had unfortunately decided to abandon its normal languor and vault into
one of its few but regular periods of frenzy. Neal feared that the tight bindings may
be agitating the beautiful creature, and so loosened them, except at the head, where
the animal had electrodes implanted through an incision in the skull. Above the
neck, the feline’s head was immobilized by a securely fitting metal and leather
armature.
Neal and the cat were engaged in a search for the chemical stimulants that
control animal memory. The cat would be doped with medication and the
electrodes would record the resultant changes in activity of cells in certain areas of
the brain. Neal had invented a means of delivering the drug directly to certain cell
groups through a unique pipette. He had also created models for reading the
electrical output of cells in such a way that the data was far more intelligible to
researchers than had been possible previously. This particular animal, in whom he
had invested nearly a month of work, was the last animal of his recent research
project, and he had given it the very ordinary human name “Sue Clark” in his data
log. This would be the last data session, and he had already laid out a bottle of
secobarbital with which to terminally sedate the animal after the lab session. The
animal was a laboratory animal and not a pet, and Neal restrained any selfish desire
he might have to create an emotional attachment to the animal.
The cat was continuing to struggle impatiently however. Neal wished he hadn’t
started the tests before his lab assistant had arrived. She could have helped restrain
the animal and help it to settle down.
Just then the lab telephone rang, startling both researcher and animal. Neal
happily left the fidgeting creature and walked over to the phone.
 “Your mother is here at the department office,” the caller was saying, “She can’t
remember where your lab is. Could you come and get her?”
Neal hesitated. He had already strapped in the cat and though he had not
administered the neurochemical or begun the tests, he could see that the animal
was becoming uncomfortable and he was eager to get back to the table to soothe it.
“Neal,” the voice prompted, “Neal, your mother’s here. Don’t forget your filial
duty—drop everything so she doesn’t have to wait.”
Neal’s mother had decided to drop in unannounced at quite an awkward time.
But Neal had been trying to interest her in his work at the lab for some time and
was delighted to hear that she had finally taken the initiative to come. Even though
her timing was not good, he would certainly enjoy a shot of emotional support.
His quick rise at the university had been fortunate—of that he was daily aware—
but it had come at the price of ill-concealed envy and sabotage among his
colleagues. As a student, Neal had imagined a far more collegial atmosphere would
prevail in the huge block of university medical labs. Once he entered the fray, he
realized that the competition for funding had turned researchers into back-bitters or
worse, into spies, pirates and marauders, as much interested in denigrating each
others’ work as in promoting their own.
Neal often asked himself how it was he had risen and survived. What was it that
had built up his character?
His mother had disappointed him many times before by refusing his pleas to
come look at his work or even to talk about what he was doing. It would be
wonderful, he thought, if his mother were in a generous mood and could offer
some encouragement today.
Looking over at the cat, which had stopped moving but was alertly surveying its
harness, undoubtedly scheming to free itself if possible, Neal looked at his watch
and quickly stepped out of the lab into the bright, block long corridor outside.
Neal hurried along the empty hall toward the departmental office until a voice
called out in the commanding tone of a summons. Vikus Sarzolian had stuck his
graying head into the hall, a gesture which could not be merely acknowledged with
a casual greeting. Sarzolian was the “P.I.”—principal investigator—on Neal’s
National Science Foundation grant, and would control all publications of Neal’s
data. Sarzolian was something more valuable to a young scientist than the most
original hypothesis: he was a darling of the federal science funding community—
and as such was a mother lode of grant monies.
 Sarzolian had developed a methodology for doing science that enabled him to
create seemingly unique results on a regular basis, on time, and within budget. His
method consisted merely of buying the most advanced and recent scientific
equipment and allowing it to make his discoveries for him. For example, he freely
admitted to confidants that his only role in the scientific enterprise was to act as a
consumer of scientific equipment. Sarzolian had never disappointed the federal
funders and was a grant magnet. The money allowed him to attract the most
promising of young researchers, like Mackart, especially ones that were machine-
savvy—abreast of the latest products of instrument makers.
Mackart’s work had been a disappointment to Sarzolian—not that Mackart
hadn’t produced valuable knowledge, but he spent too much time inventing
theories and formulas and not enough time using the expensive equipment.
Mackart, as an unmarried young man, seemed to forget that the other members of
the team had families to support, houses to pay for, and pensions to fund. Sarzolian
had frequently to prompt him with the motto “No data—no moola.”
Sarzolian had been particularly impatient with Neal’s most recent work, and the
principal investigator’s voice summoning him from the hall was to the young
researcher the most unwelcoming of sounds, as if it were the midnight knock of the
Inquisition.
As Neal stopped and turned to face Sarzolian, he had already clasped his hands
together in supplication, to beg to be allowed to postpone the P.I.’s summons,
while he retrieved his mother. But Sarzolian had the first word, “Come in a
minute,” and Neal could do nothing but obey.
Colna Mackart had stood in the departmental office for as long as her patience
allowed, about 5 minutes, and then without a word had turned out into the hall and
began walking in the direction she had recalled from her prior visit to the lab some
years ago. Though she passed through a nondescript hall lined with identical
doorways, some open, some closed, some emitting the odor of medical solvents,
some the smell of preservatives, some of warm tissue samples under the heat of
electrodes, her instinct served her well, and guided her to the area containing her
son’s lab. She stood in the hall for a moment and cocked her head as if waiting for
some sort of telepathy to guide her into the correct lab. Seemingly cued to her
search, the cat in Neal’s laboratory issued a faint meow that turned Colna’s head in
the direction of the lab.
“He said he worked with cats,” Colna mumbled to herself. That was justification
enough for her to brazenly peer into the lab from which she had heard the sound.
 “Neal,” she called out, as she stepped in further. In a corner, curtained from the
rest of the lab, Colna saw the cat still strapped to the laboratory table. It cast a
wearied expression in Colna’s direction, as if to suggest, “What are you doing
here? Can’t you see we’re busy?”
Colna had never shown any affection for animals, but if any creature might claim
her affection it would probably be something like the one before her—a cat with
short, rough fur, as dark as a moonless night.
“What are they doing to you, poor kitty,” Colna said as she recognized the cat’s
head was clamped into it armature as surely as a spindle on a lathe. Colna put a
finger to the cat’s forehead as if to stroke it, but the animal, not used to such
treatment, bared its teeth and began struggling fiercely in its restraints. Colna went
quickly to work unbolting the metal armature around the cat’s head. In her efforts
to loosen the cat’s restraints she was much helped by the animal itself who was
now moving its head vigorously from side to side.
In a great force of agitation the cat managed to not only free its head, but also to
extract a paw from the sack in which its body had been secured, and with both
teeth and nails tore violently at Colna’s hand, slicing and digging at the fingers
until tendons, already half-destroyed by rheumatism, lay exposed on several
knuckles.
Colna suppressed a scream, and bringing her other hand over the screws of the
armature, began tightening it back around the cat’s head. The maddened cat swung
its hand to attack the fresh hand as it had the other, but such was the feverish
motion with which Colna tightened the armature, that the cat’s head was soon
immobilized. Colna’s fingers ached with the pain of rheumatism and from the use
of too much force on such wasted muscles and joints, but such was her frenzy that
she continued to tighten the armature even after the animal had been restrained,
until the animal’s tiny skull had been garroted to near the breaking point. Colna
then grabbed the animal’s neck and squeezed out what life remained.
Such had been the suddenness of the attack that Colna’s wounds had only just
begun to bleed. Her eyes, inflamed now more in rage than with terror, combed the
laboratory for a bandage. A first-aid kit mounted prominently by the door soon
caught her desperate glance, and she ripped it open with a fury. She heavily
bandaged her damaged hand. In an instant, on turning to leave the lab, she had
apparently had one of those realizations that she was going to get away clear and in
a moment of sordid glee had looked on the counters for any medication she might
take with her. Seeing several vials of secobarbital, she had scooped them into her
purse. Moments later Colna presented herself in the hall, just in time to see her son
come wandering down from the departmental office, confused as to her
whereabouts.
Colna had, in the breath of a spark, assumed a pitiable and bewildered
composure and appeared to be wandering lost in the hallway. Her injured knuckles
she had painfully turned into her palm so they were little visible. Neal’s relief at
seeing the figure of his mother in the hallway, close to his lab, showed visibly in a
broad smile as he quickened his step to meet her.
“Give your mother a kiss,” she greeted him, pulling her mouth to one side to
expose a cheek heavily made up to cover the heavy wrinkles that had stolen over
her complexion. Her face was as redolent of scented emulsions and powder as the
labs were of chemicals.
“Mother, I want you to see my work,” he said joyously.
“Well, I’m a bit tired. I just returned from the doctor’s,” she replied.
Neal was barely able to register his disappointment before the thought of his lab
animal claimed him. He would quickly release the cat and return it to its cage in
the vivarium, he thought to himself, and then could give himself fully to his
mother.
Leaving her in the hall, Neal dashed into his lab. The shock of seeing the dead
cat upon the laboratory table seemed to suck the air from his lungs, and he was left
momentarily unable to inhale.
The horror of the spectacle on the table, as gruesome as it was, paled in his mind
before the thoughts that came rushing on him of the dire consequences for his
research of that animal’s death. At first, he assumed the animal had strangled itself
on the apparatus, but then he noticed that the armature holding the head was
fastened to the crushing point. He would never have done that himself. Obviously
someone had done this maliciously, but for what reason . . . cruelty, sabotage? He
had never heard of such an act in a university lab, where researchers were always
so punctilious about following animal treatment protocols.
Neal stood gaping at the scene before him when he heard his mother’s falsely
plaintive voice from the hall, “Neal, have you forgotten me?”
There was nothing to be done at the moment other than release the dead cat from
the harness, and to cover it until he could call the vivarium to dispose of it. He
certainly wouldn’t need to inject the secobarbital now.
 Having drawn the curtain around the surgical station containing the dead cat,
Neal, still in a state of extreme alarm, drew his mother into the lab, apologizing
that he had had a phone call.
“Don’t be rude to your mother, Neal. I told you I had just been to the doctor,”
she said sternly, “Anyway, Neal, I want to ask you for some help with a
gynecological procedure I need. Could you give me some financial help . . .
$15,000?” She then dropped her head as if into a sling of pitiable resignation.
“Mother, why do you need so much? Are you having an operation?”
“Oh, Neal, please don’t ask me to give you the details—it’s gynecological.”
“I’m not that squeamish, mother. I’m a biologist.”
“It would be vulgar to talk about your mother’s body—especially that area. Save
your mother some dignity, Neal. Yes, I’m having an operation.”
In his flustered state of mind, Neal was eager to simply eliminate any further
decisions that day. “Okay, mother, send me your bills. Whatever’s left after
Medicare. Are you feeling okay?”
“No, in fact I’m not,” she said sharply, “I’ve got your twin brother in a cab
waiting. I have to go—before he does something weird.”
The expression “taxi waiting” had visibly soured her son’s expression, and Colna
was quick to add, “I’m using free taxi vouchers, don’t worry.”
Just then the meowing of a cat became audible in the hall, and Colna stiffened in
alarm. “What’s that?” she asked agitatedly.
Neal walked over a few paces behind his mother and pushed open a door that
had been only partially closed. Colna turned her head and followed him with her
eyes. “This is the floor’s vivarium. It’s were we keep animals we’re working on
each day.” Colna took a few steps and peered into the semi-darkened room, and
made but a single remark, “Smells like cats in there.”
Colna began to move toward the elevator, but as she turned, the large presence of
Dr. Sarzolian seemed to block the hall in front of her.
“This must be your mother, Neal,” he said.
Colna smiled sweetly and gazed with an affected pride at her son.
Dr. Sarzolian’s suddenly became effusive, and after cheerful introductions, he
added, “I have some very good news for your son, Mrs. Mackart. I know you will
be proud to hear it. This will mean a big boost for his career.”
The cheerful look Colna had assumed seemed to leak from her face. Neal stood
expectantly, and Sarzolian teasingly withheld his announcement. “Our nicotine
receptor grant has just been funded by the National Institutes of Health!”
 “Oh mother, this is a huge grant. We’ll have money for all our experiments,”
Neal said excitedly.
He looked eagerly into his mother’s face for congratulations but instead saw an
expression of pain that the woman was trying to mask. “That’s wonderful . . . but
your brother . . . ,” she replied, as she turned her head in the direction of the
elevators.
In a moment both the P.I. and mother had left—Sarzolian returning to his lab to
contact other colleagues with the news of his new funding, and Colna going
immediately to the adjacent university hospital to have her recent wounds stitched.
Neal returned to the scene of the morning’s horror. Fortunately the day’s good
news would make telling Sarzolian of the loss of his lab animal less dire.
Nonetheless Sarzolian had never liked Neal’s style of experimentation, in which
Neal used the same animal for months—carefully attempting to prove hypotheses.
Sarzolian much preferred to use an animal briefly and then sacrifice it so the brain
tissues could be analyzed using some of the sophisticated laboratory apparatus at
his disposal. Neal’s laborious method of acquiring data was too slow. This recent
disaster with the cat would fully vindicate Sarzolian’s prejudices.
Sitting on a lab stool, with the dead animal lying in the curtained space on the
other side of the room, Neal found to his surprise his thoughts turning to his
mother and her demand for money. His first thought, strangely, was of the taxi cab
waiting for her. How could she use taxi vouchers? How did she qualify herself for
government assistance? His father had seemingly left her good investments. In her
old age she had become incurably restless and loved to travel—spending $20,000 a
trip on exotic cruises to places like Vladivostok or the Yangtze gorges. But
certainly, he thought, she couldn’t have spent everything.
His parents belonged to that small but supremely lucky generation who began
earning money immediately after World War II, and whose assets, bid up in value
by the huge generation of children that followed them, would produce investment
incomes greater than even their children’s working salaries. Colna and her
husband, despite big his income, had raised their large family on a shoestring,
passing off their miserliness as good husbandry. Their large family had been a
ready excuse to effect the most draconian household economies, and frugality
became a sport rather than a necessity for the parents.
After their children had left home, Colna and her husband could deny themselves
nothing, and justified their lavish living standard as a reward for a life of hard work
—fatuously ignorant of the predominant role that luck had played in their
prosperity. So convinced had Colna herself become that her generation’s success
was hard-earned, she felt no compunction in availing herself of the ample
government-funded benefits available to her generation at retirement—to be paid
for by their children. The philosophy of self-reliance that she and her husband had
used as an excuse not to share their good fortune with their children, Colna
conveniently put aside when it came to taking monies from well-funded and
politically popular government programs for the elderly. It was often that upon
seeing a middle-age man at a grocery store or shopping mall in the middle of the
day, Colna would unconsciously snarl, “Why aren’t you at work, earning my social
security money?”
Perhaps her generation had been too much affected by post-war commercial
advertisements or the glamorous lives of pulp fiction characters, which recklessly
promised everyone an endless bounty of commercial goods. Colna could never say
no to tokens of a lifestyle that had hitherto been reserved for individuals at the peak
of society—such things as large automobiles lavish enough for an ambassador,
vacations and restaurant meals erstwhile reserved for capitalist barons, and so on.
In order to preserve her income-producing assets, Colna would not hesitate to ask
her children for financial support, and tried to cast herself as the impoverished
senior of her own parents' generation.
Colna would never allow herself to die without plenty of assets. Her dignity
demanded that she have an estate in her elder years, and not pass away like her
own mother, with a measly set of assets that cried out lower middle class.
Had he known the true state of his mother’s ample financial resources, Neal
would not have so readily consented to her demand for money. But he had never
made inquiries into her finances because she had trained him well to believe in a
duty to his parents.
By the time that his musing about his mother’s sudden medical needs had run its
course, Neal was left with one thought—his unquestionable duty to his mother.

CHAPTER 3

Colna continued to occupy the family home her husband had bought when their
children were still at home. Her husband had been concerned that he appear
prosperous, and had bought that fine-looking house, though he had furnished it
sparsely, if not crudely, while his children remained at home.
 “You even lost your license from all your drinking,” Colna was saying testily, as
she and her son, Patrick, entered the house. “You could have driven me, and I
wouldn’t have had to use up all my taxi vouchers. What a waste.”
“Well, I was sick then,” Patrick was replying limply, “I couldn’t help myself.”
“Too bad you couldn’t get a job, and pay me back for the car you smashed up,”
was Colna’s final word on the subject.
A young Hispanic woman appeared in the entry as Colna was hurrying to the
living room and to the comforts of the couch. The woman was trailed sheepishly
by her four-year-old son.
“Mrs. Mackart, you had three calls while you were out. One from your doctor’s
office and two from your daughters.”
“Two daughters?! What do they think this is, Mother’s Day,” Colna snapped. I
really am the old woman in the shoe—with so many children, she didn’t know
what to do. My husband—sex was his only real pleasure outside work. The son-of-
a-bitch wouldn’t wear a condom. There was no way he was going to deny himself
one moment of sensation. The result—six children! And I hadn’t even recovered
from a pregnancy before he started in again, and during my periods too. . . . The
doctor’s office? Give me the number,” she said, thrusting her injured hand toward
the Hispanic woman. Almost instantly Colna withdrew the hand, realizing the
heavy bandages would arouse questions. She quickly substituted her other hand,
but too late. The woman had already seen the huge bandage. Colna could see from
her look of surprise that an inquiry was imminent. But Colna had so well trained
the woman that by merely waiving her hand in a dismissive fashion she was able to
preempt any satisfying of the woman’s curiosity.
Teresa was a home health worker provided by the state because Colna had
qualified as “restricted in self-care capability”, unable to perform the “activities of
daily living” without assistance. Teresa was the latest in a long string of such
workers whose tenure with Colna never lasted more than several months.
Colna took the telephone number and quickly dialed the doctor’s office.
Steeled by distance from Mrs. Mackart, the nurse finally raised sufficient
courage to tell the old woman of the doctor’s rejection. But by way of consolation
the nurse informed her that the doctor had okayed a two-week prescription of the
sedative she had requested.
“Mrs. Mackart,” the nurse counseled, “at your age, you risk possible miscarriage
or another stillbirth.”
 The word “stillbirth” Colna felt like a vicious wound and her immediate reflex
was to defend herself savagely, “I had five children after the death—didn’t I more
than make up for it—doesn’t that satisfy you that I’m fertile,” she said with a voice
whose initial furor was quickly smothered by self-pity. Colna could in no way be
consoled. “I’ll just find someone else, then,” she yelled into the phone angrily and
slammed it down.
She promptly lit a cigarette and made it obvious to the adults who were standing
in the room that no one dare approach her in her present mood. The child,
however, seeing her discomfiture, instinctively and naively climbed onto the
couch, and with his small hand patted her on the shoulder. “Mrs. Mack, don’t be
unhappy. You look scary when you’re mad.”
But far from being soothed by this tender and innocent gesture, Colna turned her
head to the child and blew a strong stream of smoke in his face. “Get this horrible
nuisance away from me! Patrick, take him over and play some kind of game with
him on the other side of the room.”
Colna felt no affection for Miguel, but found him tolerable to the extent that she
could put him to use running petty errands for her, such as getting the mail, finding
her cigarettes or reading glasses, and so on. Miguel was generally quite
cooperative about being run about the house in that way, but if interrupted in the
middle of play, would naturally find such demands irksome. Even more irksome
would be her insistence that he remain nearby in case a whim for something seized
her. Had he been older, she undoubtedly would have made him into a virtual
domestic worker, giving him a list of the most disagreeable household chores—
cleaning dishes and the bathrooms, etc. His young age fortunately saved him from
such drudgery.
In the face of Colna’s authority, Miguel could hardly say no when Colna
interrupted his play, though he would make futile complaints to his mother.
“She’s letting you stay here for free,” his mother would reply, “You should be
grateful.”
At times Colna would amuse herself spitefully at the child’s expense. In doing
this she was but following a long adult tradition of using children as objects of
derision. Miguel’s childlike primitiveness, his good-natured but incomplete
attempts to learn, his elementary grammar or his mimicking adults would all be
cause for an enjoyable guffaw. The child was easy to tease, and Colna relished
falsely accusing him of things, and then watching him vehemently but
inarticulately, try to defend himself.
 Apart from the petty labor and amusement, Colna could barely tolerate the child
and made clear to him that he had no rights in the household. He did not have the
right to seek her attention or take up her time, and Colna would berate Teresa if she
found her serving the same food to her son as to Colna herself. “Children don’t like
steak” or “Children don’t like pizza. You should be feeding him hotdogs,” she
would tell Teresa.
Miguel, though naïve, was acutely aware of his low status. But he contented
himself, like most children, with the idea that once in adulthood, he himself would
be in the position to exploit others.
Teresa quickly rescued her son from the couch, and carried him promptly to the
other side of the room. He was still wiping the smoke from his eyes as she set him
down. Colna, for her part, assumed an arch-dignity and unapologetically said,
“Civil, but strange—that’s how to treat children. That was my motto for dealing
with my own children.”
In her concern for her son, Teresa was oblivious to the comments of the old
woman. Teresa would have gladly left Mrs. Mackart’s service long before because
of the woman’s harassment of her young son, but her current job was the only one
she could find that would allow her to bring her young child with her to work.
Colna studied intently the woman’s form as she raised herself up from her son.
She drew a heavy breath of tobacco, and as she spoke the smoke drifted out of her
mouth in spiky swirls. “Teresa, do I see a little bit of a stomach there? You’re not
pregnant are you?” With her bandaged hand she clawed the air, beckoning the
young woman in her direction. Teresa had not heard her but could see plainly the
woman motioning for her to approach.
As the young woman approached closer and closer, Colna’s injured hand
continued to beckon insistently. Colna had coaxed the woman within a foot of the
couch when suddenly, with the bandaged hand, she stroked the young woman’s
stomach. Instinctively Teresa pulled back and began wiping her stomach, as if to
clear it of the woman’s touch.
“You’re pregnant, aren’t you? That is wonderful.”
Teresa moved back in disgust at the old woman’s strange glee. “I am not
pregnant. I’ve been putting on weight lately.”
“Well,” Colna replied, “that’s too bad. It would have been nice to have an infant
around here again.”
Surprised, Teresa rejoined, “But I thought you didn’t like children—you said
they should be seen and not heard—and usually not ever seen.”
 “You have quite the memory for quotes, Teresa. I like babies. It’s just a shame
they have to grow up.” Colna paused for a minute and then said, “I enjoyed my
pregnancies too, except the twins—especially when I discovered I was pregnant
again so soon after . . . Well, if nothing else, the pregnancies seemed to cure my
rheumatism. What a relief that was. I would know I was pregnant because all of a
sudden I’d become limber as a goose—the joint pain—all gone.”
Teresa stood listening, but too amazed at what she was hearing to even respond.
On the other side of the room, Patrick had been too preoccupied to listen to his
mother’s ramblings. As if to catch his attention, Colna raised her voice further.
“And the twins—when I discovered I was pregnant with twins . . . I asked myself,
what am I, some kind of animal—having a multiple birth—a litter, and you,
Patrick,” she said as loud as she could without shouting, “As the second born of
twins, I guess you’re the runt of the litter!”
On seeing Patrick look painfully away, Colna laughed in a short, self-satisfied
staccato.
Looking at the young woman before her, Colna said in a tone that wrapped
command inside suggestion, “You should get pregnant again, Teresa.”
“Miguel,” she shouted at the woman’s son, “You’d like a little sister wouldn’t
you?”
The child looked too uncertain of the reply expected to answer and looked
fearfully to his mother for a suggestion.
“I’m not even married now, Mrs. Mack,” Teresa said plaintively. She had
tolerated as much as civilly possible, and, murmuring to herself, she called the
child to her and hurried from the room.
Patrick too had gotten up, but Colna had not given up as yet, and called out to
him before he could leave the room. “Sit down Patrick. Let me suggest something
to you.”
Obediently he sat in an overstuffed chair next to her, and began one of his usual
manic monologues, this one about what working in a hospital would be like,
croaking through a throat hoarsened by his often incessant talking.
Colna, never much want to give him any feedback in any situation, made no
attempt to respond to the topic of his monologue and instead interjected, “Have
you ever thought of asking Teresa for a date?”
“But you told me to stay away from her.”
 “I told you to stop grabbing her like some kind of animal. She doesn’t like that
kind of thing, and I don’t blame her, especially in front of her son. But maybe she
wouldn’t mind a date. I think you two would make a good couple.”
Colna knew her son to be sex-driven like his father, and she had long dreaded he
would commit some sort of incident with a home health worker that might have
gotten her into trouble. But today Patrick seemed strangely reluctant to follow her
abrupt encouragement of an affair with the health worker.
“I think she finds you attractive,” Colna added, “You never know how far you
could get with her if you approached her like a gentleman instead of a pig. You
have to be seductive, not pretending to reach around her just to rub your elbows in
her chest, and that sort of gross thing.”
“Well, I used to find her attractive, especially when I was drinking, but now that
I’ve backed off . . . I respect her now as a person. She’s very honest . . .” Patrick
then launched himself into a further monologue on the essential dignity of man,
which Colna was loath to endure. Getting to her feet as pain coursed through her
rheumatic knees, she peremptorily announced her need for a nap. Patrick remained
talking until she had left the room.
Colna was in fact exhausted from the morning’s traumas, and in her condition
would be expected to welcome a rest in her bedroom, but once in her room, she
placed her purse on the bed and began hunting for the bottles she had taken from
her son’s lab.
“Secobarbital,” she read to herself.
Having suffered from the chronic pain of rheumatism, Colna had developed a
fair acquaintance with medications, herbs and salves of all sorts. This one, she
vaguely recollected as an old-fashioned sedative. She might find it a useful
addition to the huge collection of medications she had been amassing, in case the
rheumatism really became too much to bear and she needed to give herself a
maximum overdose.
In a drawer in her bedside table Colna kept a drug reference, and she reached to
pull open the drawer, but as she touched the handle Teresa knocked on the door,
and then let herself in.
“Teresa, don’t ever just open the door like that,” Colna said crossly, “I could be
dressing.” Colna could see however from the stern, emotionless gaze on the young
woman’s face that something strange was happening. Teresa then announced she
was walking out. Thereupon, taking her son and her luggage, she left the house and
waited at the roadside for a relative to pick her up. Colna feigned indignity, but in
actuality saw in the young woman’s departure a new opportunity.
Colna unlocked the tambour writing desk that stood near the window in her room
and withdrew a neatly written list of government agency telephone numbers. She
had soon dialed a number and was saying with a practiced weakness and
decrepitude of voice, “This is Mrs. Mackart. My home health worker has just quit.
I’m almost helpless without home care . . . I’m desperate for someone. I’ll gladly
accept even a woman with a new baby. They could even live here.”

CHAPTER 4

Teresa and her son were gone. “Had she been my daughter,” Colna thought
wistfully, “she wouldn’t have been able to just pack up and leave like that.
Children are convenient in that sense—they can be ordered about, made to do petty
chores, even beaten, with no recourse.”
Teresa had been industrious and quietly obedient, which considering that the
government paid for her services, was an exceptional boon. Teresa had been
conscientiousness too, but that had a downside that Colna found highly vexing:
Teresa had been overly moralistic and thus resistant to the kind of uses Colna
would have liked to have put her to. Teresa wouldn’t use Colna’s food stamps, for
example, unless Colna went to the cashier personally. Teresa always looked mutely
disapproving when Colna took one of her expensive vacations, while collecting
benefits intended for the indigent. Colna would have much preferred someone who
saw eye-to-eye with her on the subject of getting the most out of the system—
someone a little crooked.
In Colna’s mind, she, Colna, had had six children and well deserved every
benefit she got. Teresa’s self-help moralism was a disrespectful and mean-spirited
begrudging of Colna’s due rewards for the hard work of being a 50’s and 60’s
coffee klatching mother.
Two weeks had passed since Teresa stormed out. To Colna’s delight, there was
once again the sound of an infant in the house. Colna sat grasping the newborn to
her breast as if she herself had just given birth. She congratulated herself on
finding a replacement for Teresa who had come with an extraordinarily desirable
asset: a newborn child.
While most clients of the in-home health service would have shunned any
woman with a newborn, Colna could not have been more effusive in admitting the
woman to her home. The new woman, who had the somewhat artificial-sounding
name of Robanna, was in her early twenties, but her corpulent body and her
unemotive face gave her the air of a much older woman.
Colna discovered that her new in-home worker was utterly lazy and a shirker,
and Colna had had to order Patrick do some of the chores that the woman had been
sent to do. But the woman’s attitude was excellent—at least on the score of getting
all possible public benefits. Colna even found Robanna looking on admiringly as
Colna ordered up services from government agencies and from her children.
Infants are very tactile creatures, and because one is able to hold the infant’s
entire body, its feelings and thoughts become readily apparent from its body
tension and movements. In Colna’s arms Robanna’s child would become rigid—
except for a slight and constant shuddering—which no amount of cuddling would
alleviate. All the same, Colna prided herself on having an almost magical ability to
silence any crying fit merely by picking up the child. At those times, however, the
child’s breathing would become short and its normally caramel-colored skin would
pale to almost a beige. Colna would never hold the child long, and preferred to
pick the child out of its cradle as the mood struck her—at all hours of the day—
regardless of whether the child was sleeping or awake. Robanna took little notice
of the child’s unease in Colna’s arms and was grateful to be freed from the burden
of attending to the infant.
The infant had a revivifying effect on Colna that was truly astounding to watch.
While Colna would reach into the cradle with every rheumatic joint stiff, inflamed
and aching, minutes later she would return the baby with joints limber and pain-
free. Even the deep, almost scar-like wrinkles of her face seemed to unfurrow
under the infant’s influence.
Colna had just reached stiffly for the baby when a strong odor of frying meat
reached her. Robanna was cooking another greasy meal, with all the attendant
smells.
“You want a hamburger, Mrs. Mack?” Robanna bellowed from the kitchen.
“Just cook for yourself, and keep the kitchen door closed,” Colna replied, “I
don’t need you for cooking—I have all my dinners delivered from the senior
center.”
Robanna came from the kitchen holding a spatula glistening with grease. Colna
waived her hand dismissively, and repeated, “Just cook for yourself. . . . There are
food stamps in one of the kitchen drawers—buy yourself what you like.”
“Keep ‘em, I’ve got my own,” Robanna sniffed and returned to the kitchen.
 Shortly afterward, she reappeared having sated herself with her usual buffet of
fried foods. She was still thinking about the food stamps and was marveling at how
a woman in such a nice home could have a kitchen drawer full of food stamps.
“So you’re a stamp collector, too, Mrs. Mack. You’re living in quite a palace for
a welfare queen.”
Such impertinence was only bearable because Robanna had come with an infant,
and so Colna withheld a rebuke. In fact, on hearing the remark she felt rather
relieved that Robanna was comfortable joking about such subjects openly.
“I’m just an impoverished, abused senior—and handicapped,” Colna replied with
bitterness so insincere as to sound almost wry.
Robanna’s facial expression, heavy with satiety, suddenly lightened. “Who’s
abusing you?” she challenged, skeptically.
“My son. He was taking my social security money for booze. And of course I
reported him. Now I’m officially an abused elder and no longer able to rely on my
family. That’s how I got a home worker . . . like you. I’ve got Patrick under
control, but now, thank god, I’ve earned life-long in-house assistance, and if you’re
smart, you’ll stay here and live off my benefits.”
Colna’s condescending tone registered rather offensively, and Robanna assumed
a haughty tone of her own. “You have a decent life here, but if you really want
gourmet government benefits you’ve gotta have a baby.”
Colna was not about to be outdone on the subject of benefits by a scrounging
unwed mother. “Patrick’s my baby.”
“But he told me he’s supporting you!”
“Bah! Of course I put some things in a trust for him, except the house—officially
anyway—how else would I be eligible for public assistance?”
Colna stood sharply to her feet and then stuffed the pale, rigid baby
unceremoniously into its cradle. “Robanna, you say you have to have a baby to get
benefits. You’re wrong about that. You’ve got to have a house. The government
pays for my heat, bought me new insulated windows. They give me a big property
tax discount. They even bought a share of my house and on a reverse mortgage
will pay me every month for the rest of my life—and I’m going to live forever!
The state pays me Section 8 rent money for Patrick—and I don’t even own the
whole place.”
Robanna was obviously not getting the better of the bragging match and so
pretended to be unimpressed. “You must have sold the house to them pretty cheap
—because . . . you don’t really seem to be rolling in dough!”
 With such a remark, Robanna had now struck a vital nerve, and with great
umbrage Colna lifted her head and glared into Robanna’s dark eyes, “Don’t think
you’re seeing even a fraction of what I’ve got!”
Robanna stood silent for a moment, sensing the conversation had degenerated
into a confrontation. Colna moved to the couch and lit a cigarette while Robanna
stood waiting to politely allow the old woman the last word. Colna had regained
her temper, and now regretting having alluded to any hidden assets, and so felt
obligated to divert the conversation back to its former level of banter.
“And of course,” Colna said, trying to inject a jocular tone into her voice, “the
state is helping pay for my life insurance—so I don’t lose it after my husband paid
on it all those years.”
Robanna took up the challenge once again, and pointed to her eyeglasses. “I got
the eye exam from Medicaid, the money for deluxe frames from Aid to Families
with Dependent Children.”
“Nothing,” Colna replied, “I got an eye exam from Medicare, lenses paid for by
supplemental security income and a free ride through dial-a-ride, with a stop at the
senior center for a free meal.
“Senior center for lunch!” Robanna rejoined, “I used my money from the state
emergency cash program to take a cab to a proper restaurant for lunch.” Robanna
was grinning now, as she was getting the best of her adversary.
Stung by the last remark, Colna displayed her gnarled fingers. “Well goody for
you, but I’m afraid you don’t have half the benefits available to me. I’m severely
crippled.” Colna’s hand, with its red and purple scar from her visit to her son’s lab,
had just barely healed, and its large and reddened joints, finger bones projecting at
odd angles, some to the left, some to the right, some turned inward, looked as if it
had been broken by a mallet. Colna thrust her hands up in front of her face.
Robanna was at once struck by the contrast between the gnarled fingers and the
adornments on them: the exquisitely mounted jade ring and matching bracelet, and
the impeccably lacquered nails. She could see the hands were deformed, but didn’t
know whether to believe the old woman about being handicapped.
“But you don’t seem so crippled,” Robanna remarked bravely and matter-of-
factly, “I mean, you can feed and dress yourself. You’re not what they call
‘functionally-impaired’.”
“Don’t get technical about what is or isn’t crippled, Robanna. You’re lucky I
take care of myself and you don’t have the kind of smelly decrepit old lady that
you’re really supposed to be taking care of.” With that, Colna laid herself across
the couch and called out mockingly in a weak voice, “Turn me over, now—turn
me! Oh, and nurse, I pooped my dress again.” With that, Colna felt she had had the
last word, and, slowly and painfully raising herself from the couch, reached again
into the cradle for the infant, who by now had fallen asleep despite the two
women’s loud bragging match.
Robanna made no attempt at a reply, and so Colna became gracious, “You got a
good deal here . . . because I love having a baby around the house,” she said as she
fell back onto the couch with the baby on her lap. The infant at once stiffened as
the old woman nuzzled it with her wrinkled face. “In fact, next week you won’t
have to do anything here at all. I’m going to the Midwest for several days. When
I’m gone, just relax. I’m not taking Patrick though, so he’s going to be around
here. I’ll tell him not to bother you, and if you’re smart you won’t let him charm
you into anything. Sorry to leave him here, but I just couldn’t stand traveling with
him. What a horror—the idea of being stuck up in an airplane with him—having
to listen to his constant babbling and nonsense. I’m a saint just for letting him live
here.”
Robanna was somewhat taken aback by this sudden announcement, and could
hardly believe she was being trusted to stay in the woman’s home after only a
couple weeks of employment. She had to suppress a feeling of malicious delight at
the news.
“Here, take your baby, and call a cab,” Colna ordered, “I need to visit the other
twin—who is only a little less of a nuisance than Patrick. I’ve got something I want
to give him.”
Colna walked stiffly to the front hall and reached for a purse lying on the table
there. Meanwhile Robanna stood eyeing the room for the television remote control
and impatiently waiting for her patron’s departure. But having made mention of the
twins, Colna could not stop herself from launching into what Robanna had already
learned would be a standard diatribe.
“Can you imagine giving birth to twins—like some kind of sow with a litter? I
like babies . . . but one at a time, please . . . like a human.” Then as an afterthought,
Colna mumbled, “unwelcome usurpers”.
Robanna had spotted the remote control, lying on the coffee table, and gazed
politely with glassy eyes toward Colna, while the old woman continued her tirade.
“My mother’s first words on the phone when they were born were ‘Ewww, are
they identical?’ And I told her, ‘No they’re not. Would you like the pick of the
litter?’” Colna laughed the self-pitying cackle that always accompanied that
anecdote. “At least they had each other when growing up because I wasn’t in any
mood for any more children at that point—when I was so sorrowful. I used to lock
them together in a room all day, so they wouldn’t bother me—or remind me of
what I had lost, and what they could never replace.”
“You mean Andrew?”
“You’ve been snooping in that bedroom,” the old woman said, eyes flaming
fiercely, “How did you get into that closet anyway—I lock it.”
“Well, you told me to clean everything. The door wasn’t locked.”
“Since when do you do any cleaning! Well, stay out of there—don’t ever go in
there again.”
The cab driver was honking. “Go tell him I’ll be right out,” Colna said, waiving
Robanna to the door.
Colna hobbled immediately up the stairs to the second floor. “How could I have
left that door unlocked—what a fool I am—or maybe that bitch jimmied the lock,”
she said to herself as she pulled open the door to a walk-in closet in one of the
unused bedrooms. The room contained three small period-style tables inlaid in
precious woods and obviously of some value. Light shown somberly from a
shallow alabaster bowl suspended by ornate wires from the ceiling. On the center
table was a gilded frame containing a pair of baby socks with the name “Andrew”
embroidered on them. On the other tables were toys and baby clothes, some still in
their original boxes—a rattle, a colored mobile, tiny mittens, a hat—among other
things.
To her great relief, nothing seemed to have been touched. “Andrew, I’m so sorry
your peace has been disturbed. I didn’t take proper care. I didn’t give you the
respect you deserve. But believe me I am devoted to you. You will always be first
in my heart. No one has replaced you! I won’t let them take advantage of your
death—I won’t.”
“Mrs. Mack, the cab says he can’t wait,” Robanna called up the stairs.
“All right, all right. I’m coming,” Colna said as she reverently closed the closet
and carefully checked the lock.

CHAPTER 5

The death of his important animal subject two weeks earlier left Neal indecisive
and paranoid. He considered terminating the experimental phase of his research
and publishing the existing data, but in the end, he was unable to shake feelings
that without data from one more animal his hypothesis would not be confirmed.
He dared not discuss the cat’s death with anyone, lest he be accused of having
abused the creature. He had been slow to begin work with a new animal, however,
and had spent the prior two weeks in a stupor, looking blankly at his data, and
mulling his future as a researcher.
The prior week Sarzolian had come to the lab to insist Neal stop experimenting
and put his data into publishable form “Okay, let’s see the data—one more week
Neal”, he had said. Nonetheless, Neal had arranged to do experiments with one
more cat. In dread of being discovered with the animal by Sarzolian, Neal had kept
his lab door locked, much to the vexation of his lab assistant.
The meowing of a cat interrupted his thoughts, and Neal turned to see that his
assistant had brought the new animal for the afternoon’s work. The animal was still
in its traveling case. It was an adult calico with a small nose and ears, giving it an
almost sweet, juvenile appearance.
Neal felt an overwhelming urge to pet it, but it was his rule never to allow
himself to make pets of his research subjects. The cat kept meowing plaintively
nonetheless, and the urge to befriend the creature was becoming almost wrenching.
“The thing would probably just bite my hand,” Neal told himself, “It’s not a pet.
It’s meowing because it wants out of the cage. . . . Ha, don’t we all!
“Some pet owners would have me tortured, my skull opened with a can opener
and knitting needles inserted in my brain. But what is pet ownership, really, but
animal torture. What animal wouldn’t run away to the forest if given a real
choice?”
The cat had given up and had curled up quietly in the cage. Neal was becoming
angry now at thoughts of how animal activists had villainized researchers. “Isn’t it
really a Munchausen situation with pets? People keep animals captive, cooped up
in apartments and houses alone all day, until the animals become completely
neurotic, and then the pet owners ‘save’ their pets with love,” he thought, scoffing
so loud that even the cat was momentarily roused.
There was the sound of a key in the lock, and Neal watched as his lab assistant
let herself in.
“Should I get the cat ready,” she asked, smiling warmly as she noticed Neal.
“Sarzolian asked me to come to his lab, so I will be gone for a little while. Let’s
leave it in the cage for now.”
 “Neal, you still busy Saturday? Are you sure you don’t want to join us at the
pool?”
“Yes, I’m sorry,” was Neal’s terse reply.
The assistant nodded and busied herself with work on the other side of the lab.
“I must be very lonely,” Neal thought, “I feel awful to turn her down. But I just
can’t go to a party with a lot of people I don’t know. I’ve got to stop isolating
myself, but I just can’t motivate myself to meet people. Maybe I’m paranoid.
Could be genetic. Do I have any relatives with the same problem? Can’t think of
any.
“My assistant, she’s got her family. What a great mother she has—always calling
her—interested in everything she does, encouraging, affectionate, soothing. She
even helps her meet people. She’s Chinese . . . maybe that’s the reason . . . but that
can’t be it.”
He thought then that perhaps if he had a similar rapport with his own mother he
could alleviate his own loneliness, and strengthen his resolve to start a social life.
He and his mother had never been close. Who was to blame for that? Was it her,
himself, or . . . ?”
The lab assistant stopped working long enough to turn toward Neal. He was
doing nothing but sitting and thinking, and she was a bit quizzical how lately he
could spend so much time staring into space. “Neal, don’t you have a meeting with
Sarzolian,” she felt obliged to remind him.
“Thanks, I guess I was trying to put it out of my mind,” he said, hurriedly
gathering folders from a disorganized pile in front of him.
Vikus Sarzolian had the admirable trait of showing in his manner the full
character of his mood when dealing with subordinates and colleagues. By merely
looking in his face they knew instantly how to approach him. As Neal entered
Sarzolian’s lab, he found Sarzolian wearing a lab coat and busy examining
magnifications of cell section photographs on a computer screen. As Sarzolian
looked up, his expression turned at once, severe and uncompromising. “I hope you
have the data for me today and a summary. I’d like to send off a paper next week.”
Although he had fully expected to be confronted, Neal was terrified by
Sarzolian’s bluntness. “Well, I can give you a progress report on that. I mean I’m
almost finished. I feel I haven’t quite proven my hypothesis and need one more
test.”
 “Hypothesis! What are you worrying about that for? I’m the P.I. I’ll do the final
analysis. Just give me your data,” Sarzolian demanded, standing up in
exasperation, and reaching for the folders Neal carried.
Desperate to mollify the P.I., Neal tried to explain his situation, and hoped for
pity. “I lost a lab animal that I had invested a lot of time on, a couple weeks ago.
I’ve had to start recreating the data with a new animal.”
Sarzolian was outraged. “I need only enough data to publish. You always give
me too much! You understand?! No more experimenting. Just give me what
you’ve got right now,” the P.I. said, grabbing the folders from Neal’s hands. With
his open palm over his brow, Sarzolian sat scanning the data and ignoring this
young protege. As he scanned the carefully prepared charts, his bluster devolved
considerably and was replaced by a certain eagerness. He was obviously relieved
to see that Neal’s data was well presented, and could be used without further
compiling. He gathered the folders and dropped them with a satisfied and
conclusive thump onto the desk.
Sarzolian, at heart more business manager than intellectual, and for that reason a
proven survivor in scientific research, felt he was losing control of his young
colleague. Neal would have to revise his work philosophy if he were to stay on. A
short diatribe was much in order.
Sarzolian directed Neal to a lab stool and then began. “Live animals are a
nuisance, and the way you do research, using the same animal week after week—
it’s no wonder you produce only a trickle of data. All your effort is tied into a few
animals. Then if they die, you’re screwed,” he said, looking at Neal knowingly.
“Do one or two procedures on the animal, and then start analyzing. We’ve got
great machines for that—reams of data and analysis: algorithms, models,
matrices.” Sarzolian looked at Neal with the skeptical hope that he was changing
the young researcher’s viewpoint. But by the severity of his tone, the P.I. conveyed
no doubt that he intended to be obeyed in any case.
Neal’s first reaction was relief that the cat’s death had meant nothing to the P.I.,
but then an obsessive dread crept back into his mind that, without data from one
more animal, he could not securely confirm his test hypothesis. The stress of work,
worries about his research, the loneliness, all had worn down Neal’s reserve. He
began to feel Sarzolian’s remarks were nothing less than a savage and philistine
attack on good scientific practice. His mind raced as he justified to himself his
practices. “Sarzolian would have me inject something into an animal, give it one
task to do, then slice it up to be examined cell by cell under a million dollar
microscope. Merely recording the physiochemical makeup of an animal at the
cellular level is empty knowledge—not leading to a usable theory. To create a
theory you have to observe how the organism’s functions over time, not just record
visual changes to anatomy. To create a theory you have to have first a hypothesis
about the function of anatomy—a teleological basis—otherwise you just have
indigestible volumes of data with no idea how to synthesize it into something
meaningful.”
Neal had worked himself into a state of agitated self-righteousness—and a manic
daring seized him. Neal held his neck rigid and spoke directly to Sarzolian.
“You’ve been squinting down a microscope too long, Dr. Sarzolian. You’ll never
get the big picture that way. I want more out of my science than just a lot of pretty
snapshots of cell parts.”
The effrontery of such a remark, to a widely-published senior researcher and the
man who provided all of Neal’s research monies, was beyond reckless. Neal
realized immediately the suicidal character of his daring and forced from himself a
plaintive “sorry” as Sarzolian stood unbelieving at what he had heard.
“You’re entitled to your opinion, Neal, but mind whom you’re talking to.”
Such a mild rebuke in the circumstance could only have come from one like
Sarzolian, able to exercise supreme self-restraint in sacrifice to a higher goal.
Sarzolian’s business-like focus on the real goal of his research, maintaining careers
for everyone, might save Neal’s career, despite his ill-considered and mean-
spirited outburst.
Neal felt entirely unprotected at the moment. There was no one to hold him back
from the selfish impulsive that drove him to act out his paranoia—no one to
comfort him in his folly. Neal wanted to withdraw, as usual.
Sarzolian, for his part, wanted the impertinent young researcher out of his sight
for a while. “You’re finally finished with this study. Thanks for the data. Why
don’t you take a week off. I mean it. Take a week off, Neal. We’ll start work on
the next project when you return.”
Neal was too ashamed to demur and merely nodded assent, “I will, thank you.”
Sarzolian turned sharply away, and Neal realized he had been dismissed. With a
few clicks of a mouse Sarzolian pulled up on a large computer screen a dazzling
million-colored cell section, with hues of almost expressionistic vividness. With a
second click he was able to project a simulated three dimensional view of the same
section. What had been a dreary, monochrome laboratory was suddenly
illuminated with a kaleidoscope. The distinguished researcher sat staring into the
screen as if mesmerized.

CHAPTER 6

Neal returned immediately to his lab and canceled the afternoon’s research.
“Sarzolian says this project is finished, so I guess we won’t need to do any more
tests with this animal after all,” he said pointing at the caged cat.
“Should I give it the secobarbital then,” the assistant asked.
“No, I’m still going to run some more tests, just for my own interest,” Neal
replied.
“But Sarzolian said . . . “
“Yeah, don’t worry. He wants me to take a week off. I blew up at him. I think
I’m being banished.”
The assistant seemed to be interested in all the details of Neal’s confrontation,
but whether, despite her apparent sincerity, she sympathized with Neal’s
indignation at being told to change his research methods, Neal could not tell. Like
the rest, she would probably do whatever it took to please Sarzolian and get her
paycheck.
“I’ll take the cat to the vivarium,” he said lifting the traveling case to the top of a
stool. The cat was sound asleep with its face toward the mesh in front, and for once
Neal could not resist the temptation to poke a finger through the mesh and rub the
animal’s head. Quick reflexes allowed him to retract it in time, as the cat, startled
suddenly, opened its serried mouth to bite him. “Was it solicitous affection that
made me touch it—or was it selfishness,” Neal asked himself. He had awoken the
cat, and the cat, itself, seemed none too pleased about it. “Mind whom you’re
trying to bite,” he scolded his feline colleague.
As Neal crossed the hall and opened the vivarium door he noticed at once that all
of the lights were on, and so he looked to see who else might be there. This had
been a day of shocks, but he suddenly felt an unreal astonishment as if doubting his
own consciousness. Oblivious to the fact that he was holding a heavy cat case, he
rushed over to where his mother was pushing food through the bars of a cage. The
cat inside was unhesitantly eating everything put before it.
“What are you doing,” Neal said in a deep monotone filled with admonition.
The remaining crumbs of food fell from Colna’s hand as she pulled her arms
back in a panic. “I felt sorry for the kitties. I brought them some treats.”
 Neal noticed her hand trembling as she pushed down a bag that was sticking up
from her purse. His shock and upset suddenly faded into sympathy. He had never
known his mother to be fond of animals. This was a side of her he hadn’t seen
before—kindly, solicitous, nurturing. He smiled approvingly and said in a politely
admonishing tone, “Mother, these are scientific research animals. They are not
pets. You shouldn’t add anything to their diet. You could affect the outcome of the
tests.”
Colna seemed to be accepting the scolding, bowing her head. Witnessing that,
Neal felt emboldened. “You’re not doing the animals any favor. It’s just selfish to
try to use food to get affection. These animals serve a far more noble purpose than
supplying lonely humans with affection. If you want a pet you can have one at
home.”
Colna was becoming a little irritated at the lecture, but was still a bit shaken and
unable to muster a defense. Neal could see no point in belaboring his mother. Her
intentions had been good and she had been sufficiently chastised. “Why don’t we
take a trip together,” he suggested tenderly.
Colna could hardly have been more surprised at such an invitation, coming from
her son, with whom she had never been close. Her first thought was to reject the
idea as too unexpected and awkward. “I’ve already got a trip planned for next
week.”
“Where’re you going?”
“Back to Morrisville.”
“Are you going alone?”
“Yes. I have some personal business there.”
“You’re not taking Patrick?”
“No, of course not—the jackass.”
Neal wanted badly to break the ice between himself and his mother and begged
her to consider going together.
“I’m just going to see my family’s homestead out in some tiny town on the
Nebraska prairie. I’m sure you’d be bored to death.”
“I’ve always wanted to see it,” he said with marked enthusiasm.
Colna could now see her trip becoming quite disagreeable, in the company of
someone she was so little fond of as her son. But somehow she felt it would be
unmotherly to say no, and rationalized to herself that she could put him to work
carrying luggage and driving her around. Maybe he would even pay for the whole
trip.
 “Okay, Neal. Why don’t you come along. That would be nice. But I told you I
had some personal business to take care of, so you must be prepared to entertain
yourself and let me mind my affairs privately.”
Neal readily agreed, and looked forward to the chance to put their relationship on
a good footing.
After he had put his cat into its vivarium cage, Neal turned to extinguish some of
the lights. Colna then mischievously reached into her purse and pulled out a tidbit
for the cat her son had just put into a cage. She had just dropped it into the cat’s
cage and had not yet retracted her hand before he son turned around. With her hand
outstretched on the cage, Neal noticed the red scar that now had healed. The
thought of his mother’s surgery then came to the fore of his mind, and he suddenly
felt guilty for not asking her about it. “Mother, when is your gynecological
procedure? Is it soon?”
“Never mind,” she replied, almost bewildered at the question, “I discovered I
don’t need it after all.” She looked away as if not wanting to be questioned further.

CHAPTER 7

Morrisville, Nebraska, is a fly-speck prairie town so uninviting of even a

moment’s notice that not one descendant of the original late 19th century settlers
can be found among its present inhabitants. Although two railroads cross the center
of town, neither has a station in town nor makes any stops. That a dusty town of
800 inhabitants could continue to exist at all almost defies belief, but its few stores,
repair shops, schools and churches serve a collection of family farmers, who
continue to make a decent living from the deep and well-watered prairie soil.
Colna’s family had originally come to Morrisville after floating around small
towns in the Midwest for decades, to take advantage of the speculative boom in
wheat during the late 1800’s, not as farmers but as money lenders to the
speculators. When the speculative bubble burst in the horrendous west Nebraska
dust bowl of 1925, farmers found themselves with huge loans and tiny crops of
wheat that 15 years previously would have been like gold but were now almost
worthless.
The big family house above the lake, the empty family bank and the family hotel
in town stood as the sole tokens of the former boom in Morrisville.
The endless and featureless prairie exercises little hold on the human soul, and so
when Colna’s family remained in Morrisville for a generation, even after they had
lost their money, people wondered had the family itself lost its spirit. The once
proud family had latched onto political patronage jobs as a way of surviving, and
Colna’s father had been postmaster until the Democrats came to power, and then
had worked as a rural mail deliverer until collapsing of heart failure under the load
of a sack of mail.
Colna despised her parents for not fleeing the scene of their fall from majesty.
But all the same, the family lingered in Morrisville, hanging on in the ill-repaired
remains of their big house.
As soon as she was old enough, Colna left for Omaha and set her sights on a
strange-acting man whose one asset was his medical degree and promises of future
income. Her mother hung on in Morrisville, abandoning the family house by the
lake to the elements and moving into what had been the manager’s apartment at the
now decrepit family hotel, where she ended her days, polishing the few silver table
ornaments remaining to her and making sure the hotel’s foyer had a change of fly
strip every fortnight.
Though she had left the town as a young woman, there remained in Colna a dark
force that would never be allowed in a more civilized environment—a force she
imbibed from the poisons and toxins of the isolated dank earth of the prairie. The
force feed the roots of bitterness that came from too much isolation and nurtured a
parasitic craving for social stimulation. Unfortunately, her mother had surrendered
herself to those toxins and sustained herself in bitter envy of the outside world until
her death.
The family hotel, though 60 years old, still functioned as such, though only the
five rooms on the second floor were let out. Its basement had become a chicken
hatchery, and the ground floor housed a couple permanent residents. Its wood
frame, under the influence of hot summers and parching steam heat in winter, had
become shriveled and brittle, and cracked and creaked with every vibration,
whether from footfalls inside or passing cars on the two lane highway outside.
Since there was nothing remotely worth seeing in the town, Colna conceived that
Neal would spend the day in his hotel room, reading whatever books he might have
brought with him. However, in the hot morning sun his room had become an oven,
and the dry air and desiccated wood seemed to draw the moisture from him like
talcum powder.
Colna had gone by Neal’s room after breakfast to take her leave of him for the
day. “Of course you brought things to study here in your room,” Colna had said.
 Neal was unhappy about the prospect of staying cooped up in the overheated
room and asked his mother to let him go with her. Colna was incensed that Neal
would not give her the privacy he had promised. She could not restrain the urge to
strike out malevolently, “I thought you liked isolation. You don’t have a wife, you
don’t date, no friends. You should be used to it. I always knew there was
something mentally wrong with you. I was hoping it was just a maturity problem,
but I can see it’s not going to go away.”
Colna looked away as if unconcerned about the effect of her remark. The mean-
spiritedness of her remark echoed about the room, and when Neal refused to
respond, his opprobrium weighed on her until she could utter something
conciliatory. “All right, come with me, but I will have to leave you behind for a
little while. If you can’t handle that, then don’t come.”
“Mother, I can entertain myself without any problem. I just don’t want to be
stuck in this overheated room all day.”
Neal helped his mother into their rental car. “I want to see some familiar place,”
Colna said.
Heeding her directions, Neal drove south of town on the highway until all
buildings had left the horizon, and then drove west on a dirt road. Suddenly a slight
ridge appeared before them, and as they drove forward, the shore of small lake
came into view. On the opposite shore, overlooking the lake, stood the once proud
hulk of a wood frame house, its many gables still projecting a handsome outline
against the sky, even though its paint had long ago flaked away. Golden wheat,
nearing harvest, stood high around the house, and there was no visible sign of even
a driveway, the ground having been plowed almost to the rotting treads of its porch
steps. Only a few large trees marked the former presence of a yard.
“That’s the family house. You want to look around?” Colna said, matter-of-
factly.
“This is a very pretty setting. I can’t believe nobody lives here anymore,” Neal
said, delighted at the prospect of exploring such a gloomy ruin, especially since it
was part of the family history that his mother had told him little about.
“I still own the house, can you believe it?” Colna told him, as they waded
through wheat to reach the porch. The house stood before them a giant with three
floors, and despite its wood construction it seemed to have stoutly resisted the
elements, even with windows intact. Colna reached into her purse and withdrew a
set of keys, one of which, after some struggling, opened a padlock on the front
door.
 The scene inside showed that although the exterior walls had remained intact, the
roof had disintegrated badly and seepage and rot had destroyed wall surfaces and
ceilings inside, leaving everything a mottled brown. Hunks of fallen plaster littered
the discolored floorboards.
The house was certainly big, but Neal could sense why it had been allowed to go
to waste: it was as crudely built as a barn. At the time it was built, skilled
craftsmen could not be lured to the Nebraska prairie, and so the house’s details
showed carpentry of a primitive level—unmitered joints, uneven windows—a
great deal of catalog-purchased decorative detail—wood moldings and machine
carved pilasters. The kitchen and bathrooms were dingy, undecorated areas with
elementary fixtures.
Neal insisted on looking at every room, despite the rising heat from the summer
sun and the strong odors of wood rot inside. After a short time, however, Colna
told him to keep looking on his own, that she had a private errand to run and would
return for him in an hour. Neal imagined himself touring through the house and
then reading outside on the porch—where he could get some air. He happily
agreed to having the house to himself, and gave no heed when he heard the front
door close behind his departing mother.
Neal peered out one of the dusty living room windows as his mother drove on
the dirt road a short distance up the ridge behind the house and then pulled to a
stop. He could discern the figure of his mother as she left the car and then
disappeared on the other side of the ridge. He was naturally quite curious about
what she might be looking at on the other side. Was it perhaps a favorite childhood
play spot or the distant home of a childhood friend? Neal abandoned his curiosity
for the moment and returned to exploring the house. By the time he reached the
third floor, however, the sun had climbed high in the sky and the heat inside the
shuttered house, coupled with the smell of rot and mildew, had began to make him
nauseous. He looked forward to reaching the fresh air of the porch.
The front door, which he naturally assumed would be unlocked, would not open
however. After some vigorous pulling that loosened the door slightly out of its
jamb, Neal realized that the padlock outside was the only thing holding the door
closed. His mother had locked him in. Neal’s thoughts turned strangely to
memories from childhood of being locked in a room with his twin brother, so that
they couldn’t bother his mother.
At once he began to feel guilt at having forced his mother to take him along. She
obviously was very worried that he would follow her. But as the heat intensified in
the moldering house, he began to resent being locked in. It had been more than an
hour and the car remained parked on the ridge.
Neal had tried to open a window on the ground floor but found them all nailed
shut. In desperation to escape the suffocating heat, he made his way to the
basement, where at last he found a small service door, probably a coal chute, that
had been bolted from the inside but not nailed shut. After several shoves, the wood
came out of the jamb and he was free to lift himself up into the field of wheat.
By that point he had become enraged by his mother’s failure to return on time,
and by the torture of being locked inside. He could feel his rational sense being
hopelessly submerged by anger. With wheat burrs scratching through his shirt at
his arms and chest, Neal made his way to the dirt road and began climbing the
ridge to the car.
As he looked over the ridge, Neal at once chided himself for not guessing the
reason for his mother’s trip out into the wheat field. As he looked from the top of
the ridge he could see, a short distance down the slope, his mother kneeling
amongst gravestones in a small, ill-tended plot. Immediately before her was a
grave marker smaller than the others. His mother was making an apostrophe aloud,
and Neal, very curious to hear, squatted down among the shafts of wheat. A breeze
of warm air rising out the depression below gave him some help in discerning her
words. Neal knew it was not his mother’s habit to be sentimental, and found this
sight to be quite a revelation.
“. . . should have had the section . . . Could have saved you . . . but was afraid I
wouldn’t be able to have any more children . . .” His mother was pleading
cryptically. “You will always be my first . . . others will never take your place.”
What he heard made little sense to him and he wished he had been closer to hear
everything, but in the noisy dry grass, to move closer would be impossible.
After a few moments he could hear nothing further and so elevated his head. His
mother had raised herself, in some pain, and had moved over to the railing of a
fence surrounding the small plot. There she sat somewhat unsanctimoniously
smoking a cigarette, her obsequies apparently over. Then in a perfunctory gesture,
she rubbed the cigarette out on the railing beside her and threw the butt into the
wheat, away from the graves. She had apparently made a poor effort at
extinguishing it, for the brush into which it had landed began to smolder almost
immediately. Her joints stiff and painful with rheumatism, Colna raised herself
slowly, and before she had straightened herself completely she had noticed the
smoldering brush. She made a rather poor effort at stamping out the incipient fire,
and if anything her fruitless motions merely aerated the smoldering area until it had
ignited in flame.
Neal had not yet seen a flame or smoke and was not aware of the reason for
Colna’s precipitous flight from the graveyard. He crouched low in the wheat as she
hurried stiff-legged up the dirt road next to him, heading for her car. By the time
the car had pulled away from the ridge, flame and smoke had become obvious, and
as he smelled smoke Neal jumped to his feet. The fast traveling fire, whipped by
the breeze, engulfed the graveyard and then swept up the hill toward him in an ever
widening arc.
Neal hurried to the road as the flame roared past with a heat so tremendous he
examined his clothing to be certain the fabric had not caught fire. His skin stung
for minutes, but his flesh had fortunately not burned. The speed of the fire had
been such that when he finally thought of turning back to look at the graveyard, the
ground around it showed little sign of flame but had been so completely charred as
to appear doused in black ink. The remaining stubble showed only the barest of
smolder, but everywhere the air stank with the acrid smell of burned grass.
Neal’s curiosity overwhelmed his judgment and drew him to the small
graveyard, in particular to the place where his mother had been kneeling moments
earlier. The small headstone had suffered little in the fire, apart from a dark
sooting. Neal squinted his eyes against the blowing gray ash, and tried to rub away
the dark soot from the stone’s carving. The stone was remarkably hot and Neal
pulled away a burned finger with a yelp. With some effort, however, he was able to
discern the one word engraved on the tombstone, “Andrew.” The stone curiously
showed no dates.
Other stones in the yard bore familiar family names. There was his
grandmother’s grave, and his great-grandfather, the banker, among others.
Neal began to return to the ridge top and could see a great pall of smoke coming
from the other side. There was however, the sound of shouting voices and of
machinery. The fire had crested the ridge and captured a great prize on the down
slope: the dry hulk of the abandoned family mansion, which now exhaled flames in
great gasps.
The high column of dark smoke from the prairie fire had quickly roused the fire
brigade in Morrisville, and it had already arrived on the scene. Men were hurrying
to stretch hose to the lake where water could be pumped, and others were throwing
dirt on flames that were now creeping along the ridge against the breeze.
 The house itself had obviously been given up for lost and a small crew could be
seen preparing to hose down whatever ruins remained after the flames had had
their way with the structure. Neal noticed his mother’s car alongside a fire truck,
and as he approached could see a fire fighter talking with his mother on the dirt
road, a safe distance from the building. “Is there anyone inside, ma’am?” the
fireman was asking her excitedly.
After hesitating, Colna replied, “No . . . it’s been abandoned for years.”
Colna’s face showed almost a relief at the destruction occurring before her—
much to the perplexity and distaste of the firefighter. As her son came into view,
however, a look of alarm seemed to finally come over her, and it was only by
completely repressing her feelings, that she was able to sigh in mock relief and say
curtly to him, “I knew you’d be safe.”
“Where did you go, mother?” Neal asked, as if nothing had happened.
“Oh to see some relatives’ graves. Sometimes you simply have to be alone for
grave visits.”
Neal nodded.
“I don’t know what started this fire—perhaps it was a car backfire,” she
announced.
Mother and son then turned their attention to the fire before them and barely
looked at each other until the flames had been put out.

CHAPTER 8

Neal and Colna had watched the last of the house collapse late in the afternoon
and then had returned to the hotel to cleanse themselves of the soot. Neal noticed a
trail of soot below each nostril. Neither had made any further mention of each
other’s whereabouts at the time of the fire, though it was very much on each
other’s mind. Colna had made no inquiry as to how Neal had escaped from the
house, but when Neal asked her point blank whether she had locked the padlock on
leaving, she had replied, “No, of course not.”
Neal spent the evening in his room, and Colna had come by only to remind him
of church the following morning.
When Neal woke the next morning and appeared at his mother’s door for church,
she told him she had woken early and had gone to the first mass. It was obvious
from her dark and haggard appearance that she had not slept at all.
 “Neal, you go to mass by yourself. I met an old friend at church earlier. She
wants me to come see her at her house this morning,” Colna told him.
He felt a little awkward about appearing at mass in a small town where his new
face would be obvious to everyone in the church and might even disrupt the
service. But nonetheless he agreed to walk the few blocks to the church by himself
and allow her to go visiting. After the strange events of yesterday, he thought,
maybe it was best to spend the day by himself. In the evening they would be in the
plane together returning home, and if there was to be any conversation about the
fire, it could be then.
Colna’s real errand was much different than what she had told her son. She had
taken the car, had stopped at a hardware store, and then gone south from
Morrisville again along the same dirt road as the day before. In fact, she had
completely retraced her steps to the graveyard. There she removed a new shovel
from the car and began to slowly dig the soil under the stone marked “Andrew”.
Her exertions were slow and laborious, for her muscles had atrophied under the
ravages of rheumatism. Her goal was fortunately not far from the surface—a tiny
casket. She cradled it, sobbed and apologized over and over, and then cleaned it
with her sore hands before placing it reverently in the trunk of the car.
Neal had been attending mass all the while and feeling that even the officiating
priest was startled to see the new face of a young man sitting alone in a pew. Neal
had not gotten out of the church before the priest had made his way to the front.
“I’m always cheered to see a new face in the church. I’m Father O’Lann,” the
priest said, approaching Neal with great heartfulness, “I talked with your mother
earlier this morning. I’ve heard about the fire. Quite a show, huh?”
Neal found himself wary of succumbing to the priest’s cheerfully solicitous
banter, but saw an opportunity to satisfy a pricking curiosity. “The grave site near
the house that burned, is that only family graves?” he inquired.
“Yes, and strange it is, don’t you think, that they lie out there in a wheat field.
The family should have moved the graves to the churchyard a long time ago.”
A wry smile then came over the priest, “I heard the graveyard got scorched as
well. What a shame. Your grandmother always insisted on not being cremated, and
now it’s happened.”
Both men smiled at the irreverent joke, but they had scarcely time to get in a
laugh before Neal was interjecting another question. “Father, who is the ‘Andrew’
buried there?”
 The priest, still jovial from the reverberations of own joke, answered, “I’m
surprised you don’t know. Your mother never mentioned him? He was a stillborn
child—died in birth—quite a pity. Your mother was very depressed afterward and
grieved a long time. She may have blamed herself. But God, in his mercy, must
have pitied her, because a little over a year later he gave her twin boys to replace
the one she lost.”
A solemnity came over the priest suddenly, and he looked squarely at the young
man. “She was always very sensitive on the subject, and I advise you not to bring it
up. But I’m glad you know now,” he said, a smile returning to his face, “God gave
you an older brother.”
Neal was not sure how to respond, but his mother’s graveside words, “Others
will never take your place,” became suddenly clearer to him.

CHAPTER 9

During Colna’s Morrisville trip, Robanna was quite leery of remaining in the
house with the son whom Colna described as “mentally ill”, and Robanna kept a
wary eye on the telephone in case he perpetrated an “emergency”.
Patrick, for his part, seemed to give her little heed, and when in the house would
remain in his spacious room on the third floor.
Perhaps as a symptom of his all-too-apparent mania, Patrick was highly
gregarious, and would often walk to the bus stop and go downtown to meet friends
or to play basketball at the YMCA for hours on end. While his mother was gone,
however, he began entertaining women on the third floor. Some would stay for a
short time, some the entire night. That was something Colna would have never
tolerated, but Robanna felt powerless to object.
Patrick had obviously inherited the sexual voraciousness of his father, but
fortunately for him he had not produced a string of progeny as a record of his
devotion to sex.
The exact nature of Patrick’s mental illness was not clear to Robanna, but his
incessant talking and his ignorance of standard behavior made her feel there was
indeed something mentally wrong. Colna had told her that a group of state
psychologists had declared him incapable of supporting himself—and in any case,
he seemed little interested in anything more than pursuing an endless teenage
summer, playing basketball all day and hanging out with like-minded young men
until late in the evenings.
 Colna treated him as if he were incapable of assuming any responsibilities and
trusted him only to carry her baggage and do yard work, when she could manage to
find him at home.
Robanna noticed that Patrick’s nightly trysts started on the day Colna left for
Morrisville. Her first clue that a date was about to arrive was the sound of water
hitting the walls of Patrick’s shower on the third floor. Minutes after the shower
stopped, the front door bell would ring, and Patrick, oozing cologne, would come
bounding down the stairs to greet his new assignation. Occasionally this scenario
would repeat itself a couple times in one night, and it wasn’t long before Robanna,
witnessing it all from the living room couch, became disgusted with his
insatiability.
On the fourth night Robanna was sitting in the living room watching television
as usual, and heard the customary sound of a shower running on the third floor. For
some reason Patrick’s timing had been poor, and the doorbell rang before the
shower had stopped running.
Robanna’s first thought was to call up the stairs to Patrick to answer the door,
but, sorely tired of his routine, she decided to open the door and greet his new date
herself.
At the door stood what looked like little more than a high school freshman. The
girl asked for “Jaguar”.
“You mean Patrick?” Robanna asked.
“Yes . . . ah, I guess,” was the girl’s sheepish reply.
As the shower was still running upstairs, Robanna invited the girl into the living
room, set her in an armchair, and sized up the girl’s utter youth. While the girl
smiled gamely in obvious discomfort, Robanna’s indignity swelled. Patrick’s
luring to the house one woman after another—until Robanna felt she were living in
a whorehouse—was bad enough, but inviting an underage girl was too much.
Robanna felt sorry for the girl too, and could not understand how she could allow
herself to be lured to a man’s home at her age.
Robanna was eager to find out the girl’s real age.
“Are you a college student?”
“No, I . . . ah, haven’t committed myself,” the girl replied evasively.
“So you’re still at home, huh?”
“Yes.”
“Do you go out to bars and clubs often?”
“Oh no, never.”
 “Have you ever been to a dance club?”
“No, I’m not into that kind of thing.”
“Oh, I see. What kind of work do you do?”
“Well, I’m job hunting right now. The girl’s answers did nothing to allay
Robanna’s suspicions that she was underage, and she was determined to continue
the interrogation despite the girl’s obvious apprehensiveness.
The sudden appearance of Patrick, hair still wet from the shower, saved the girl
any further embarrassment, and she appeared very much relieved when he came
into the room. Patrick’s manly good looks obviously pleased the girl, and she rose
quickly from her seat and riveted her attention on him, as if Robanna were not
even in the room.
When Robanna saw how willful the girl was, Robanna began to think that
perhaps it was not Patrick but the girl who had arranged this risky liaison. “Patrick,
could I talk with you a minute,” Robanna said, approaching him and grasping his
shoulder.
Patrick had already sensed the girl’s eagerness and could not bear the thought of
the home health worker interposing herself and scaring away his catch. “Let’s go
upstairs,” he said to the girl, who was by now almost clinging to his belt.
“Patrick, I must talk to you,” Robanna insisted.
“Oh go back to your T.V. I’ll talk to you later about whatever it is,” he said,
moving his shoulder out of Robanna’s grasp and putting his hands on his new
friend’s hips and guiding her to the stairs. Robanna’s self-righteousness had been
challenged and she reared herself up for a confrontation.
“How old are you?” she said gruffly and insistently to the girl as she blocked the
stairs with her large girth.
“Eighteen.”
“Let me see your I.D.”
Patrick stood speechless in fury.
“I don’t have my I.D.,” the girl replied insolently.
Patrick had by now reluctantly resigned himself to Robanna’s inspecting his
date, for as much as he would love to escort the girl to his room, if she were
underage he would now risk knowingly consorting with a minor.
“I’ve gotta go,” the girl said finally, “This is getting weird.” And with that she
hurried to the door and walked quickly to her car—a big and stately vehicle
obviously borrowed from a parent. Patrick made no effort to persuade her to stop.
But after she had gone he erupted in anger, telling Robanna to mind her own
business and threatening her were she to try something like that again.
“You want to go to jail, Patrick?” Robanna shouted. The two then yelled and
threatened until both were exhausted.
After his initial feeling of outrage had subsided Patrick was prepared to admit
that Robanna had saved him from the perils of statutory rape. His good nature
finally prevailed, and he mumbled “Thank you . . . I guess I’m just bad seed. I
can’t trust myself sometimes.”
“Where did you meet her?” asked Robanna, still wondering about where Patrick
had met so many women.
“On the Internet.”
“The Internet! I didn’t know you had a computer,” she replied, startled.
Somehow she had seen him as too mentally handicapped to use a computer.
“Where, in your room?”
“In my study.”
“A study—you!” she scoffed.
Patrick quickly answered her cynicism with a challenge to go up to the third
floor to see, and suppressing her dignity, Robanna agreed, though in climbing the
stairs she couldn’t help but think of the many Internet harlots who had preceded
her up those stairs in recent days.
Patrick had the three rooms on the top floor to himself, and one of them he had
indeed made into a study. Robanna found a room filled with computer equipment
and bookshelves of computer software and programming manuals. “This is yours?”
she said disbelieving.
“So this is the mentally retarded son,” she thought to herself, amazed at how
much she had underestimated him. Patrick took great delight in hearing her gasp in
astonishment. He pridefully showed her the lewd web page he had designed for
himself and talked with her about the friends he regularly conversed with online.
Robanna pretended to shield her eyes but could not hide her enthusiasm for his
computer hobby, and there soon developed a rapport between them.
Whatever her sincerity, however, Robanna was quick to see that the growing
warmth in their conversation presented an opportunity to satisfy her curiosities
about his mother.
“You have a nice place here—lots of room to yourself—a nice big house. Your
mother must have had some money before. How did she lose it?” Robanna
interposed abruptly.
 Patrick was beginning to feel comfortable with the home health worker but he
remained poignantly aware of his mother’s stern interdiction of any discussion of
the family finances. Nonetheless he decided to offer his new admirer a token tidbit
of information—the meaning of which would doubtless never occur to her. “She
hasn’t a penny . . . IN HER OWN NAME,” he said, and, with that, feigned
ignorance to all her further questions of a similar vein.

CHAPTER 10

Neal and his mother had exchanged only polite conversation on the plane. Neal
dared not mention the events of the fire for fear of bringing into the open the
appalling and frightful suggestion that his mother’s selfish recklessness in locking
him in the house had almost brought about his death.
He was afraid that were he to bring up the subject, she would be obstinately
unapologetic—and that would confirm his feelings that she was in fact uncaring or
at worst aggressively hostile.
Since he had done nothing that would warrant anything malicious from her, it did
seem truly impossible that she could have locked the door, anyway. Yet, as he lay
in bed in his apartment during the night of his return from Morrisville, he could not
sleep for thoughts that, without devoted parents, he would be left an emotional
orphan with no ultimate source of support to fall back upon in the last resort.
Neal arrived at the lab exhausted, but nonetheless had planned a full day for
himself and his lab assistant. He would try to sneak in the one last experimental
session with one of the cats. Sarzolian had told him their project was complete, but
Neal wanted to run one more experimental session to confirm his data. Sarzolian
would not approve of that, but Neal would keep his lab door closed, and Sarzolian,
who was extremely busy anyway, would never be the wiser.
His lab assistant had already arrived and was tidying up the lab. She was cheerful
as usual, and Neal felt relieved to hear her call out a friendly hello.
The assistant naturally wanted to know the details of Neal’s recent trip. Neal was
loath to describe particulars of the house burning, but since that was the dramatic
high point of the trip, he could not resist describing it. The assistant was very
touched by his recounting of Colna on her knees in front of the grave of her
stillborn. After some pause, however, Neal told the eagerly listening woman about
his suspicion that his mother had in fact deliberately locked him in the house.
 The reaction Neal’s suspicion raised in the assistant was totally unexpected. Her
sympathy vanished and immediately an almost ferocious look of disgust took hold
of her. “How could you say such a terrible thing about your mother? You are an
awful son.”
Neal was taken aback by the woman’s stridency, and fatigued and irritable,
became antagonistic. “You don’t know my mother.”
“I know she fed you and took care of you when you were sick.”
Well, actually, when I was sick she would usually tell me I could stay home in
bed but that she wasn’t going to cancel her social plans to stay home.”
“You’re exaggerating. There are no mothers like that. She gave you life. You
should be grateful and never suggest anything negative about her.”
The assistant then began reciting a long list of the traits of an ideal mother. “She
soothed you when you were upset. She listened to your ideas and talked with you
about them. She protected you from danger. She trained you in the lessons you
needed to succeed. She encouraged you to learn. She gave you values. She
supported your goals . . .”
The assistant expressed her convictions so passionately and with such a sense of
affront that Neal began to feel that perhaps he was being ungrateful to suggest
anything uncomplimentary about his mother. Indeed, he recognized in his own
mother all the traits on the assistant’s list. That he could not deny. However, what
he recalled more distinctly was her negation of so many of those traits: her
discouraging, her laxness, her derision and aloofness, her agitating and enraging,
her confusing and withholding—her neglect and her wrath.
“You’re right,” Neal confessed, “I guess I shouldn’t say anything negative about
my mother. . . . Your mother’s lucky to have such a devoted daughter.”
“I’m the one who’s lucky—to have a mother. I will never pay off my debt to
her,” she said sharply and turned quickly away indignantly.
The conversation had turned rather sour, and Neal was anxious to turn the
conversation to work-related matters. “Could you help me set up the cat from last
week for one more round of tests? I think we can finish that this morning.”
“Neal, the cats all died the day you left for vacation,” the assistant said
peremptorily, as if still annoyed.
Neal suddenly felt as powerless and vulnerable as if sentenced to death. He had
left for a week, and when he returned he was no longer in control of even his own
lab.
 “But you were finished with the project anyway, so you didn’t need them,
right?” she said sympathetically, seeing how upset he had become and pitying him.
“I wanted to do one more experiment. I wasn’t finished with them!” he yelled,
“What happened!?”
“Well the animal attendant found them dead in the cages when she went to carry
them downstairs to the central vivarium. She put the bodies in the freezer, so you
could examine them if you want, but since the project is over . . . ah, we’re using
rats in Sarzolian’s next project, anyway.”
“Okay . . . thanks,” he muttered, and then hurriedly left the lab, going
immediately to the central vivarium in the basement of the medical complex.
The lab assistant was horrified when moments later he returned with their frozen
corpses in thick plastic bags. “Neal, why don’t you just forget the cats. It was
probably a quick spreading bug of some kind—what does it matter?”
“We’ll see,” he said, and put the bags in a sink to thaw.
Neal moved to his desk and sat there mute. “Sarzolian had the cats destroyed.”
The thought coursed through his mind until he become fixated on it. As much as he
tried to push the idea aside, as ludicrous as it was, it came back the more
forcefully. There was little he could do about his paranoid delusions but to allow
himself the silly exercise of having the cats’ blood tested. The scenario of
Sarzolian ordering his lab animals “sacrificed” with secobarbital—after ordering
him to take a week off—played irresistibly on his mind. As he stared into the
confines of his lab, Neal realized his childhood fantasy of controlling his own
destiny as an adult had not yet happened, and may never happen at the university.
If not for Sarzolian’s constant intervention, then for the intervention of the
National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation or the medical
school dean or whoever might step in to micro-manage his career.
All the same, he had to consider himself fortunate to have received his position
as an assistant research professor at the university. How did he get the position,
anyway? Was it talent or luck? Of course it was mostly luck. He had had the right
credentials at the right time and applied at the right place. Maybe he had been
selected almost at random. His first bit of luck got him the position. What kind of
luck would keep him at the university? Perhaps self-promotion, but more likely the
right mental disposition—to tolerate the ever present controls.
In the afternoon, participants in Sarzolian’s new grant project met in Sarzolian’s
main lab. Neal’s suspicions lingered, and throughout the meeting he could think of
nothing but confronting Sarzolian about the death of his cats.
 Sarzolian seemed very surprised when Neal approached him about the subject
and through his expression of astonishment quite convinced Neal he had not even
known about the cats’ deaths. “I don’t even use drugs to sacrifice my lab animals
—too expensive for use on rats. We use a guillotine. You didn’t find the cats
decapitated, did you?” he said with a smirk.
Sarzolian then dismissed Neal’s worries with an expression Neal had gotten tired
of hearing, “Just forget the cats, Neal. That is over.”
Upon returning to his lab Neal found his assistant waiting to upbraid him. “I
can’t believe you mentioned those cats to Sarzolian. He told you before that the
project is over. It sounded almost like you were accusing him of killing them. Neal,
Sarzolian deserves more respect from you. He’s given you your position. He’s
gotten you published several times. Don’t be so ungrateful!”
If his assistant were not so likable and sincere, Neal would have shut his mind to
her constant allusions to his ingratitude—first toward his mother—now toward the
P.I. Neal was beginning to suspect himself of being too obsessed with his own
goals and too paranoid to even feel gratitude. He was only able to stem the rising
feelings of guilt and even self-loathing by picking up the phone and dialing his
mother. “Mom, I’m coming to take you out for coffee,” he said to the astonished
Colna.
“Are you sure,” Colna replied, reluctantly, “I have to go to the bank but will be
back at 4:00.”
“Okay, I’ll be waiting for you at home,” he said sweetly.
Overhearing the conversation, the lab assistant smiled at Neal with encouraging
approval.
Before leaving, Neal decided not to leave the lab that day without completely
ridding himself of any suspicions regarding the death of his lab animals, and so
dialed the pathology laboratory. “This is Neal Mackart. Do you have blood test
results on my cats? Did you find any drugs—or infection?” he asked.
“Yes, secobarbital,” was the reply.
The lab assistant was still smiling as Neal was leaving the room. He turned to her
before leaving. “I’m asking you to tell me the truth. Who killed the cats with
secobarbital? Was it Sarzolian’s idea?”
The assistant was too surprised to answer and she merely looked at him with
long, silent pity, until in frustration he merely walked out the door.

CHAPTER 11
 Upon her return from Morrisville Colna had noticed that a decided rapport
between Patrick and her home health worker had occurred in her absence.
That afternoon Colna had called for a taxi and was preparing to leave for the
bank. She could now hear the two of them talking and laughing and otherwise
enjoying far too much conviviality in the kitchen—almost if they had suddenly
become lovers. Colna guffawed aloud at the thought of any degrading amours
between the two of them, especially considering Robanna’s huge size. “He’s a
horny bastard,” she thought to herself, “but thank god he doesn’t have to settle for
the likes of her.”
Colna burst into the kitchen with a vigorous push to the door, which had the
desired effect of creating a pause in the hilarities.
“What are you two doing in here?”
“She’s giving me some cooking lessons,” Patrick said, the echoes of the prior
merriment still radiating from his face.
“Well, you should learn a trade of some kind,” Colna said with disgusted gravity.
“Maybe you could send me to cooking school,” he replied.
“You can earn your own money and send yourself to school. I can’t just throw
money around at my age.”
“Then what were you doing spending my inheritance money taking a trip to
Morrisville,” he retorted gamely.
Colna angrily reached into her oversized purse, pulled out a well-stuffed leather
satchel and, walking to the sink, began cramming money into the garbage disposal.
Before Patrick could stop her she had flicked the switch and shredded the bills to
mulch.
“This is what I’d rather do with the money than leave any to you or your brother.
Earn your own!” she said, taking in with satisfaction the look of horror created on
her son’s face.
Robanna, especially, was riveted by this display and tried almost desperately to
see the denominations of the bills Colna was stuffing into the disposal. Her eyes
had been eager and quick, but it was only after Colna had dramatically stomped out
of the room that she realized that what she had seen were not dollars at all, but
pesos.
“What’s she doing with pesos?” she asked Patrick.
Patrick seemed caught off guard by the question, and stopped himself before
answering.
 “I don’t know.”
Robanna wondered to herself with a harrumph, “Is she stashing her dough in
Mexico?”
Neal had arrived about that time, and had missed his mother by a few minutes.
Patrick had started on a manic disquisition on his mother’s various abuses. “I’d
like to see her without any of her money—snivelingly grateful to us for every
penny we might give her. Better yet, I’d like to have her mountain of gold myself,
without having to deal with her. Well maybe we’d keep her around to maintain her
government benefits. It’d be nice to put her in a big bird cage, and make her sign
checks over to me. Every week, if she’d be good, I let her out and walk around and
fluff up her feathers a little, and then make her clean out her cage. Or better than
that, I’d give her a drug to paralyze her before she woke up in the morning, and
then put her on some kind of intravenous feeder, or maybe I would have her
stuffed so I could just prop her in the window so the neighbors would think she
was still around.”
Robanna had turned away, and heading for the television, was scarcely listening.
Her blatant show of inattention was no deterrent to him though, and Patrick
continued without pause, “That sounds pretty awful for a son to say, huh,
Robanna? You seem like a decent woman, and you’re thinking to yourself, “He’s
pretty scary.” Well come on, who wouldn’t be at least a little happy to see a
relative—even one you really like—kick the bucket and leave you a little dough,
huh? Admit it? I remember once when I was a child my grandmother was at the
airport going home, and she was buying insurance, and we kids kept encouraging
her to buy more, because we could see the payout would be huge for each dollar of
insurance she bought. And she didn’t seem too happy about how eager we were,
and I know she was imagining us hoping the plane would crash so we could cash
in. And you know, she was right. When the plane took off, we were on the
observation deck screaming ‘Crash! Crash, baby, crash!’”
Neal came into the living room where Robanna had just turned on the television.
Patrick was still talking, “. . . and if I had children, I’d share what I had with them,
after all, I would owe them something for the joy they gave me and for forcing
them to obey me like slaves . . .”
“What’s he talking about,” Neal asked Robanna, while Patrick continued to
prattle in the background.
“Oh, your mother tried to make him mad by putting a bunch of money down the
garbage disposal after he talked about inheriting money from her.” Robanna turned
off the television and looked at Neal in exasperation. “Why do you take that kind
of abuse from her?”
“She’s our mother. We owe her respect, regardless,” Neal answered defensively.
“Well, she doesn’t treat you like her sons.”
Robanna hesitated for a moment, then continued, “I think she must be on some
kind of drug. Nobody’s that horrible—naturally. Maybe it’s her rheumatoid
medicine. It could be anything—she’s got a huge hoard of drugs in her bedroom.
“What do you mean ‘huge hoard’?”
“Hundreds of bottles of drugs.”
Neal’s curiosity was now quite aroused, for he hadn’t known his mother was so
medicated.
Robanna offered to lead him to the hoard—and leaving Patrick downstairs—they
went up to his mother’s room.
Just as Robanna had said, in a cupboard Neal found hundreds of bottles of
prescription and herbal medications—prescriptions written by tens of different
doctors—plus a variety of applicators: syringes, droppers, enema bottles and
medicated bandages—even an old-fashioned mortar and pestle. As he examined
the labels he was shocked at the enormous variety of medications. But after a time
he came to realize that most of them were psychoactive drugs—sedatives,
stimulants of various degrees—amphetamines, caffeine, theobromine, ephedrine—
anti-psychotics, hypnotics and for her rheumatism—steroids, anti-inflammatories
and immunosuppressants. Suddenly Neal snatched up a nearly empty bottle from
the cupboard, and read the label carefully.
“Secobarbital,” he said aloud in surprise. This vial is from my lab!”
The connection between his mother’s tidbits for the cats and this mostly empty
vial became instantly clear to him, but he had hardly a chance to allow the horror
of it to fully engulf him before he heard his mother’s voice in the entry hall. She
was in a fury and was saying something about a new manager at the bank so she
couldn’t make a deposit.
Neal and Robanna looked at each other in a startled panic and began shoving
bottles back into the cupboard, as they heard her dragging herself slowly up the
stairs. There was no way for them to leave the old woman’s bedroom without her
seeing them from the top of the stairs.
“Put your arms around me,” Robanna whispered loudly, “It’s our only chance of
distracting her.”
 Neal hesitated but when he heard his mother’s footsteps approaching in the hall,
he obeyed, and it was face to face with their arms around each other that Colna
discovered them.
Standing in the open doorway, the old woman was so struck by the sight of her
son, the Ph.D., a university research scientist, with his arms around the plain and
rotund home health worker, that the fact that she had caught them in her bedroom
hardly seemed to occur to her.
The pair appeared to be startled by her presence and quickly unlatched to receive
her rebuke.
“No wonder you never talk about any romances, Neal, if this is your taste. Really
. . . I can’t believe what I’m seeing. As always, Neal, you disappoint me,” she said
in disgust, contorting her face until it resembled a piece of rotting fruit.
The pair prepared to make a quick exit from the room, and bowed their heads
in mock sheepishness. But just as quickly as the incident had begun, Colna’s
expression had suddenly turned to nonplussed, and she lifted her hand to stop
them. “I’m going to the house in Mexico next week, and I’m not taking anyone.
Robanna, if you don’t mind Neal’s advances then you two can do whatever while
I’m gone, otherwise, with he and his brother around, I’d barricade myself in my
room if I were you. . . . Anyway, I’ve arranged for a job for Patrick through a
handicapped program so he’ll be away during the day at least. . . . Now the two of
you, get out of my bedroom. Why you picked this room for your dalliance, I can
only imagine with revulsion!”

CHAPTER 12

In many ways both the inmates and lower level employees at the Tuscana Elder
Care Resort were indistinguishable. Although younger than the paying residents,
the lower staff also had handicaps that prevented them from living alone. They had
been recruited from the ranks of the disabled by an organization seductively named
“Work Dignifies the Disabled”. When visitors questioned the wisdom of forcing
some of the mentally or physically handicapped to work in such a depressing
environment, “Work Dignifies the Disabled” would make the rejoinder that “not
everyone with a handicap can be supported by the state anymore”, and that
seeming truism would usually preempt any further objections.
Elders in wheelchairs might find themselves served by a younger attendant
who was also bound to a wheelchair, a hearing impaired old man by a young man
born without hearing, or an old woman with Alzheimer’s by a young woman with
Down Syndrome.
The fact that state psychologists had pronounced Patrick unfit for employment
because of his mania and immature delusions, allowed him to enter the program.
Although in his middle thirties, his mother had convinced him to take the position
as a sort of summer job, so he could have some spending money while playing
basketball all winter.
Of course managing such a collection of staff and inmates would be a
nightmare for a normal person, but the Tuscana’s owner always found a tireless
and compulsive micro-manager for whom barking ceaseless petty orders at staff
and residents alike was an ego-fed nirvana.
Patrick’s mania made him naturally gregarious, and he was welcomed by many
residents as a rare, lively spark in what was otherwise a stupefying environment
focused on pain and mortality. He was an enthusiastic organizer of parlor games at
the Tuscana, although once he had organized a group, he was loath to leave them
on their own and would have to be shushed away by the manager.
“Patrick, why are you having them kick that bucket back and forth—is this
supposed to be some kind of game? We have a professional to plan the games.
Stick to your job,” Becky, the manager, said with hushed severity, “Go get the
dishes and do any cleanup in Suite K.”
At the first sign of Patrick’s usual long-winded excuse for playing longer,
Becky raised her hand and pointed a finger in the direction of the suite in which he
was to serve.
Inside Suite K a husband and wife had just arrived to pay a weekly visit to a
demented woman who was the mother to one of them. Their older model car
looked somewhat incongruous in the Tuscana’s parking lot, among the lavish and
carefully tended foliage, the tile-lined walkways and ornate building facades—
decked in heavy terracotta window surrounds, with roofline architraves, and
painted a warm though sedate burnt orange—in keeping with its Italianate scheme.
When the mother, now a Tuscana inmate, was still fully in possession of her
marbles, she had invested the family fortune in a lifetime non-transferable lease on
a suite of rooms at the Tuscana, which she could occupy upon reaching 75 until her
death. Of course some purchasers of such leases never reached the eligibility age,
and therein lay the profit to its investors. The mother had unfortunately begun to
lose her faculties at just the age at which she became eligible for her suite, which
was coincidentally a good thing for her children, who were thus secure in knowing
she would be cared for and die in just the manner she had wanted: in dignity and
splendor, in case any of her social friends and society rivals were still alive to envy
the respectability of her last days.
Of course, not so comforting to the children is that their parents’ entire estate—
begun in the fortunate years after the war when most of the world lie economically
prostrate and Americans were without competition in the world marketplace—was
in this way conveyed to the Tuscana’s proprietors. But it would have been selfish
and unseemly for them to have complained about their mother’s decision to invest
in a respectable death at the Tuscana.
As Patrick knocked and entered, the startled inmate of Suite K, dressed in a
long, youthful, pleated dress pulled tightly at the waste, and a yellow cashmere
cardigan with sleeves pulled nonchalantly over the wrists, confronted him, “What
are you doing in my house? I haven’t invited you!”
Patrick had been trained in the magic phrases that would reassure the demented
woman. “I’m just one of the catering staff, ma’am.”
“Well, all right then, but can’t you be a little less conspicuous while I’m
entertaining.”
Patrick picked up the dishes and placed them in a battered tub on a trolley. The
woman turned to her guests. “Don’t tell my husband I’m having this luncheon. He
thinks I’m spending the whole day doing laundry and baking bread—just like his
mother used to do. But with my Kelvinator washer and dryer and Swanson’s
supermarket . . .,” she cupped her hand to her face and whispered, “. . . I really
don’t have that much to do.”
“Couldn’t you go to work and help pay some of the family’s bills?” her son
asked her snidely.
Seeing that her husband was merely goading his sick mother into continuing
with her demented nonsense, the wife scolded him, “That’s cruel to lead her on
like that.”
The husband waived his wife’s comments away with his hand, and looked
eagerly to his mother for her response.
“Go to work!?” the demented woman announced in a tone of arch-indignity,
“Everyone would think my husband couldn’t earn enough if they saw he had a
wife who worked. And besides . . . I’ve got to take care of the children.”
Her son continued with his cynical interrogation, while his wife looked away in
disgust, “But I hardly ever see you with your kids,” he said with mock earnestness.
 “Well, . . .” she paused with a moment’s guilt that was quickly overcome with
an easy rationalization, “we have institutions for that . . . schools, churches, boys’
and girls’ clubs. Children ought to be out socializing. It builds character. And
besides, with so much new knowledge around, how could I be expected to teach
my children anything!?” The demented woman looked for a break in the
conversation, and so barked at Patrick. “Caterer, don’t you see my guests’ drinks
are empty. Can’t you keep the glasses filled, for god’s sake?”
Patrick looked with amusement at the empty hands of the husband and wife.
Pulling an empty glass from the tub, he handed it to the wife, who promptly put it
down.
“This is getting ridiculous,” the wife said with exasperation.
Patrick decided to join the conversation. “I wouldn’t mind living here myself.
‘Tuscana’—where did they get that name, anyway. Sounds kind of southern.”
Patrick then assumed an exaggerated, old fashioned southern accent. ”‘Oh, yeah,
she was quite a beauty, the old plantation house—yep! called her ‘Tuscana’”
The husband and wife looked at each other in amazement that the aide would
somehow join the conversation with such nonsense, but there was no stopping him
since he met no resistance.
“I know what you’re thinking, ‘This pathetic low class peon ought to just do
his job and shut up.’ We’ll maybe you’re right. But my mother’s got a fortune
tucked away, and if she doesn’t spend it all on a place like this—maybe I’ll be
spending my last days here, myself.”
The husband found himself lured into condescending to join the aide’s train of
thought. “Well, my mother’s already spent her last dime on this place. I could have
bought a small business with what she spent on this place. And look at her! She
thinks she’s back in her 1950’s tract home,” the husband interjected.
“. . . Keep the libido alive and keep the brain alive, that’s what I think,” Patrick
was continuing. I’m youthful and that’s why I won’t lose my marbles.”
The demented woman interrupted. “Young man, please just serve the guests.
Don’t try to engage them in a lot of chit chat. Don’t they train you caterers?!”
Patrick closed his mouth, but silently continued his monologue and waited for
another opportunity to let his disorganized thoughts pour out.
The husband now saw a chance to return to his cynical banter with his mother.
“I hear you get invitations to all the women’s clubs. But don’t you wish you could
spend more time at home. You must be very busy at home.”
 “I’ve got machines to do the housework, thank god. And that’s all that’s
expected of me. I’d die of boredom if I stayed at home.”
“ . . . But your children . . .”
“My clubs do charity work. We’re important to the community! I’m sure the
children understand that.”
The wife was now becoming very impatient. “Stop needling her. I can see
she’s getting defensive. You’re going to upset her in a minute.”
“Don’t worry,” the husband replied, “She’s in a dream world. She loves it
when people play along with her.”
“You’re not playing with her. You’re just trying to get her to say, in so many
words, that she is a selfish pig for spending all the family money on this place.”
“Well, if she doesn’t like the conversation, she can just change the subject.”
His wife, sat down in a chair with a resigned thump, and looked out at the
landscaping, while her husband continued his sententious conversation, unchecked.
“Your husband seems very successful. I hope he’s sharing everything with
you!”
“Oh yes! Of course I have to earn it with a little feminine charm—and for
god’s sake I certainly earn it by putting up with him! I let him make all the
decisions,” she said with a coy wink. The demented woman smiled with a wry
charm that belied her decrepit mental state.
Patrick could no longer stand silent, and so tried to insinuate himself into the
conversation with a gratuitous question, “Sir, do you play sports?”
“I don’t have time—why?”
“If I lived here—I’d insist on more sports. I would have a basketball court set
up. You’re thinking I’m crazy, and maybe I am—I mean the state psychologist put
that on my record—after talking to me for only 4 minutes. I think he only gave me
four minutes to prove my sanity because he was in a hurry to go to lunch. I could
smell food cooking at the cafeteria during our interview, and I could tell he could
smell it too, because he kept raising his head and kind of sniffing the air—you
know—like a dog would do. Look at these old people around here, hardly able to
get out of a chair. They need to loosen their muscles with a little basketball that’s
all. If I sit around for a long time, I get stiff too.”
“Don’t you have some other work to do,” the man’s wife called out at Patrick
from her chair.
“Keep her glass full! She shouldn’t have to beg you like that!” the demented
woman barked.
 Oblivious to Patrick’s manic outpourings, the husband had one more barb to
stick into his mentally dimmed and unsuspecting mother. “You and your husband
are quite successful—financially I mean.” The mother nodded appreciatively.
“Have you set up a trust for your children or anything?”
“With times so good—why would we need to set up a trust? They can earn
their own money. If someone can’t succeed by themselves in this day and age—
they’d have to be a real loser—whom no one could help!”
“She’s hopeless. She never has believed that her generation was merely lucky
—not for one minute. She obviously had a rationale for everything she did. No
wonder she doesn’t feel any guilt about not sharing. When she sees me drive up in
a 10-year-old car, all she can think to say is, ‘Isn’t it time you got a new car?’”
Patrick was still prattling on with his vision for the Tuscana. He was directing
his conversation at the wife who was the only one seeming to pay any attention to
him. She would occasionally look up at him in vexation. “And to keep their
libido’s active, I’d hire good looking young women to bathe in the swimming pool.
The old guys could look but not touch. They’d have to work out their desires on
their fellow old ladies. . . .”
There was a knock, and the door to the room opened suddenly. Becky, the
manager, stood with a stern expression in the doorway. “Patrick, are you still in
here? All you should be doing is picking up the dishes. I could hear you talking
even out in the hall. Please leave these people alone.”
“We’re going now, anyway,” the wife said summarily, as she came to her feet
quickly.
Becky took Patrick to her office and fired him. “Patrick, you just spend too
much time socializing and not enough time doing work. I’ve warned you
repeatedly, and now I’m giving up.”
“You mean I’m not retarded enough to be exploited, huh?”
“I don’t think you’re retarded, but obviously no one has ever trained you to
survive in the work world. Didn’t anybody give you values or teach you restraint?
You seem like the type that somebody has always mocked or held at a distance.
That’s made you too aggressive about getting attention. Whatever it is, you should
call your family now to come to get you.”
“Well, Becky, you’re right, and I don’t blame you for firing me. I’m angry at
my mother for putting me up for this job.”
 Patrick’s volubility had once again been ignited, and Becky consoled herself
with the thought that this would be the last day she would have to listen to his
prattle.
“The phone is on my desk, Patrick, go ahead and call your home. I will go get
your check,” Becky called behind as she hurried from the room.

CHAPTER 13

Neal had found, to his disbelief, the evidence that indicted his mother in the
death of his lab animals. Though convinced of her guilt, he agonized over the
question of why she had done it. She had never especially supported his
intellectual interests, seeing them as unmanly and insular. She had been afraid that
he would appear as a freak of sorts to her social friends, as indeed he may have.
His mother would have much preferred him to have grown up as a child-athlete,
like his twin, and highly sociable—so as to provide her with opportunities to meet
other parents and increase her social circle. She never met anybody through his
intellectual hobbies.
She was aggressive, but why so malicious as to try to sabotage his research?
He debated whether to confront her, but knew she would become a tower of
deceitful rage and indignation, and more than that, would use the opportunity to
question again his mental solvency. “Perhaps,” he meekly rationalized to himself,
“I will not confront her . . . only because of the debt I owe as her child.” That rosy
thought rang falsely in his ears, but served as an adequate excuse for inaction.
For the time being, he would busy himself with Sarzolian’s new research
project, and try to keep the cracks in his mental structure from undermining his
career.

CHAPTER 14

“I will certainly miss having the baby with me in Mexico,” Colna sighed to
Robanna as the old woman held the nervous infant in her lap. “Wish you’d trust
me to take the thing with me.”
The infant lay stiff and lifeless in the old woman’s arms, with a pronounced
look of dread on its face that had become more pronounced as it had grown.
 “Mrs. Mack, I hate to say it, but I think you’re overhandling the baby. Your
putting her in and out of her crib all day is exhausting her. You never let her
sleep.”
Colna angrily swept the child from her lap onto the couch, and got to her feet.
“Put your baby away,” she said haughtily, “And clean the bathrooms upstairs,
including the third floor. Patrick’s working now—he doesn’t have time to do the
work you’re being paid to do. And when you’re finished, report to me for more
tasks.” The old woman then dragged herself stiffly toward the kitchen.
Robanna reached for her baby on the couch, who was now crying plaintively.
Considering Colna’s poor mood, Robanna thought she ought to feed the baby some
of the breast pump milk from the refrigerator so as to save time. Robanna did not
like to breast feed the child all the time and so used a breast pump to store milk,
which she then kept in a container in the refrigerator. Fearing Colna would bark
some further humiliating orders at her, Robanna gingerly opened the swinging
door into the kitchen from the dining room. She peered through the narrow
opening to see if Colna was still in the kitchen.
Indeed she was. Robanna watched as the old woman lifted the container of
breast milk to her mouth, and drank with considerable thirst. The old woman then
refilled the container with cow’s milk, and wiping her mouth, exited the kitchen
via the back hall.
“That sick old vulture,” Robanna thought, “No wonder the baby seems weak
lately.”
Robanna was not one to quit a job out of indignation and self-pity even under
the worst sort of abuse. She would stay on and exact whatever revenge an abusive
employer might deserve. Her immediate thought was to dope the milk with some
medications from Colna’s own drug hoard. She would have to be careful not to kill
the old woman, but just give her an overdose to frighten her.
Robanna nursed her baby and discarded the cow’s milk from the baby’s milk
container, and then, struggling to do the bending and kneeling required, cleaned the
bathrooms.
Making best use of the tasks imposed on her, while cleaning her employer’s
bathroom, she went into the old woman’s bedroom and took a handful of pills from
a full vial in the drug hoard. Later she ground them into a powder, using a rolling
pin and a plastic bag in the kitchen.
That evening, after Colna had retired, she used the breast pump to fill the baby’s
milk container, and mixed in the medication. She had picked a medication at
random, and unbeknownst to her had doped the milk with a large dose of
prednisone—an immunosuppressant corticosteroid that Colna took occasionally in
small doses to combat especially bad flares of rheumatism.
Colna had awoken early and had taken a generous swig from the baby’s milk
container. She had noticed an odd taste to the milk and had carped to herself about
what kind of ethnic food Robanna must have eaten to give it such a flavor.
When she came into the kitchen later that morning, Robanna had duly noted the
substitution of cow’s milk for her own in the container because of the now
noticeable changes in color and level, but to her disappointment, noticed no ill-
effects on her employer. If anything, Colna seemed in a radiant mood.
Colna had many things to do before leaving for Mexico, but flitted through her
errands like a bird on a breeze, even humming to herself and, while shopping,
acting coquettishly with perplexed store personnel—like a young girl. She was
ravenous, too, and ate a huge lunch. Most noticeably, Colna’s joints no longer
ached and returned to a flexibility she hadn’t enjoyed in years. It was as if she had
found the elixir of youth. “I haven’t felt so alive since I was pregnant the last
time,” she thought to herself.
The effects were the results of the corticosteroids, which commonly gives those
taking them a miraculous feeling of well-being. But, as always, joy presents its bill
all too soon, and if taken regularly in large doses, the steroids exact destruction of
the heart, liver and lungs as a price for their miracle.
Disappointed to find Colna suffering not at all, Robanna would have tried
administering a different drug cocktail to Colna in the baby’s milk container, again
the following night, except that there was no opportunity to get into the drug
cabinet, as Colna had remained in her bedroom packing for her trip. But suddenly
Robanna found herself presented with a new opportunity for revenge. Colna had
swept into the living room with uncommon litheness and good humor, and turning
off the television in front of Robanna, announced, “I’ve decided I want you and the
baby in Mexico with me. I’ll need you there. We’ll fly out tomorrow. You’ll like it
there. You can do your usual nothing under the palm trees.”

CHAPTER 15

There were in fact no palms in Crespo, Mexico, the hillside community 60 miles
south of Mexico City to which Colna regularly retired. But the pine trees that
covered the slopes lent the air a delightful fragrance, forming a mist that seemed to
separate the highlands from the tawdry peasant villages of the valleys.
As Mexico City had spread outward and the Acapulco road was brought up to
modern standards, the area’s fine qualities had been discovered by the rich and
powerful of the capital, and extravagant villas had begun appearing among the
pines.
American retirees, who had no need to make regular excursions to Mexico City
and who didn’t care about the quality of the Acapulco road were actually the first
to build big homes in the hills of Crespo. They had leased the land on renewable
50-year terms, from a cooperative of peasant farmers who had been granted the
property in the land reforms of the 1930’s. The co-op had little use for the slopes
and was quite delighted that the Americans would make an offer for them.
Some Americans, like Colna’s husband, had been lucky enough to invest in large
amounts of the property, and when the Acapulco road was modernized, enjoyed a
windfall in value appreciation. When selling the property, Colna, her husband, and
others had been happy to accept huge payments in pesos, the origin of which was
not very pristine, from bureaucrats in Mexico City. The transfer of monies, much
of it not recorded for tax reasons, required the Mackarts and the other Americans
involved, to carry suitcases of pesos with their luggage on returning to the U.S.,
and then to find some complicit bank manager to exchange the pesos for dollars
without making a full disclosure.
Colna had been ferrying her windfall in cash across the border in small amounts
for years, and as she got older had found that her advanced years put her almost
beyond suspicion at customs.
The American community at Crespo had originally constructed a large central
villa for use as a community center, but as they tended to improve their own
homes, building their own pools and big kitchens for example, the need for the
community center diminished, and it was eventually put on the market—
whereupon Colna had purchased the lease and converted it into an extravagant
house in order to guarantee her position as the doyen of the expatriate society. The
house had one feature that made it irresistible to Colna—its own thermal hot spring
pool—and Colna loved to soak her rheumatism-ravaged body in the hot mineral
waters.
Colna considered herself and others like her as shrewd investors and not merely
as lucky opportunists, and so begrudged sharing any of the proceeds in any way
that might reward those who had not “earned” it. For that reason, Colna did all of
the hiring and firing of her Mexican staff through a local manager, so that the
hirees would feel they were employed by the manager, whose living standard was
barely above their own, rather than by the rich American. “They should feel lucky
we’ve created jobs for them,” was Colna’s stock reply when Americans visiting
her expressed surprise at her household’s low wages.
Although she lived at her Mexican house as much as six months of the year, a
month here and a month there, she had told her children that she was a renter, and
she had never given them any indication of the true extent of her holdings there.
Patrick, through his proximity to Colna, had learned the vague outlines of her
Mexican assets, but kept that knowledge to himself. Colna let it be known to her
children that they were welcome to visit only for brief periods every year—the
better to keep their prying—inheritance-greedy—minds from gauging her estate.
When she resided in Mexico she rarely called them but instead limited her contact
with them to phone calls on holidays and birthdays.
A month after arriving in Mexico, with Robanna and her baby in tow, Colna
made a special call to Neal’s university laboratory. His assistant answered the
phone. Colna, seated calmly at her bedroom desk and dressed sedately for church,
spoke into the phone. “When are you going to stop mistreating animals, huh? Well,
aren’t you going to answer? Huh . . . ? We’re not going to put up with it anymore.
We have a gift for you from the animals. There’s a bomb for you in your lab now.
Good luck.”
Colna struggled up from her seat and was soon in her beautifully maintained
black Seville, heading down the narrow asphalt road to the church in the town of
Brenares in the valley below. Her driver, Pedro, would wait for her in an alley to
the side of the church and then drive her back up the hill without so much as a
glance around at the shabby village.
The village of Brenares existed for no special reason except perhaps to
administer to the souls and extract taxes from the Indian farmers who had long
cultivated corn, fruits and vegetables in the rich volcanic soil of the valley between
the pine-covered hills. Since the town was near the Acapulco road, some locals had
been making pots, baskets and weavings for the Mexico City bound tourists whom
they could lure to the town’s open air market. What they could not sell to tourists,
they would unload for virtually nothing to rabid wholesalers from the big tourist
shops of Mexico City, who would sweep into the market and offer to buy
everything for a pittance per item. Vendors, tired of sitting in the summer heat all
day, would lose resolve and succumb to the wholesaler’s ready cash.
 The Spanish conqueror of Mexico, Hernan Cortez, had once built a palace for
himself not far away, using materials from an Indian temple, and from the Cortez
“court” Jesuits had fanned out to create church congregations from among the
natives scattered there around.
Brenares had none of the outdoor cafes, cobbled squares or public fountains that
might have made it interesting to tourists. After 350 years Brenares had grown no
larger than the number of families necessary to plant and harvest the surrounding
lands, and the only structure of any consequence in the village remained the
Jesuit’s original church. The volcanism that had created hot springs in the
surrounding hills also produced occasional earthquakes, and the church had
suffered repeatedly over the years. But repeatedly patched, it remained standing.
The church itself was a simple single nave affair after the Jesuit style, built of the
local dark and ugly volcanic stone. The interior had been plastered at one point,
and some architectural decorations in the form of pilasters and niches had been
painted onto the plaster. Its facade was equally drab—a dark monolith of rough
stone awaiting a covering of dressed masonry, which the village had not been able
to afford.
Colna would have never considered buying anything at Brenares, except the
labor of those young adults who had not yet fled to jobs in Cuernavaca or Mexico
City. To buy supplies, Colna and other residents of the hills of Crespo took the 20
minute trip to Cuernavaca, the central city of the State of Morales.
Despite its unpretentiousness, Colna did not hesitate to attend mass at the church
in Brenares, and rather enjoyed appearing there almost as an apparition at the
morning mass every day. Colna’s formal religiosity owed much to the model set by
her mother—who had attended daily mass out on the prairie almost every day of
her life with an almost zombie-like obsessionality. What Colna contemplated
during the services is hard to guess, but at the least she was attempting to make a
pact with God by which she traded prayers and ritual in church for credit toward
the afterlife and perhaps toward a little remission of her painful rheumatism here
on earth. God, she imagined, should be very agreeable to her style of devotion.
Colna’s neighbors were also impressed, though not without a touch of cynicism,
by her seeming piety. She drew a hard and fast line between giving to God and
giving to the church, however, and when the altar boy pushed the hand-woven reed
collection basket into her aisle on a pole, she donated only a few coins. “I support
my parish in the U.S.,” was the reason she used to justify her stinginess.
 Colna had never learned Spanish, and had nothing but a head nod for the priest,
despite his attempts to introduce himself. From the staff at her house, however, the
priest had learned a great deal about her, and from the reports of her abusive
gruffness and parsimony, wished she had learned enough Spanish to avail herself
of the forgiveness of the confessional.
It would be wholly incorrect to say that Colna was a miser though, for there were
certain expenses upon which she would never stint. Those were any expenses
having to do with maintaining her social position in the American enclave in
Crespo. Upon that objective she would heap enough money to rebuild the village
church many times over. When establishing and preserving her image as a
prosperous member of the community, there could be no such thing as waste. To
have not spent money on a large, showy car, on a home big enough for a bishop,
and on a large staff of servants, would have amounted to snubbing and degrading
her community. It would amount to saying to her American neighbors, “Your
admiration is not worth fighting for.” Had she not entertained them in the large
marble-floored reception rooms of her house, her neighbors might fear that she was
allowing some parasitic individuals, such as lazy children, or unworthy public
charities, to leach her honest money. With her money spent on public display, at
least they could rest assured that no one disreputable benefited from it.

CHAPTER 16

Neal’s lab assistant held up the phone and motioned frantically for Neal to
come put his ear to the receiver. On the other end, Colna was making her bomb
threat. Neal recognized the voice immediately, and when Colna had slammed
down the receiver, he stood in stupefied silence.
“Neal, I thought the animal rights people had agreed to a moratorium on
harassing our department. She says there’s a bomb in the lab.”
“Has our door been unlocked when we were out?” Neal replied stonily.
“No.”
“Well then, don’t worry. I used to get that kind of call all the time. Of course
the one cruel thing about those calls is that they never come on Friday afternoon—
when everybody would gladly evacuate. . . . Anyway, I recognize the voice.”
“So, the animal people are breaking the moratorium?”
“No, this woman doesn’t really love animals, she just hates me personally.”
“Why?”
 “Well, she wants my research to fail, I guess. She doesn’t want me to succeed
in life.”
“If you know who she is, why don’t you just call the police?”
“It’s not that easy. You see, she’s in Mexico.”
“What!? That is bizarre . . . Well, I still think you should call the police.”
“No, I think I’ll take care of this myself.”
The lab assistant looked at Neal with perplexed amazement. “Well, I hope you
explain it to me some day.”
“Anyway, I’m going to take the rest of the day off. I may be in late tomorrow.
If anybody asks for me, tell them I’m out sick.”
“Yeah,” the lab assistant said with resignation, “while I’m blown to shreds by
the bomb.”
Neal drove recklessly fast to his apartment and then went immediately to the
airport. From St. Louis Airport no flights went directly to Mexico City, so after
changing planes in Houston, he could arrive in Mexico City at 10:45 in the
evening, at the earliest. It would be after midnight before he would get to Crespo.

CHAPTER 17

Whatever the charms the Mexican house may have had for Colna, Robanna
found life there quite dull, and had to content herself with whatever English-
language television programming she could raise through Mexican satellite
television. She would never have been allowed to join Colna’s social activities, nor
would she have wanted to. She did begrudge Colna chasing her away from the
poolside in the afternoons on the chance that Colna might have guests, when she
was enjoying the warm southern sun and lush pine scent.
Robanna was sustained, though, by an abiding curiosity about what form Colna
assets took in Mexico. That Colna had a stash of money and was not by any means
living off her welfare benefits was laughably apparent from the moment she, Colna
and the baby were met in Mexico City in the chauffeured Seville for the drive
south. Yet Colna never gave up the pretense that she was renting the place and
claimed that the car and staff came with it. But Colna seemed to treat the place
very much as her own. Colna also seemed to be on quite good terms with some of
the Mexico City big-wigs who had homes in Crespo. Those characters had a
certain roughness that suggested new and maybe not entirely legitimate money.
Colna’s house manager, though somewhat bilingual, would not talk about Mrs.
Mackart’s finances—and had been well-primed by Colna herself to avoid such
questions. So, Robanna had to rely on the meager bits of information she could
acquire by simply being in the right place at the right time.
Her baby had become more robust since moving to Mexico. On her guard now,
Robanna had been nursing her child entirely at her own breast, and had brought
along the breast pump only for eventualities. Of course Colna was plainly aware of
the absence of fresh “milk” in the refrigerator. “I see you’re breast-feeding your
baby now—just like a Mexican peasant woman. I’m surprised you’ve taken to the
local culture so fast, Robanna. Just stay in your room when you’re suckling—even
if I’m away—in case somebody comes by,” was Colna’s caustic observation. The
baby had also spent more time in Robanna’s arms than otherwise, partly because
Colna was more preoccupied and had less time to grab the baby, and because
Robanna did not trust the local staff. Occasionally Colna would burst into the
house, and not finding the baby as usual in a crib by the television, would hunt her
down in Robanna’s room where Robanna would have taken her for nursing or
changing. “Have you got the baby in there?” Colna would shout.
“Yes, I’m nursing,” would be Robanna’s reply.
“How come that thing’s always nursing? What have you got in there, a child or a
calf!? It’s going to be as big as you are pretty soon if you’re not careful,” Colna
would then say in exasperation.
The exhilaration Colna had enjoyed from the breast milk doped with prednisone
had begun to wear off, and she began suffering a severe rebound of her rheumatic
symptoms. Her knees and shoulder were now so stiff and sore in the mornings that
she would lie awake for hours fearing the pain upon trying to get out of bed. Her
gait had become almost a shuffle, and she her arms had almost lost their strength
so that she could barely move even a toothbrush. Even turning the handle on a door
took perseverance. As the day wore on, however, Colna would usually gain
flexibility, so that by dinner time she could move about without embarrassing
herself as a cripple before her social acquaintances. Some days Colna could
persuade herself to get out of bed only through the self-imposed obligation to
attend morning mass. Her driver would help her shuffle into the last row of chairs
at the back of the nave, and there she would sit out the service, without even
attempting to kneel. During the service, especially in the winter months, she would
sustain herself with the thought of going immediately to the mineral hot spring
pool upon arriving home, where the water would be nearly warm enough to cook
an egg. There she could eat breakfast, brought to her on a tray from the kitchen,
while the warmth eased the pain and brought a modicum of suppleness back to her
limbs.
One morning Colna had gone to church as usual and one of the housemaids had
taken the opportunity to clean Colna’s room. She had dusted the fixtures and
tabletops, but for the large polished wood crucifix above the bed, she dared not
commit the sacrilege of using the dirty feather duster, and instead she got a special
clean soft cloth and stood carefully on the bed so she could remove the crucifix
from the wall. As she reached around the base, at the feet of Christ, she suddenly
felt a tremendous sting. The pain was so great she fell back on the bed, screaming.
As she held up her hand in agony she saw a scorpion scurrying away across the
bed. In a rage of tormenting pain, she followed the insect as it hurried across the
floor and stomped with her foot with an enormous thud. The insect had evaded her,
however, and had gone across the tile floor and under a door in the boudoir.
Fortunately she had not been bitten by a lethal species, but nonetheless received an
agonizing bite. Her cry had brought the entire household to the bedroom, including
Robanna whose bedroom was nearby.
The housekeeper recited a Spanish proverb while holding the girl’s hand, “The
Devil’s favorite place to hide is behind the cross.” The girl pointed to the boudoir,
and so it was there that the house manager started her hunt for the scorpion. The
house manager had asked one of the women in the room for a shoe, and with it
raised tensely in her hand, she had proceeded into the boudoir.
In her boredom, Robanna found all this excitement to be quite a draw, but
because she could not understand Spanish, had little idea of what was occurring.
When the house manager used her keys to open a locked closet in the boudoir,
Robanna was close behind, gazing over the woman’s shoulder. Others in the room
were standing cautiously back. What Robanna saw as the door opened was no
mere closet, however, but apparently a small chapel devoted to the Madonna and
Child, for there were small brilliant hued mosaics of the sacred infant and mother
set into tiled walls on all three sides of the closet. Light filtered into the room
through two thin sheets of alabaster. On the far side was a virtual altar in creme-
colored marble. Strangely incongruous, though, a framed pair of baby socks stood
propped atop the altar—the baby booties and children’s clothing and toys she had
seen at Colna’s U.S. home.
Robanna’s startled reaction consisted of two parts: one, “What a sick woman!
Why would she deify a dead baby!” and the other, “So, she owns this place—just
as I thought.”
 As Robanna stood gazing into the room, the house manager was busy looking
into corners and cracks for signs of the scorpion. Aware of the hunt in progress on
the floor, the creature had crawled up the wall, until with a crash Robanna’s fist
reduced it to writhing mush. “You are a brave one, Robanna,” the manager said in
surprise, and quickly retreated to the bathroom to get something to clean up the
mess. “You must never tell Senora Mackart that you have seen this place,” she
implored. Robanna, looking with disgust at the insect’s remains on her palm,
nodded her head.

CHAPTER 18

Patrick had been online all evening, as usual, when he heard the telephone ring.
Thinking it may be another potential assignation, he quickly snatched up the phone
and answered in a smooth, sonorous voice. His look of anticipation turned to one
of impatience upon hearing the familiar voice on the other end.
“Huh, it’s you, Robanna, what are you calling about? Checking up on me?”
“Your mother told me she was renting this property, right?”
“Yes.”
“You know she owns this place, don’t you?” she said accusatively.
“What are you asking, Robanna?”
“What ALL does she own down here, anyway?”
Patrick, still angry at his mother for sending him to work at the Tuscana,
relaxed his filial loyalty for a moment. “She’s rich you know—but everything’s in
a Mexican trust—it’s all in pesos. She only gets the money in dribs and drabs
whenever she’s down there . . . Tell her I told you this, and you’ll DIE, Robanna,”
he said matter-of-factly.
“Why does she trouble getting the welfare money in the U.S. then?” Robanna
asked.
“That’s just to give the IRS the impression that she has an income from within
the U.S., so she can mix in the Mexican money without creating suspicion.”
“What a crafty woman. That’s more than I gave her credit for.”
Having gotten the information she wanted, Robanna quickly ended the
conversation with a few pleasantries about the house’s setting.
“The old woman’s using one stream of cash to cover another stream of cash,”
Robanna found herself thinking irresistibly. There ought to be some way of
diverting some of the stream.”
 Colna’s stiffness and pain continued unabated, and she began spending more
and more time in the hot springs pool. The heat of the pool, however, limited the
amount of time she could spend there, and she was frequently trundling back and
forth between social visits and soakings in the pool. To watch her health relapse so
suddenly had depressed her and made her desperate to recapture the vigor she had
experienced during her last few days in the U.S. She tried to relieve the pain with
even greater consumption of alcohol and cigarettes. She avoided the temptation to
increase her dose of anti-rheumatoidal medicine, however, as her doctor had
frightened her with predictions of severe organ damage at high doses.
It was a sultry night in late spring, and Colna had just returned from a cocktail
party to welcome one of the American couples who had returned to Crespo after
spending the winter and spring in the more balmy Cancun. Colna had had several
cocktails, and was more unsteady than ever as her driver helped her into the house.
To her disgust, she found Robanna sprawled across the television room couch like
an overstuffed rag doll, fast asleep with the television blaring a Spanish language
program. Her baby daughter, also fast asleep despite the noise, lay in a crib next to
her. “The pigs,” Colna said to herself.
“Pedro,” she called out into the hall to the retreating driver, “Help me to my
room, I’m going to change for the hot spring.”
Pedro tried his best to dissuade her from entering the hot water in her obviously
inebriated condition, but the alcohol had made the old woman more aggressive and
headstrong than usual. He had insisted on standing by while she soaked, but at the
pool, she noticed his frightened eyes glaring at her unsteady body, and she refused
to take off her robe. “What the hell are you gaping at,” she snapped, “No, you’re
not going to get to see me half nude. Get out of here.” And she waived him off.
Pedro decided to wait in the television room, which had French doors leading to
the patio and pool, while she bathed. Suddenly he heard her cry out, “Pedro, roll
the baby out here. It needs some fresh air.” Pedro did so obediently, gently pushing
the crib so as not to wake the sleeping child. It was a wonderful night to be outside,
and Pedro envied the old woman as she relaxed with her head resting back against
the rim of the bubbling pool, with eyes looking up at the sky full of stars.
The driver had become engrossed in the television program, and jumped to his
feet with a start when he realized he had left the old woman in the hot water for
over 20 minutes. When he arrived at the hot spring bath, to his horror, he saw
Colna pulling the infant out of the water. The child’s skin had turned a dark red,
and it seemed lifeless.
 “I thought it’d like a dip. I guess it got too hot. Better leave it nude on the patio
to cool down,” Colna said with irritation as Pedro approached. Pedro could see no
life in the child, however, and despite his crude attempt to administer resuscitation,
the child was clearly beyond reviving.
Death was officially attributed to hyperthermia, and the examining doctor had
brusquely announced in Spanish to those assembled that the baby had been cooked
to death.
Robanna blamed herself for allowing the infant to share the company of such an
inhuman woman, and resolved immediately to neutralize her so that she could not
practice her evil on someone else. In the days before the funeral, she had tried not
to show the full extent of her grief, and tried to express gratitude when Colna
offered to compensate her, in pesos, for the accident. Her grief and self-
incrimination were unrelenting however and she became withdrawn and sullen.
After a few days Colna had already grown tired of Robanna’s moodiness, and
though Colna should have been the last person in the world to tell the mourning
mother to stop grieving, Colna could not contain herself when she saw Robanna
sitting inanimately in a dark corner of the patio. “I lost a child, too, Robanna. You
need to get over it.” Robanna remained silent. Colna’s patience had finally worn
out, and she shuffled over to where the grieving woman was sitting motionless.
“Have another baby! There are lots more where that came from,” and on saying
that she lifted Robanna’s skirt, “. . . and here’s the mold for making more!”
“Get away from me before I throw you in the hot spring myself,” the infuriated
young woman yelled.
Colna quickly shuffled backward, and turning said over her shoulder, “If you
want to leave after the funeral, I will gladly buy you a ticket, in addition to the
money I’ve already promised you.” Colna then limped away leaving Robanna to
soak up the gloom of the patio shadows.
Robanna’s revenge came quickly, even before she had interred the infant. The
infant’s tiny casket stood ceremoniously in the center of the village church with its
lid tightly closed. Colna seemed to be much affected by the death and funeral, and
wore an expression of sincere dejection during the ceremony. Both she and
Robanna had shed tears before the ceremony was over, and in a communion of
sympathy, Robanna had led the old woman to the casket for one final look before it
was lifted away for burial. Robanna helped the crippled woman out of her seat and,
holding her with a hand gripping her shoulder, had brought her to the tiny wooden
box. Colna felt honored by the respect Robanna was paying to her and was highly
grateful for this gesture of forgiveness. Robanna lifted the lid to give the woman
one last view of the infant who had cheered and comforted her in her rheumatoid
distress. As the old woman gazed into the coffin however, a look of almost
diabolical rage came over her face, and only by putting her knobby hand over her
mouth and eyes, was she able to conceal its contortions from those gathered in the
church. Robanna was unable, even through her fresh tears, to repress a smirk, for
inside the coffin, her infant’s corpse was dressed in the booties and baby clothes
from the shrine in Colna’s boudoir.
Colna immediately left the church and refused to attend the burial. Instead she
had gone immediately to her house to inspect the sacrilegious pilferage of the
shrine to her stillborn. Colna had already decided to have Robanna’s child’s casket
disinterred as soon as she could get the hideous Robanna out of Mexico. In the
meantime, she would have to do something to punish the woman’s sacrilege. Colna
was not mollified when she found a packet under her bedroom door that evening
containing the booties and other clothing that had dressed Robanna’s dead infant in
church. And several glasses of alcohol could not soothe her rage.
Amongst her pharmacopoeia, the old woman found a syringe. Loading it with
barbiturate, she approached Robanna’s room. From outside she could hear her
talking in excited tones—very unlike a mother who had just buried her infant
daughter. Colna’s timing could not have been more fortunate. Robanna was
obviously on the telephone, which she had pulled into her room from the hall.
When Colna heard the name of her son, Patrick, in the conversation, she trained
her hearing to the conversation on the other side of the door.
“Don’t try to discourage me, Patrick, I know you’ve thought of keeping her as an
income COW yourself. She’s perfect—almost an invalid already. Leave the rich
cow to me.”
Colna returned to her room and waited for Robanna to return the phone to the
hall table.
After a short while, Robanna’s door opened, and there was an audible plunk as
she put the telephone back on the hall table.
Sensing her opportunity, Colna then shuffled anxiously into the hall. The old
woman had irreverently chosen a rosary as a prop to distract the young woman,
and carried it strung loosely between her gnarled fingers.
Robanna warily admitted Colna to her room. She could see that Colna had been
praying, perhaps even contritely, because the old woman was carrying a rosary.
 “I’m so . . . sorry,” Colna said, raising her hand to her face as if to instinctively
wipe away a tear. As she raised her hand, however, she let the rosary drop. The
holy string of beads coiled onto the carpet almost noiselessly.
Colna feigned great consternation at the sacrilege of dropping the holy beads,
and continued to fret until Robanna, who was also eager to deceive with a show of
solicitousness, bent to pick them up. With Robanna bent over and distracted, Colna
hurriedly shot the syringe into the fat woman’s enormous buttocks. Robanna had
begun to call out in pain, but slumped to the floor in a semi-conscious state before
she could get a sound from her throat.
Colna worked slowly and agonizingly to lift the drugged woman to a chair, all
the while asking her what had happened. She then used clothing and belts she
found in the closet to tie Robanna to the chair. Robanna was vaguely aware of the
old woman moving around the room, but had become too doped to remember the
events leading to her present loss of consciousness. The sting of the needle
remained in the mind however—but as her consciousness was not under her
control, the events of the several days before flooded into her mind and she came
to imagine that she had been a victim of a scorpion bite, and reasoned that the old
woman was frantically attempting to locate the creature before it could bite again.
Colna continued to move wildly about the room and at last found in a drawer
what she had in fact been searching for. “There,” she said triumphantly as she
pulled the breast pump out of a drawer.
Robanna had not nursed for a couple days, and her blouse seemed to burst open
as Colna undid the buttons. The drugged woman, strapped to the chair, could
vaguely feel the chill of the pump as the old woman clamped it to her breast.
“We’ll see who the COW is now,” Colna said as she pumped milk through the tube
to her own mouth.
Colna, in her frenzy to enjoy the elixir of fresh mother’s milk, had carelessly
failed to account for the almost instantaneous contamination of the milk with the
barbiturate she had just administered, and as she squirted the warm milk into her
mouth, she was in fact drugging herself. The traces of barbiturate in the milk
coupled with the alcohol in her system made her wildly intoxicated, and,
abandoning her victim, Colna returned in a delirium to her bedroom.
Neal had arrived in Mexico City that evening and hired a car to take him to
Brenares. When he arrived at the Mackart house in Crespo it was late, and all the
staff had left for the evening, except the driver, Pedro, who lived above the garage.
Much to his dismay, Robanna had apparently also gone to bed, and Neal was
forced to rouse Pedro in an attempt to get into the house.
The house was dark and ghastly silent. He found his mother’s bedroom alight,
but saw no trace of her. As he opened the door onto the patio the smell of minerals
mixed with pine wafted heavily on the night air. Seeing no sign of her, he decided
to return to her room, to look for some indication of where she might have gone at
that very late hour. It was then that he heard muffled sounds coming from the
boudoir. Pulling open a door, he stood unbelieving before Colna’s hidden shrine.
Colna, with her back to him, was frantically trying to open the lid to a tiny
weathered coffin with her bare hands. “If that bitch has opened this casket, I’m
going to kill . . . I’ll inject her with everything I’ve got.”
“Is all this for Andrew?” Neal said.
Colna looked around wildly. At the sight of her son, she yelled in fury, “Don’t
you EVER mention his name. You are unworthy of mentioning his name!”
“Why?”
“Because you’re nothing!”
“And why am I nothing?”
“Because you will never replace my Andrew—my first born—and ONLY son.”
Colna pushed the coffin behind her and came forward with ferocious vigor to
prevent Neal from profaning the shrine any further. Her arms hit him with such
force that he was knocked against the shelves on the other side of the boudoir.
Before he had a chance to straighten up and recover from the blow, Colna had
closed the door to the shrine behind her. “You always thought of yourself as the
first born, didn’t you. You took great pride in your place in the birth order. You
profited from Andrew’s death! You and your brother, the first born males—bah—
gloating to yourselves. If Andrew had survived he would have made you look
pathetic. He would have been a real man I could have been proud of. Don’t pretend
to replace my Andrew—you are NOTHING!”
“But I am your son, . . . your flesh and blood.”
“You’re not a son. You’re a cheap substitute for my real son.”
“Who is your REAL son?—certainly not a child who was born dead!”
Neal would have liked to have struck the old woman down for her taunts, but
filial duty stayed his hand. “Why try to hurt me—to wreck my career? How could
you be so evil?” he yelled, his voice seething in anger.
 Colna’s eyes flashed, and her stare pierced the space the air between them. “I
AM evil, don’t you get it? I’m a child killer. Didn’t you see it, Andrew’s little
coffin? I killed him at birth!”
“He was stillborn—how can you blame yourself?”
“I KILLED HIM! He would have been born alive if I had done everything right.
There was something I did—something in what I ate, in the way I sat, in the way I
slept that killed him. The doctor suggested a caesarean. I said no. I was afraid I’d
become sterile. And I killed him before he could even breathe his first breath of
air. I am damned to be an infertile witch—I kill my own children!” Colna looked
away momentarily as if to strengthen herself. Her expression now took on fresh
resolve, “Now get out of here, get out! Pedro will drive you to Cuernavaca.” Colna
looked frantically around her until she found the syringe where she had left it on
her bed table. She grabbed it and pointed it at Neal. “Get out!”
“Whom should I pity more, myself or her?” he thought, finding to his
amazement that his rage had evaporated. The smell of alcohol was strong on her
breath, and she apparently had been using the syringe to inject some drug. Neal
decided to leave the house and to return again the following day, when she would
be less delirious.
Neal had barely left the bedroom before Colna was on the phone, “Pedro, drive
Neal to the Hotel Villa Bejar in Cuernavaca. I don’t want him to stay here tonight.”
The old woman then began tearing at her clothes. “I’ve got to soak in the hot
spring. I have to have some relief.”

CHAPTER 19

Two servants grabbed Colna by the arms and pulled her from the spa early the
next morning. Neal regretted later having waited in Cuernavaca for her to sober up
and wondered whether she had had her stroke in the hot water or on the deck after
she had been pulled out. The drug and alcohol had rendered her almost
unconscious in the water, and by the time she had been discovered, she had
suffered a disastrous brain hemorrhage. The servants had noticed that after she had
been out of the water for a several minutes, her body had seemed to shrink as if
drained of whatever human vitality it may have contained.
Her breasts, lying shriveled and flat against her sunken chest, seemed to have
never been capable of nursing a child, the servants said among themselves.
 Robanna had recovered after sleeping soundly in drugged unconsciousness
through the night, and had been greeted with news pleasant enough to satisfy her
wildest dreams: the old woman was now paralyzed and bedridden—a potential
cash cow of unearned income.
Robanna had then reconsidered her departure, and would now happily stay to
minister to the incapacitated old woman and collect the woman’s money.
After a sleepless night in which his mother’s rejection played over and over in
his mind, Neal abandoned his mother to her fate and returned to the U.S., leaving
Robanna to care for her in any manner she pleased. Robanna had decided not to
call a physician, and for the first couple weeks directed Colna’s perfunctory
treatment herself. A short time later she moved Colna to one of the smaller
bedrooms in the house. Colna could neither move her arms, nor speak, but from the
guttural sounds she made seemed infuriated by the change of room.
Sensing that Colna was desperate to say something, Robanna condescended to
speak for her. “It’s your turn to be mothered now. I’m going to take good care of
you. You like that idea, don’t you? I knew you would! I’m not going to tell anyone
in the U.S. for the time being. Neal and Patrick are not going to tell anyone either.
We want you to get better first. You agree, don’t you? I thought you would! I’ve
discovered the trust you set up for yourself in Mexico City—the one that sends you
a bale of pesos every month. Don’t worry, the trust is going to keep sending you
pesos. Patrick and I will keep the money for you. We’re raising the wages of your
staff. They said they wouldn’t tell anyone about your stroke. Is that okay? Good!
The priest was here. He will be saying novenas for you. In return, a lot of your
money is going to pay for a facade for the church in Brenares. You like that, huh? I
knew you would! Patrick sends his best. He’s going to keep your secrets and your
government benefits. He wants you to recover completely before returning to the
U.S. That’s a good idea, isn’t it, mom? That’s going to be a long, long time from
now, though, huh, mom? And Andrew’s coffin . . . Neal took that with him. He’s
going to send it to Father O’Lann in Morrisville for reburial in the church
graveyard. You’re delighted? Of course you are! We all are!

CHAPTER 20

Winning the grand prize in a game of chance, such as in the game of life,
requires a big win at the start. That provides the wherewithal to stay in the game
and ultimately beat the odds. In life there are many who continue to take great
risks, even though they’ve never won big and will never beat the odds. Ultimately,
when losses force them out of the game, they are totally ruined—unable to make
any further investments, and not even capable of winning one of life’s many tiny
prizes.
“Have I been lucky in life,” Neal asked himself as he sat facing Sarzolian on his
return from Mexico, “. . . or have I just won an untenable grip on a minor prize?”
Fate had not dealt him a good hand in giving him the woman Colna Mackart as a
mother—that was now obvious. Her personality, the events of her life, and the
distorting effect of the loss of her first child had made of her the anti-mother, the
woman who, far from nurturing her children, seeks instead to destroy them.
“In the end,” Neal thought, “perhaps the schools that passed me along with good
grades—maybe they were an adequate substitute for a loving mother.”
Neal had merely to reflect on his disappointment with his current academic
position—constricted as it was by Sarzolian’s fatuous, career-oriented goals—to
see that institutions would never nurture his spirit.
He had finally weaned himself from the idea that Colna Mackart could ever be a
true mother to him. But the need for a nurturing figure would remain with him.
How was he to fill the void?
“I guess I deceived myself when I considered myself lucky in life,” he concluded
to himself, “As a good student, I thought I would have a satisfying career—and
growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, society’s material prospects seemed unbounded. I
knew my mother wasn’t the greatest, but I would have never thought of her as a
threat. Anyway, I always assumed every woman would naturally be motherly to
her children—that would be every woman’s instinct—wouldn’t it?”
Neal felt overwhelmed by feelings of resignation. Sarzolian had been talking to
him but had now paused because of the deep sadness weighing down his young
colleague’s face. He sensed Neal’s thoughts had drifted away to a disturbing,
personal subject.
“I don’t know why,” Neal continued to ponder, “but I had always wanted to win
the grand prize in life—a professorship at a great research institution, a great
discovery—fame, power. I was foolish not to realize I had never really had the
wherewithal. I hadn’t had the initial good fortunate of a good mother—and without
that, how could I have dreamed of beating the odds?”
“Neal, what are you thinking about?” Sarzolian asked, “Are you listening?”
“I’m sorry, Dr. Sarzolian,” Neal said, realizing he had been ignoring the P.I., “I
was just thinking how sorry I was to have suggested I distrusted your research
 methods. I just want to let you know that my job here is the greatest thing that’s
happened to me.”
Although flattered Sarzolian was quite perplexed about what might have
triggered Neal to interject such a thing. “I wonder what’s happened to him? Thank
God he’s changed his attitude.”

Analysis Section
 
The author of this webpage has chosen the novel, Two Cuckoos, by Eric Pimblu, to
illustrate a novel-writing theory. Students of novel writing can use this novel as an easy-to-
understand model. Students can study this material by whatever approach they choose,
whether by reading Two Cuckoos itself first and then the analysis, or reading the analysis
simultaneously with the novel.
No chapter receives a full analysis in terms of the theory.  Individual paragraphs are
analyzed in varying terms, some in terms of drama, others in terms of the power struggle
between author and reader, others in terms of the author’s strategy for convincing reader of
his ideas.  Many paragraphs are ancillary to crucial paragraphs and so do not merit close
analysis.  For your convenience, a synopsis of the novel-writing theory and a table of
definitions are included at the beginning.
 
Summary of the Novel Theory
 
The theory presented here is rather speculative but provides an excellent heuristic for
analyzing the short novel.  In other words, it is useful without being the last word in short
novel analysis.
  All art is essentially the aggressive act of the artist imposing his perspective onto others. 
Artists use seduction to effect that aim.  People who experience art, subject themselves to
the author willingly in order to have their orientation to the world challenged.  The author
will be forced expend a great deal of ingenuity and trickery in subduing the resistance of
less passive readers.
A novel is not mere information as could be found in a news article.  It is the means to an
experience. The reactions one has while reading the novel are those of real life, with all of
the emotions, fight or flee hormonal reactions, wishes, anxieties, and other mental and
autonomic reactions one would expect in ordinary life.  Because readers subconsciously
treat their novel-reading experience as real, the conclusions they reach through their
experience permanently change their perspectives on life.  To accomplish such reaction
from readers, the author must take advantage of the human instincts that make such
vicarious experiences possible.
 The human psyche is naturally equipped to blur the line between a real and vicarious
experience because vicarious learning is easy.  It is both low-risk and economical.  Some
situations in life occur only rarely, and by experiencing vicariously a person need not wait
for special opportunities to present themselves.  Learning can then occur without physical
experiences.  Vicarious experiences are an excellent way for the mind to build new
practical beliefs while saving energy and avoiding the risks inherent in real action.  This
sort of learning-without-doing is vital when we are children, but the desire to continue to
learn in this way continues into adulthood.
Unlike a real experience, a vicarious experience does not allow reader to make inputs or
get feedback—or so it would seem.  But as the theory proposes, readers do subconsciously
attempt to make inputs and get feedback from the novel.  By playing-off reader’s urges to
influence the novel’s action, the author can trick the reader into accepting author’s
perspective as if reader had acquired it himself through a real experience.  Fiction is not a
real experience.  But a successful novel will make a reader feel he has had a real
experience, and that the new perspective on life he acquires from the novel is the result of
that real experience.  How the author tricks the reader will be explained in more detail
later.  First, we should understand the cognitive processes that the author manipulates.
The human organism is naturally primed to react quickly to new situations.  Humans
store concepts by which they can quickly derive meaning from information.  These
concepts are the human interface with reality, and are termed “schema”. Through its
schema--which are like a computer program--the mind associates certain information, e.g.,
events, with certain preset meanings, which evoke preset responses.  It is as if the mind
tries to be as reflexive as possible.
Humans are born with proto-ideas that allow them to use their environments to satisfy
their needs before they have the opportunity to learn about their environment.  Those proto-
ideas are called “archetypes”.  One archetype, for example, is undoubtedly a positive
association with a nurturer, another, with a protector, which a child naturally finds in his
parents.  Many archetypes have an anti-archetype, e.g., the anti-parent is a witch or devil.
When a need arises, a person focuses on an archetype to fulfill the need.  The mind
automatically evaluates informational input in terms of that archetype.  As the human
matures, he reifies (that is, fleshes-out) the innate archetypes with features from his
environment. The archetype of “nurturer”, for example, becomes associated with the actual
characteristics of his own parents.  Behaviorists would call that sort of reification
“imprinting”. A reified archetype is called a “schema”.  Vicarious experiences enlarge the
schema by adding knowledge gained by observation, in an easily accessible, risk-free way.
  Schema are probably shaped only by a strong stimulus, for example, in response to
opportunities to satisfy needs or avoid potential threats.  The novel presents both the need-
satisfying opportunities and the threats. 
To repeat the definition of schema: it is the archetype’s interface with reality.  It is a
formula for interpreting environmental inputs so as to discover their meaning for specific
needs.  Schema prepare an individual to analyze a given situation very quickly, based on
being able to identify the survival value of the situation.
Schema are rigid, but they are not immutable.  The process of change is rather difficult
for humans.  Schema are built with much effort from experiences.  By means of his novel,
however, a literary artist can drastically change a reader’s vital and long-held schema.
A fully mature schema is a formula reflecting those behaviors and remembered
circumstances that the person believes will lead to satisfaction of needs.  Schema anticipate
that certain types of inputs are going to be more relevant for needs than others, and as such
prepare a person for circumstances so that decisions can be made quickly.  Schema are
composed of guidelines as to what to be alert for: qualities, images, shapes, etc. (“quality
sets”).  It is possible that as a person matures his schema become more complex, and that
some schema become dormant because they are no longer useful yet can be activated in
times of crisis.
Behavioral conditioning probably dictates the content of schema.  Social models and
social conditioning also contribute to the content, as do vicarious experiences. When
developing new schema a person most likely generalizes from existing schema and
otherwise borrows from existing schema.
To inculcate a schema of his design (“thema”), the author targets one of the reader’s
archetypes and discredits the schema that the reader has already reified.  In rebuilding his
schema within the limited and stressful environment of the novel, the reader is controlled
by the author.
There are two general types of schema relevant in novel-writing, which differ on the
basis of the generality and the certainty that a person attaches to them—Ad hoc Schema
and “[general] Schema”.  Ad hoc schema have relevance to only a single circumstance,
whereas general schema can be used in various circumstances.  A person quickly puts
together an ad hoc schema to meet a new and pressing circumstance and uses it only when
sufficient information is lacking to use a general schema.
A person treats an ad hoc schema as a hypothesis, easily subject to challenge, whose
proof is yet untested.  Given the time constraints and other pressures on its formulation, the
ad hoc schema’s components may be selected under a fairly loose criterion, one with its
own sort of logic, and be easily subject to change.  A person will be keen to get immediate
feedback about the validity of an ad hoc schema.  A general schema, in contrast, is one
whose components have been tested and proven over time or that has been copied from a
reliable source, such as a cultural tradition, and will be applicable to a range of situations.
In the novel the author encourages the reader to construct a special category of ad hoc
schema called “werschema”.  Werschema guide the reader in anticipating the outcome
of dramatic conflicts.  During conflicts the reader quickly formulates a werschema to note
the relative power of the participants involved.  That map of the relative powers of the
participants will be vital to predict the outcome of the conflict.  It is human nature to
prepare oneself for conflicts by using werschema, and so reader readily forms them when
presented with dramatic conflicts in the novel.  In normal life people usually do not face a
incessant barrage of conflicts, and one is not called upon to formulate werschema
constantly.  In the novel, however, the author presents dramatic conflicts of ever mounting
intensity at an ever increasing rate, presenting reader with the exhausting need to formulate
new werschema.  While challenging the reader to rapidly formulate new werschema, the
author starves the reader of information and thwarts reader’s expectations.  The author’s
barriers to werschema formation will eventually prevent reader from creating viable
werschema, despite the “need” to do so.  As a result, the reader will lose confidence in his
ability to form werschema and enter a schema vacuum called “skanomy”.  In the state of
skanomy the reader is susceptible to suggestion, and will use primitive forms of reasoning
that the author can manipulate to inculcate his thema.
When the reader faces accelerating crises in an information starved or ambiguous
environment, he will become desperate for feedback on which to build new werschema, so
desperate in fact, that he will abandon rational and critical forms of thinking and fall back
upon primitive modes of reasoning.  Some of these primitive modes of
reasoning, Wiset and Back-causation, the author uses to inculcate the thema.
Wiset is a reader’s prayer for the vanquishment of the antagonist (i.e., his “curse” upon
the antagonist).  [In a sentimental novel, wiset could be solely a prayer for the emcair’s
(see definition) success, but our theory does not concern itself with that type of novel.]  The
Author stimulates reader’s wiset and then fulfills the wiset by suddenly and unpredictably
vanquishing the antagonist.  When the antagonist is vanquished seemingly at reader’s
command, the reader will believe his own wish-power indeed changed the novel’s
situation.  The reader has wished for something improbable, the sudden vanquishment of
the antagonist, and it has now happened.  Also, the vividness of the sudden vanquishment,
coupled with the intense focus of his wiset, causes the reader to momentarily abandon a
critical sense of cause and effect.  That induces him to accept the vanquishment as realistic
and genuine.  When the reader’s consciousness revives after the vanquishment, it seeks to
reassert control by imagining some plausible reason for what the subconscious mind has
already accepted, i.e., it rationalizes the vanquishment.  The mind reasons that if an event is
genuine, it has a real cause.  This is a primitive form of reasoning called back-causal
reasoning.  When the reader feels he has had an active part in the outcome of the novel, he
will accept the novel as a real experience. 
Creating the illusion of a real experience is the essence of an author’s artistic endeavor.  
Whether the author is able not only to make reader accept his thema, but to make reader
feel he has done so through a real experience, is the ultimate test of the novel’s art.
Throughout the novel the author contrives to inculcate his thema.  His strategy is part
psychological and part rhetorical.  He achieves the psychological part by thwarting new
schema formation, resulting in skanomy.  The rhetorical part he achieves by setting out
rational arguments for the new thema and by rationally discrediting the startema (see
definition).  [Incidentally, the author may also have secondary themes, which are often
social critiques, that he will present at moments when the reader is most vulnerable to
suggestion.  Those secondary themes are termed “uberthemes”.]
The essential test of the success of the author’s inculcation strategy is whether the author
makes the reader replace his vital and long-held schema with the author’s thema.             
The following are a sequence of steps that the author takes to achieve that result.  This
process of steps is termed “egotifying”, which means getting the reader to believe that he,
and not the writer, is the author of events. 
The author will place a character with whom the reader feels some empathy in a new
situation for which the character’s existing schema are inadequate.  This is traditionally
called the “Crisis”.  The reader will witness the character (termed “emcair”) trying and
failing to create changes to the startema that would be appropriate for the new situation. 
The stages of emcair’s failure are called stages of “malschema”.  During the crisis, an
antagonist raises his or her ugly head to threaten the emcair.  A character specifically
intended to weaken the antagonist, called the “avedram”, also appears.  In the conflicts that
ensue between emcair, antagonist, and avedram the reader will have to repeatedly construct
werschema to anticipate the outcomes.   As described above, the author will thwart the
reader’s attempts to create appropriate werschema (and thus to successfully predict the
outcome of conflicts), and that will undermine the reader’s belief in his ability to create
werschema.  As a result, the reader will fall into a state of skanomy.  Once that is achieved
the reader is primed to accept the thema as an appropriate answer to the schema crisis.
In his state of skanomy the reader readily embraces the thema because he sees that it is
effective in resolving the novel’s crisis. What remains to be done, however, is to convince
the reader that the thema is a product of his own experience.  If the reader does not believe
he has had a real experience, he will not incorporate the thema into his corpus of general
schema for the real world.  He may simply consider it as an ad hoc solution for the artificial
environment of the novel alone.
To give the reader an illusion that he has had a real experience, the author manipulates
the reader’s wiset.  To repeat what has been said earlier, the author induces a hope in the
reader for the vanquishment of the antagonist.  Having induced that wish, the author
gratuitously fulfills it—usually in a serendipitous manner (traditionally called “deux ex
machina”).  Reader would rationally reject such implausibility, but under skanomy and
author’s hypnotic conjurings (vividness and intense wiset-induced focus), he accepts.  The
reader is of course delighted to see his wish for the antagonist’s vanquishment fulfilled.  In
truth, though, the author is simply giving false feedback to the reader’s wiset.  The author
grants reader that false victory so reader feels he has participated in the action.  The author
co-opts the reader’s ego as instigator of the action. 
That egotifying will cement the reader’s adoption of the thema.  When the reader feels he
has had an active part in the outcome of the novel, he will accept the novel as a real
experience.
When the reader reaches skanomy the author can conclude the novel very rapidly, using
intense action at a telescopic rate.  One of the problems with swiftly concluding a novel is
to tie up things within the realm of probability.  If the reader has been properly primed and
thus is in a state of skanomy, the author can take a great deal of license with actions and
can rely on improbabilities to bring things to a rapid close.  (An author who seduces a
reader into subconsciously believing the most outlandish of endings can rightly pride
himself on a great achievement.
 
****
 
The short novel can be divided into about 20 short chapters.  Because of the brevity of
the short novel, almost every chapter constitutes an entire structural part.  For example, the
first chapter is a tease, the second introduces an empathy character and antagonist, the third
presents the archetype and the situation, the fourth, the crisis, and so on.  Strange plotting
for unique effect might change that order—but the principle of one structural element per
chapter would remain.
The novel presented here, though of excellent form, is simply one of many possible
examples of how a well-crafted novel could be put together.  There could be many changes
in its plot, for example, or in the story.  But the basic form of presenting a culturally
cherished schema, then debunking it, and replacing it with the author’s new schema is
standard.  This novel is rather dramatic and uses some rawness for effect.  Some may find
it overly dramatic or overly raw.  However it is typical of the genre in that it inculcates a
thema very quickly by keeping the reader in a state of stress.  Naturally such a state of
stress could not be maintained for a long, long time, which is why this is a style that is
more appropriate to the shorter novel. 
The author introduces new terms for many of the analytic categories or aspects of the
novel.  The reason for using new terms is the theory’s new perspective on analyzing the
novel.  He looks at the novel from the reader’s perspective, whereas traditional analysis is
from the author’s perspective.  The student should consult the following list of terms
regularly.  The student will notice that many of these terms are based on traditional terms
of literary analysis but have been made more technical or have been changed to reflect the
reader’s psychological experience. 
 
 
Table of Terms
 
Akeel {Achilles’ Heel}  A weakness that will cause antagonist’s downfall. 
It can be a petty foible, a physical ailment, etc.
Adaction {Dramatic Action}  Action becomes adaction when it is a conflict
that changes the relative power of the characters involved.
Ad Hoc Schema A temporary schema used to attempt to analyze information that
 defies analysis by an existing schema.  In forming ad hoc schema
people are especially prone to suggestion and apt to forego normal,
critical scrutiny (because of the temporary nature of the schema and
the time pressures involved in their formulation).  In novel analysis,
we consider a special case of ad hoc schema, in which the reader
creates an ad hoc schema to anticipate the result of power conflicts. 
See the definition of “werschema” below.
Antag {Antagonist}  This term is merely a convenient abbreviation of the
full word “antagonist”.
Anterreg {Red Herring Antagonist}  A temporary antagonist, whose threats
against the emcair are not central to the novel’s thema.  The reader
may for a while believe the anterreg is the novel’s true antagonist,
but unlike a true antagonist, the anterreg’s actions do not create
an emasis (see definition below).  The author uses an anterreg to
distract reader from the novel’s true crisis, the emasis. Red herring
crises function mainly to demonstrate emcair's fitness for conflict,
especially to show that he does indeed have the aggressiveness and
skill to confront the antagonist, when the time comes.
Archetypes Innate ideas that steer humans to behavior and resources that
enhance survival.  Typical innate ideas are nurturer, self, protector,
and human/non-human.
Avedram {Dramatic Avenger}  The character who disempowers the antag. 
The avedram serves to help make the antag vulnerable to
vanquishment at the hand of the reader’s wish-projection.
Back-Causation A primitive form of circular reasoning that works as follows: the
subconscious mind accepts an event as real (while under mental
impairment), afterward the conscious mind rationalizes a real cause
for the event that the subsconsious mind has already accepted. 
Reader may fall back upon back-causation when his critical faculties
have been surpressed (through the contrivance of the author). 
Author induces suggestibility through skanomy (see definition
below) and hypnotic tricks.  When reader’s consciousness does
reawaken from an author-induced state of suggestibility, it seeks to
reassert control by imagining some plausible reason for what the
subconscious mind has already accepted. The mind reasons that if an
event is genuine, it has a real cause. 
Conrelact {Control of Action and Reality}.  The adaction between author and
reader over who controls the action and sense of reality.  Reader will
be aware of both the author’s powers over the action and his own
 power of “veto” on the score of believability.  Reader knows that he
can see through an author’s poorly disguised devices.  Conrelact is
an explanation of how author diminishes reader’s critical faculties
by manipulating reader’s assertion of ego.
Denu Event in which antagonist loses all power.
Egotify After surrendering his volition to author, a reader’s ego will attempt
to reassert control by imagining some rational explanation for the
acts for which the unconscious mind has already accepted
responsibility.  By that process the reader accepts the author’s
perspective while accepting it as the consequence of his own real
experiences.  The author controls the reader’s belief-making process
so that reader not only forms a new belief but feels he has done so
through an actual experience
Emasis {Schema Crisis}  Because of a change in circumstance, the startema
(see definition below) no longer serves emcair as an adequate guide
for living.  This becomes a crisis that threatens his survival.  Often
the “change in circumstance” is a sudden threat posed by the antag.
Emcair The character that undergoes schema change as an alter-ego for
reader.  This character faces the emasis.  Reader is want to identify
with the character so as to (1) test his own preparedness for crises;
and (2) view first-hand how the character deals with the threats. 
Reader selects the emcair based on which character is most
threatened by antagonist or anterreg.  Reader’s association with the
emcair is tergathy (see definition below), which is not
mere sympathy.
Episode Adactions that advance the schema development (i.e., from startema
to thema) from one structural stage to another.  Those stages create
breaks that provide transition points or that simply give reader a
chance to relax or reflect.  Episodes are usually divided into separate
chapters.
Infarv {Starve of Information}  To deprive of the knowledge necessary to
complete a werschema.
Kerflat {Flat character}  A character who is a stereotype, whose actions are
predictable.  His role is to facilitate the adaction or to help create a
social setting—serving like a member of the chorus.   A kerflat’s
needs do not relate to the startema or thema, and he does not affect
emcair’s schema development. 
Kerund {Round character}  A character whose unique needs, motivations
and power resources affect emcair’s schema development.  Kerund’s
 uniqueness will make his actions unpredictable, and that will retard
reader’s werschema formation.  Author will withhold information
about kerunds in order to induce skanomy.
Malschema Emcair’s initial replacements for his inadequate startema.  They are
weak schemas that do not solve the emasis.  Malschemas are weak
because they are copied from a poor model, or they are incomplete,
or they are based on a poor understanding or denial of
circumstances, or are a dysfunctional synthesis of various schema,
etc.
Pagathy {Antipathy} Reader's hatred for antag.  Reader's hatred reaches an
ever higher ferocity, stoked by antag's increasing malevolence, and,
by reader's increasing tergathy with emcair.  In the denu, reader's
pagathy reaches such a high level that (having no faith in the author
to dispatch antag) reader wisets the antag's demise.
Plot The sequence of events. Usually events are plotted chronologically,
but can be plotted in any order, for example the denu (see definition
below) could be presented first.
Pocal {Power Character}  A kerflat who wields great power in conflicts. 
A couple of examples will illustrate this character type: (1)
the avedram, whose needs have nothing to do with the startema or
the thema, and whose sole function is to deprive the antagonist of
power; (2) the anterreg, a temporary antagonist for an diversionary
incident that does not contribute to schema development.  Reader
will readily confuse a pocal with a kerund, so will have to expend
energy to distinguish the two.
Practication Narrator’s description of how the thema could be used to improve
the reader’s physical/social survival—for example how the thema
could be used to improve one’s work life.
Realization Emcair adopts the thema as the proper schema for the topic
archetype (see definition below).  This is a structural point in the
resolution.
Reify {To make real}  To give real (from life) attributes to an archetype. 
For example, for the archetype of nurturer, one would naturally first
choose the attributes of one’s own mother—but could choose a
father, sibling, saint, etc., instead.  The product of one’s reifying is a
schema, which is used as a practical guide for survival.
Schema A behavioral formula for satisfying a need—i.e., it helps a human
predict what actions or objects are most likely to enhance survival. 
Archetypes (a priori ideas) suggest the attributes to look for in
 creating a schema.  A schema is a reified archetype, that is, an
archetype that has been fleshed out through actual experiences.
Situa {Situation}  Situa is the matrix of (1) characters’ needs and (2)
characters’ need-satisfying resources (i.e., their power resources). 
As the action progresses, that matrix will change.  Characters will
acquire new understandings and new resources at the author’s
discretion.  As the novel begins, the situa is in equilibrium, but
antag’s aggression destabilizes it, leading to the emasis.  Reader uses
the data of the situa to construct werschema.
Skanomy The state of being without a schema, specifically for purposes of the
novel: without a werschema.  To induce the state of skanomy, the
author uses dramatic tension to induce the reader to constantly form
new werschema to meet new threats.  Yet by starving the reader of
information or misleading him author will prevent reader from
creating any viable werschema—inducing the skanomy state.  In the
state of skanomy the reader is susceptible to suggestion, and will use
primitive forms of reasoning that the author can manipulate to
inculcate his thema.
Startema {Start Schema} One of the schema that emcair has been successfully
using to organize his life at the beginning of the story.  At the emasis
the startema suddenly becomes inadequate because of antag’s threats
(i.e., a change in the situa).  
Story A synopsis of the action in roughly chronological order.  Story does
not describe the novel’s all-important esthetic qualities.
Tergathy Reader’s regarding the emcair as an alter-ego.  The verb “tergathize”
means “feel tergathy with”.  Tergathy is similar to the standard
literary word “empathy” but does not include feelings of pity. [It is
a technical word made up by the author]
Thema {Theme-schema} The new schema that author inculcates into reader
by means of the novel.  Through the author’s craft, reader replaces
the startema with the thema.
Topic Archetype The archetype of the startema, for which emcair needs to create
(“reify”) a replacement schema, namely, the thema.
Triumph Avedram and/or emcair’s display of power gained from the
vanquishment of the antag.
Ubertheme A secondary theme, which is often a social critique, that author
inserts at moments when the reader is most vulnerable to suggestion.
Werschema {Power schema} An ad hoc schema formulated to anticipate the
outcome of an adaction.  It is human nature to try to quickly map the
 relative power and motivations of the actors in any conflict so as to
anticipate the outcome.  Author thwarts reader’s werschema
formation, so as to make reader abandon critical reasoning and fall
back upon primitive forms of reasoning, which the author can then
manipulate to inculcate his thema.
Wiset {Wish-Projection, Wish-Project}  Wiset is a reader’s prayer for the
vanquishment of the antagonist. It is a primitive form of reasoning
that reader falls back upon during skanomy.  Like a curse, wiset is
reader’s primitive belief that he can affect the outcome of action by
a wish-force. Author will stimulate reader’s wish to see antagonist
vanquished and emcair prevail.  When the antagonist is in fact
vanquished, especially under peculiar circumstances, the reader will
believe his own wish-power indeed changed the novel’s outcome. 
When the reader feels he has had an active part in the outcome of the
novel, he will accept the novel as a real experience.

Analysis of Two Cuckoos

CHAPTER 1 – HOOK

The short novel opens with a “hook” chapter, designed to quickly and
securely grab reader’s interest.

This chapter has four chief objectives: (1) to stimulate the reader to engage
aggressively with the author; (2) to convince reader that the novel will
provide useful survival information; (3) to stimulate reader to construct a
werschema; and (4) show antag has exhausted her coping mechanisms (this
sets up her later transfer of aggression to emcair). Pricking curiosity about
the topic is an optional objective.

The chapter opens with a display of latent power, the doctor admonishing
the nurse. But that minor conflict is put into shadow by the appearance of
Colna—highly motivated to achieve a bizarre need—that is to have another
child at an advanced age. The doctor is sufficiently aggressive to dispatch
her peremptorily.

The author plunges the reader into the midst of a highly-charged dramatic
 situation. Many of the situa elements are presented as loose threads. There
are a couple conflicts, and the reader is left uncertain as to which one might
be the dominant conflict of the novel.

Readers tolerate a certain amount of ambiguity in order to expedite a story

and so do not make immediate demands for clarification. Plunging into the
middle of an event requires quick orienting from the reader, but it also
saves the reader from a boring, long-winded exposition. This leaves reader
dangling, however, with no ability to create a werschema during the
chapter.

Throughout a novel, the author challenges the reader to orient himself

quickly to adaction. In every chapter, the conrelact between author and
reader will be played out. Reader is conscious that author must play by the
constraints of human communication and a common understanding of
human experience. One might assume that the author has all the power in
the novel, but the reader always has the option of abandoning the novel and
so can keep author from exercising arbitrary power excessively. Author
knows he must provide reader a certain amount information or risk being
tossed aside.

The clever reader has opportunities to second-guess the author, and so the
author is also challenged to stay one step ahead. Of course, the author
usually has the advantage, since he controls the flow of information. A dull
author is predictable, and a clever reader can construct a werschema that
accurately predicts the outcome of conflicts or sees through the “surprises”
with which the dull author may try to waylay the reader.

¶ TEXT
1. “You’re lucky you ordered
that uterine laparoscopy,
doctor. It’s amazing she’s had
any children at all. The uterus
walls, they’re chewed up with
scars.”
2. “She must have had chronic
streptococcus infections her
whole life. Which patient was
that?”
ANALYSIS
Narrator uses his power of dropping
into a scene—to make reader
scramble to figure out what might be
going on. Reader probably enjoys
the challenge to his orienting skills.
Reader’s attention is focused on
Colna.
3. “She was the one who The load of ambiguous information is
complained to you that the getting heavy now, so reader will
doll in the waiting room was a demand a broader look at the
child and not an infant.” situation.
4. “Oh yeah, the one who said Reader senses a conflict here, and so
something like, ‘Well, this is a begins to construct a werschema.
baby-making clinic, isn’t it?’ But the major participants in the
I’ve never seen anyone in conflict are not identified—are they
such bad physical shape doctor versus nurse, or doctor versus
the old woman?
come in for artificial
insemination. She’s way too
old anyway. Marguerite, you
should never have let her in
the door—at her age . . . 55—if
that’s her real age. She looks
68.”
5. “Well, I didn’t reject her, Author misleads reader into sensing
because you told me not to be the conflict participants are doctor
judgemental.” The nurse had versus nurse. Author encourages
raised her voice now, and had reader’s sympathy with nurse—and
taken on the bitter tone of one reader wisets her empowerment.
too often accused after
merely obeying orders.
6. The doctor looked past her Doctor shows complete and almost
to be sure the door was shut abusive control.
completely and then said
loudly, “I didn’t tell you not to
use professional good sense.
I said you shouldn’t scrutinize
people’s motives too closely. I
didn’t say you should ignore
their physical health!”
7. “You’re the doctor. How did Reader’s wiset for nurse’s
I know what she was like empowerment fulfilled—as nurse
inside? She seemed strong becomes more self-assertive
enough.”
8. The doctor put his open Author flouts reader’s wiset.
hand to his face. “What about
her hands. Didn’t you see the
crooked joints? She’s
obviously ridden with
rheumatism.”
9. Marguerite stood silently Doctor versus nurse conflict has been
while the doctor shook the defused. It was just a red herring
hand, waiting for her reaction. conflict, used to generate interest.
The nurse merely sat down Reader will now have to scramble to
limply, making no retort. After adjust his werschema since, by the
volume of information just given, the
a moment she said plaintively,
old woman is probably going to be a
“Well, the first thing that major character. Reader will need
occurred to me was that her more information about the woman’s
motives were very weird. needs, motives and power resources.
What does she want with
another child anyway? She’s
already had six, plus that
stillborn. And one of her
children is a retarded son
who’s still living with her—
and she’s a widow.”
10. The doctor sat listening with The old woman has the rash power of
a dismissive air, as the nurse the insane. Reader will ask: Does the
continued, “She says she doctor have the power to defend
hasn’t any money but she himself?
could use government
benefits if you called the
procedure ‘gynecological
treatment’.”
11. In disgust the doctor Author portrays doctor as aggressive
pretended to occupy himself and sceptical, and obviously he won’t
with assembling the folders have trouble defending himself. Yet
on his desk, and said in a low the old woman has the power of a
voice, “What kind of scam is criminal mind. Reader will
sympathize with doctor and nurse,
she running anyway? She’s
and feel a threat from the old woman
 got an address in an that he will want to relieve with more
expensive neighborhood. If information. Reader would like to
she’s that poor, what’s she have a showdown between the old
doing trying to get pregnant woman and doctor to reveal who is
anyway?” more powerful. (But the author
never provides any such showdown).
12. Shoving a folder toward the The old woman would have to be
nurse, he lifted his head and extremely aggressive to successfully
gazed directly at her, “I don’t challenge the doctor.
want her to step foot in this
clinic again. She’s dangerous
—the kind you never want as
a patient. Marguerite, I want
you to go to the waiting room
and bring Mrs. Mackart into a
consultation room. Write up a
prescription for penicillin for
the streptococcus—then tell
her to see another
gynecologist for follow-up.
Tell her I cannot see her
again, and another pregnancy
would be out of the question. .
..”
13. The nurse stood to leave. Nurse obeys silently, without
resistance.
14. “ . . . And don’t tell any other The doctor has laid down the gauntlet
woman that sick—physically
and morally—we can help her
get pregnant.” Saying that,
the doctor grabbed another
patient chart from a stack on
his desk, and engrossed
himself in it.
15. Mrs. Colna Mackart and her Reader will now be quite anxious to
son, Patrick, were sitting resolve the ambiguities about Colna’s
alone in the waiting room. His motives. She is obviously cynical.
 psychological abnormality
was evident from the manic
way he would repeatedly
stand up and walk around the
room, peering at pictures on
the wall and shuffling noisily
through the stacks of
magazines on the end tables.
In his rummaging through the
magazines he found a tabloid
article recounting a popular
actress’s fickle decision to
have an abortion—after
having been artificially
inseminated at a fertility
clinic. Patrick had tastelessly
told his mother about the
article, and she had angrily
rebuked him—though, as the
nurse entered the waiting
room, a faint smirk had begun
to register on her face.
16. Colna Mackart’s wrinkled Author adds physical force to
skin and thinning hair gave Colna’s powers. He ambiguates her
her a post-menopausal look, nature, though—kind or perfidious?
but her firm jaw and active, Reader is vulnerable to nurse’s point
steel-blue eyes gave her of view because of earlier sympathy
for her.
appearance an undeniable
vigorousness. The prompt,
though somewhat stiff,
manner in which she rose
from the couch as the nurse
entered the waiting room,
reassured the nurse that her
initial impression of the
woman’s robustness had
 been well justified. The kindly
manner in which Mrs. Mackart
asked her son to wait while
she saw the doctor, also
belied the perfidy in which
doctor had cast her. In fact,
Mrs. Mackart had seemed so
gentle and honest that the
nurse could not muster the
courage to tell her of the
doctor’s rejection, but she
merely gave the gentle lady
the penicillin prescription and
told her they would have more
examination results for her
later.
17. Colna seemed quite Author challenges reader’s
surprised at hearing of the inclination to see Colna as an antag
streptococcus infection, (that is, as a negative and destructive
though upon hearing of it she force).
became suddenly quite
pensive, and it was a moment
before she responded. “As a
girl, I remember having ear
infections all the time. I would
cry all night because of the
pain. Eventually the pain
would go away. I think my
mother thought it was a
normal part of childhood to
have such infections, so she
never took me to a doctor.
You know, I’m not the type
who complains or goes to the
doctor about every little
thing.”
18. A suggestion of pity now Reader will wonder whether Colna is
entered the nurse’s truly pitiable or merely duping the
perception of the woman, and nurse.
she reflexively put her hand
on Colna’s shoulder. “Well,
there’s no need now to suffer
from that kind of illness and
pain.”
19. As if waiting for such a Author deepens reader’s frustration
prompt, however, Colna over Colna’s character. Reader will
asked the nurse to add some be desperate to know her true
strong pain relievers and motives.
tranquilizers, whose generic
Reader will also wonder whether the
medical names she
conflict between nurse and doctor
pronounced effortlessly, to will be revived or be merely a
the penicillin the doctor had temporary conflict not central to the
already prescribed. The nurse novel.
winced at the woman’s
seeming opportunism, but
nonetheless assured her that
the doctor would call a
pharmacy with the
prescriptions—though she
knew she might have to
endure another confrontation
with the doctor to get them.
20. Having made that The nurse is not intimidated by Colna
concession, the nurse was (and has no reason to be, despite
anxious to discourage the doctor’s warnings)
patient’s hopes of
insemination as much as
possible, and so gave an
exaggerated account of the
potential cost of an
insemination, and told her the
clinic would not accept
 Medicaid or Medicare or
whatever from her.
21. Colna had set her jaw all the Colna probably will not give up.
more firmly upon hearing this Author further ambiguates whether
and had raised her head she is the antag. Reader will be quite
determinedly. keen to follow her activities on the
As she accompanied Mrs. suspicion that she is the antag.
Mackart, who was walking
with stiff dignity out of the
consultation room, the nurse
was left puzzled by thoughts
of the woman’s true motives
in seeking a pregnancy—a
puzzlement made all the more
trenchant by the pity she felt
for the woman.
22. After the woman and her Author adds the doll-in-cushion
son had left, the nurse began mystery just to aggravate the reader’s
straightening up the waiting uncertainties. It’s a faux symbol. On
room, as if to rid herself of the the face of it, the doll seems like a
feelings of confusion. She symbol, but reader has little clue as to
what the symbol may reference. The
stacked the magazines that
doll-in-cushion may point to an
the son had left strewn aggressive son, who will pose a
around, and adjusted the sofa threat and needs to be scrutinized.
cushions. As she laid a loose Reader will set aside an energy
cushion in the corner of one reserve for that vigilance.
of the sofas, however, she
noticed a toy hand protruding
from between the cushions.
Instinctively, she looked
toward the reception desk for
the plastic doll that normally
stood on display in the
waiting room. It was gone,
and this hand then obviously
belonged to it. She pulled the
doll out, and straightened its
dress. Who had stuffed it
between the cushions, she
wondered—as if to hide it?

CHAPTER 2 – IDENTIFY KERUNDS

Chapter 2 will give reader strong clues as to which characters are the
kerunds and describe some aspects of the situa. Because of the novelty of
the circumstances and the characters, reader will be able to only partially
construct a werschema for the situa.

Colna does not respect her son and is keen to extract as much as she can
from him financially, simply based on his feelings of filial obligation. In
her brazen imposition of herself on him she runs into a bit of a problem
with a lab animal to which she is drawn by curiosity. [Following the
narrative, the reader gets the idea that Colna has pity and affection for the
animal, but in terms of the true meaning of the action, the cat is a symbol of
witchcraft, and it is to witchcraft that Colna is attracted.] The lab animal is
her first atrocity. Once in contact with her son she realizes that he has a
substantial career in ascendance, and she becomes alarmed. At that
moment she decides to sabotage him at his workplace. She conceives a
plan at that time but does not execute it. Her son does not sense his
mother’s ill-will and has no idea of the damage she has already caused,
which she conceals. He realizes that she has not been a very devoted
mother, but he represses that thought, encouraged by his assistant’s
exaggerated notions of filial duty.

Neal is not content with his life. He feels powerless and feels like he is
being kept in check by his work situation. He realizes that his career is
dependent on cooperation with those whose methods he does not agree
with. For now there is nothing he can do but endure it. However he will
eventually be overwhelmed by this frustration and act out. Fortunately for
him, he does not suffer any harm on that score because of the patience of
his employer. He does show signs at this point of being rather paranoid,
and this will be exacerbated later by the aggressive actions of his own
mother.

In the actual narrative, reader does not see that Neal’s dislike of his job will
become so intense as to threaten his livelihood later. And reader does not
realize that the mother’s hatred is so intense that she would like to destroy
her son’s career. Reader has no idea that she is planning sabotage.

In this second chapter, author will widen the focus on the situa. His goal
will be identifying the emcair and antag as elements in the situa. Author
will use an aura of threat to stimulate the reader to create a werschema as
quickly as possible. But author will leave the situa incomplete so as to
maintain control, to prick reader’s desire to complete a werschema, and to
make reader impatient and thus less critical.

Author will show antag and emcair’s power potentials. Antag will be
powerful, in control; emcair, weak and unaware.

In this chapter, the antag’s actions aggravate emcair’s dilemma at his job
and thwarts its proper resolution. Antag does author’s bidding in creating
threat and misinformation. However antag’s action during the chapter
ultimately provides a clue as to the true nature of the emasis.

Colna establishes herself as a likely antag—this time in a power situation

where she has much more control—parent-child. (Her miserly obsession
with government benefits is a red-herring motivation.) The power
relationship between mother and son is paralleled by a red herring conflict
[to be resolved in the practication] between Neal and his boss.

We have a savage display of the power of Colna’s aggressive determination

and her cunning. Emcair is shown as discontent but powerless versus the
antag and the anterreg.

The reader enters chapter 2 quite hungry for information with which he can
begin to construct a werschema for the principal conflict. The author does
not provide a bridge between the first two chapters, which forces the reader
to begin constructing a werschema anew. The reader is somewhat
compensated for author’s high degree of arrogance by a high degree of
drama. The reader would be quite put off and annoyed if the author did not
provide a good suggestion as to who the kerunds are by the time reader has
finished the second chapter. The author does this by providing a quite
elaborate description of the character Neal’s needs. He does not reveal
much about Colna’s needs, but given her large dramatic role, it becomes
obvious that she is going to be a kerund.
 The author however introduces a red herring conflict with the principal
investigator to stymy the reader’s werschema, that is, by presenting a
secondary conflict.

In chapter 2 author has established Colna as a powerful figure; however

author has not made her into an adversary. In chapter 2 if there is an
obvious antag, it seems to be the principal investigator. But he is
ultimately shown to be nothing more than an anterreg.

The chapter ends with a sort of quizzical irony. After the narrator’s long
disquisition about the selfishness of Neal’s mother’s generation, Neal states
his sense of duty toward his mother. Most readers will be uncomfortable
with this. Although they may agree about filial duty, Colna’s actions cast
that duty very much into doubt.

The ending of chapter 2 gives a strong indication of the predominating

conflict of the novel, that is, between Colna’s selfishness and Neal’s
inability to revise his schema regarding duty toward parents in light of
information glaringly presented to him about his own mother.

2. Cats make excellent animals Failure to identify the novel’s main

for research. The sparks of characters immediately will
animation that enliven their aggravate reader—increase his
normally sedate lives come infarvation. Also this diversion into
only in short bursts. The long a long exposition will tax reader’s
attention, which will be preoccupied
periods cats remain at rest
with building a werschema.
give them ample opportunity
to recover from experimental
procedures.
2. Neal Mackart, the oldest of Reader will take account of Neal’s
Colna Mackart’s three sons, status in case he must be included in
valued the contributions of the werschema.
such “volunteer” felines, and
though they were his
experimental subjects, he
treated them as if they were
Bastet, the Egyptian cat
 goddess.
3. A particularly sleek and Reader may be inclined to wiset
beautiful black cat lay success for Neal.
harnessed to a table in his lab
that morning. It had
unfortunately decided to
abandon its normal languor
and vault into one of its few
but regular periods of frenzy.
Neal feared that the tight
bindings may be agitating the
beautiful creature, and so
loosened them, except at the
head, where the animal had
electrodes implanted through
an incision in the skull. Above
the neck, the feline’s head
was immobilized by a
securely fitting metal and
leather armature.
4. Neal and the cat were Author empowers Neal, showing
engaged in a search for the Neal is inventive.
chemical stimulants that
control animal memory. The
cat would be doped with
medication and the electrodes
would record the resultant
changes in activity of cells in
certain areas of the brain.
Neal had invented a means of
delivering the drug directly to
certain cell groups through a
unique pipette. He had also
created models for reading
the electrical output of cells in
such a way that the data was
 far more intelligible to
researchers than had been
possible previously. This
particular animal, in whom he
had invested nearly a month
of work, was the last animal of
his recent research project,
and he had given it the very
ordinary human name “Sue
Clark” in his data log. This
would be the last data
session, and he had already
laid out a bottle of
secobarbital with which to
terminally sedate the animal
after the lab session. The
animal was a laboratory
animal and not a pet, and Neal
restrained any selfish desire
he might have to create an
emotional attachment to the
animal.
5. The cat was continuing to Reader will sense an oncoming
struggle impatiently however. adaction and will try to create as full
Neal wished he hadn’t started a werschema as possible.
the tests before his lab
assistant had arrived. She
could have helped restrain the
animal and help it to settle
down.
6. Just then the lab telephone Reader will brace for start of
rang, startling both adaction/complication.
researcher and animal. Neal
happily left the fidgeting
creature and walked over to
the phone.
7. “Your mother is here at the Reader feels discomfort at the
department office,” the caller mother’s interruption of the
was saying, “She can’t experiment.
remember where your lab is.
Could you come and get
her?”
8. Neal hesitated. He had Author ratchets up the tension
already strapped in the cat between the competing needs of cat
and though he had not and mother.
administered the
neurochemical or begun the
tests, he could see that the
animal was becoming
uncomfortable and he was
eager to get back to the table
to soothe it.
9. “Neal,” the voice prompted, First mention of the startema. Reader
“Neal, your mother’s here. will recognize the [social] validity of
Don’t forget your filial duty— the startema and concur with it.
drop everything so she
doesn’t have to wait.”
10. Neal’s mother had decided Author reinforces startema by stating
to drop in unannounced at its archetype: mother as nurturer.
quite an awkward time. But
Neal had been trying to
interest her in his work at the
lab for some time and was
delighted to hear that she had
finally taken the initiative to
come. Even though her timing
was not good, he would
certainly enjoy a shot of
emotional support.
11. His quick rise at the Neal has talent and power. But
university had been fortunate author intimates future threats to his
—of that he was daily aware— power. Author also plants a red
herring motive for the future killing
 but it had come at the price of of Neal’s cats.
ill-concealed envy and
sabotage among his
colleagues. As a student, Neal
had imagined a far more
collegial atmosphere would
prevail in the huge block of
university medical labs. Once
he entered the fray, he
realized that the competition
for funding had turned
researchers into back-bitters
or worse, into spies, pirates
and marauders, as much
interested in denigrating each
others’ work as in promoting
their own.
12. Neal often asked himself Reader thinks he will have a good
how it was he had risen and chance to size up Neal’s power. But
survived. What was it that had author leaves this rhetorical question
built up his character? unanswered.
13. His mother had Startema: mothers always nurture
disappointed him many times their children. Neal is dissatisfied
before by refusing his pleas with the reification of his mother
to come look at his work or archetype. His mother does not
even to talk about what he fulfill the mother archetype well. But
by no means has he given up on her.
was doing. It would be
wonderful, he thought, if his
mother were in a generous
mood and could offer some
encouragement today.
14. Looking over at the cat, There is a foreboding of trouble from
which had stopped moving the cat.
but was alertly surveying its
harness, undoubtedly
scheming to free itself if
 possible, Neal looked at his
watch and quickly stepped
out of the lab into the bright,
block long corridor outside.
15. Neal hurried along the The pocal Sarzolian is introduced.
empty hall toward the He has far greater power than Neal.
departmental office until a
voice called out in the
commanding tone of a
summons. Vikus Sarzolian
had stuck his graying head
into the hall, a gesture which
could not be merely
acknowledged with a casual
greeting. Sarzolian was the
“P.I.”—principal investigator
—on Neal’s National Science
Foundation grant, and would
control all publications of
Neal’s data. Sarzolian was
something more valuable to a
young scientist than the most
original hypothesis: he was a
darling of the federal science
funding community—and as
such was a mother lode of
grant monies.
16. Sarzolian had developed a Sarzolian is unscrupulous—and is
methodology for doing portrayed as a possible antag.
science that enabled him to
create seemingly unique
results on a regular basis, on
time, and within budget. His
method consisted merely of
buying the most advanced
and recent scientific
 equipment and allowing it to
make his discoveries for him.
For example, he freely
admitted to confidants that
his only role in the scientific
enterprise was to act as a
consumer of scientific
equipment. Sarzolian had
never disappointed the
federal funders and was a
grant magnet. The money
allowed him to attract the
most promising of young
researchers, like Mackart,
especially ones that were
machine-savvy—abreast of
the latest products of
instrument makers.
17. Mackart’s work had been a Neal is more scrupulous than
disappointment to Sarzolian— Sarzolian. That bodes a power
not that Mackart hadn’t conflict for which Neal is poorly
produced valuable armed. Author gives an appealing
knowledge, but he spent too rationale for Sarzolian’s actions,
which dampens any sympathy the
much time inventing theories
reader might feel for Neal.
and formulas and not enough
time using the expensive
equipment. Machart, as an
unmarried young man,
seemed to forget that the
other members of the team
had families to support,
houses to pay for, and
pensions to fund. Sarzolian
had frequently to prompt him
with the motto “No data—no
moola.”
18. Sarzolian had been Reader steels himself for an adaction
particularly impatient with and tries to predict as much as
Neal’s most recent work, and possible—but does not know enough
the principal investigator’s about either character—so will be
voice summoning him from particularly alert to their various
advantages.
the hall was to the young
researcher the most
unwelcoming of sounds, as if
it were the midnight knock of
the Inquisition.
19. As Neal stopped and turned Sarzolian exacts the first sacrifice
to face Sarzolian, he had from Neal.
already clasped his hands
together in supplication, to
beg to be allowed to postpone
the P.I.’s summons, while he
retrieved his mother. But
Sarzolian had the first word,
“Come in a minute,” and Neal
could do nothing but obey.
20. Colna Mackart had stood in Colna has almost psychic powers, is
the departmental office for as headstrong and impatient. Those are
long as her patience allowed, perhaps vulnerabilities, perhaps
about 5 minutes, and then strengths.
without a word had turned out
into the hall and began
walking in the direction she
had recalled from her prior
visit to the lab some years
ago. Though she passed
through a nondescript hall
lined with identical doorways,
some open, some closed,
some emitting the odor of
medical solvents, some the
smell of preservatives, some
 of warm tissue samples under
the heat of electrodes, her
instinct served her well, and
guided her to the area
containing her son’s lab. She
stood in the hall for a moment
and cocked her head as if
waiting for some sort of
telepathy to guide her into the
correct lab. Seemingly cued
to her search, the cat in Neal’s
laboratory issued a faint
meow that turned Colna’s
head in the direction of the
lab.
21. “He said he worked with Colna’s brazenness will undoubtedly
cats,” Colna mumbled to create a stir that will be rich with
herself. That was justification information about the kerunds.
enough for her to brazenly
peer into the lab from which
she had heard the sound.
22. “Neal,” she called out, as Author will surprise reader with this
she stepped in further. In a conjunction of cat and Colna.
corner, curtained from the
rest of the lab, Colna saw the
cat still strapped to the
laboratory table. It cast a
wearied expression in Colna’s
direction, as if to suggest,
“What are you doing here?
Can’t you see we’re busy?”
23. Colna had never shown any Black cat—the witch’s companion.
affection for animals, but if The association between that symbol
any creature might claim her and Colna may not be obvious now.
affection it would probably be
something like the one before
 her—a cat with short, rough
fur, as dark as a moonless
night.
24. “What are they doing to you, Reader feels some sympathy for the
poor kitty,” Colna said as she animal and thus wisets its liberation.
recognized the cat’s head was
clamped into it armature as
surely as a spindle on a lathe.
Colna put a finger to the cat’s
forehead as if to stroke it, but
the animal, not used to such
treatment, bared its teeth and
began struggling fiercely in
its restraints. Colna went
quickly to work unbolting the
metal armature around the
cat’s head. In her efforts to
loosen the cat’s restraints she
was much helped by the
animal itself who was now
moving its head vigorously
from side to side.
25. In a great force of agitation The liberation becomes a tragedy—
the cat managed to not only and reader’s wish is thwarted.
free its head, but also to Reader will be keen to see how
extract a paw from the sack in adeptly Colna can respond.
which its body had been
secured, and with both teeth
and nails tore violently at
Colna’s hand, slicing and
digging at the fingers until
tendons, already half-
destroyed by rheumatism, lay
exposed on several knuckles.
26. Colna suppressed a scream, Colna is able to deal savagely even
and bringing her other hand with attacks of other evil creatures.
Reader will be drained by the
 over the screws of the concentration evoked by the high
armature, began tightening it drama. This scenario is highly
back around the cat’s head. unbelievable, but reader will accept it
The maddened cat swung its because Colna has already been cast
hand to attack the fresh hand as a virtual lunatic.
as it had the other, but such
was the feverish motion with
which Colna tightened the
armature, that the cat’s head
was soon immobilized.
Colna’s fingers ached with the
pain of rheumatism and from
the use of too much force on
such wasted muscles and
joints, but such was her
frenzy that she continued to
tighten the armature even
after the animal had been
restrained, until the animal’s
tiny skull had been garroted
to near the breaking point.
Colna then grabbed the
animal’s neck and squeezed
out what life remained.
27. Such had been the Reader may feel privileged at
suddenness of the attack that possessing information unknown to
Colna’s wounds had only just Neal—and will use his insider’s
begun to bleed. Her eyes, knowledge to predict outcome of an
inflamed now more in rage encounter between Neal and his
mother. Reader will relish
than with terror, combed the
discovering whether, when Neal
laboratory for a bandage. A discovers the cat’s death, he will
first-aid kit mounted make the association between the
prominently by the door soon death and his mother.
caught her desperate glance,
and she ripped it open with a
fury. She heavily bandaged
 her damaged hand. In an
instant, on turning to leave
the lab, she had apparently
had one of those realizations
that she was going to get
away clear and in a moment
of sordid glee had looked on
the counters for any
medication she might take
with her. Seeing several vials
of secobarbital, she had
scooped them into her purse.
Moments later Colna
presented herself in the hall,
just in time to see her son
come wandering down from
the departmental office,
confused as to her
whereabouts.
28. Colna had, in the breath of a Reader should be starting to
spark, assumed a pitiable and tergathize Neal, since the reader will
bewildered composure and want to have the surrogate experience
appeared to be wandering lost of dealing with a unique, powerful
in the hallway. Her injured character like Colna.
knuckles she had painfully
turned into her palm so they
were little visible. Neal’s relief
at seeing the figure of his
mother in the hallway, close
to his lab, showed visibly in a
broad smile as he quickened
his step to meet her.
29. “Give your mother a kiss,” Colna insists on Neal’s filial duty.
she greeted him, pulling her Her makeup is a minor symbol for
mouth to one side to expose a her falsity.
cheek heavily made up to
 cover the heavy wrinkles that
had stolen over her
complexion. Her face was as
redolent of scented emulsions
and powder as the labs were
of chemicals.
30. “Mother, I want you to see Neal tests Colna’s sense of motherly
my work,” he said joyously. duty.
31. “Well, I’m a bit tired. I just Reader discovers Colna feels no
returned from the doctor’s,” motherly duty and takes care of her
she replied. own interests.
32. Neal was barely able to Reader’s tension heightened.
register his disappointment
before the thought of his lab
animal claimed him. He would
quickly release the cat and
return it to its cage in the
vivarium, he thought to
himself, and then could give
himself fully to his mother.
33. Leaving her in the hall, Neal Reader will be keen to know what
dashed into his lab. The effect his discovery will have on
shock of seeing the dead cat Neal.
upon the laboratory table
seemed to suck the air from
his lungs, and he was left
momentarily unable to inhale.
34. The horror of the spectacle Neal will be empowered by a
on the table, as gruesome as motivation to find the perpetrator.
it was, paled in his mind
before the thoughts that came
rushing on him of the dire
consequences for his
research of that animal’s
death. At first, he assumed
the animal had strangled itself
 on the apparatus, but then he
noticed that the armature
holding the head was
fastened to the crushing
point. He would never have
done that himself. Obviously
someone had done this
maliciously, but for what
reason . . . cruelty, sabotage?
He had never heard of such
an act in a university lab,
where researchers were
always so punctilious about
following animal treatment
protocols.
35. Neal stood gaping at the Colna mocks Neal—flaunting her
scene before him when he superior power.
heard his mother’s falsely
plaintive voice from the hall,
“Neal, have you forgotten
me?”
36. There was nothing to be Author infarves reader by
done at the moment other withholding emcair’s thoughts.
than release the dead cat from
the harness, and to cover it
until he could call the
vivarium to dispose of it. He
certainly wouldn’t need to
inject the secobarbital now.
37. Having drawn the curtain Colna now is feeling trepidation,
around the surgical station since her wound must be obvious.
containing the dead cat, Neal, Tension is high, and reader is feeling
still in a state of extreme stress.
alarm, drew his mother into
the lab, apologizing that he
had had a phone call.
38. “Don’t be rude to your Colna is brave and manipulative
mother, Neal. I told you I had beyond measure. Reader will be
just been to the doctor,” she extremely keen to gauge Neal’s
said sternly, “Anyway, Neal, I reaction to his mother’s wound—but
want to ask you for some help author will infarv him.
with a gynecological
procedure I need. Could you
give me some financial help . .
. $15,000?” She then dropped
her head as if into a sling of
pitiable resignation.
39. “Mother, why do you need ¶¶39-41 A little bit of dramatic
so much? Are you having an riposte showing how little power
operation?” Neal has to extract information from
Colna.
40. “Oh, Neal, please don’t ask Reader will probably make the
me to give you the details— correct connection at this point
it’s gynecological.” between the “operation” and Colna’s
attempt to buy insemination.
41. “I’m not that squeamish, Neal is not completely complacent,
mother. I’m a biologist.” and offers a rational reply to Colna’s
appeal to her right to dignity.
42. “It would be vulgar to talk Colna, as ever, is keen to use her
about your mother’s body— maternal status to preserve her
especially that area. Save power.
your mother some dignity,
Neal. Yes, I’m having an
operation.”
43. In his flustered state of Neal’s habit is to ignore problems.
mind, Neal was eager to Reader may wiset that he take a more
simply eliminate any further confrontational style.
decisions that day. “Okay,
mother, send me your bills.
Whatever’s left after Medicare.
Are you feeling okay?”
44. “No, in fact I’m not,” she
said sharply, “I’ve got your
 twin brother in a cab waiting. I
have to go—before he does
something weird.”
45. The expression “taxi Neal does have some influence over
waiting” had visibly soured Colna.
her son’s expression, and
Colna was quick to add, “I’m
using free taxi vouchers,
don’t worry.”
46. Just then the meowing of a Reader is eager for Colna to reveal
cat became audible in the hall, her atrocity.
and Colna stiffened in alarm.
“What’s that?” she asked
agitatedly.
47. Neal walked over a few
paces behind his mother and
pushed open a door that had
been only partially closed.
Colna turned her head and
followed him with her eyes.
“This is the floor’s vivarium.
It’s were we keep animals
we’re working on each day.”
Colna took a few steps and
peered into the semi-
darkened room, and made but
a single remark, “Smells like
cats in there.”
48. Colna began to move
toward the elevator, but as
she turned, the large
presence of Dr. Sarzolian
seemed to block the hall in
front of her.
49. “This must be your mother,
Neal,” he said.
50. Colna smiled sweetly and Colna pretends to uphold the
 gazed with an affected pride startema (“mothers will always
at her son. nurture their children”), which she
has been flouting.
51. Dr. Sarzolian’s suddenly The anterreg Sarzolian also embraces
became effusive, and after the startema.
cheerful introductions, he
added, “I have some very
good news for your son, Mrs.
Mackart. I know you will be
proud to hear it. This will
mean a big boost for his
career.”
52. The cheerful look Colna had Author gives a clue as to Colna’s real
assumed seemed to leak from attitude.
her face. Neal stood
expectantly, and Sarzolian
teasingly withheld his
announcement. “Our nicotine
receptor grant has just been
funded by the National
Institutes of Health!”
53. “Oh mother, this is a huge
grant. We’ll have money for all
our experiments,” Neal said
excitedly.
54. He looked eagerly into his Colna attempts to dampen Neal’s
mother’s face for empowerment. Reader may be aware
congratulations but instead now that Neal and mother are in
saw an expression of pain conflict.
that the woman was trying to
mask. “That’s wonderful . . .
but your brother . . . ,” she
replied, as she turned her
head in the direction of the
elevators.
55. In a moment both the P.I.
and mother had left—
 Sarzolian returning to his lab
to contact other colleagues
with the news of his new
funding, and Colna going
immediately to the adjacent
university hospital to have her
recent wounds stitched. Neal
returned to the scene of the
morning’s horror. Fortunately
the day’s good news would
make telling Sarzolian of the
loss of his lab animal less
dire. Nonetheless Sarzolian
had never liked Neal’s style of
experimentation, in which
Neal used the same animal for
months—carefully attempting
to prove hypotheses.
Sarzolian much preferred to
use an animal briefly and then
sacrifice it so the brain
tissues could be analyzed
using some of the
sophisticated laboratory
apparatus at his disposal.
Neal’s laborious method of
acquiring data was too slow.
This recent disaster with the
cat would fully vindicate
Sarzolian’s prejudices.
56. Sitting on a lab stool, with Author dodges the foremost dramatic
the dead animal lying in the issue—that is the sabotage of Neal’s
curtained space on the other experiment. Neal’s introspection is a
side of the room, Neal found setup for author’s disquisition (on the
to his surprise his thoughts ubertheme of “government handouts
to the elderly”) in the next paragraph.
turning to his mother and her
The recent drama has heightened
 demand for money. His first reader’s alertness, and author will
thought, strangely, was of the take advantage of that to insert his
taxi cab waiting for her. How comments on the ubertheme.
could she use taxi vouchers?
How did she qualify herself
for government assistance?
His father had seemingly left
her good investments. In her
old age she had become
incurably restless and loved
to travel—spending $20,000 a
trip on exotic cruises to
places like Vladivostok or the
Yangtze gorges. But certainly,
he thought, she couldn’t have
spent everything.
57. His parents belonged to that ¶¶57-60 Author’s ubertheme
small but supremely lucky disquisition. Colna becomes a
generation who began symbol of her generation.
earning money immediately
after World War II, and whose
assets, bid up in value by the
huge generation of children
that followed them, would
produce investment incomes
greater than even their
children’s working salaries.
Colna and her husband,
despite his big income, had
raised their large family on a
shoestring, passing off their
miserliness as good
husbandry. Their large family
had been a ready excuse to
effect the most draconian
household economies, and
 frugality became a sport
rather than a necessity for the
parents.
58. After their children had left
home, Colna and her husband
could deny themselves
nothing, and justified their
lavish living standard as a
reward for a life of hard work
—fatuously ignorant of the
predominant role that luck
had played in their prosperity.
So convinced had Colna
herself become that her
generation’s success was
hard-earned, she felt no
compunction in availing
herself of the ample
government-funded benefits
available to her generation at
retirement—to be paid for by
their children. The philosophy
of self-reliance that she and
her husband had used as an
excuse not to share their
good fortune with their
children, Colna conveniently
put aside when it came to
taking monies from well-
funded and politically popular
government programs for the
elderly. It was often that upon
seeing a middle-age man at a
grocery store or shopping
mall in the middle of the day,
Colna would unconsciously
 snarl, “Why aren’t you at
work, earning my social
security money?”
59. Perhaps her generation had
been too much affected by
post-war commercial
advertisements or the
glamorous lives of pulp
fiction characters, which
recklessly promised everyone
an endless bounty of
commercial goods. Colna
could never say no to tokens
of a lifestyle that had hitherto
been reserved for individuals
at the peak of society—such
things as large automobiles
lavish enough for an
ambassador, vacations and
restaurant meals erstwhile
reserved for capitalist barons,
and so on. In order to
preserve her income-
producing assets, Colna
would not hesitate to ask her
children for financial support,
and tried to cast herself as the
impoverished senior of her
own parents' generation.
60. Colna would never allow
herself to die without plenty
of assets. Her dignity
demanded that she have an
estate in her elder years, and
not pass away like her own
mother, with a measly set of
 assets that cried out lower
middle class.
61. Had he known the true state
of his mother’s ample
financial resources, Neal
would not have so readily
consented to her demand for
money. But he had never
made inquiries into her
finances because she had
trained him well to believe in a
duty to his parents.
62. By the time that his musing
about his mother’s sudden
medical needs had run its
course, Neal was left with one
thought—his unquestionable
duty to his mother.
Author plants a justification for
Neal’s ignorance of Colna’s ruse.
Author restates the startema, which
he has already impugned by casting
such a negative pall over a whole
generation of parents. Neal is not
privy to author’s musings; they are
for the reader.
Despite his suspicions, Neal is not
about the give up on the startema.
Average readers, for whom the
startema has strong socially-
sanctioned appeal, will congratulate
him—even if it means disregarding
some of the evidence, dramatic and
expository, already provided.

CHAPTER 3 – DISPLAY OF ANTAG’S POWER

In chapter 3 author provides reader a close scrutiny of Colna’s abusive and

contemptuous nature. Reader also gets further insights into Colna’s
obsession with infants, despite her obvious detestation of children. By the
end of the chapter, however, reader will not comprehend the cause of
Colna’s unmotherly attitude. The reader does not know why the antag is
obsessed with infants, and so is not really able to complete that part of the
werschema. In many ways it seems like the antag is merely exercising a
whim. It is not clear how deep her desire goes, though it is very deep
indeed as the action will eventually show. The drama in this chapter shows
that the antag is unable to get her way, though she is in a very dominant
position. Colna is an object of reader’s spite, and reader will already be
hoping she will lose power.

The antag is upset because of the injury she suffered in the previous chapter
and is extremely abusive. The chapter opens with Colna asserting her
dominance over kerflat Patrick and the rest of the kerflat household. She
 then becomes despotically aggressive toward the child Miguel and her
home health worker. She is also carrying on her obsession with having
children and she hits upon the idea of having her health care worker
become pregnant. She even offers up her own son as the father—
something without any regard for decency or civility. This is too much for
the health care worker, who quits.

Chapter 3 undoubtedly surprises the reader at the beginning because it

picks up with Colna rather than the emcair, who had been the focus of the
prior chapter. There is nothing much for the reader to do here but sit back
and absorb the horrifying ogre that the author creates in the form of Colna
Mackart. The author’s challenge is to make the woman, as awful as she is,
believable. To do that, he puts her in adaction that is itself believable. He
supplements the adaction with an exposition about the generally callous
treatment of children of Colna’s generation.

The reader will feel uneasy that the topic of children has come back after its
distastefully peculiar treatment in the first chapter. The reader will sense
that the novel is in the horror genre, and if he does not like horror stories,
he will quit reading at that point.

3. Colna continued to occupy Provide information about the

the family home her husband circumstances at Colna’s home.
had bought when their Characterize it as a place not friendly
children were still at home. to children.
Her husband had been
concerned that he appear
prosperous, and had bought
that fine-looking house,
though he had furnished it
sparsely, if not crudely, while
his children remained at
home.
2. “You even lost your license The short adaction regarding
from all your drinking,” Colna alcoholism is simply a hook—that is,
was saying testily, as she and to capture reader’s attention.
her son, Patrick, entered the
house. “You could have
 driven me, and I wouldn’t
have had to use up all my taxi
vouchers. What a waste.”
3. “Well, I was sick then,”
Patrick was replying limply, “I
couldn’t help myself.”
4. “Too bad you couldn’t get a
job, and pay me back for the
car you smashed up,” was
Colna’s final word on the
subject.
Reader is left without the ability to
make a moral judgement, since
Patrick casts himself rather
pathetically.
The paragraph shows Patrick as a
very weak character, vulnerable to
the force of Colna. Reader feels
some pity for Colna, who is saddled
with such a loser.

5. A young Hispanic woman Expository setup for what follows.

appeared in the entry as
Colna was hurrying to the
living room and to the
comforts of the couch. The
woman was trailed sheepishly
by her four-year-old son.
6. “Mrs. Mackart, you had Setup for paragraph 7.
three calls while you were out.
One from your doctor’s office
and two from your
daughters.”
7. “Two daughters?! What do Minor confrontation. Author deems
they think this is, Mother’s the kerflat Teresa’s power
Day?” Colna snapped, “I characteristics not worth describing.
really am the old woman in Reader will sense that she has no role
the shoe—with so many to play in a power conflict or in the
exposition of thema.
children, she didn’t know
what to do. My husband—sex The paragraph shows Colna’s
was his only real pleasure callousness and her unmotherliness;
outside work. The son-of-a- however it also shows her as a victim
bitch wouldn’t wear a of her husband’s insatiable lust.
condom. There was no way he
was going to deny himself The waiving of the hand at the end of
 one moment of sensation. The the paragraph is a dramatic hook.
result—six children! And I Reader will want to know what
hadn’t even recovered from a Teresa’s reaction will be to seeing the
pregnancy before he started injured hand. However at the end of
in again, and during my the paragraph the author abruptly
thwarts reader’s curiosity.
periods too. . . . The doctor’s
office? Give me the number,”
she said, thrusting her injured
hand toward the Hispanic
woman. Almost instantly
Colna withdrew the hand,
realizing the heavy bandages
would arouse questions. She
quickly substituted her other
hand, but too late. The woman
had already seen the huge
bandage. Colna could see
from her look of surprise that
an inquiry was imminent. But
Colna had so well trained the
woman that by merely waiving
her hand in a dismissive
fashion she was able to
preempt any satisfying of the
woman’s curiosity.
8. Teresa was a home health Exposition on the situation
worker provided by the state underlying the adaction between the
because Colna had qualified health care worker and Colna.
as “restricted in self-care Author characterizes Colna’s benefits
capability”, unable to perform in a very technical fashion as a setup
to the author’s future derision of
the “activities of daily living”
these benefits—especially in the way
without assistance. Teresa Colna manipulates them.
was the latest in a long string
of such workers whose tenure
with Colna never lasted more
than several months.
9. Colna took the telephone Expository setup for paragraph 10.
number and quickly dialed the
doctor’s office.
10. Steeled by distance from This is a highly dramatic situation.
Mrs. Mackart, the nurse finally Colna’s reaction is withheld until the
raised sufficient courage to middle of the confrontation to add
tell the old woman of the tension.
doctor’s rejection. But by way
of consolation the nurse
informed her that the doctor
had okayed a two-week
prescription of the sedative
she had requested.
11. “Mrs. Mackart,” the nurse
counseled, “at your age, you
risk possible miscarriage or
another stillbirth.”
12. The word “stillbirth” Colna Again the reader is encouraged to
felt like a vicious wound and have mixed feelings toward Colna—
her immediate reflex was to contempt and pity.
defend herself savagely, “I
had five children after the Reader will expect Colna to come up
with something outrageous. Reader
death—didn’t I more than
sees Colna dealing with yet another
make up for it—doesn’t that issue having to do with procreation.
satisfy you that I’m fertile,” At the end there is a possible segue.
she said with a voice whose “I’ll just find somebody else”, she
initial furor was quickly says. This is to setup the reader’s
smothered by self-pity. Colna curiosity as to her further actions.
could in no way be consoled.
“I’ll just find someone else,
then,” she yelled into the
phone angrily and slammed it
down.
13. She promptly lit a cigarette Sets up a situation in which the
and made it obvious to the reader is allowed to see whether
adults who were standing in Colna is really as vicious as already
portrayed. Her cruel response to the
 the room that no one dare tender actions of small child shows
approach her in her present her true colors.
mood. The child, however,
seeing her discomfiture,
instinctively and naively
climbed onto the couch, and
with his small hand patted her
on the shoulder. “Mrs. Mack,
don’t be unhappy. You look
scary when you’re mad.”
14. But far from being soothed
by this tender and innocent
gesture, Colna turned her
head to the child and blew a
strong stream of smoke in his
face. “Get this horrible
nuisance away from me!
Patrick, take him over and
play some kind of game with
him on the other side of the
room.”
15. Colna felt no affection for Narrator gives insight into Colna’s
Miguel, but found him attitude toward infants as
tolerable to the extent that distinguished from children. Colna is
she could put him to use shown to be very abusive in her
running petty errands for her, attitude toward children.
such as getting the mail,
Her maltreatment of the child is of
finding her cigarettes or course metaphor for her entire
reading glasses, and so on. generation and their abusive attitude
Miguel was generally quite toward children—a substantiation of
cooperative about being run the ubertheme. If the ubertheme is
about the house in that way, believable, as the author thinks it is,
but if interrupted in the middle then linking Colna to the ubertheme
of play, would naturally find makes her actions more believable.
such demands irksome. Even
more irksome would be her
 insistence that he remain
nearby in case a whim for
something seized her. Had he
been older, she undoubtedly
would have made him into a
virtual domestic worker,
giving him a list of the most
disagreeable household
chores—cleaning dishes and
the bathrooms, etc. His young
age fortunately saved him
from such drudgery.
16. In the face of Colna’s Shows the child as not entirely
authority, Miguel could hardly accepting his victimhood but trying
say no when Colna to escape it in some way, that is,
interrupted his play, though through complaints to the mother.
he would make futile
complaints to his mother.
17. “She’s letting you stay here This paragraph promises to be a
for free,” his mother would segue but is not picked up later. It
reply, “You should be also ambiguates the motivation for
grateful.” Colna’s cruel actions, i.e., it gives
some justification for making a slave
out of the child.
18. At times Colna would amuse Here Colna as a metaphor for her
herself spitefully at the child’s whole generation is made explicit by
expense. In doing this she the narrator. It also shows the
was but following a long adult narrator’s sympathy with children.
tradition of using children as
objects of derision. Miguel’s
childlike primitiveness, his
good-natured but incomplete
attempts to learn, his
elementary grammar or his
mimicking adults would all be
cause for an enjoyable
guffaw. The child was easy to
 tease, and Colna relished
falsely accusing him of
things, and then watching him
vehemently but inarticulately,
try to defend himself.
19. Apart from the petty labor Further evidence of Colna’s
and amusement, Colna could tyrannical treatment of children.
barely tolerate the child and
made clear to him that he had
no rights in the household. He
did not have the right to seek
her attention or take up her
time, and Colna would berate
Teresa if she found her
serving the same food to her
son as to Colna herself.
“Children don’t like steak” or
“Children don’t like pizza. You
should be feeding him
hotdogs,” she would tell
Teresa.
20. Miguel, though naïve, was Narrator shows the dangerous social
acutely aware of his low consequences of Colna’s attitude
status. But he contented toward children.
himself, like most children,
with the idea that once in
adulthood, he himself would
be in the position to exploit
others.
21. Teresa quickly rescued her Reader will sense a setup for an
son from the couch, and adaction. There is an explicit
carried him promptly to the statement from Colna about her
other side of the room. He attitude toward children, “Civil but
was still wiping the smoke strange.”
from his eyes as she set him
down. Colna, for her part,
 assumed an arch-dignity and
unapologetically said, “Civil,
but strange—that’s how to
treat children. That was my
motto for dealing with my own
children.”
22. In her concern for her son,
Teresa was oblivious to the
comments of the old woman.
Teresa would have gladly left
Mrs. Mackart’s service long
before because of the
woman’s harassment of her
young son, but her current
job was the only one she
could find that would allow
her to bring her young child
with her to work.
23. Colna studied intently the
woman’s form as she raised
herself up from her son. She
drew a heavy breath of
tobacco, and as she spoke
the smoke drifted out of her
mouth in spiky swirls.
“Teresa, do I see a little bit of
a stomach there? You’re not
pregnant are you?” With her
bandaged hand she clawed
the air, beckoning the young
woman in her direction.
Teresa had not heard her but
could see plainly the woman
motioning for her to
approach.
We see reasons here for lack of
followup on the confrontation hinted
at in ¶ 21. Yes, there are people
desperate enough to endure ogres like
Colna.
Just when Teresa has silently
diffused the situation by taking away
her son, the object of Colna’s
momentary spite, Colna begins
another confrontation.
The paragraph begins with some
diabolical imagery: the spiky swirls
of tobacco. The reader will be
horrified when the subject of
pregnancy comes out of Colna’s
mouth again. He will wonder what
her motive could possibly be. An
astute reader will guess that Colna
has a demented obsession with
babies. The last sentence is a bait
that puts off the confrontation until
the next paragraph. There is the
ironic image of Colna’s injured hand
beckoning to the woman who she
 thinks is pregnant.
24. As the young woman Tension building. Teresa is a pure
approached closer and closer, victim, with no power.
Colna’s injured hand
continued to beckon
insistently. Colna had coaxed
the woman within a foot of the
couch when suddenly, with
the bandaged hand, she
stroked the young woman’s
stomach. Instinctively Teresa
pulled back and began wiping
her stomach, as if to clear it of
the woman’s touch.
25. “You’re pregnant, aren’t
you? That is wonderful.”
26. Teresa moved back in Teresa has been finally provoked into
disgust at the old woman’s confronting Colna.
strange glee. “I am not
pregnant. I’ve been putting on
weight lately.”
27. “Well,” Colna replied,
“that’s too bad. It would have
been nice to have an infant
around here again.”
28. Surprised, Teresa rejoined, Author now makes explicit Colna’s
“But I thought you didn’t like attitudes toward children versus
children—you said they infants.
should be seen and not heard
—and usually not ever seen.”
29. “You have quite the memory Reader will wonder. “Why is Colna
for quotes, Teresa. I like obsessed with babies?” Reader gets a
babies. It’s just a shame they confirmation that she differentiates
have to grow up.” Colna between children and babies. Then
paused for a minute and then there is a tease—something about
twins. Why does she distinguish
said, “I enjoyed my
twins from her other pregnancies?
pregnancies too, except the
 twins—especially when I Then author plants a relationship
discovered I was pregnant between her rheumatism and
again so soon after . . . Well, if pregnancy. This all explains her
nothing else, the pregnancies preference for babies.
seemed to cure my
rheumatism. What a relief that
was. I would know I was
pregnant because all of a
sudden I’d become limber as
a goose—the joint pain—all
gone.”
30. Teresa stood listening, but The kerflat Teresa confirms what the
too amazed at what she was reader feels, that is, the natural
hearing to even respond. horror.
31. On the other side of the We get a new insight into Colna’s
room, Patrick had been too animosity toward twins. Her
preoccupied to listen to his callousness and viciousness is
mother’s ramblings. As if to confirmed yet again.
catch his attention, Colna
raised her voice further. “And
the twins—when I discovered
I was pregnant with twins . . . I
asked myself, what am I,
some kind of animal—having
a multiple birth—a litter, and
you, Patrick,” she said as
loud as she could without
shouting, “As the second
born of twins, I guess you’re
the runt of the litter!”
32. On seeing Patrick look ¶¶32-43 Colna’s witch-like
painfully away, Colna laughed insensitivity on the topic of infants
in a short, self-satisfied seems to have no bounds.
staccato.
33. Looking at the young
woman before her, Colna said
 in a tone that wrapped
command inside suggestion,
“You should get pregnant
again, Teresa.”
34. “Miguel,” she shouted at the
woman’s son, “You’d like a
little sister wouldn’t you?”
35. The child looked too
uncertain of the reply
expected to answer and
looked fearfully to his mother
for a suggestion.
36. “I’m not even married now,
Mrs. Mack,” Teresa said
plaintively. She had tolerated
as much as civilly possible,
and, murmuring to herself,
she called the child to her and
hurried from the room.
37. Patrick too had gotten up, We see the confrontation now
but Colna had not given up as shifting to another set of duelists, that
yet, and called out to him is, between Colna and her son.
before he could leave the
room. “Sit down Patrick. Let
me suggest something to
you.”
38. Obediently he sat in an
overstuffed chair next to her,
and began one of his usual
manic monologues, this one
about what working in a
hospital would be like,
croaking through a throat
hoarsened by his often
incessant talking.
39. Colna, never much want to We get some idea of the origins of
give him any feedback in any his mental illness in Colna’s
 situation, made no attempt to treatment of him.
respond to the topic of his
monologue and instead
interjected, “Have you ever
thought of asking Teresa for a
date?”
40. “But you told me to stay
away from her.”
In this and the following paragraph,
the reader will have some suspicion
as to Colna’s intent (encouraging her
son to father a child) but will want to
see confirmation of that. The author
begins to provide information, but
slowly. Reader sees Colna
sacrificing her prior moral scruples to
advance her immediate objective,
that is, getting another infant in the
house.

41. “I told you to stop grabbing

her like some kind of animal.
She doesn’t like that kind of
thing, and I don’t blame her,
especially in front of her son.
But maybe she wouldn’t mind
a date. I think you two would
make a good couple.”
42. Colna knew her son to be The narrator confirms the ironic
sex-driven like his father, and nature of Colna’s request, that is,
she had long dreaded he wantonly violating her moral scruples
would commit some sort of to get another baby in the house.
incident with a home health
worker that might have gotten
her into trouble. But today
Patrick seemed strangely
reluctant to follow her abrupt
encouragement of an affair
with the health worker.
43. “I think she finds you
attractive,” Colna added, “You
never know how far you could
get with her if you
approached her like a
gentleman instead of a pig.
You have to be seductive, not
pretending to reach around
her just to rub your elbows in
her chest, and that sort of
gross thing.”
44. “Well, I used to find her Patrick’s character now appears more
attractive, especially when I respectable than the author
was drinking, but now that previously represented.
I’ve backed off . . . I respect
her now as a person. She’s
very honest . . .” Patrick then
launched himself into a
further monologue on the
essential dignity of man,
which Colna was loath to
endure. Getting to her feet as
pain coursed through her
rheumatic knees, she
peremptorily announced her
need for a nap. Patrick
remained talking until she had
left the room.
45. Colna was in fact exhausted Reader will wish to know now the
from the morning’s traumas, relevancy of Colna’s grabbing the
and in her condition would be secobarbital at the lab.
expected to welcome a rest in
her bedroom, but once in her
room, she placed her purse
on the bed and began hunting
for the bottles she had taken
 from her son’s lab.
46. “Secobarbital,” she read to
herself.
47. Having suffered from the Author fulfills reader’s wish.
chronic pain of rheumatism,
Colna had developed a fair The drug collection will be an
acquaintance with important weapon for use on her
medications, herbs and opponents later, so the author plants a
rational for it here.
salves of all sorts. This one,
she vaguely recollected as an
old-fashioned sedative. She
might find it a useful addition
to the huge collection of
medications she had been
amassing, in case the
rheumatism really became too
much to bear and she needed
to give herself a maximum
overdose.
48. In a drawer in her bedside Reader steels himself for a major
table Colna kept a drug confrontation.
reference, and she reached to
pull open the drawer, but as
she touched the handle
Teresa knocked on the door,
and then let herself in.
49. “Teresa, don’t ever just Colna expects another triumph, that
open the door like that,” is, an apology from Teresa. Reader
Colna said crossly, “I could is set up to wonder what kind of
be dressing.” Colna could see incivility Colna will now foist on her
however from the stern, poor victim. Reader expects Colna to
register defeat but is surprised again
emotionless gaze on the
by her resiliency, confirming that she
young woman’s face that is a very powerful character. In fear
something strange was of ever having to deal with such a
happening. Teresa then person as Colna, reader will be
announced she was walking anxious to know how she operates.
 out. Thereupon, taking her
son and her luggage, she left
the house and waited at the
roadside for a relative to pick
her up. Colna feigned
indignity, but in actuality saw
in the young woman’s
departure a new opportunity.
50. Colna unlocked the tambour Sets up future scenes. It shows
writing desk that stood near Colna’s enormous resources of
the window in her room and power, especially since she’s easily
withdrew a neatly written list able to extract sympathy based on her
of government agency age.
telephone numbers. She had
soon dialed a number and
was saying with a practiced
weakness and decrepitude of
voice, “This is Mrs. Mackart.
My home health worker has
just quit. I’m almost helpless
without home care . . . I’m
desperate for someone. I’ll
gladly accept even a woman
with a new baby. They could
even live here.”

CHAPTER 4 – PRESENTING THE AVEDRAM

Chapter 4 will introduce the first real threat to the antag’s power: the
avedram (Robanna). Robanna is a pocal, i.e., a powerful kerflat. Because
she is merely a kerflat, the reader is privy to almost none of her
motivations, other than her aggressive self-aggrandizement.

In chapter 4 the antag has hitherto been unassailable despite her awfulness
and her brutal treatment of people, but in this chapter she encounters the
avedram who is unscrupulous, opportunistic and has a self-aggrandizing
curiosity. In their first showdown, antag confronts avedram’s air of
 superiority (about welfare fraud). Antag ultimately dominates because of
the control her money gives her. The reader witnesses for the first time the
antag actually resorting to the defensive. She is vulnerable now that the
avedram has uncovered one of her secrets (the shrine to Andrew). The
author gives a further clue to what motivates Colna’s aggressive dislike of
the emcair, when Colna cynically describes herself as a martyr for having
given birth to twins.

The chapter consists of a list of the antag’s criminal fraud against the
government; a verbal bragging match between antag and avedram; a
cynical and half-hearted attempt by the antag to get pity by casting herself
in front of the avedram as a martyr in regard to her twins; and lastly, a
confrontation between the antag and avedram in which the antag attempts
to control the avedram’s curiosity, that is her snooping around the house.
The author’s inculcation tools consist of withholding information about
Colna’s motivation for fraud, the true nature of her dislike of her twins, and
the contents of the “secret” closet. Author also withholds clues about
whether Colna’s benefits fraud will contribute to the denu.

Though an avedram, Robanna appears in a guise that the reader would not
expect. If anything, the avedram seems more of conspirator with Colna
than an avenger. In the chapter, author has not focused very much on the
emcair because the author wants to show the antag’s power and
malevolence and develop reader’s hostility toward her. The emcair himself
is not an aggressive character and so the reader’s hopes of vanquishing the
antag will lie in another opponent, namely the avedram, and in the power of
reader’s own wiset. Because author has baited the reader’s spite for Colna,
reader will be prone to embrace the emcair regardless of how pathetically
weak he is. In the novel, the emcair is not intended to be an aggressive,
clever hero. The emcair’s predominant function is to raise reader’s own
aggression. The reader craves the antag’s vanquishment because through
the emcair, reader imagines himself as target of the antag.

The author loads chapter 4 with one of his uberthemes: condemning

exploitation of government hand-outs. The reader is more apt to be
uncritical in the early chapters, and so early chapters present a good
opportunity to introduce the author’s personal opinions.

4. Teresa and her son were Reader’s attention is at a high point

gone. “Had she been my at the beginning of the chapter, so
 daughter,” Colna thought author uses the opportunity to insert
wistfully, “she wouldn’t have this ubertheme point about the low
been able to just pack up and status of children.
leave like that. Children are
convenient in that sense—
they can be ordered about,
made to do petty chores, even
beaten, with no recourse.”
2. Teresa had been industrious A plant that explains Colna’s
and quietly obedient, which accepting Robanna without caution.
considering that the
government paid for her Reader now knows that author is
services, was an exceptional fully conscious of Colna’s evil nature
—but author makes no judgement,
boon. Teresa had been
presenting himself as dispassionate.
conscientiousness too, but
that had a downside that
Colna found highly vexing:
Teresa had been overly
moralistic and thus resistant
to the kind of uses Colna
would have liked to have put
her to. Teresa wouldn’t use
Colna’s food stamps, for
example, unless Colna went
to the cashier personally.
Teresa always looked mutely
disapproving when Colna
took one of her expensive
vacations, while collecting
benefits intended for the
indigent. Colna would have
much preferred someone who
saw eye-to-eye with her on
the subject of getting the
most out of the system—
someone a little crooked.
3. In Colna’s mind, she, Colna, Colna rationalizes her entitlement to
had had six children and well benefits. Author does not agree. He
deserved every benefit she scoffs at the notion of women of
got. Teresa’s self-help Colna’s generation being hard
moralism was a disrespectful working, mockingly putting the
disparaging term “coffee klatching”
and mean-spirited begrudging
into Colna’s own mouth.
of Colna’s due rewards for the
hard work of being a 50’s and
60’s coffee klatching mother.
4. Two weeks had passed Reader will begrudge Colna getting
since Teresa stormed out. To what she wants too easily, but will be
Colna’s delight, there was intrigued nonetheless.
once again the sound of an
infant in the house. Colna sat Reader will be getting impatient with
the infant line and want to understand
grasping the newborn to her
its meaning.
breast as if she herself had
just given birth. She
congratulated herself on
finding a replacement for
Teresa who had come with an
extraordinarily desirable
asset: a newborn child.
5. While most clients of the in- Reader will be anxious to see if the
home health service would new worker can stand up to Colna.
have shunned any woman Reader will be hyper-alert to any
with a newborn, Colna could opportunity to judge the new
not have been more effusive worker’s power resources.
in admitting the woman to her
home. The new woman, who
had the somewhat artificial-
sounding name of Robanna,
was in her early twenties, but
her corpulent body and her
unemotive face gave her the
air of a much older woman.
6. Colna discovered that her The new woman seems powerless,
 new in-home worker was which is a contrivance author uses to
utterly lazy and a shirker, and keep Colna’s guard down. Reader’s
Colna had had to order hope for an opponent for Colna is
Patrick do some of the chores dashed.
that the woman had been sent
to do. But the woman’s
attitude was excellent—at
least on the score of getting
all possible public benefits.
Colna even found Robanna
looking on admiringly as
Colna ordered up services
from government agencies
and from her children.
7. Infants are very tactile Colna has no rapport with infants. In
creatures, and because one is fact she has an illsalubriuous effect.
able to hold the infant’s entire Robanna too is cold-hearted about
body, its feelings and her child. Thus far Colna has
thoughts become readily complete control over the situation.
Reader senses that author plans to use
apparent from its body
Colna’s ill-effect on children to
tension and movements. In motivate some future adaction.
Colna’s arms Robanna’s child Reader will feel uncomfortable at
would become rigid—except author’s grip on his curiosity, but will
for a slight and constant surrender control in hopes of
shuddering—which no outguessing the author later.
amount of cuddling would
alleviate. All the same, Colna
prided herself on having an
almost magical ability to
silence any crying fit merely
by picking up the child. At
those times, however, the
child’s breathing would
become short and its
normally caramel-colored skin
would pale to almost a beige.
 Colna would never hold the
child long, and preferred to
pick the child out of its cradle
as the mood struck her—at all
hours of the day—regardless
of whether the child was
sleeping or awake. Robanna
took little notice of the child’s
unease in Colna’s arms and
was grateful to be freed from
the burden of attending to the
infant.
8. The infant had a revivifying The child is a symbol of life-force,
effect on Colna that was truly which Colna hopes to appropriate.
astounding to watch. While
Colna would reach into the Reader is sceptical about the
cradle with every rheumatic revivifying effects of the child, but
surrenders to author for the sake of
joint stiff, inflamed and
continuing the action.
aching, minutes later she
would return the baby with
joints limber and pain-free.
Even the deep, almost scar-
like wrinkles of her face
seemed to unfurrow under the
infant’s influence.
9. Colna had just reached The action has suddenly become very
stiffly for the baby when a graphic. Reader’s attention now
strong odor of frying meat throttles up as he senses adaction.
reached her. Robanna was
cooking another greasy meal,
with all the attendant smells.
10. “You want a hamburger,
Mrs. Mack?” Robanna
bellowed from the kitchen.
11. “Just cook for yourself, and
keep the kitchen door
 closed,” Colna replied, “I
don’t need you for cooking—I
have all my dinners delivered
from the senior center.”
12. Robanna came from the ¶¶12-34 Robanna has asserted
kitchen holding a spatula herself for the first time. The
glistening with grease. Colna following ripostes serve as author’s
waived her hand dismissively, cynical and humorous disparagement
and repeated, “Just cook for of government hand-outs, but do
show the criminal minds of the two
yourself. . . . There are food
women: their joy at getting
stamps in one of the kitchen something free. Reader will realize
drawers—buy yourself what that he will need to make a major
you like.” place for Robanna in a werschema,
since she shows herself as powerful.
13. “Keep ‘em, I’ve got my
own,” Robanna sniffed and
returned to the kitchen.
14. Shortly afterward, she
reappeared having sated
herself with her usual buffet
of fried foods. She was still
thinking about the food
stamps and was marveling at
how a woman in such a nice
home could have a kitchen
drawer full of food stamps.
15. “So you’re a stamp
collector, too, Mrs. Mack.
You’re living in quite a palace
for a welfare queen.”
16. Such impertinence was only
bearable because Robanna
had come with an infant, and
so Colna withheld a rebuke. In
fact, on hearing the remark
she felt rather relieved that
 Robanna was comfortable
joking about such subjects
openly.
17. “I’m just an impoverished,
abused senior—and
handicapped,” Colna replied
with bitterness so insincere
as to sound almost wry.
18. Robanna’s facial
expression, heavy with
satiety, suddenly lightened.
“Who’s abusing you?” she
challenged, sceptically.
19. “My son. He was taking my Colna obviously retains Robanna
social security money for simply for the joy of power one gets
booze. And of course I from gouging the government and
reported him. Now I’m having servants to boss around.
officially an abused elder and
no longer able to rely on my
family. That’s how I got a
home worker . . . like you. I’ve
got Patrick under control, but
now, thank god, I’ve earned
life-long in-house assistance,
and if you’re smart, you’ll stay
here and live off my benefits.”
20. Colna’s condescending tone
registered rather offensively,
and Robanna assumed a
haughty tone of her own.
“You have a decent life here,
but if you really want gourmet
government benefits you’ve
gotta have a baby.”
21. Colna was not about to be
outdone on the subject of
 benefits by a scrounging
unwed mother. “Patrick’s my
baby.”
22. “But he told me he’s
supporting you!”
23. “Bah! Of course I put some
things in a trust for him,
except the house—officially
anyway—how else would I be
eligible for public
assistance?”
24. Colna stood sharply to her
feet and then stuffed the pale,
rigid baby unceremoniously
into its cradle. “Robanna, you
say you have to have a baby
to get benefits. You’re wrong
about that. You’ve got to have
a house. The government
pays for my heat, bought me
new insulated windows. They
give me a big property tax
discount. They even bought a
share of my house and on a
reverse mortgage will pay me
every month for the rest of my
life—and I’m going to live
forever! The state pays me
Section 8 rent money for
Patrick—and I don’t even own
the whole place.”
25. Robanna was obviously not
getting the better of the
bragging match and so
pretended to be unimpressed.
“You must have sold the
 house to them pretty cheap—
because . . . you don’t really
seem to be rolling in dough!”
26. With such a remark, Intimation of a mystery concerning
Robanna had now struck a money that reader will have to wait
vital nerve, and with great to see unfold. Reader expects a
umbrage Colna lifted her head revelation that will require a major
and glared into Robanna’s revision of the werschema. No such
revelation is immediately
dark eyes, “Don’t think you’re
forthcoming, however—and so
seeing even a fraction of what reader has held his breath for
I’ve got!” nothing.
27. Robanna stood silent for a
moment, sensing the
conversation had
degenerated into a
confrontation. Colna moved
to the couch and lit a cigarette
while Robanna stood waiting
to politely allow the old
woman the last word. Colna
had regained her temper, and
now regretting having alluded
to any hidden assets, felt
obligated to divert the
conversation back to its
former level of banter.
28. “And of course,” Colna said,
trying to inject a jocular tone
into her voice, “the state is
helping pay for my life
insurance—so I don’t lose it
after my husband paid on it all
those years.”
29. Robanna took up the
challenge once again, and
pointed to her eyeglasses. “I
 got the eye exam from
Medicaid, the money for
deluxe frames from Aid to
Families with Dependent
Children.”
30. “Nothing,” Colna replied, “I
got an eye exam from
Medicare, lenses paid for by
supplemental security income
and a free ride through dial-a-
ride, with a stop at the senior
center for a free meal.
31. “Senior center for lunch!”
Robanna rejoined, “I used my
money from the state
emergency cash program to
take a cab to a proper
restaurant for lunch.”
Robanna was grinning now,
as she was getting the best of
her adversary.
32. Stung by the last remark, Colna seems like a fraud, but does
Colna displayed her gnarled indeed have some disability. Reader
fingers. “Well goody for you, will be intrigued by the deformity.
but I’m afraid you don’t have
half the benefits available to
me. I’m severely crippled.”
Colna’s hand, with its red and
purple scar from her visit to
her son’s lab, had just barely
healed, and its large and
reddened joints, finger bones
projecting at odd angles,
some to the left, some to the
right, some turned inward,
looked as if it had been
 broken by a mallet. Colna
thrust her hands up in front of
her face. Robanna was at
once struck by the contrast
between the gnarled fingers
and the adornments on them:
the exquisitely mounted jade
ring and matching bracelet,
and the impeccably lacquered
nails. She could see the
hands were deformed, but
didn’t know whether to
believe the old woman about
being handicapped.
33. “But you don’t seem so
crippled,” Robanna remarked
bravely and matter-of-factly, “I
mean, you can feed and dress
yourself. You’re not what they
call ‘functionally-impaired’.”
34. “Don’t get technical about
what is or isn’t crippled,
Robanna. You’re lucky I take
care of myself and you don’t
have the kind of smelly
decrepit old lady that you’re
really supposed to be taking
care of.” With that, Colna laid
herself across the couch and
called out mockingly in a
weak voice, “Turn me over,
now—turn me! Oh, and nurse,
I pooped my dress again.”
With that, Colna felt she had
had the last word, and, slowly
and painfully raising herself
 from the couch, reached
again into the cradle for the
infant, who by now had fallen
asleep despite the two
women’s loud bragging
match.
35. Robanna made no attempt Reader realizes that the recent
at a reply, and so Colna adaction will not be significant in
became gracious, “You got a terms of a werschema, yet will now
good deal here . . . because I face another possible adaction, for
love having a baby around the which another werschema will be
required.
house,” she said as she fell
back onto the couch with the The mention of the trip is a segue out
baby on her lap. The infant at of the adaction.
once stiffened as the old
woman nuzzled it with her
wrinkled face. “In fact, next
week you won’t have to do
anything here at all. I’m going
to the Midwest for several
days. When I’m gone, just
relax. I’m not taking Patrick
though, so he’s going to be
around here. I’ll tell him not to
bother you, and if you’re
smart you won’t let him charm
you into anything. Sorry to
leave him here, but I just
couldn’t stand traveling with
him. What a horror—the idea
of being stuck up in an
airplane with him—having to
listen to his constant babbling
and nonsense. I’m a saint just
for letting him live here.”
36. Robanna was somewhat Robanna is showing her aggression.
 taken aback by this sudden Reader will have to increase
announcement, and could Robanna’s power quotient in his
hardly believe she was being werschema.
trusted to stay in the woman’s
home after only a couple
weeks of employment. She
had to suppress a feeling of
malicious delight at the news.
37. “Here, take your baby, and Colna flaunts her authority.
call a cab,” Colna ordered, “I
need to visit the other twin—
who is only a little less of a
nuisance than Patrick. I’ve got
something I want to give
him.”
38. Colna walked stiffly to the Twins are obviously important to the
front hall and reached for a situa, but are only mentioned
purse lying on the table there. tangentially here. The reader will
Meanwhile Robanna stood feel irked to be infarved about the
eyeing the room for the true importance of twins.
television remote control and
impatiently waiting for her
patron’s departure. But
having made mention of the
twins, Colna could not stop
herself from launching into
what Robanna had already
learned would be a standard
diatribe.
39. “Can you imagine giving Author plants an ambiguous tag line
birth to twins—like some kind that will obviously be important.
of sow with a litter? I like Reader feels teased by the tag line
babies . . . but one at a time, but will hope to figure it out before
please . . . like a human.” author puts down his cards.
Then as an afterthought,
Colna mumbled, “unwelcome
 usurpers”.
40. Robanna had spotted the Reader now feels triumph in having
remote control, lying on the figured out Colna’s story from clues
coffee table, and gazed —though the tag here is a pretty
politely with glassy eyes heavy-handed clue.
toward Colna, while the old
Notice the underlying minor conflict
woman continued her tirade.
between Robanna’s desire to turn on
“My mother’s first words on the T.V. and Colna’s diatribe, which
the phone when they were the author adds to enliven the scene.
born were ‘Ewww, are they
identical?’ And I told her, ‘No
they’re not. Would you like
the pick of the litter?’” Colna
laughed the self-pitying
cackle that always
accompanied that anecdote.
“At least they had each other
when growing up because I
wasn’t in any mood for any
more children at that point—
when I was so sorrowful. I
used to lock them together in
a room all day, so they
wouldn’t bother me—or
remind me of what I had lost,
and what they could never
replace.”
41. “You mean Andrew?” Robanna has strong curiosity.
Reader will be especially alert to
further clues that Robanna might
uncover.
42. “You’ve been snooping in Author tantalizes reader who is quite
that bedroom,” the old woman keen for further confirmation of his
said, eyes flaming fiercely, hypothesis that Colna has been left a
“How did you get into that loser in a contest with her twin sons.
closet anyway—I lock it.” “Unwelcome usurpers”, she says.
 Robanna has begun to be the threat to
Colna that the reader has wished for
—especially since Robanna seems to
be digging out the reasons for
Colna’s weird baby worship and her
animosity toward her twins.
43. “Well, you told me to clean
everything. The door wasn’t
locked.”
44. “Since when do you do any
cleaning?! Well, stay out of
there—don’t ever go in there
again.”
45. The cab driver was honking.
“Go tell him I’ll be right out,”
Colna said, waiving Robanna
to the door.
46. Colna hobbled immediately Andrew is Colna’s dead and beatified
up the stairs to the second child, obviously.
floor. “How could I have left
that door unlocked—what a
fool I am—or maybe that bitch
jimmied the lock,” she said to
herself as she pulled open the
door to a walk-in closet in one
of the unused bedrooms. The
room contained three small
period-style tables inlaid in
precious woods and
obviously of some value.
Light shown somberly from a
shallow alabaster bowl
suspended by ornate wires
from the ceiling. On the center
table was a gilded frame
containing a pair of baby
socks with the name
 “Andrew” embroidered on
them. On the other tables
were toys and baby clothes,
some still in their original
boxes—a rattle, a colored
mobile, tiny mittens, a hat—
among other things.
47. To her great relief, nothing Reader is now teased with another
seemed to have been question—how did Andrew die?
touched. “Andrew, I’m so Reader will take up the challenge of
sorry your peace has been that puzzle.
disturbed. I didn’t take proper
care. I didn’t give you the
respect you deserve. But
believe me I am devoted to
you. You will always be first in
my heart. No one has
replaced you! I won’t let them
take advantage of your death
—I won’t.”
48. “Mrs. Mack, the cab says he An exit tool.
can’t wait,” Robanna called
up the stairs.
49. “All right, all right. I’m
coming,” Colna said as she
reverently closed the closet
and carefully checked the
lock.

CHAPTER 5 – TERGATHY WITH EMCAIR

To this point in the novel, the antag has received most of the author’s
attention. That is only to be expected since in any novel the antag is the
indispensible star of the show. Naturally, readers are very keen to
experience conflict with a persistent opponent like a novel antag—and will
want to see the antag in action a great deal. In Chapter 5 the emcair finally
receives the author’s focus. Author’s uses emcair's underdog status in a
 conflict with the anterreg, his boss, to induce tergathy with emcair.

Author reiterates the startema in the chapter. Author shows that Neal’s real
needs are based on a nurturing archetype, which the true startema (“All
mothers will nurture their children”) is supposed to fulfill. Reader will
question how emcair could reaffirm the startema, when it is based on a
mother like Colna.

Neal, beset by inner conflicts, is desperate for some kind of emotional

support. He rejects a social invitation from his lab assistant, and then feels
even more isolated. The thought occurs to him that maybe he should try
harder to form an emotional bond with his family, in particular, with his
mother. He is encouraged by the good rapport his lab assistant has with her
family.

Neal has to face the demands from his boss for quick results, and is very
abrasive in a confrontation with him. Only the boss’s self-control and
practical nature save Neal’s career.

In this chapter reader hopes that Neal will have the power to suppress
Colna’s maliciousness. Such hopes are dashed by Neal’s blind attachment
to the startema.

Author forces reader to devise werschema for a conflict with the anterreg—
a conflict with no definite conclusion. The anterreg does not oppose emcair
as an antag would, so reader is left without any clear expectations of what
course the conflict between the emcair and the anterreg will take.

As the chapter ends, the reader will have forebodings of Neal’s peril in
relying on the startema—considering that his reified “nurturer” is Colna
Mackart.

5. The death of his important The chapter begins with adaction

animal subject two weeks inside Neal’s mind as he continues to
earlier left Neal indecisive and try to assert himself in a hostile
paranoid. He considered environment.
terminating the experimental
phase of his research and
publishing the existing data,
 but in the end, he was unable
to shake feelings that without
data from one more animal
his hypothesis would not be
confirmed.
2. He dared not discuss the Reader is a bit disappointed to see
cat’s death with anyone, lest that the character obviously meant as
he be accused of having the emcair is so inert.
abused the creature. He had
been slow to begin work with
a new animal, however, and
had spent the prior two weeks
in a stupor, looking blankly at
his data, and mulling his
future as a researcher.
3. The prior week Sarzolian Reader senses Neal is more
had come to the lab to insist aggressive than the prior paragraph
Neal stop experimenting and suggests. Reader senses adaction,
put his data into publishable and prepares a werschema.
form “Okay, let’s see the data
—one more week Neal”, he
had said. Nonetheless, Neal
had arranged to do
experiments with one more
cat. In dread of being
discovered with the animal by
Sarzolian, Neal had kept his
lab door locked, much to the
vexation of his lab assistant.
4. The meowing of a cat Exposition setting up the next
interrupted his thoughts, and paragraph. Author plays off reader’s
Neal turned to see that his heightened attention (sensing
assistant had brought the new adaction), in order to inculcate
animal for the afternoon’s author’s opinion on animal
experiments. Reader feels some
work. The animal was still in
sympathy for the cat.
its traveling case. It was an
 adult calico with a small nose
and ears, giving it an almost
sweet, juvenile appearance.
5. Neal felt an overwhelming Reader’s sympathy is addressed. The
urge to pet it, but it was his author is setting up a debunking of
rule never to allow himself to the sympathy that one might feel for
make pets of his research a laboratory animal. Also, Neal feels
subjects. The cat kept a conflict about befriending lab
animals. Obviously he is kind-
meowing plaintively
hearted by nature.
nonetheless, and the urge to
befriend the creature was
becoming almost wrenching.
6. “The thing would probably ¶¶6-8 Author decries the hypocrisy
just bite my hand,” Neal told of pet owners who object to animal
himself, “It’s not a pet. It’s experiments.
meowing because it wants out
of the cage. . . . Ha, don’t we
all!
7. “Some pet owners would
have me tortured, my skull
opened with a can opener and
knitting needles inserted in
my brain. But what is pet
ownership, really, but animal
torture. What animal wouldn’t
run away to the forest if given
a real choice?”
8. The cat had given up and
had curled up quietly in the
cage. Neal was becoming
angry now at thoughts of how
animal activists had
villainized researchers. “Isn’t
it really a Munchausen
situation with pets? People
keep animals captive, cooped
 up in apartments and houses
alone all day, until the animals
become completely neurotic,
and then the pet owners
‘save’ their pets with love,” he
thought, scoffing so loud that
even the cat was momentarily
roused.
9. There was the sound of a Lab assistant’s entrance allows Neal
key in the lock, and Neal to exit his conflicted musings.
watched as his lab assistant
let herself in.
10. “Should I get the cat ready,”
she asked, smiling warmly as
she noticed Neal.
11. “Sarzolian asked me to
come to his lab, so I will be
gone for a little while. Let’s
leave it in the cage for now.”
12. “Neal, you still busy ¶¶12-17 Neal’s social timidity is
Saturday? Are you sure you revealed. This and the following
don’t want to join us at the soliloquy are setups for putting an
pool?” onus on Colna for maltreating her
twins.
13. “Yes, I’m sorry,” was Neal’s
terse reply.
14. The assistant nodded and
busied herself with work on
the other side of the lab.
15. “I must be very lonely,” Neal The emcair’s sad self-reflections will
thought, “I feel awful to turn stimulate reader’s tergathy. Readers
her down. But I just can’t go vicariously endure human problems
to a party with a lot of people I and threats so as to learn from the
don’t know. I’ve got to stop experiences. Readers are naturally
drawn to characters who are under
isolating myself, but I just
duress.
can’t motivate myself to meet
people. Maybe I’m paranoid.
 Could be genetic. Do I have
any relatives with the same
problem? Can’t think of any.
16. “My assistant, she’s got her Restatement of the startema, i.e., a
family. What a great mother mother will always support her child.
she has—always calling her—
interested in everything she
does, encouraging,
affectionate, soothing. She
even helps her meet people.
She’s Chinese . . . maybe
that’s the reason . . . but that
can’t be it.”
17. He thought then that Neal confirms the startema explicitly.
perhaps if he had a similar This also becomes a setup for the
rapport with his own mother next chapter where he accompanies
he could alleviate his own his mother to her Midwestern
loneliness, and strengthen his hometown. He can’t understand why
the startema does not work for him—
resolve to start a social life.
and is too timid to blame his mother.
He and his mother had never He has entered the first stage of
been close. Who was to blame malschema: he doubts the validity of
for that? Was it her, himself, his startema, but is in denial.
or . . . ?”
18. The lab assistant stopped A segue to the next action
working long enough to turn
toward Neal. He was doing
nothing but sitting and
thinking, and she was a bit
quizzical how lately he could
spend so much time staring
into space. “Neal, don’t you
have a meeting with
Sarzolian,” she felt obliged to
remind him.
19. “Thanks, I guess I was
trying to put it out of my
 mind,” he said, hurriedly
gathering folders from a
disorganized pile in front of
him.
20. Vikus Sarzolian had the Neal is under extreme pressure to
admirable trait of showing in resolve his conflict regarding the
his manner the full character data. This scene starts with high
of his mood when dealing tension, and reader must assemble a
with subordinates and werschema for the conflict between
Neal and Sarzolian. Reader senses
colleagues. By merely looking
that the conflict with Sarzolian will
in his face they knew instantly be the novel’s emasis, since the
how to approach him. As Neal author gives it all the trappings of a
entered Sarzolian’s lab, he true schema crisis. But in fact,
found Sarzolian wearing a lab Sarzolian is merely an anterreg and
coat and busy examining the crisis is simply a red herring.
magnifications of cell section Colna’s threat to the emcair is the
photographs on a computer real emasis of the novel, as reader
screen. As Sarzolian looked will eventually discover.
up, his expression turned at
once, severe and
uncompromising. “I hope you
have the data for me today
and a summary. I’d like to
send off a paper next week.”
21. Although he had fully Neal attempts to deal with the
expected to be confronted, conflict by trying to get more time
Neal was terrified by for its resolution. One of his traits is
Sarzolian’s bluntness. “Well, I procrastination.
can give you a progress
report on that. I mean I’m
almost finished. I feel I
haven’t quite proven my
hypothesis and need one
more test.”
22. “Hypothesis! What are you The pressure intensifies on Neal.
worrying about that for? I’m Obviously, Sarzolian wields much
greater power. The effect of this
 the P.I. I’ll do the final confrontation is probably tergathy
analysis. Just give me your with Neal because he is facing a
data,” Sarzolian demanded, powerful opponent (a situation every
standing up in exasperation, reader wants to practice).
and reaching for the folders
Neal carried.
23. Desperate to mollify the P.I.,
Neal tried to explain his
situation, and hoped for pity.
“I lost a lab animal that I had
invested a lot of time on, a
couple weeks ago. I’ve had to
start recreating the data with
a new animal.”
24. Sarzolian was outraged. “I
need only enough data to
publish. You always give me
too much! You understand?!
No more experimenting. Just
give me what you’ve got right
now,” the P.I. said, grabbing
the folders from Neal’s hands.
With his open palm over his
brow, Sarzolian sat scanning
the data and ignoring this
young protege. As he
scanned the carefully
prepared charts, his bluster
devolved considerably and
was replaced by a certain
eagerness. He was obviously
relieved to see that Neal’s
data was well presented, and
could be used without further
compiling. He gathered the
folders and dropped them
 with a satisfied and
conclusive thump onto the
desk.
25. Sarzolian, at heart more
business manager than
intellectual, and for that
reason a proven survivor in
scientific research, felt he was
losing control of his young
colleague. Neal would have to
revise his work philosophy if
he were to stay on. A short
diatribe was much in order.
26. Sarzolian directed Neal to a Sarzolian’s motives seem rational
lab stool and then began. and his advice, quite practical.
“Live animals are a nuisance,
and the way you do research,
using the same animal week
after week—it’s no wonder
you produce only a trickle of
data. All your effort is tied into
a few animals. Then if they
die, you’re screwed,” he said,
looking at Neal knowingly.
“Do one or two procedures
on the animal, and then start
analyzing. We’ve got great
machines for that—reams of
data and analysis: algorithms,
models, matrices.” Sarzolian
looked at Neal with the
sceptical hope that he was
changing the young
researcher’s viewpoint. But
by the severity of his tone, the
P.I. conveyed no doubt that
 he intended to be obeyed in
any case.
27. Neal’s first reaction was Shows Neal is poorly equipped to
relief that the cat’s death had deal with the crisis. Author inserts an
meant nothing to the P.I., but opinion about proper scientific
then an obsessive dread crept method.
back into his mind that,
without data from one more
animal, he could not securely
confirm his test hypothesis.
The stress of work, worries
about his research, the
loneliness, all had worn down
Neal’s reserve. He began to
feel Sarzolian’s remarks were
nothing less than a savage
and philistine attack on good
scientific practice. His mind
raced as he justified to
himself his practices.
“Sarzolian would have me
inject something into an
animal, give it one task to do,
then slice it up to be
examined cell by cell under a
million dollar microscope.
Merely recording the
physiochemical makeup of an
animal at the cellular level is
empty knowledge—not
leading to a usable theory. To
create a theory you have to
observe how the organism’s
functions over time, not just
record visual changes to
anatomy. To create a theory
 you have to have first a
hypothesis about the function
of anatomy—a teleological
basis—otherwise you just
have indigestible volumes of
data with no idea how to
synthesize it into something
meaningful.”
28. Neal had worked himself Neal loses control of himself and
into a state of agitated self- engages a much stronger opponent.
righteousness—and a manic Reader will be very keen to see the
daring seized him. Neal held pocal Sarzolian’s reaction, especially
his neck rigid and spoke since he is much more powerful than
the emcair. Reader’s tergathy with
directly to Sarzolian. “You’ve
Neal will be increased by the
been squinting down a foolishness of Neal’s attack.
microscope too long, Dr.
Sarzolian. You’ll never get the
big picture that way. I want
more out of my science than
just a lot of pretty snapshots
of cell parts.”
29. The effrontery of such a The narrator sets out in a practical
remark, to a widely-published way the repercussion of Neal’s
senior researcher and the foolish self-assertion against a much
man who provided all of stronger opponent.
Neal’s research monies, was
beyond reckless. Neal
realized immediately the
suicidal character of his
daring and forced from
himself a plaintive “sorry” as
Sarzolian stood unbelieving at
what he had heard.
30. “You’re entitled to your
opinion, Neal, but mind whom
you’re talking to.”
31. Such a mild rebuke in the Sarzolian does not exercise his power
circumstance could only have —because he is an anterreg, though
come from one like Sarzolian, reader does not know that for certain.
able to exercise supreme self-
restraint in sacrifice to a
higher goal. Sarzolian’s
business-like focus on the
real goal of his research,
maintaining careers for
everyone, might save Neal’s
career, despite his ill-
considered and mean-spirited
outburst.
32. Neal felt entirely Neal is now afraid of himself, seeing
unprotected at the moment. that he has lost control and is
There was no one to hold him overwhelmed by the circumstances.
back from the selfish His impulse is to run away.
impulsive that drove him to
Reader sees Neal’s need for a
act out his paranoia—no one
nurturing archetype.
to comfort him in his folly.
Neal wanted to withdraw, as This paragraph is a setup for next
usual. encounter with Colna.
33. Sarzolian, for his part, The crisis ends for the moment on a
wanted the impertinent young rather dramatic note.
researcher out of his sight for
a while. “You’re finally
finished with this study.
Thanks for the data. Why
don’t you take a week off. I
mean it. Take a week off, Neal.
We’ll start work on the next
project when you return.”
34. Neal was too ashamed to
demur and merely nodded
assent, “I will, thank you.”
35. Sarzolian turned sharply Narrator makes Sarzolian look a bit
away, and Neal realized he foolish and so confirms Neal’s
had been dismissed. With a deprecating remarks about modern
few clicks of a mouse scientific method.
Sarzolian pulled up on a large
computer screen a dazzling
million-colored cell section,
with hues of almost
expressionistic vividness.
With a second click he was
able to project a simulated
three dimensional view of the
same section. What had been
a dreary, monochrome
laboratory was suddenly
illuminated with a
kaleidoscope. The
distinguished researcher sat
staring into the screen as if
mesmerized.

CHAPTER 6 – ANTAG’S POWER ASCENDANCY

Emcair unwittingly suffers sabotage by the antag. If emcair had known that
the startema had become invalid, he might have correctly interpreted
Colna’s actions as malicious. But because of emcair’s naivete or state of
denial, antag will gain considerable power and severely weaken the emcair.
Like the emcair, the average reader, adhering to the startema, will not
realize that antag has sabotaged emcair. As shown in the previous chapter,
the emcair is desperate for the touch of a nurturing hand and has decided
that only by embracing the startema whole-heartedly can he get the
emotional support he needs.

The chapter sets up the false expectation that Neal is somehow going to
resolve his need for more gregariousness by warming his relationship with
his mother. However the chapter is a plant for the emasis that will occur in
the following chapter.

The reader will later realize that author has deceived him about Colna’s
 action in this chapter. The reader may feel a bit demeaned because after all
there were some clues that Colna’s motive may not have been all that
solicitous. That will make the reader more determined than ever to second
guess the author next time.

As the chapter opens reader sees that emcair has retained sense enough not
to lose all power, that is, to lose his job. In the second conflict the antag is
disrupting the emcair’s work at his lab, and he takes her to task for that.
She is unabashed however and offers a somewhat reasonable excuse which
mollifies emcair. Lastly the antag and the emcair have a conflict over the
emcair’s attempt to redefine their relationship, that is, to increase the
positive emotional bond between mother and son. This is a highly
respectable ambition for a son, and the antag must make concessions to
him. She does place conditions, designed to keep him at a distance.

Author leaves reader with few clues as to the future of emcair’s conflict
with the anterreg. The lab assistant, the kerflat character who is a
mouthpiece for the startema, tries to resolve the conflict, but reader does
not know whether she has any power or not.

In emcair’s confrontation with the antag in the vivarium, of course the

reader has no idea what Colna’s true motives are. The narration gives no
hint. There is something strange however about her sudden kindliness that
seems to be out of character with her cruelty as evinced in the previous
chapter, so some readers will distrust the sympathetic portrait of her in this
chapter. The last conflict, about going to the Midwest, is merely a setup for
the action in the next chapter.

6. Neal returned immediately A segue from the previous chapter,

to his lab and cancelled the showing the conflict with the
afternoon’s research. anterreg is now in abeyance.
“Sarzolian says this project is
finished, so I guess we won’t
need to do any more tests
with this animal after all,” he
said pointing at the caged cat.
2. “Should I give it the An action setup
secobarbital then,” the
assistant asked.
3. “No, I’m still going to run Shows that Neal has some integrity,
some more tests, just for my and will continue to be aggressive
own interest,” Neal replied. about his own academic interests.

4. “But Sarzolian said . . . “ An echo of the prior conflict,

reminding reader of the pocal
Sarzolian’s power.
5. “Yeah, don’t worry. He Shows that Neal recognizes the
wants me to take a week off. I anterreg’s power.
blew up at him. I think I’m
being banished.”
6. The assistant seemed to be Shows that Neal is somewhat isolated
interested in all the details of in his heroic monomania. Reader
Neal’s confrontation, but will tergathize with emcair on that
whether, despite her apparent score.
sincerity, she sympathized
with Neal’s indignation at
being told to change his
research methods, Neal could
not tell. Like the rest, she
would probably do whatever it
took to please Sarzolian and
get her paycheck.
7. “I’ll take the cat to the Author’s exposition about the
vivarium,” he said lifting the treatment of animals as pets—
traveling case to the top of a introducing the idea of human
stool. The cat was sound selfishness as a motive for pet
asleep with its face toward the ownership.
mesh in front, and for once
The minor adaction is meant to
Neal could not resist the maintain reader’s interest.
temptation to poke a finger
through the mesh and rub the
animal’s head. Quick reflexes
allowed him to retract it in
time, as the cat, startled
suddenly, opened its serried
mouth to bite him. “Was it
 solicitous affection that made
me touch it—or was it
selfishness,” Neal asked
himself. He had awoken the
cat, and the cat, itself, seemed
none too pleased about it.
“Mind whom you’re trying to
bite,” he scolded his feline
colleague.
8. As Neal crossed the hall and Colna enters Neal’s territory,
opened the vivarium door he emboldened by her earlier visit.
noticed at once that all of the
lights were on, and so he
looked to see who else might
be there. This had been a day
of shocks, but he suddenly
felt an unreal astonishment as
if doubting his own
consciousness. Oblivious to
the fact that he was holding a
heavy cat case, he rushed
over to where his mother was
pushing food through the
bars of a cage. The cat inside
was unhesitantly eating
everything put before it.
9. “What are you doing,” Neal Neal in his role as manager of this
said in a deep monotone filled particular lab asserts his power. This
with admonition. is the last thing he needs now—his
mother interfering with his work.
10. The remaining crumbs of This is the antag’s deceptive
food fell from Colna’s hand as rejoinder. It is somewhat ambiguous.
she pulled her arms back in a The reader does not know exactly
panic. “I felt sorry for the what she is doing. Reader will
kitties. I brought them some probably not suspect Colna’s perfidy,
and instead will be misdirected into
treats.”
imagining a kinder side of her.
11. Neal noticed her hand Neal is taken in by his mother’s ruse
trembling as she pushed because he is reutilizing the startema.
down a bag that was sticking To reinforce reader’s tergathy with
up from her purse. His shock emcair, author has emcair mimic
and upset suddenly faded into reader’s own reaction.
sympathy. He had never
known his mother to be fond
of animals. This was a side of
her he hadn’t seen before—
kindly, solicitous, nurturing.
He smiled approvingly and
said in a politely admonishing
tone, “Mother, these are
scientific research animals.
They are not pets. You
shouldn’t add anything to
their diet. You could affect the
outcome of the tests.”
12. Colna seemed to be Neal becomes more brazen with his
accepting the scolding, mother than usual.
bowing her head. Witnessing
that, Neal felt emboldened. Narration continues author’s opinions
“You’re not doing the animals about the treatment of lab animals
any favor. It’s just selfish to
try to use food to get
affection. These animals
serve a far more noble
purpose than supplying
lonely humans with affection.
If you want a pet you can have
one at home.”
13. Colna was becoming a little As he does throughout this novel, the
irritated at the lecture, but author mixes narrator and character
was still a bit shaken and viewpoints, so that reader is not sure
unable to muster a defense. what is opinion and what is fact.
 Neal could see no point in
belaboring his mother. Her
intentions had been good and
she had been sufficiently
chastised. “Why don’t we take
a trip together,” he suggested
tenderly.
14. Colna could hardly have The author explains away the
been more surprised at such improbability of them going on a trip
an invitation, coming from her together.
son, with whom she had
never been close. Her first
thought was to reject the idea
as too unexpected and
awkward. “I’ve already got a
trip planned for next week.”
15. “Where’re you going?” ¶¶15-17Setup for the action
16. “Back to Morrisville.”
17. “Are you going alone?”
18. “Yes. I have some personal
business there.”
19. “You’re not taking Patrick?”
20. “No, of course not—the Shows Colna in her true colors and
jackass.” casts some doubt on the success of a
trip together.
21. Neal wanted badly to break Shows Neal’s motivation for
the ice between himself and continuing to try to persuade Colna to
his mother and begged her to take the trip: to find in her the
consider going together. nurturing mother he needs.

22. “I’m just going to see my Colna tries to dissuade him.

family’s homestead out in
some tiny town on the
Nebraska prairie. I’m sure
you’d be bored to death.”
23. “I’ve always wanted to see
it,” he said with marked
 enthusiasm.
24. Colna could now see her Author rationalizes Colna’s seeming
trip becoming quite change of character. Reader finds a
disagreeable, in the company new side of Colna’s personality: she
of someone she was so little somehow feels bound by motherly
fond of as her son. But duty. This may be a moment of
weakness. She is tantalized by the
somehow she felt it would be
prospect of getting some money out
unmotherly to say no, and of him.
rationalized to herself that she
could put him to work
carrying luggage and driving
her around. Maybe he would
even pay for the whole trip.
25. “Okay, Neal. Why don’t you
come along. That would be
nice. But I told you I had some
personal business to take
care of, so you must be
prepared to entertain yourself
and let me mind my affairs
privately.”
26. Neal readily agreed, and
looked forward to the chance
to put their relationship on a
good footing.
27. After he had put his cat into Shows Neal’s naiveté about his
its vivarium cage, Neal turned mother. She is obviously willful but
to extinguish some of the his concern about her health causes
lights. Colna then him to overlook that.
mischievously reached into
Neal’s natural concern for mother
her purse and pulled out a
enhances reader’s tergathy with him.
tidbit for the cat her son had
just put into a cage. She had
just dropped it into the cat’s
cage and had not yet
retracted her hand before he
 son turned around. With her
hand outstretched on the
cage, Neal noticed the red
scar that now had healed. The
thought of his mother’s
surgery then came to the fore
of his mind, and he suddenly
felt guilty for not asking her
about it. “Mother, when is
your gynecological
procedure? Is it soon?”
28. “Never mind,” she replied, Author gives resolution to Colna’s
almost bewildered at the whim for artificial insemination. Of
question, “I discovered I don’t course the reader reflects that Colna
need it after all.” She looked now has a baby in the house so may
away as if not wanting to be not need it. When Colna says she no
longer needs the gynecological
questioned further.
procedures, perhaps she has turned to
the idea of destroying at least one of
the twins, instead. This shows that
she wavers between trying to
compensate for the loss of the dead
infant Andrew whom she venerates
and punishing her twins on whom she
projects her guilt. A witch, the anti-
mother, is a person who projects her
guilt and finds victims to sacrifice as
a way of propitiating it.

CHAPTER 7 – EMASIS

In this chapter the emcair faces the critical need for schema change.
Instead of finding a nurturer in the person of the antag, he finds a malicious
adversary. Antag shows her power to abuse emcair with impunity. While
emcair is empowered by the knowledge that his mother is actively hostile,
he is not strong enough to diminish her power by confronting her. His
weakness about confronting her is the emasis of the novel.

The knowledge he gains about the secret stillborn child will also be
potentially empowering, though emcair dare not reveal what he knows to
antag lest she retaliate savagely. Though this chapter is a dramatic fulcrum
of the novel, author also tries to add non-dramatic interest, through a
change of setting.

The antag feels threatened by the emcair’s insistence upon remaining with
her while she plays out her homage to her stillborn. She is quite anxious to
safeguard knowledge of her cult. She is torn between trying to shield
information about her cult and at the same time not making the emcair
suspicious and even more invasive. One of her tactics to weaken the
emcair is to be very insulting, emasculating, in order to make him
compliant. However the emcair is a little more resolute than she hoped.
She must give into the reasonableness of his arguments.

In the second adaction, reader finds that the antag has locked the door to the
house. The emcair reacts to this attempt at containment by using his
intelligence to escape. This leads to an opportunity for him to gain a great
deal of information about antag’s cult by observing her at a distance,
unknown to her. His desire for vengeance is mollified by the scene he
witnesses, and his desire for vengeance becomes pity.

In the third adaction the antag takes advantage of the opportunity created
by the fire to put emcair in peril (by refusing to tell the fireman that she has
locked her son in the now burning building). However, as the reader
knows, that malicious act has had no result because the emcair had the luck
to escape earlier.

The chapter ends with the emcair empowered by two sets of knowledge.
One hints at the existence and nature of the stillborn cult, and the second, at
his mother’s potentially lethal malice, which he had not suspected before.
He now needs to guard himself against her. The antag, for her part, knows
that her true motives are now suspect. However, she does not realize the
full extent to which her secret has been revealed, and so is vulnerable on
that score.

The reader will feel he has garnered a great deal of information through this
chapter, which gives a much clearer sense of the true meaning of the
adaction in prior chapters. The emasis of the novel has now become clear
to the reader: the struggle between mother and son. As to the ultimate
outcome of this conflict, however, the chapter does not provide any
 information, and the reader is left hanging, craving information to create a
werschema in anticipation of further adaction. The reader will become
especially impatient about Neal’s lack of nerve and his failure to adequately
size-up the threat posed by Colna. Reader will want to see how the conflict
is to be resolved, and will want both antag and emcair to be very active so
as to provide as much information as possible.

7. Morrisville, Nebraska, is a Reader will start the chapter

fly-speck prairie town so wondering how any kind of rapport
uninviting of even a moment’s could be created between the mean-
notice that not one spirited Colna and the son whom she
descendant of the original late holds in little regard.
19th century settlers can be
The setting will augur failure in that
found among its present it is a place that kept people from
inhabitants. Although two developing as they clung to the past.
railroads cross the center of The point of this paragraph is to cast
town, neither has a station in Colna’s native environment as
town nor makes any stops. insalubrious.
That a dusty town of 800
inhabitants could continue to
exist at all almost defies
belief, but its few stores,
repair shops, schools and
churches serve a collection of
family farmers, who continue
to make a decent living from
the deep and well-watered
prairie soil.
2. Colna’s family had originally ¶¶2-6 Setup for paragraph 7.
come to Morrisville after Narrator’s describes environmental
floating around small towns in factor that could have created
the Midwest for decades, to Colna’s distorted personality, the
take advantage of the “dark force”. By chapter 7 the reader
is undoubtedly curious about what
speculative boom in wheat
Colna will be doing in that little town
during the late 1800’s, not as that she hates so much and was so
farmers but as money lenders glad to leave.
to the speculators. When the
 speculative bubble burst in
the horrendous west
Nebraska dust bowl of 1925,
farmers found themselves
with huge loans and tiny
crops of wheat that 15 years
previously would have been
like gold but were now almost
worthless.
3. The big family house above
the lake, the empty family
bank and the family hotel in
town stood as the sole tokens
of the former boom in
Morrisville.
4. The endless and featureless
prairie exercises little hold on
the human soul, and so when
Colna’s family remained in
Morrisville for a generation,
even after they had lost their
money, people wondered had
the family itself lost its spirit.
The once proud family had
latched onto political
patronage jobs as a way of
surviving, and Colna’s father
had been postmaster until the
Democrats came to power,
and then had worked as a
rural mail deliverer until
collapsing of heart failure
under the load of a sack of
mail.
5. Colna despised her parents
for not fleeing the scene of
 their fall from majesty. But all
the same, the family lingered
in Morrisville, hanging on in
the ill-repaired remains of
their big house.
6. As soon as she was old
enough, Colna left for Omaha
and set her sights on a
strange-acting man whose
one asset was his medical
degree and promises of future
income. Her mother hung on
in Morrisville, abandoning the
family house by the lake to
the elements and moving into
what had been the manager’s
apartment at the now decrepit
family hotel, where she ended
her days, polishing the few
silver table ornaments
remaining to her and making
sure the hotel’s foyer had a
change of fly strip every
fortnight.
7. Though she had left the Motivation for Colna’s greed and for
town as a young woman, display of status.
there remained in Colna a
dark force that would never
be allowed in a more civilized
environment—a force she
imbibed from the poisons and
toxins of the isolated dank
earth of the prairie. The force
feed the roots of bitterness
that came from too much
isolation and nurtured a
 parasitic craving for social
stimulation. Unfortunately,
her mother had surrendered
herself to those toxins and
sustained herself in bitter
envy of the outside world until
her death.
8. The family hotel, though 60 The hotel is a symbol of utter decay
years old, still functioned as and abandonment. The author does
such, though only the five not use a great many overt symbols
rooms on the second floor in the novel because adaction is a far
were let out. Its basement had better engine to inculcate the thema
in a short time. Some literary critics
become a chicken hatchery,
believe that a novel achieves its
and the ground floor housed a reality only through symbolic
couple permanent residents. transference. But the theory we
Its wood frame, under the follow here is one of inculcation of
influence of hot summers and schema change by skanomy, wiset
parching steam heat in winter, and back-causation, in which reader
had become shriveled and abandons his old schema for that of
brittle, and cracked and author and accepts that schema
creaked with every vibration, change as a real experience, because
whether from footfalls inside he believes his own hopes affected
the novel’s outcome.
or passing cars on the two
lane highway outside.
9. Since there was nothing The paragraph sets up the following
remotely worth seeing in the action by giving Neal a motivation
town, Colna conceived that for going with Colna to the house.
Neal would spend the day in
his hotel room, reading
whatever books he might
have brought with him.
However, in the hot morning
sun his room had become an
oven, and the dry air and
desiccated wood seemed to
draw the moisture from him
 like talcum powder.
10. Colna had gone by Neal’s
room after breakfast to take
her leave of him for the day.
“Of course you brought
things to study here in your
room,” Colna had said.
11. Neal was unhappy about the Colna brings up, herself, one of the
prospect of staying cooped self-doubts that keeps Neal from
up in the overheated room acting. Reader will pity the emcair.
and asked his mother to let
him go with her. Colna was Reader’s desire to find some way of
overcoming Colna’s impunity will
incensed that Neal would not
become fervid. Reader will wiset an
give her the privacy he had opportunity to weaken her.
promised. She could not
restrain the urge to strike out
malevolently, “I thought you
liked isolation. You don’t have
a wife, you don’t date, no
friends. You should be used
to it. I always knew there was
something mentally wrong
with you. I was hoping it was
just a maturity problem, but I
can see it’s not going to go
away.”
12. Colna looked away as if Shows that Neal is not completely
unconcerned about the effect helpless and has some power. It also
of her remark. The mean- provides a rational for Colna’s
spiritedness of her remark agreement to Neal’s request, and sets
echoed about the room, and up the later confrontation.
when Neal refused to
respond, his opprobrium
weighed on her until she
could utter something
conciliatory. “All right, come
 with me, but I will have to
leave you behind for a little
while. If you can’t handle that,
then don’t come.”
13. “Mother, I can entertain
myself without any problem. I
just don’t want to be stuck in
this overheated room all day.”
14. Neal helped his mother into
their rental car. “I want to see
some familiar place,” Colna
said.
15. Heeding her directions, Neal This quite graphic description of the
drove south of town on the setting is designed to goad reader’s
highway until all buildings curiosity.
had left the horizon, and then
drove west on a dirt road.
Suddenly a slight ridge
appeared before them, and as
they drove forward, the shore
of small lake came into view.
On the opposite shore,
overlooking the lake, stood
the once proud hulk of a
wood frame house, its many
gables still projecting a
handsome outline against the
sky, even though its paint had
long ago flaked away. Golden
wheat, nearing harvest, stood
high around the house, and
there was no visible sign of
even a driveway, the ground
having been plowed almost to
the rotting treads of its porch
steps. Only a few large trees
 marked the former presence
of a yard.
16. “That’s the family house.
You want to look around?”
Colna said, matter-of-factly.
17. “This is a very pretty
setting. I can’t believe nobody
lives here anymore,” Neal
said, delighted at the prospect
of exploring such a gloomy
ruin, especially since it was
part of the family history that
his mother had told him little
about.
18. “I still own the house, can Overloading reader with inessential
you believe it?” Colna told graphic details may impair his
him, as they waded through werschema-forming. But the reader
wheat to reach the porch. The will not suffer that long and will hope
house stood before them a for adaction.
giant with three floors, and
despite its wood construction
it seemed to have stoutly
resisted the elements, even
with windows intact. Colna
reached into her purse and
withdrew a set of keys, one of
which, after some struggling,
opened a padlock on the front
door.

19. The scene inside showed

that although the exterior
walls had remained intact, the
roof had disintegrated badly
and seepage and rot had
destroyed wall surfaces and
ceilings inside, leaving
 everything a mottled brown.
Hunks of fallen plaster littered
the discolored floorboards.
20. The house was certainly big,
but Neal could sense why it
had been allowed to go to
waste: it was as crudely built
as a barn. At the time it was
built, skilled craftsmen could
not be lured to the Nebraska
prairie, and so the house’s
details showed carpentry of a
primitive level—unmitered
joints, uneven windows—a
great deal of catalog-
purchased decorative detail—
wood moldings and machine
carved pilasters. The kitchen
and bathrooms were dingy,
undecorated areas with
elementary fixtures.
21. Neal insisted on looking at Sets up his later panic—suffocating
every room, despite the rising in the house.
heat from the summer sun
and the strong odors of wood
rot inside. After a short time,
however, Colna told him to
keep looking on his own, that
she had a private errand to
run and would return for him
in an hour. Neal imagined
himself touring through the
house and then reading
outside on the porch—where
he could get some air. He
happily agreed to having the
 house to himself, and gave no
heed when he heard the front
door close behind his
departing mother.
22. Neal peered out one of the While Neal’s thoughts lead the reader
dusty living room windows as to expect something sweetly
his mother drove on the dirt sentimental, Colna’s true destination
road a short distance up the is much more macabre.
ridge behind the house and
then pulled to a stop. He
could discern the figure of his
mother as she left the car and
then disappeared on the other
side of the ridge. He was
naturally quite curious about
what she might be looking at
on the other side. Was it
perhaps a favorite childhood
play spot or the distant home
of a childhood friend? Neal
abandoned his curiosity for
the moment and returned to
exploring the house. By the
time he reached the third
floor, however, the sun had
climbed high in the sky and
the heat inside the shuttered
house, coupled with the smell
of rot and mildew, had began
to make him nauseous. He
looked forward to reaching
the fresh air of the porch.
23. The front door, which he Reader will be unprepared for this act
naturally assumed would be of aggression, since the chapter, by
unlocked, would not open its graphic nature, had not augured
however. After some vigorous any adaction. Reader will have to
scramble now to set up a werschema
 pulling that loosened the door to prepare himself for the adaction.
slightly out of its jamb, Neal
realized that the padlock
outside was the only thing
holding the door closed. His
mother had locked him in.
Neal’s thoughts turned
strangely to memories from
childhood of being locked in a
room with his twin brother, so
that they couldn’t bother his
mother.
24. At once he began to feel Neal’s character weakness prevents
guilt at having forced his him from clearly seeing the situation,
mother to take him along. She i.e., that Colna had maliciously
obviously was very worried locked him in. Reader will find
that he would follow her. But Neal’s passivity vexatious and will
wiset increased aggression.
as the heat intensified in the
moldering house, he began to
resent being locked in. It had
been more than an hour and
the car remained parked on
the ridge.
25. Neal had tried to open a
window on the ground floor
but found them all nailed
shut. In desperation to escape
the suffocating heat, he made
his way to the basement,
where at last he found a small
service door, probably a coal
chute, that had been bolted
from the inside but not nailed
shut. After several shoves,
the wood came out of the
jamb and he was free to lift
 himself up into the field of
wheat.
26. By that point he had Wiset in ¶ 24 fulfilled.
become enraged by his
mother’s failure to return on
time, and by the torture of
being locked inside. He could
feel his rational sense being
hopelessly submerged by
anger. With wheat burrs
scratching through his shirt at
his arms and chest, Neal
made his way to the dirt road
and began climbing the ridge
to the car.
27. As he looked over the ridge, Reader realizes that Colna’s
Neal at once chided himself adulation of her previous child is
for not guessing the reason even greater than could be imagined.
for his mother’s trip out into Reader will wonder why she would
the wheat field. As he looked not want to share the experience with
her surviving son. Again reader finds
from the top of the ridge he
himself confounded because narrator
could see, a short distance gives a very sentimental portrait of
down the slope, his mother Colna, who reader has previously
kneeling amongst learned is heinous.
gravestones in a small, ill-
tended plot. Immediately
before her was a grave marker
smaller than the others. His
mother was making an
apostrophe aloud, and Neal,
very curious to hear, squatted
down among the shafts of
wheat. A breeze of warm air
rising out the depression
below gave him some help in
discerning her words. Neal
 knew it was not his mother’s
habit to be sentimental, and
found this sight to be quite a
revelation.
28. “. . . should have had the This apology to the dead child is
section . . . Could have saved cryptic, but the reader will perhaps
you . . . but was afraid I understand. Reader will not be able
wouldn’t be able to have any to predict what adaction this might
more children . . .” His mother lead to, but all the same, reader will
be quite satisfied to get this
was pleading cryptically. “You
confirmation of his earlier suspicions:
will always be my first . . . that Colna is obsessed with an earlier
others will never take your stillbirth.
place.”
29. What he heard made little Confirms Neal’s ignorance of the
sense to him and he wished main situation, that is, of the
he had been closer to hear mother’s clinging to the memory of
everything, but in the noisy the stillborn.
dry grass, to move closer
Reader will be quite eager to get
would be impossible.
more information but will be vexed
by having to rely on the narrator
parceling out the data in bits.
30. After a few moments he Because of the level of physical
could hear nothing further threat, reader’s attention will be
and so elevated his head. His elevated.
mother had raised herself, in
some pain, and had moved
over to the railing of a fence
surrounding the small plot.
There she sat somewhat
unsanctimoniously smoking a
cigarette, her obsequies
apparently over. Then in a
perfunctory gesture, she
rubbed the cigarette out on
the railing beside her and
threw the butt into the wheat,
 away from the graves. She
had apparently made a poor
effort at extinguishing it, for
the brush into which it had
landed began to smolder
almost immediately. Her joints
stiff and painful with
rheumatism, Colna raised
herself slowly, and before she
had straightened herself
completely she had noticed
the smoldering brush. She
made a rather poor effort at
stamping out the incipient
fire, and if anything her
fruitless motions merely
aerated the smoldering area
until it had ignited in flame.
31. Neal had not yet seen a This is purely expository and has no
flame or smoke and was not symbolic meaning. It does help
aware of the reason for concentrate attention on the
Colna’s precipitous flight graveyard, which will be the focus of
from the graveyard. He the next paragraph.
crouched low in the wheat as
she hurried stiff-legged up the
dirt road next to him, heading
for her car. By the time the car
had pulled away from the
ridge, flame and smoke had
become obvious, and as he
smelled smoke Neal jumped
to his feet. The fast traveling
fire, whipped by the breeze,
engulfed the graveyard and
then swept up the hill toward
him in an ever widening arc.
32. Neal hurried to the road as Highly graphic exposition. It shifts to
the flame roared past with a Neal’s perspective in the end.
heat so tremendous he
examined his clothing to be
certain the fabric had not
caught fire. His skin stung for
minutes, but his flesh had
fortunately not burned. The
speed of the fire had been
such that when he finally
thought of turning back to
look at the graveyard, the
ground around it showed little
sign of flame but had been so
completely charred as to
appear doused in black ink.
The remaining stubble
showed only the barest of
smolder, but everywhere the
air stank with the acrid smell
of burned grass.
33. Neal’s curiosity Reader will be delighted at Neal’s
overwhelmed his judgement boldness.
and drew him to the small
graveyard, in particular to the
place where his mother had
been kneeling moments
earlier. The small headstone
had suffered little in the fire,
apart from a dark sooting.
Neal squinted his eyes
against the blowing gray ash,
and tried to rub away the dark
soot from the stone’s carving.
The stone was remarkably hot
and Neal pulled away a
 burned finger with a yelp.
With some effort, however, he
was able to discern the one
word engraved on the
tombstone, “Andrew.” The
stone curiously showed no
dates.
34. Other stones in the yard
bore familiar family names.
There was his grandmother’s
grave, and his great-
grandfather, the banker,
among others.
35. Neal began to return to the Reader will hypothesize here whether
ridge top and could see a Colna will make an effort to save her
great pall of smoke coming son.
from the other side. There
was however, the sound of
shouting voices and of
machinery. The fire had
crested the ridge and
captured a great prize on the
down slope: the dry hulk of
the abandoned family
mansion, which now exhaled
flames in great gasps.
36. The high column of dark
smoke from the prairie fire
had quickly roused the fire
brigade in Morrisville, and it
had already arrived on the
scene. Men were hurrying to
stretch hose to the lake where
water could be pumped, and
others were throwing dirt on
flames that were now
 creeping along the ridge
against the breeze.
37. The house itself had The novel’s emasis. Neal will have
obviously been given up for to find the power and strength to
lost and a small crew could be nullify Colna.
seen preparing to hose down
whatever ruins remained after This graphic scene culminates in
Colna’s denial that anyone was in the
the flames had had their way
house, which is quite shocking.
with the structure. Neal Reader will feel quite foolish for
noticed his mother’s car having believed Colna had any
alongside a fire truck, and as goodness at all; and will have to face
he approached could see a the contradictory nature of the
fire fighter talking with his startema and the reality of Colna as a
mother on the dirt road, a safe mother.
distance from the building. “Is
there anyone inside, ma’am?”
the fireman was asking her
excitedly.
After hesitating, Colna
replied, “No . . . it’s been
abandoned for years.”
38. Colna’s face showed almost
a relief at the destruction
occurring before her—much
to the perplexity and distaste
of the firefighter. As her son
came into view, however, a
look of alarm seemed to
finally come over her, and it
was only by completely
repressing her feelings, that
she was able to sigh in mock
relief and say curtly to him, “I
knew you’d be safe.”
39. “Where did you go, Reader will be very vexed at Neal’s
mother?” Neal asked, as if failure to confront his mother
regarding the locking-in. Perhaps
 nothing had happened.
40. “Oh to see some relatives’
graves. Sometimes you
simply have to be alone for
grave visits.”
41. Neal nodded.
42. “I don’t know what started
this fire—perhaps it was a car
backfire,” she announced.
43. Mother and son then turned
their attention to the fire
before them and barely
looked at each other until the
flames had been put out.
reader will sense that Neal
understands everything now, and is
holding his cards close to his chest.
The chapter ends without resolving
the adaction regarding the locking of
the door and Colna’s denial that
anyone was in the building. Reader
will now be keen to see a
confrontation between mother and
son regarding the locking-in. Reader
hopes Neal is now empowered for a
confrontation.

CHAPTER 8 – EMCAIR’S EMPOWERMENT

Chapter 8 will empower both reader and emcair with information about antag’s
motivations. Author will frustrate reader’s hopes that emcair will act on that
information.

The antag is now on the defensive, sheltering and concealing the corpse of her
stillborn. She is acting quite paranoid and exaggerates the threat to her object of
worship. The emcair has a serendipitous encounter with a priest who identifies the
corpse.

The narrative provides no information about Colna’s motivation for digging up the
corpse. There is a suggestion that she wants to protect it in some way. Some
readers will not understand the relationship of this corpse to Colna, however most
will assume that it was her stillborn. The more assiduous readers will connect the
dots and understand that Colna’s hostility to her twins is related to her devotion to
the stillborn.
In his conversation with the priest the emcair has been highly empowered with
information; however the chapter ends without his acting on it. So the reader will
be left in suspense, unable to complete a werschema for a confrontation between
emcair and antag.

8. Neal and Colna had watched
the last of the house collapse
late in the afternoon and then
had returned to the hotel to
cleanse themselves of the
soot. Neal noticed a trail of
soot below each nostril.
Neither had made any further
mention of each other’s
whereabouts at the time of the
fire, though it was very much
on each other’s mind. Colna
had made no inquiry as to
how Neal had escaped from
the house, but when Neal
asked her point blank whether
she had locked the padlock
on leaving, she had replied,
“No, of course not.”
2. Neal spent the evening in
his room, and Colna had
come by only to remind him
of church the following
morning.
3. When Neal woke the next
morning and appeared at his
mother’s door for church, she
told him she had woken early
and had gone to the first
mass. It was obvious from her
dark and haggard appearance
that she had not slept at all.
Reader begins the chapter expecting
to see a conflict about Colna’s
attempted murder, but the narrator
dispatches that by saying simply that
nothing was said—leaving the reader
disappointed and hungry for a
resolution. Reader will feel author is
toying with him. Neal will seem
weak. He does attempt to link the
mother to the locking in, but she
denies it. Neal timidly does not
challenge Colna’s denial of locking
the padlock.
This paragraph is intended to squash
reader’s hope for any further adaction
that day.
Shows that Colna is highly agitated
by her son’s lucky escape and his
near accidental death. Reader will be
speculating whether she tastes blood
and will follow up with something
lethal soon.
4. “Neal, you go to mass by Sets up the later action of Colna
yourself. I met an old friend at going to the graveyard.
church earlier. She wants me
to come see her at her house
this morning,” Colna told him.
5. He felt a little awkward Sets up action in which the priest acts
about appearing at mass in a as the source of revelation about the
small town where his new twin.
face would be obvious to
everyone in the church and The paragraph also shows Neal’s
vacillation about further confronting
might even disrupt the
his mother.
service. But nonetheless he
agreed to walk the few blocks Reader in desperation will start
to the church by himself and wiseting an opportunity for Neal to
allow her to go visiting. After confront Colna.
the strange events of
yesterday, he thought, maybe
it was best to spend the day
by himself. In the evening
they would be in the plane
together returning home, and
if there was to be any
conversation about the fire, it
could be then.
6. Colna’s real errand was Shows the enormous lengths that
much different than what she Colna will go to in her obsession
had told her son. She had with preserving the relic of her
taken the car, had stopped at stillborn—her devotion to it.
a hardware store, and then
Reader will feel uncomfortable
gone south from Morrisville
because of the duplicity of this scene:
again along the same dirt Colna’s honest, motherly grief—
road as the day before. In fact, coupled with her sick obsession
she had completely retraced (which reader knows has led to a
her steps to the graveyard. paranoid savagery).
There she removed a new
shovel from the car and
 began to slowly dig the soil
under the stone marked
“Andrew”. Her exertions were
slow and laborious, for her
muscles had atrophied under
the ravages of rheumatism.
Her goal was fortunately not
far from the surface—a tiny
casket. She cradled it, sobbed
and apologized over and over,
and then cleaned it with her
sore hands before placing it
reverently in the trunk of the
car.
7. Neal had been attending Sets up a slight drama of Neal feeling
mass all the while and feeling uncomfortable in the church. This
that even the officiating priest sets up ¶ 8.
was startled to see the new
face of a young man sitting
alone in a pew. Neal had not
gotten out of the church
before the priest had made
his way to the front.
8. “I’m always cheered to see a
new face in the church. I’m
Father O’Lann,” the priest
said, approaching Neal with
great heartfulness, “I talked
with your mother earlier this
morning. I’ve heard about the
fire. Quite a show, huh?”
9. Neal found himself wary of ¶¶9-14 Sets up the revelation about
succumbing to the priest’s the stillborn.
cheerfully solicitous banter,
but saw an opportunity to
satisfy a pricking curiosity.
 “The grave site near the
house that burned, is that
only family graves?” he
inquired.
10. “Yes, and strange it is, don’t
you think, that they lie out
there in a wheat field. The
family should have moved the
graves to the churchyard a
long time ago.”
11. A wry smile then came over
the priest, “I heard the
graveyard got scorched as
well. What a shame. Your
grandmother always insisted
on not being cremated, and
now it’s happened.”
12. Both men smiled at the
irreverent joke, but they had
scarcely time to get in a laugh
before Neal was interjecting
another question. “Father,
who is the ‘Andrew’ buried
there?”
13. The priest, still jovial from The priest puts a very positive spin
the reverberations of own on the twins’ birth—so different from
joke, answered, “I’m Colna’s interpretation.
surprised you don’t know.
Your mother never mentioned An explicit confirmation of previous
plants and ambiguous information.
him? He was a stillborn child
Reader may feel empowered by
—died in birth—quite a pity. having anticipated this information.
Your mother was very
depressed afterward and
grieved a long time. She may
have blamed herself. But God,
in his mercy, must have pitied
 her, because a little over a
year later he gave her twin
boys to replace the one she
lost.”
14. A solemnity came over the
priest suddenly, and he
looked squarely at the young
man. “She was always very
sensitive on the subject, and I
advise you not to bring it up.
But I’m glad you know now,”
he said, a smile returning to
his face, “God gave you an
older brother.”
15. Neal was not sure how to Neal now understands a major part of
respond, but his mother’s the puzzle. Neal has not yet tied the
graveside words, “Others will mother’s obsessive devotion with the
never take your place,” stillborn to any active hostility on her
became suddenly clearer to part.
him.
Author does not give reader any clue
as to the further resolution of the
main conflict. Will Neal reason with
his mother and help her get over her
obsession? Or will he simply
abandon any hope of getting
motherly solicitude from her—and
seek something comparable
elsewhere?

CHAPTER 9 – EMPOWERING AVEDRAM

The chapter creates reasons for a rapport between Robanna and Patrick—a means
of empowering Robanna by giving her an insider ally. Shows Patrick’s own spite
and greed toward Colna, which avedram could later use as a weapon against the
antag.

The chapter’s adaction is between the avedram and the kerflat Patrick. The chapter
also reveals a clearer picture of the ongoing conflict between Patrick and the antag.

The avedram has two objections to Patrick’s behavior. One is on the basis of
decency; the other is rubbing it in her face—not giving her respect. This conflict is
not completely resolved. It ends simply with a display of amicability.

Reader sees that Patrick is not as retarded as Colna might make out. That is, he is
capable of using a computer. So, reader has to revise his power assessment of that
character. Reader also sees that Patrick is enraged with Colna and has hostility
toward her, which is also a form of power.

The reader may miss the dramatic meaning of this adaction, which is to draw up an
alliance between the two opponents of the antag, specifically to give the avedram
an ally. It is likely that the reader does not have sufficient information yet to
identify Robanna as the avedram. Regarding the conflict between Patrick and the
antag: reader does not know at this point how much Colna is aware of Patrick’s
hostility, and whether she has taken any precautions. Reader does know that
Patrick has confidential information about her, but from what he says reader knows
that Colna has effectively silenced him on this.

9. During Colna’s Morrisville Sets up reader’s anticipation of

trip, Robanna was quite leery possible adaction.
of remaining in the house with
the son whom Colna
described as “mentally ill”,
and Robanna kept a wary eye
on the telephone in case he
perpetrated an “emergency”.
2. Patrick, for his part, seemed The tension is somewhat eased.
to give her little heed, and
when in the house would
remain in his spacious room
on the third floor.
3. Perhaps as a symptom of Tension is raised again as the reader
his all-too-apparent mania, realizes that Patrick is somewhat out
Patrick was highly gregarious, of control
and would often walk to the
bus stop and go downtown to
 meet friends or to play
basketball at the YMCA for
hours on end. While his
mother was gone, however,
he began entertaining women
on the third floor. Some would
stay for a short time, some
the entire night. That was
something Colna would have
never tolerated, but Robanna
felt powerless to object.
4. Patrick had obviously
inherited the sexual
voraciousness of his father,
but fortunately for him he had
not produced a string of
progeny as a record of his
devotion to sex.
5. The exact nature of Patrick’s Gives a rationale for Patrick’s
mental illness was not clear to behavior.
Robanna, but his incessant
talking and his ignorance of
standard behavior made her
feel there was indeed
something mentally wrong.
Colna had told her that a
group of state psychologists
had declared him incapable of
supporting himself—and in
any case, he seemed little
interested in anything more
than pursuing an endless
teenage summer, playing
basketball all day and
hanging out with like-minded
young men until late in the
 evenings.
6. Colna treated him as if he Possibly Colna’s indifferent
were incapable of assuming treatment has caused his immaturity,
any responsibilities and so Colna may be responsible for his
trusted him only to carry her “mental illness”.
baggage and do yard work,
when she could manage to
find him at home.
7. Robanna noticed that Sets up an adaction.
Patrick’s nightly trysts started
on the day Colna left for
Morrisville. Her first clue that
a date was about to arrive was
the sound of water hitting the
walls of Patrick’s shower on
the third floor. Minutes after
the shower stopped, the front
door bell would ring, and
Patrick, oozing cologne,
would come bounding down
the stairs to greet his new
assignation. Occasionally this
scenario would repeat itself a
couple times in one night, and
it wasn’t long before
Robanna, witnessing it all
from the living room couch,
became disgusted with his
insatiability.
8. On the fourth night Robanna Reader tergathizes with Robanna—in
was sitting in the living room sympathy with her indignity and
watching television as usual, because of her dynamic approach.
and heard the customary
sound of a shower running on
the third floor. For some
reason Patrick’s timing had
 been poor, and the doorbell
rang before the shower had
stopped running.
9. Robanna’s first thought was Shows Robanna asserting some
to call up the stairs to Patrick power in the conflict.
to answer the door, but,
sorely tired of his routine, she
decided to open the door and
greet his new date herself.
10. At the door stood what ¶¶10-36 Adaction between Robanna
looked like little more than a and the girl visitor.
high school freshman. The
girl asked for “Jaguar”.
11. “You mean Patrick?”
Robanna asked.
12. “Yes . . . ah, I guess,” was
the girl’s sheepish reply.
13. As the shower was still
running upstairs, Robanna
invited the girl into the living
room, set her in an armchair,
and sized up the girl’s utter
youth. While the girl smiled
gamely in obvious discomfort,
Robanna’s indignity swelled.
Patrick’s luring to the house
one woman after another—
until Robanna felt she were
living in a whorehouse—was
bad enough, but inviting an
underage girl was too much.
Robanna felt sorry for the girl
too, and could not understand
how she could allow herself
to be lured to a man’s home at
her age.
14. Robanna was eager to find Reader will enjoy this adaction, but it
 out the girl’s real age. is peripheral to the main adaction
between Robanna and Patrick.
15. “Are you a college
student?”
16. “No, I . . . ah, haven’t
committed myself,” the girl
replied evasively.
17. “So you’re still at home,
huh?”
18. “Yes.”
19. “Do you go out to bars and
clubs often?”
20. “Oh no, never.”
21. “Have you ever been to a
dance club?”
22. “No, I’m not into that kind of
thing.”
23. “Oh, I see. What kind of
work do you do?”
24. “Well, I’m job hunting right
now. The girl’s answers did
nothing to allay Robanna’s
suspicions that she was
underage, and she was
determined to continue the
interrogation despite the girl’s
obvious apprehensiveness.
25. The sudden appearance of
Patrick, hair still wet from the
shower, saved the girl any
further embarrassment, and
she appeared very much
relieved when he came into
the room. Patrick’s manly
good looks obviously pleased
the girl, and she rose quickly
from her seat and riveted her
 attention on him, as if
Robanna were not even in the
room.
26. When Robanna saw how
willful the girl was, Robanna
began to think that perhaps it
was not Patrick but the girl
who had arranged this risky
liaison. “Patrick, could I talk
with you a minute,” Robanna
said, approaching him and
grasping his shoulder.
27. Patrick had already sensed
the girl’s eagerness and could
not bear the thought of the
home health worker
interposing herself and
scaring away his catch. “Let’s
go upstairs,” he said to the
girl, who was by now almost
clinging to his belt.
28. “Patrick, I must talk to you,”
Robanna insisted.
29. “Oh go back to your T.V. I’ll
talk to you later about
whatever it is,” he said,
moving his shoulder out of
Robanna’s grasp and putting
his hands on his new friend’s
hips and guiding her to the
stairs. Robanna’s self-
righteousness had been
challenged and she reared
herself up for a confrontation.
30. “How old are you?” she said
gruffly and insistently to the
 girl as she blocked the stairs
with her large girth.
31. “Eighteen.”
32. “Let me see your I.D.”
33. Patrick stood speechless in
fury.
34. “I don’t have my I.D.,” the
girl replied insolently.
35. Patrick had by now
reluctantly resigned himself
to Robanna’s inspecting his
date, for as much as he would
love to escort the girl to his
room, if she were underage he
would now risk knowingly
consorting with a minor.
36. “I’ve gotta go,” the girl said ¶¶39-46Shows that the mother’s
finally, “This is getting weird.” characterization as hopelessly
And with that she hurried to retarded is somewhat unfair and also
the door and walked quickly sets up a basis for a rapport between
to her car—a big and stately Robanna and Patrick.
vehicle obviously borrowed
from a parent. Patrick made
no effort to persuade her to
stop. But after she had gone
he erupted in anger, telling
Robanna to mind her own
business and threatening her
were she to try something like
that again.
37. “You want to go to jail,
Patrick?” Robanna shouted.
The two then yelled and
threatened until both were
exhausted.
38. After his initial feeling of Reader senses Robanna is an apt
outrage had subsided Patrick stalwart to pin one’s hopes upon.
 was prepared to admit that
Robanna had saved him from
the perils of statutory rape.
His good nature finally
prevailed, and he mumbled
“Thank you . . . I guess I’m
just bad seed. I can’t trust
myself sometimes.”
39. “Where did you meet her?”
asked Robanna, still
wondering about where
Patrick had met so many
women.
40. “On the Internet.”
41. “The Internet! I didn’t know
you had a computer,” she
replied, startled. Somehow
she had seen him as too
mentally handicapped to use
a computer. “Where, in your
room?”
42. “In my study.”
43. “A study—you!” she
scoffed.
44. Patrick quickly answered
her cynicism with a challenge
to go up to the third floor to
see, and suppressing her
dignity, Robanna agreed,
though in climbing the stairs
she couldn’t help but think of
the many Internet harlots who
had preceded her up those
stairs in recent days.
45. Patrick had the three rooms
on the top floor to himself,
and one of them he had
 indeed made into a study.
Robanna found a room filled
with computer equipment and
bookshelves of computer
software and programming
manuals. “This is yours?” she
said disbelieving.
46. “So this is the mentally
retarded son,” she thought to
herself, amazed at how much
she had underestimated him.
Patrick took great delight in
hearing her gasp in
astonishment. He pridefully
showed her the lewd web
page he had designed for
himself and talked with her
about the friends he regularly
conversed with online.
Robanna pretended to shield
her eyes but could not hide
her enthusiasm for his
computer hobby, and there
soon developed a rapport
between them.
47. Whatever her sincerity, Robanna shows her assiduity in
however, Robanna was quick taking advantage of the opportunity
to see that the growing to learn more about Colna. Her
warmth in their conversation curiosity may give her an edge on
presented an opportunity to Colna.
satisfy her curiosities about
Reader will be grateful for Robanna’s
his mother. curiosity, and feel warmly towards
her as if she were an ally.
48. “You have a nice place here
—lots of room to yourself—a
nice big house. Your mother
 must have had some money
before. How did she lose it?”
Robanna interposed abruptly.
49. Patrick was beginning to Set up as a tease—just a small
feel comfortable with the amount of information. This will of
home health worker but he course be a key to a later realization
remained poignantly aware of by the avedram.
his mother’s stern interdiction
Reader will take up the gauntlet of
of any discussion of the
this clue—and begin hypothesizing
family finances. Nonetheless immediately—attuned to any further
he decided to offer his new clues.
admirer a token tidbit of
information—the meaning of
which would doubtless never
occur to her. “She hasn’t a
penny . . . IN HER OWN
NAME,” he said, and, with
that, feigned ignorance to all
her further questions of a
similar vein.

CHAPTER 10 – RED HERRING CRISIS

Neal is intimidated by Colna. If he confronted her she might confirm his

worst fear: that she hates him. The unexplained death of his lab animals
fuels Neal’s paranoia at the job, and he again confronts anterreg. He is
rebuffed entirely. Neal’s anger has no object. In his frustration he becomes
susceptible to the iteration of the startema by his lab assistant. The hope of
getting consolation from his mother again rears its absurd head.

Reader will expect a conflict where it really does not happen, not overtly,
anyway, regarding the lock-in and the fire. The conflict is allowed to
simmer without coming to a head. The emcair by his failure to confront the
mother shows his weakness. The question is whether he will get the
strength to confront her.

The emcair’s attempt to refute the startema, by telling about how Colna had
endangered him in the Midwest, provokes the lab assistant, who is a
 frequent mouthpiece for the startema, into vociferously restating the
startema. By this point her argument may not seem credible to the reader.
But the emcair is rather weak and for the time being submits to the lab
assistant’s argument.

He is also further enervated by an internal conflict between his personal

goals and his need for a career.

The emcair faces a threat from an unknown opponent at his laboratory,

whom he suspects is the anterreg. When he finds that his cats are dead he
is nerved to confront the anterreg, though he shows no such courage with
his mother. The anterreg dismisses his challenge summarily, leaving him to
brood about the possible unknown antag. The brooding turns to rage when
he discovers that the animals had been killed with a common drug used for
that purpose in laboratories.

Reader previously received almost no information about the antag’s

thoughts over the locking in and fire. Colna gives no hints as to what her
future intentions are, and the emcair is left more or less powerless and
speechless, unable to confront her. So reader gets no resolution on that
score. Likewise, in the next adaction, with the lab assistant, the emcair
submits without a struggle. The reader expects Neal to voice reservations
about the startema, but he allows the assistant’s strident iteration of the
startema to silence him.

In his conflict with the anterreg emcair is not well-empowered so cannot

force a resolution or change in the status quo. The perpetrator of the
sabotage remains a mystery to the reader. On the matter of managing his
career, reader will feel tergathy with Neal. But since Neal’s concern about
his career is a red herring conflict, author cuts the conflict short without a
resolution.

10. Neal and his mother had
exchanged only polite
conversation on the plane.
Neal dared not mention the
events of the fire for fear of
bringing into the open the
appalling and frightful
Reader will be exasperated at Neal’s
timidity in not confronting his
mother’s selfishness and cruelty
regarding the fire—since that just
puts off the resolution of the main
conflict. Reader will hurry on his
reading to get to a resolution. Reader
is eager for a showdown.
 suggestion that his mother’s
selfish recklessness in
locking him in the house had
almost brought about his
death.
2. He was afraid that were he We find Neal a procrastinator with
to bring up the subject, she many excuses not to act. He is afraid
would be obstinately of his realization that the startema is
unapologetic—and that would wrong.
confirm his feelings that she
was in fact uncaring or at
worst aggressively hostile.
3. Since he had done nothing Shows the naivete that will keep Neal
that would warrant anything from creating a new schema. He is
malicious from her, it did afraid of losing his parents, despite
seem truly impossible that Colna’s perfidy. That shows that he
she could have locked the is aching to satisfy the nurturer
archetype, for which his startema is
door, anyway. Yet, as he lay in
inadequate.
bed in his apartment during
the night of his return from Neal cannot bear the idea of not
Morrisville, he could not sleep having a reified archetype of a
for thoughts that, without mother—even if he has to settle for
devoted parents, he would be the likes of Colna.
left an emotional orphan with
no ultimate source of support Reader will continue to be frustrated
to fall back upon in the last that author does not present Neal any
resort. alternatives to his own mother for the
nurturer archetype.
4. Neal arrived at the lab Author slaps down reader’s hope of
exhausted, but nonetheless getting a quick resolution to the
had planned a full day for conflict between Colna and Neal—as
himself and his lab assistant. he shifts scenes.
He would try to sneak in the
The action in this paragraph simply
one last experimental session
sets up the later crisis of discovering
with one of the cats. Sarzolian that the cats had been poisoned.
had told him their project was
complete, but Neal wanted to
 run one more experimental
session to confirm his data.
Sarzolian would not approve
of that, but Neal would keep
his lab door closed, and
Sarzolian, who was extremely
busy anyway, would never be
the wiser.
5. His lab assistant had
already arrived and was
tidying up the lab. She was
cheerful as usual, and Neal
felt relieved to hear her call
out a friendly hello.
6. The assistant naturally Reader earlier sympathized with the
wanted to know the details of assistant about the correctness of the
Neal’s recent trip. Neal was startema. Reader has since learned to
loath to describe particulars doubt the startema and will now be
of the house burning, but quite interested in how the assistant,
the erstwhile oracle of the startema,
since that was the dramatic
will react to Neal’s account of
high point of the trip, he could Colna’s actions in the Midwest.
not resist describing it. The
assistant was very touched by
his recounting of Colna on
her knees in front of the grave
of her stillborn. After some
pause, however, Neal told the
eagerly listening woman
about his suspicion that his
mother had in fact
deliberately locked him in the
house.
7. The reaction Neal’s ¶¶7-12 Restate the startema.
suspicion raised in the
assistant was totally Reader will still feel some loyalty to
unexpected. Her sympathy the startema despite the fact that
Colna’s actions contradict it.
 vanished and immediately an
almost ferocious look of
disgust took hold of her.
“How could you say such a
terrible thing about your
mother? You are an awful
son.”
8. Neal was taken aback by the
woman’s stridency, and
fatigued and irritable, became
antagonistic. “You don’t know
my mother.”
9. “I know she fed you and
took care of you when you
were sick.”
10. Well, actually, when I was
sick she would usually tell me
I could stay home in bed but
that she wasn’t going to
cancel her social plans to stay
home.”
11. “You’re exaggerating. There
are no mothers like that. She
gave you life. You should be
grateful and never suggest
anything negative about her.”
12. The assistant then began Reader will find assistant’s
reciting a long list of the traits arguments quite compelling.
of an ideal mother. “She
soothed you when you were
upset. She listened to your
ideas and talked with you
about them. She protected
you from danger. She trained
you in the lessons you
needed to succeed. She
 encouraged you to learn. She
gave you values. She
supported your goals . . .”
13. The assistant expressed her Shows Neal is beginning to doubt the
convictions so passionately startema, at least as reified in the
and with such a sense of form of Colna.
affront that Neal began to feel
that perhaps he was being Reader will again find Colna hard to
reconcile with the assistant’s
ungrateful to suggest
restatement of the startema.
anything uncomplimentary
about his mother. Indeed, he
recognized in his own mother
all the traits on the assistant’s
list. That he could not deny.
However, what he recalled
more distinctly was her
negation of so many of those
traits: her discouraging, her
laxness, her derision and
aloofness, her agitating and
enraging, her confusing and
withholding—her neglect and
her wrath.
14. “You’re right,” Neal ¶¶14-15 Is simply a reiteration of the
confessed, “I guess I startema
shouldn’t say anything
negative about my mother. . . .
Your mother’s lucky to have
such a devoted daughter.”
15. “I’m the one who’s lucky— Reader may conceive a rational
to have a mother. I will never aversion to the assistant’s dogmatic
pay off my debt to her,” she iteration of duty to parents.
said sharply and turned
quickly away indignantly.
16. The conversation had
turned rather sour, and Neal
 was anxious to turn the
conversation to work-related
matters. “Could you help me
set up the cat from last week
for one more round of tests? I
think we can finish that this
morning.”
17. “Neal, the cats all died the Crisis begins regarding cats’ deaths.
day you left for vacation,” the
assistant said peremptorily, Reader will immediately begin
as if still annoyed. hypothesizing a cause for the cats’
deaths. If reader is clever, he will
link Colna.

18. Neal suddenly felt as Attendant’s blase attitude regarding

powerless and vulnerable as the cats’ deaths sets off Neal’s
if sentenced to death. He had paranoia about loss of control. He
left for a week, and when he has obviously been primed to feel
returned he was no longer in some kind of threat.
control of even his own lab.
19. “But you were finished with
the project anyway, so you
didn’t need them, right?” she
said sympathetically, seeing
how upset he had become
and pitying him.
20. “I wanted to do one more
experiment. I wasn’t finished
with them!” he yelled, “What
happened!?”
21. “Well the animal attendant Assistant’s monotone reiteration of
found them dead in the cages duty will rankle reader.
when she went to carry them
downstairs to the central
vivarium. She put the bodies
in the freezer, so you could
examine them if you want, but
 since the project is over . . .
ah, we’re using rats in
Sarzolian’s next project,
anyway.”
22. “Okay . . . thanks,” he Reader will be pleased to see Neal
muttered, and then hurriedly acting decisively for once.
left the lab, going immediately
to the central vivarium in the
basement of the medical
complex.
23. The lab assistant was
horrified when moments later
he returned with their frozen
corpses in thick plastic bags.
“Neal, why don’t you just
forget the cats. It was
probably a quick spreading
bug of some kind—what does
it matter?”
24. “We’ll see,” he said, and put
the bags in a sink to thaw.
25. Neal moved to his desk and For Neal, the cats’ deaths epitomize a
sat there mute. “Sarzolian had larger crisis about his control over his
the cats destroyed.” The life. As the practication will show,
thought coursed through his however, Neal’s desire to control his
mind until he become fixated life—and not be reliant on others—is
an unrealistic ambition considering
on it. As much as he tried to
his lack of early familial support.
push the idea aside, as
ludicrous as it was, it came Neal’s explanation seems plausible—
back the more forcefully. and author plants this to forestall
There was little he could do reader linking Colna to the event.
about his paranoid delusions
but to allow himself the silly Now the reader will have to fashion a
exercise of having the cats’ werschema for a confrontation
blood tested. The scenario of between Sarzolian and Neal.
Sarzolian ordering his lab
 animals “sacrificed” with
secobarbital—after ordering
him to take a week off—
played irresistibly on his
mind. As he stared into the
confines of his lab, Neal
realized his childhood fantasy
of controlling his own destiny
as an adult had not yet
happened, and may never
happen at the university. If
not for Sarzolian’s constant
intervention, then for the
intervention of the National
Institutes of Health or the
National Science Foundation
or the medical school dean or
whoever might step in to
micro-manage his career.
26. All the same, he had to The paragraph contains an explicit
consider himself fortunate to statement of the practical course for
have received his position as him in his present situation:
an assistant research tolerating controls. This is of course
professor at the university. the lesson applied in the novel’s
practication.
How did he get the position,
anyway? Was it talent or
luck? Of course it was mostly
luck. He had had the right
credentials at the right time
and applied at the right place.
Maybe he had been selected
almost at random. His first bit
of luck got him the position.
What kind of luck would keep
him at the university?
Perhaps self-promotion, but
 more likely the right mental
disposition—to tolerate the
ever present controls.
27. In the afternoon, Author elevates reader’s attention
participants in Sarzolian’s level with the promise of adaction.
new grant project met in
Sarzolian’s main lab. Neal’s
suspicions lingered, and
throughout the meeting he
could think of nothing but
confronting Sarzolian about
the death of his cats.
28. Sarzolian seemed very Reader is now faced with the
surprised when Neal prospect of a prolonged mystery—
approached him about the and must gird himself for attempting
subject and through his to solve it.
expression of astonishment
Reader may feel some irritation at the
quite convinced Neal he had
author for putting another hurdle in
not even known about the the way of his understanding the
cats’ deaths. “I don’t even use situa, so this may further reader’s
drugs to sacrifice my lab resolve to find a resolution.
animals—too expensive for
use on rats. We use a
guillotine. You didn’t find the
cats decapitated, did you?”
he said with a smirk.
29. Sarzolian then dismissed
Neal’s worries with an
expression Neal had gotten
tired of hearing, “Just forget
the cats, Neal. That is over.”
30. Upon returning to his lab Assistant repeats the idea of respect
Neal found his assistant for those in power. This sets up ¶ 31.
waiting to upbraid him. “I Assistant’s harping on duty will grate
can’t believe you mentioned on reader—and impugn her as an
those cats to Sarzolian. He oracle.
 told you before that the Assistant instills guilt, which
project is over. It sounded motivates Neal’s visit to his mother’s
almost like you were accusing house.
him of killing them. Neal,
Sarzolian deserves more
respect from you. He’s given
you your position. He’s gotten
you published several times.
Don’t be so ungrateful!”
31. If his assistant were not so Neal seeks another rapprochement
likable and sincere, Neal with his mother. That is motivated
would have shut his mind to somewhat by guilty feel regarding his
her constant allusions to his lack of gratitude toward his parents
ingratitude—first toward his and those in power.
mother—now toward the P.I.
Neal still very vulnerable to iterations
Neal was beginning to of the startema. Reader will be
suspect himself of being too discouraged by Neal’s susceptibility
obsessed with his own goals to the now tiresome oracle. Reader
and too paranoid to even feel will hope for Neal’s confrontation
gratitude. He was only able to with his mother instead.
stem the rising feelings of
guilt and even self-loathing by
picking up the phone and
dialing his mother. “Mom, I’m
coming to take you out for
coffee,” he said to the
astonished Colna.
32. “Are you sure,” Colna ¶¶32-33 Sets up the confrontation of
replied, reluctantly, “I have to the next chapter.
go to the bank but will be
back at 4:00.”
33. “Okay, I’ll be waiting for you
at home,” he said sweetly.
34. Overhearing the
conversation, the lab
assistant smiled at Neal with
 encouraging approval.
35. Before leaving, Neal decided
not to leave the lab that day
without completely ridding
himself of any suspicions
regarding the death of his lab
animals, and so dialed the
pathology laboratory. “This is
Neal Mackart. Do you have
blood test results on my cats?
Did you find any drugs—or
infection?” he asked.
36. “Yes, secobarbital,” was the Reader will be shocked.
reply.
37. The lab assistant was still The Sarzolian-as-antag hypothesis is
smiling as Neal was leaving back on. Reader will begin to feel
the room. He turned to her exhausted by the question of whether
before leaving. “I’m asking Sarzolian is an antag, and by
you to tell me the truth. Who necessity of keeping a werschema for
him in consciousness.
killed the cats with
secobarbital? Was it
Sarzolian’s idea?”
38. The assistant was too Reader will feel that the assistant, the
surprised to answer and she standard-bearer of the startema, is an
merely looked at him with obstruction to truth—and will wish
long, silent pity, until in Neal’s independence of her constant
frustration he merely walked pronouncements.
out the door.

CHAPTER 11 – REALIZATION

Author gives emcair the knowledge (but not the initiative) necessary for
resolution of the emasis—i.e., emcair accepts thema. The emcair will be
motivated to act but cannot as yet direct his aggression toward antag [that
will require the intervention of the reader’s wiset].

Reader will see with relief the emcair’s Realization and will be keener than
 ever to see a confrontation with the antag. But again, author withholds a
resolving confrontation. At just the point when the reader senses a
resolution to the conflict is possible, the author introduces an entirely new
setting—Colna’s Mexican life. Reader will find the setting intriguing
enough to temporarily suspend demands for a resolution.

Reader may object to Patrick’s diatribe as culturally offensive, but the

author seduces reader into allowing it, by putting it in Patrick’s manic
mouth so it becomes almost comical.

Chapter 11 begins with another scene of Colna abusing one of her sons, the
kerflat Patrick. Reader witnesses the fierceness of her nasty temper and her
flair for the histrionic. Patrick submits to her dominance and abuse, but
vents his spleen to the avedram after Colna has left the house. The
avedram is empowered by Patrick when she realizes that he could be easily
co-opted in a conspiracy to garner the antag’s money. Finally there is
highly dramatic adaction filled with suspense and tension, when Neal
realizes that the perpetrator of the sabotage in his lab is none other than his
mother, the antag, and when Colna catches her son in her room. Author
defuses a confrontation in Colna’s bedroom allowing Colna to disdainfully
censure her son, in the almost laughably savage manner that reader has
come to expect from her.

The Avedram has begun to play her part as the avenger of Colna. Reader
will even more consider her as an ally.

11. Upon her return from
Morrisville Colna had noticed
that a decided rapport
between Patrick and her home
health worker had occurred in
her absence.
2. That afternoon Colna had
called for a taxi and was
preparing to leave for the
bank. She could now hear the
two of them talking and
laughing and otherwise
enjoying far too much
The reader will expect to see Colna
launch into something aggressive
again. The reader has probably come
to relish Colna’s uncivilized tone and
her viciousness, which she is able to
exercise with impunity.
Reader’s expectation is confirmed as
narrator displays Colna’s aggressive
condemnation.
 conviviality in the kitchen—
almost if they had suddenly
become lovers. Colna
guffawed aloud at the thought
of any degrading amours
between the two of them,
especially considering
Robanna’s huge size. “He’s a
horny bastard,” she thought
to herself, “but thank god he
doesn’t have to settle for the
likes of her.”
3. Colna burst into the kitchen An adaction begins.
with a vigorous push to the
door, which had the desired
effect of creating a pause in
the hilarities.
4. “What are you two doing in
here?”
5. “She’s giving me some
cooking lessons,” Patrick
said, the echoes of the prior
merriment still radiating from
his face.
6. “Well, you should learn a
trade of some kind,” Colna
said with disgusted gravity.
7. “Maybe you could send me
to cooking school,” he
replied.
8. “You can earn your own
money and send yourself to
school. I can’t just throw
money around at my age.”
9. “Then what were you doing
spending my inheritance
money taking a trip to
 Morrisville,” he retorted
gamely.
10. Colna angrily reached into
her oversized purse, pulled
out a well-stuffed leather
satchel and, walking to the
sink, began cramming money
into the garbage disposal.
Before Patrick could stop her
she had flicked the switch and
shredded the bills to mulch.
11. “This is what I’d rather do
with the money than leave any
to you or your brother. Earn
your own!” she said, taking in
with satisfaction the look of
horror created on her son’s
face.
12. Robanna, especially, was Sets up for change of setting to
riveted by this display and Mexico. The truth about the
tried almost desperately to Mexican setting is that author inserts
see the denominations of the it simply to provide variety. Reader
bills Colna was stuffing into may hope this change of locale will
provide a bounty of new data.
the disposal. Her eyes had
been eager and quick, but it
was only after Colna had
dramatically stomped out of
the room that she realized
that what she had seen were
not dollars at all, but pesos.
13. “What’s she doing with ¶¶13-16 are a tease that will prime
pesos?” she asked Patrick. the reader’s curiosity for the next
chapter. It undoubtedly catches the
reader off guard because up until that
point there was no suggestion of
Colna’s currency dealings.
14. Patrick seemed caught off
 guard by the question, and
stopped himself before
answering.
15. “I don’t know.” Reader will be frustrated at not
getting an answer to the tease.
16. Robanna wondered to Reader will heroicize Robanna for
herself with a harrumph, “Is providing an answer.
she stashing her dough in
Mexico?”
17. Neal had arrived about that Author intends this paragraph mainly
time, and had missed his as a trifling amusement. It does,
mother by a few minutes. however, provide a plant for Patrick’s
Patrick had started on a callous treatment of Colna at the end
manic disquisition on his of the novel. Although he does not
have a plan for her, he would like her
mother’s various abuses. “I’d
money and knows that having her
like to see her without any of around is still important because of
her money—snivelingly her government benefits.
grateful to us for every penny
we might give her. Better yet,
I’d like to have her mountain
of gold myself, without having
to deal with her. Well maybe
we’d keep her around to
maintain her government
benefits. It’d be nice to put
her in a big bird cage, and
make her sign checks over to
me. Every week, if she’d be
good, I let her out and walk
around and fluff up her
feathers a little, and then
make her clean out her cage.
Or better than that, I’d give
her a drug to paralyze her
before she woke up in the
morning, and then put her on
 some kind of intravenous
feeder, or maybe I would have
her stuffed so I could just
prop her in the window so the
neighbors would think she
was still around.”
18. Robanna had turned away,
and heading for the television,
was scarcely listening. Her
blatant show of inattention
was no deterrent to him
though, and Patrick continued
without pause, “That sounds
pretty awful for a son to say,
huh, Robanna? You seem like
a decent woman, and you’re
thinking to yourself, ‘He’s
pretty scary.’ Well come on,
who wouldn’t be at least a
little happy to see a relative—
even one you really like—kick
the bucket and leave you a
little dough, huh? Admit it? I
remember once when I was a
child my grandmother was at
the airport going home, and
she was buying insurance,
and we kids kept encouraging
her to buy more, because we
could see the payout would
be huge for each dollar of
insurance she bought. And
she didn’t seem too happy
about how eager we were, and
I know she was imagining us
hoping the plane would crash
 so we could cash in. And you
know, she was right. When
the plane took off, we were on
the observation deck
screaming ‘Crash! Crash,
baby, crash!’”
19. Neal came into the living
room where Robanna had just
turned on the television.
Patrick was still talking, “. . .
and if I had children, I’d share
what I had with them, after all,
I would owe them something
for the joy they gave me and
for forcing them to obey me
like slaves . . .”
20. “What’s he talking about,”
Neal asked Robanna, while
Patrick continued to prattle in
the background.
21. “Oh, your mother tried to Sets up a reiteration of the startema
make him mad by putting a in the next paragraph.
bunch of money down the
garbage disposal after he
talked about inheriting money
from her.” Robanna turned off
the television and looked at
Neal in exasperation. “Why
do you take that kind of abuse
from her?”
22. “She’s our mother. We owe Reiteration of the startema, which
her respect, regardless,” Neal now sounds somewhat hollow to the
answered defensively. reader.

23. “Well, she doesn’t treat you Robanna begins to become the voice
like her sons.” of reason.
24. Robanna hesitated for a Sets up the revelation of the drug
moment, then continued, “I hoard
think she must be on some
kind of drug. Nobody’s that
horrible—naturally. Maybe it’s
her rheumatoid medicine. It
could be anything—she’s got
a huge hoard of drugs in her
bedroom.”
25. “What do you mean ‘huge ¶¶25-29 set up the realization in
hoard’?” paragraph 30.
26. “Hundreds of bottles of
drugs.”
27. Neal’s curiosity was now
quite aroused, for he hadn’t
known his mother was so
medicated.
28. Robanna offered to lead him Reader will encourage Robanna to
to the hoard—and leaving take such initiatives in order to
Patrick downstairs—they empower the emcair. Reader will
went up to his mother’s room. feel the same adrenal response as the
emcair and Robanna.

29. Just as Robanna had said, Author adds the rather ridiculous
in a cupboard Neal found “mortar and pestle” just to show
hundreds of bottles of reader that author has now so
prescription and herbal entrapped reader’s curiosity, that
medications—prescriptions author can inject absurdities at will
without despoiling the suspension of
written by tens of different
disbelief.
doctors—plus a variety of
applicators: syringes,
droppers, enema bottles and
medicated bandages—even
an old-fashioned mortar and
pestle. As he examined the
labels he was shocked at the
 enormous variety of
medications. But after a time
he came to realize that most
of them were psychoactive
drugs—sedatives, stimulants
of various degrees—
amphetamines, caffeine,
theobromine, ephedrine—
anti-psychotics, hypnotics
and for her rheumatism—
steroids, anti-inflammatories
and immunosuppressants.
Suddenly Neal snatched up a
nearly empty bottle from the
cupboard, and read the label
carefully.
30. “Secobarbital,” he said Neal is now in a perfect position to
aloud in surprise, “This vial is confront Colna. He has reached the
from my lab!” Realization.
31. The connection between his
mother’s tidbits for the cats
and this mostly empty vial
became instantly clear to him,
but he had hardly a chance to
allow the horror of it to fully
engulf him before he heard
his mother’s voice in the entry
hall. She was in a fury and
was saying something about
a new manager at the bank so
she couldn’t make a deposit.
32. Neal and Robanna looked at As quickly as Neal becomes incensed
each other in a startled panic and motivated to avenge himself,
and began shoving bottles Colna appears in an overarching
back into the cupboard, as aggressive mood. Thus reader’s hope
they heard her dragging for revenge will be squelched.
Reader will tergathize with the
 herself slowly up the stairs. emcair and avedram’s panic.
There was no way for them to
leave the old woman’s
bedroom without her seeing
them from the top of the
stairs.
33. “Put your arms around me,” As a pocal, Robanna has the nerves
Robanna whispered loudly, to take charge.
“It’s our only chance of
distracting her.”
34. Neal hesitated but when he
heard his mother’s footsteps
approaching in the hall, he
obeyed, and it was face to
face with their arms around
each other that Colna
discovered them.
35. Standing in the open
doorway, the old woman was
so struck by the sight of her
son, the Ph.D., a university
research scientist, with his
arms around the plain and
rotund home health worker,
that the fact that she had
caught them in her bedroom
hardly seemed to occur to
her.
36. The pair appeared to be
startled by her presence and
quickly unlatched to receive
her rebuke.
37. “No wonder you never talk Colna remains, unassailably, a tower
about any romances, Neal, if of distain. The author again deprives
this is your taste. Really . . . I reader the opportunity to see Neal
can’t believe what I’m seeing. confront his mother about her
malicious aggression.
 As always, Neal, you
disappoint me,” she said in
disgust, contorting her face
until it resembled a piece of
rotting fruit.
38. The pair prepared to make This paragraph shows Colna
a quick exit from the room, preoccupied with her trip to Mexico,
and bowed their heads in and that helps to divert her from too
mock sheepishness. But just many serious inquiries as to why they
as quickly as the incident had might have been in her room, notably
any rummaging around.
begun, Colna’s expression
had suddenly turned to
nonplussed, and she lifted her
hand to stop them. “I’m going
to the house in Mexico next
week, and I’m not taking
anyone. Robanna, if you don’t
mind Neal’s advances then
you two can do whatever
while I’m gone, otherwise,
with he and his brother
around, I’d barricade myself
in my room if I were you. . . .
Anyway, I’ve arranged for a
job for Patrick through a
handicapped program so he’ll
be away during the day at
least. . . . Now the two of you,
get out of my bedroom. Why
you picked this room for your
dalliance, I can only imagine
with revulsion!”

CHAPTER 12 – ILLUSTRATING THE UBERTHEME

The author devotes a chapter to a comical illustration of the novel’s

ubertheme: the selfishness of the post-World War II generation. The
 chapter also gives the kerflat Patrick a further grievance against his mother,
for having forced him to take the job.

In chapter 12 the adaction is essentially between the author and the reader.
The author at this point has become quite bold about imposing his
uberthemes. The reader’s interest will be primed by this point in the novel,
and author takes advantage of that to insert an ubertheme at length. Here it
is put in the form of a comic interlude, and the action does not contribute to
the inculcation (though the ubertheme is really a subset of the thema, i.e., it
deals with the same theme of duty of parents to children and vice versa).

The adaction takes place at the Tuscana elder home. As elsewhere the
narrator changes his point of view from sympathetic to unsympathetic from
technical to intimate. That makes it quite difficult for the reader to judge
the validity of the information.

12. In many ways both the ¶¶1-53 are intended as a comedic

inmates and lower level intermezzo, but are also heavily laden
employees at the Tuscana with an ubertheme of the selfishness
Elder Care Resort were of the American generation that came
indistinguishable. Although into maturity immediately after
WW2.
younger than the paying
residents, the lower staff also Reader will suffer author’s diatribe
had handicaps that prevented about the WW2 generation because
them from living alone. They of its entertainment value, because he
had been recruited from the is sufficiently interested in the
ranks of the disabled by an adaction, and because his attention
organization seductively has been generally primed by the
named “Work Dignifies the adaction thus far in the novel.
Disabled”. When visitors
questioned the wisdom of
forcing some of the mentally
or physically handicapped to
work in such a depressing
environment, “Work Dignifies
the Disabled” would make the
rejoinder that “not everyone
with a handicap can be
 supported by the state
anymore”, and that seeming
truism would usually preempt
any further objections.
2. Elders in wheelchairs
might find themselves served
by a younger attendant who
was also bound to a
wheelchair, a hearing
impaired old man by a young
man born without hearing, or
an old woman with
Alzheimer’s by a young
woman with Down Syndrome.
3. The fact that state
psychologists had
pronounced Patrick unfit for
employment because of his
mania and immature
delusions, allowed him to
enter the program. Although
in his middle thirties, his
mother had convinced him to
take the position as a sort of
summer job, so he could have
some spending money while
playing basketball all winter.
4. Of course managing such
a collection of staff and
inmates would be a nightmare
for a normal person, but the
Tuscana’s owner always
found a tireless and
compulsive micro-manager
for whom barking ceaseless
petty orders at staff and
 residents alike was an ego-fed
nirvana.
5. Patrick’s mania made him
naturally gregarious, and he
was welcomed by many
residents as a rare, lively
spark in what was otherwise a
stupefying environment
focused on pain and
mortality. He was an
enthusiastic organizer of
parlor games at the Tuscana,
although once he had
organized a group, he was
loath to leave them on their
own and would have to be
shushed away by the
manager.
6. “Patrick, why are you
having them kick that bucket
back and forth—is this
supposed to be some kind of
game? We have a
professional to plan the
games. Stick to your job,”
Becky, the manager, said with
hushed severity, “Go get the
dishes and do any cleanup in
Suite K.”
7. At the first sign of
Patrick’s usual long-winded
excuse for playing longer,
Becky raised her hand and
pointed a finger in the
direction of the suite in which
he was to serve.
8. Inside Suite K a husband
and wife had just arrived to
pay a weekly visit to a
demented woman who was
the mother to one of them.
Their older model car looked
somewhat incongruous in the
Tuscana’s parking lot, among
the lavish and carefully
tended foliage, the tile-lined
walkways and ornate building
facades—decked in heavy
terracotta window surrounds,
with roofline architraves, and
painted a warm though sedate
burnt orange—in keeping with
its Italianate scheme.
9. When the mother, now a
Tuscana inmate, was still fully
in possession of her marbles,
she had invested the family
fortune in a lifetime non-
transferable lease on a suite
of rooms at the Tuscana,
which she could occupy upon
reaching 75 until her death. Of
course some purchasers of
such leases never reached
the eligibility age, and therein
lay the profit to its investors.
The mother had unfortunately
begun to lose her faculties at
just the age at which she
became eligible for her suite,
which was coincidentally a
good thing for her children,
 who were thus secure in
knowing she would be cared
for and die in just the manner
she had wanted: in dignity
and splendor, in case any of
her social friends and society
rivals were still alive to envy
the respectability of her last
days.
10. Of course, not so
comforting to the children is
that their parents’ entire
estate—begun in the fortunate
years after the war when most
of the world lie economically
prostrate and Americans were
without competition in the
world marketplace—was in
this way conveyed to the
Tuscana’s proprietors. But it
would have been selfish and
unseemly for them to have
complained about their
mother’s decision to invest in
a respectable death at the
Tuscana.
11. As Patrick knocked and
entered, the startled inmate of
Suite K, dressed in a long,
youthful, pleated dress pulled
tightly at the waste, and a
yellow cashmere cardigan
with sleeves pulled
nonchalantly over the wrists,
confronted him, “What are
you doing in my house? I
 haven’t invited you!”
12. Patrick had been trained in
the magic phrases that would
reassure the demented
woman. “I’m just one of the
catering staff, ma’am.”
13. “Well, all right then, but
can’t you be a little less
conspicuous while I’m
entertaining.”
14. Patrick picked up the
dishes and placed them in a
battered tub on a trolley. The
woman turned to her guests.
“Don’t tell my husband I’m
having this luncheon. He
thinks I’m spending the whole
day doing laundry and baking
bread—just like his mother
used to do. But with my
Kelvinator washer and dryer
and Swanson’s
supermarket . . .,” she cupped
her hand to her face and
whispered, “. . . I really don’t
have that much to do.”
15. “Couldn’t you go to work
and help pay some of the
family’s bills?” her son asked
her snidely.
16. Seeing that her husband
was merely goading his sick
mother into continuing with
her demented nonsense, the
wife scolded him, “That’s
cruel to lead her on like that.”
17. The husband waived his
 wife’s comments away with
his hand, and looked eagerly
to his mother for her
response.
18. “Go to work!?” the
demented woman announced
in a tone of arch-indignity,
“Everyone would think my
husband couldn’t earn
enough if they saw he had a
wife who worked. And
besides . . . I’ve got to take
care of the children.”
19. Her son continued with his
cynical interrogation, while
his wife looked away in
disgust, “But I hardly ever see
you with your kids,” he said
with mock earnestness.
20. “Well, . . .” she paused
with a moment’s guilt that
was quickly overcome with an
easy rationalization “we have
institutions for that . . .
schools, churches, boys’ and
girls’ clubs. Children ought to
be out socializing. It builds
character. And besides, with
so much new knowledge
around, how could I be
expected to teach my children
anything!?” The demented
woman looked for a break in
the conversation, and so
barked at Patrick. “Caterer,
don’t you see my guests’
 drinks are empty. Can’t you
keep the glasses filled, for
god’s sake?”
21. Patrick looked with
amusement at the empty
hands of the husband and
wife. Pulling an empty glass
from the tub, he handed it to
the wife, who promptly put it
down.
“This is getting
ridiculous,” the wife said with
exasperation.
22. Patrick decided to join the
conversation. “I wouldn’t
mind living here myself.
‘Tuscana’—where did they get
that name, anyway? Sounds
kind of southern.” Patrick
then assumed an
exaggerated, old fashioned
southern accent. ”‘Oh, yeah,
she was quite a beauty, the
old plantation house—yep!
called her ‘Tuscana’”.
23. The husband and wife
looked at each other in
amazement that the aide
would somehow join the
conversation with such
nonsense, but there was no
stopping him since he met no
resistance.
24. “I know what you’re
thinking, ‘This pathetic low
class peon ought to just do
 his job and shut up.’ We’ll
maybe you’re right. But my
mother’s got a fortune tucked
away, and if she doesn’t
spend it all on a place like this
—maybe I’ll be spending my
last days here, myself.”
25. The husband found
himself lured into
condescending to join the
aide’s train of thought. “Well,
my mother’s already spent
her last dime on this place. I
could have bought a small
business with what she spent
on this place. And look at her!
She thinks she’s back in her
1950’s tract home,” the
husband interjected.
26. “. . . Keep the libido alive
and keep the brain alive,
that’s what I think,” Patrick
was continuing. "I’m youthful
and that’s why I won’t lose my
marbles.”
27. The demented woman
interrupted. “Young man,
please just serve the guests.
Don’t try to engage them in a
lot of chit chat. Don’t they
train you caterers?!” Patrick
closed his mouth, but silently
continued his monologue and
waited for another
opportunity to let his
disorganized thoughts pour
 out.
28. The husband now saw a
chance to return to his cynical
banter with his mother. “I hear
you get invitations to all the
women’s clubs. But don’t you
wish you could spend more
time at home? You must be
very busy at home.”
29. “I’ve got machines to do
the housework, thank god.
And that’s all that’s expected
of me. I’d die of boredom if I
stayed at home.”
30. “ . . . But your children . . .”
31. “My clubs do charity work.
We’re important to the
community! I’m sure the
children understand that.”
32. The wife was now
becoming very impatient.
“Stop needling her. I can see
she’s getting defensive.
You’re going to upset her in a
minute.”
33. “Don’t worry,” the
husband replied, “She’s in a
dream world. She loves it
when people play along with
her.”
34. “You’re not playing with
her. You’re just trying to get
her to say, in so many words,
that she is a selfish pig for
spending all the family money
on this place.”
35. “Well, if she doesn’t like
 the conversation, she can just
change the subject.”
36. His wife, sat down in a
chair with a resigned thump,
and looked out at the
landscaping, while he
husband continued his
sententious conversation,
unchecked.
37. “Your husband seems
very successful. I hope he’s
sharing everything with you!”
38. “Oh yes! Of course I have
to earn it with a little feminine
charm—and for god’s sake I
certainly earn it by putting up
with him! I let him make all the
decisions,” she said with a
coy wink. The demented
woman smiled with a wry
charm that belied her decrepit
mental state.
39. Patrick could no longer
stand silent, and so tried to
insinuate himself into the
conversation with a
gratuitous question, “Sir, do
you play sports?”
40. “I don’t have time—why?”
41. “If I lived here—I’d insist
on more sports. I would have
a basketball court set up.
You’re thinking I’m crazy, and
maybe I am—I mean the state
psychologist put that on my
record—after talking to me for
only 4 minutes. I think he only
 gave me four minutes to
prove my sanity because he
was in a hurry to go to lunch. I
could smell food cooking at
the cafeteria during our
interview, and I could tell he
could smell it too, because he
kept raising his head and kind
of sniffing the air—you know
—like a dog would do. Look at
these old people around here,
hardly able to get out of a
chair. They need to loosen
their muscles with a little
basketball that’s all. If I sit
around for a long time, I get
stiff too.”
42. “Don’t you have some
other work to do,” the man’s
wife called out at Patrick from
her chair.
43. “Keep her glass full! She
shouldn’t have to beg you like
that!” the demented woman
barked.
44. Oblivious to Patrick’s
manic outpourings, the
husband had one more barb
to stick into his mentally
dimmed and unsuspecting
mother. “You and your
husband are quite successful
—financially I mean.” The
mother nodded
appreciatively. “Have you set
up a trust for your children or
 anything?”
45. “With times so good—why
would we need to set up a
trust? They can earn their
own money. If someone can’t
succeed by themselves in this
day and age—they’d have to
be a real loser—whom no one
could help!”
46. “She’s hopeless. She
never has believed that her
generation was merely lucky
—not for one minute. She
obviously had a rationale for
everything she did. No
wonder she doesn’t feel any
guilt about not sharing. When
she sees me drive up in a 10-
year-old car, all she can think
to say is, ‘Isn’t it time you got
a new car?’”
47. Patrick was still prattling
on with his vision for the
Tuscana. He was directing his
conversation at the wife who
was the only one seeming to
pay any attention to him. She
would occasionally look up at
him in vexation. “And to keep
their libido’s active, I’d hire
good looking young women
to bathe in the swimming
pool. The old guys could look
but not touch. They’d have to
work out their desires on their
fellow old ladies. . . .”
48. There was a knock, and
the door to the room opened
suddenly. Becky, the
manager, stood with a stern
expression in the doorway.
“Patrick, are you still in here?
All you should be doing is
picking up the dishes. I could
hear you talking even out in
the hall. Please leave these
people alone.”
49. “We’re going now,
anyway,” the wife said
summarily, as she came to
her feet quickly.
50. Becky took Patrick to her
office and fired him. “Patrick,
you just spend too much time
socializing and not enough
time doing work. I’ve warned
you repeatedly, and now I’m
giving up.”
51. “You mean I’m not
retarded enough to be
exploited, huh?”
52. “I don’t think you’re
retarded, but obviously no
one has ever trained you to
survive in the work world.
Didn’t anybody give you
values or teach you restraint?
You seem like the type that
somebody has always
mocked or held at a distance.
That’s made you too
aggressive about getting
 attention. Whatever it is, you
should call your family now to
come to get you.”
53. “Well, Becky, you’re right,
and I don’t blame you for
firing me. I’m angry at my
mother for putting me up for
this job.”
54. Patrick’s volubility had
once again been ignited, and
Becky consoled herself with
the thought that this would be
the last day she would have to
listen to his prattle.
55. “The phone is on my desk,
Patrick, go ahead and call
your home. I will go get your
check,” Becky called behind
as she hurried from the room.

CHAPTER 13 – MALSCHEMA

Author shows in this chapter emcair’s inertness. Author does that to

frustrate the reader’s desire to see the emasis resolved.

In this short chapter the emcair has realized who his antag is and the scale
of her aggression, and yet he is unable to marshal the guts to confront her
directly. He is in a malschema state of intimidation and denial. He has no
sources of advice or models. The reader’s question, “What does it take to
get the emcair motivated?” is unanswered here. In fact, if Colna is to be
confronted, the avedram will have to do it for him, which is of course the
avedram’s role.

13. Neal had found, to his
disbelief, the evidence that
indicted his mother in the
death of his lab animals.
Though convinced of her
Neal finds an excuse not to act on the
new schema (thema) that his
realization has presented. He uses
the startema, which he consciously
knows now to be false, as an excuse
 guilt, he agonized over the for inaction. He is also intimidated
question of why she had done by Colna and is afraid that she would
it. She had never especially use the opportunity of a confrontation
supported his intellectual to attack him viciously. In other
interests, seeing them as words, he does not feel powerful
enough to confront her yet.
unmanly and insular. She had
been afraid that he would Reader will be impatient about the
appear as a freak of sorts to narrator’s rationalizing Neal’s
her social friends, as indeed inaction.
he may have. His mother
would have much preferred
him to have grown up as a
child-athlete, like his twin, and
highly sociable—so as to
provide her with opportunities
to meet other parents and
increase her social circle.
She never met anybody
through his intellectual
hobbies.
2. She was aggressive, but Neal underestimates his mother’s
why so malicious as to try to determination to do malice.
sabotage his research? He
debated whether to confront Reader now will be desperately
her, but knew she would wiseting a more aggressive stance
from Neal.
become a tower of deceitful
rage and indignation, and
more than that, would use the
opportunity to question again
his mental solvency.
“Perhaps,” he meekly
rationalized to himself, “I will
not confront her . . . only
because of the debt I owe as
her child.” That rosy thought
rang falsely in his ears, but
 served as an adequate excuse
for inaction.
3. For the time being, he A further rationale for not further
would busy himself with traumatizing himself by confronting
Sarzolian’s new research Colna.
project, and try to keep the
cracks in his mental structure
from undermining his career.

CHAPTER 14 – FURTHER EMPOWERING AVEDRAM

Chapter 14 will reveal avedram as a serious threat to antag’s power. But

author will save antag from avedram’s aggressiveness, for the time being.
The chapter will set up an opportunity for avedram to get intimate
information about antag (by accompanying her to her secret Mexican villa).

Author deals reader quite a shock with the breast milk drinking incident. In
his surprise and horror, reader will probably be too stunned to submit the
incident to a test of probability—and focus instead on wiseting antag’s
downfall. Author tantalizes reader with the prospect of Colna’s destruction
by poisoning, but then flouts that hope. Reader is left with the consolation
that avedram is now actively hostile toward antag and is bold and
aggressive.

The chapter begins with Colna asserting her privileges over the infant.
After being rebuffed in her attempts to defend the child from Colna’s
abuses, avedram learns that Colna has also been depriving the child of
nutrients, that is, by drinking the stored milk.

The drudgerous cleaning work that Colna forces on Robanna, gives

Robanna an opportunity to steal some of Colna’s drugs for use in sickening
her. That drastic action does not seem to affect the antag at all. Instead it
seems to fortify her. The drug does have one downside for the antag, and
that is it makes her lower her guard and become generous and expansive.
As a result, she invites the avedram to accompany her to Mexico and
thereby risks further empowering the avedram with new information about
her secrets.

14. “I will certainly miss Reader now sees, with frustration,

 having the baby with me in that any resolution of the realization
Mexico,” Colna sighed to will be withheld and that his wiset of
Robanna as the old woman a swift conclusion is now of no avail.
held the nervous infant in her
lap. “Wish you’d trust me to Adaction seems in the offing
regarding the child, but that does not
take the thing with me.”
develop.
2. The infant lay stiff and
lifeless in the old woman’s
arms, with a pronounced look
of dread on its face that had
become more pronounced as
it had grown.
3. “Mrs. Mack, I hate to say it,
but I think you’re
overhandling the baby. Your
putting her in and out of her
crib all day is exhausting her.
You never let her sleep.”
4. Colna angrily swept the Colna, as per her character, acts
child from her lap onto the savagely and impunitively. Reader
couch, and got to her feet. will assume that the adaction is over,
“Put your baby away,” she and so relax his guard.
said haughtily, “And clean the
bathrooms upstairs, including
the third floor. Patrick’s
working now—he doesn’t
have time to do the work
you’re being paid to do. And
when you’re finished, report
to me for more tasks.” The old
woman then dragged herself
stiffly toward the kitchen.
5. Robanna reached for her Paragraph sets up the next adaction,
baby on the couch, who was that is, drinking breast milk.
now crying plaintively.
Considering Colna’s poor
 mood, Robanna thought she
ought to feed the baby some
of the breast pump milk from
the refrigerator so as to save
time. Robanna did not like to
breast feed the child all the
time and so used a breast
pump to store milk, which she
then kept in a container in the
refrigerator. Fearing Colna
would bark some further
humiliating orders at her,
Robanna gingerly opened the
swinging door into the
kitchen from the dining room.
She peered through the
narrow opening to see if
Colna was still in the kitchen.
6. Indeed she was. Robanna The adaction initiates a covert
watched as the old woman confrontation regarding the milk.
lifted the container of breast
milk to her mouth, and drank Reader will be totally unprepared for
with considerable thirst. The author’s sudden escalation of tension.
Reader will be shocked in one sense,
old woman then refilled the
but also intrigued to witness such a
container with cow’s milk, and bizarre character as Colna.
wiping her mouth, exited the
kitchen via the back hall.
7. “That sick old vulture,” Robanna’s reaction is strong, which
Robanna thought, “No will surprise the reader, who had
wonder the baby seems weak expected that Robanna would let
lately.” Colna’s outrageous behavior pass.

8. Robanna was not one to Robanna is less tolerant than the

quit a job out of indignation reader imagined. Her aggressiveness
and self-pity even under the will force reader to change his
worst sort of abuse. She werschema in anticipation of
would stay on and exact adaction between avedram and antag.
 whatever revenge an abusive
employer might deserve. Her
immediate thought was to
dope the milk with some
medications from Colna’s
own drug hoard. She would
have to be careful not to kill
the old woman, but just give
her an overdose to frighten
her.
9. Robanna nursed her baby Setup for paragraph 10.
and discarded the cow’s milk
from the baby’s milk
container, and then,
struggling to do the bending
and kneeling required,
cleaned the bathrooms.
10. Making best use of the
tasks imposed on her, while
cleaning her employer’s
bathroom, she went into the
old woman’s bedroom and
took a handful of pills from a
full vial in the drug hoard.
Later she ground them into a
powder, using a rolling pin
and a plastic bag in the
kitchen.
11. That evening, after Colna Exposition with the narrator’s
had retired, she used the interpretation.
breast pump to fill the baby’s
milk container, and mixed in
the medication. She had
picked a medication at
random, and unbeknownst to
her had doped the milk with a
 large dose of prednisone—an
immunosuppressant
corticosteroid that Colna took
occasionally in small doses to
combat especially bad flares
of rheumatism.
12. Colna had awoken early and Reader will be extremely eager to see
had taken a generous swig the result of the drugging.
from the baby’s milk
container. She had noticed an
odd taste to the milk and had
carped to herself about what
kind of ethnic food Robanna
must have eaten to give it
such a flavor.
When she came into the Author denies reader the satisfaction
kitchen later that morning, of seeing Colna punished.
Robanna had duly noted the
substitution of cow’s milk for
her own in the container
because of the now
noticeable changes in color
and level, but to her
disappointment, noticed no
ill-effects on her employer. If
anything, Colna seemed in a
radiant mood.
13. Colna had many things to The reader will enjoy a great deal of
do before leaving for Mexico, amusement at the apparent change in
but flitted through her errands Colna, that is, how easy it was for
like a bird on a breeze, even Robanna to exercise some power
humming to herself and, while over Colna. The reader cannot
begrudge Colna’s luck in getting
shopping, acting coquettishly
relief from rheumatism, except to the
with perplexed store extent of the immoral means she
personnel—like a young girl. employed.
She was ravenous, too, and
 ate a huge lunch. Most
noticeably, Colna’s joints no
longer ached and returned to
a flexibility she hadn’t
enjoyed in years. It was as if
she had found the elixir of
youth. “I haven’t felt so alive
since I was pregnant the last
time,” she thought to herself.
14. The effects were the results Narrator’s explanation of the effects
of the corticosteroids, which of the drugs
commonly gives those taking
them a miraculous feeling of
well-being. But, as always, joy
presents its bill all too soon,
and if taken regularly in large
doses, the steroids exact
destruction of the heart, liver
and lungs as a price for their
miracle.
15. Disappointed to find Colna Author again rescues Colna by
suffering not at all, Robanna creating a diversion: the Mexican
would have tried trip. Reader will eagerly await the
administering a different drug resolution of the adaction.
cocktail to Colna in the baby’s
A segue to the next chapter in
milk container, again the
Mexico. Colna, as per character,
following night, except that delivers her message with an ounce
there was no opportunity to of aggression by turning off the T.V.
get into the drug cabinet, as The reader may subconsciously
Colna had remained in her understand that the reason that Colna
bedroom packing for her trip. wants Robanna and baby to go to
But suddenly Robanna found Mexico is Colna would like another
herself presented with a new shot of the mother’s milk.
opportunity for revenge.
Colna had swept into the
living room with uncommon
litheness and good humor,
and turning off the television
in front of Robanna,
announced, “I’ve decided I
want you and the baby in
Mexico with me. I’ll need you
there. We’ll fly out tomorrow.
You’ll like it there. You can do
your usual nothing under the
palm trees.”

CHAPTER 15 – SKANOMY/WISET

In this chapter, antag will attack emcair once again—by making a phone
threat to his lab. By the end of the chapter, antag will become entirely
repugnant and yet seem invulnerable. The emcair and avedram apparently
have no power to overcome her.

Reader will be exhausted by the interminable need to construct werschema

for new adactions to anticipate the outcome of confrontations between
mother and son. The author will have created an ambiguous and
information-starved environment in which reader is unable to successfully
construct werschema. Reader has reached a state of skanomy, in which he
gives up on attempts at further werschema formation, becomes susceptible
to author’s suggestions, and will use primitive forms of reasoning that the
author can manipulate to inculcate his thema.

Author is obviously ready to give Colna unrestricted license to abuse her

son. In desperation to see antag vanquished, reader fervently wisets antag’s
defeat.

Author begins the chapter with a contrast between the affluent overseas
American villas and the local Mexican town. This contrast is really a
metaphor for the affluent arrogance of the World War II generation. Author
then continues to villainize Colna by showing her distain for her
employees, the locals and her children, and her greedy complicity with
money launderers. Her display of religious devotion seems to be merely
self-serving and devoid of charity.
 Even though ensconced in her Mexican villa, Colna continues to harass
Neal, using the telephone to send a bomb threat to his laboratory. Author
postpones Neal’s reaction with an exposition of Colna as a typical “ugly
American”. The chapter ends with the narrator cynically rationalizing the
ostentation of the American colony and its distain for charity.

15. There were in fact no palms An exposition of the Mexican setting.

in Crespo, Mexico, the hillside
community 60 miles south of
Mexico City to which Colna
regularly retired. But the pine
trees that covered the slopes
lent the air a delightful
fragrance, forming a mist that
seemed to separate the
highlands from the tawdry
peasant villages of the
valleys.
2. As Mexico City had spread
outward and the Acapulco
road was brought up to
modern standards, the area’s
fine qualities had been
discovered by the rich and
powerful of the capital, and
extravagant villas had begun
appearing among the pines.
3. American retirees, who had
no need to make regular
excursions to Mexico City and
who didn’t care about the
quality of the Acapulco road
were actually the first to build
big homes in the hills of
Crespo. They had leased the
land on renewable 50-year
terms, from a cooperative of
 peasant farmers who had
been granted the property in
the land reforms of the 1930’s.
The co-op had little use for
the slopes and was quite
delighted that the Americans
would make an offer for them.
4. Some Americans, like
Colna’s husband, had been
lucky enough to invest in
large amounts of the property,
and when the Acapulco road
was modernized, enjoyed a
windfall in value appreciation.
When selling the property,
Colna, her husband, and
others had been happy to
accept huge payments in
pesos, the origin of which
was not very pristine, from
bureaucrats in Mexico City.
The transfer of monies, much
of it not recorded for tax
reasons, required the
Mackarts and the other
Americans involved, to carry
suitcases of pesos with their
luggage on returning to the
U.S., and then to find some
complicit bank manager to
exchange the pesos for
dollars without making a full
disclosure.
5. Colna had been ferrying her
windfall in cash across the
border in small amounts for
 years, and as she got older
had found that her advanced
years put her almost beyond
suspicion at customs.
6. The American community at
Crespo had originally
constructed a large central
villa for use as a community
center, but as they tended to
improve their own homes,
building their own pools and
big kitchens for example, the
need for the community
center diminished, and it was
eventually put on the market
—whereupon Colna had
purchased the lease and
converted it into an
extravagant house in order to
guarantee her position as the
doyen of the expatriate
society. The house had one
feature that made it
irresistible to Colna—its own
thermal hot spring pool—and
Colna loved to soak her
rheumatism-ravaged body in
the hot mineral waters.
7. Colna considered herself Author stokes reader’s malice toward
and others like her as shrewd Colna. The keynote is her
investors and not merely as selfishness.
lucky opportunists, and so
begrudged sharing any of the
proceeds in any way that
might reward those who had
not “earned” it. For that
 reason, Colna did all of the
hiring and firing of her
Mexican staff through a local
manager, so that the hirees
would feel they were
employed by the manager,
whose living standard was
barely above their own, rather
than by the rich American.
“They should feel lucky we’ve
created jobs for them,” was
Colna’s stock reply when
Americans visiting her
expressed surprise at her
household’s low wages.
8. Although she lived at her Plant to explain how her children,
Mexican house as much as other than the twins, will be kept
six months of the year, a unaware of Colna’s paralysis in the
month here and a month triumph.
there, she had told her
children that she was a renter,
and she had never given them
any indication of the true
extent of her holdings there.
Patrick, through his proximity
to Colna, had learned the
vague outlines of her Mexican
assets but kept that
knowledge to himself. Colna
let it be known to her children
that they were welcome to
visit only for brief periods
every year—the better to keep
their prying—inheritance-
greedy—minds from gauging
her estate. When she resided
 in Mexico she rarely called
them but instead limited her
contact with them to phone
calls on holidays and
birthdays.
9. A month after arriving in Author does his best to show Colna’s
Mexico, with Robanna and her utter villainy and falseness: she is
baby in tow, Colna made a dressed for church while doing her
special call to Neal’s evil.
university laboratory. His
Colna is obviously not giving up on
assistant answered the
attempts to sabotage her son’s career.
phone. Colna, seated calmly Reader will have to adjust
at her bedroom desk and werschema to accommodate Colna’s
dressed sedately for church, relentless and fearless aggression.
spoke into the phone. “When
are you going to stop
mistreating animals, huh?
Well, aren’t you going to
answer? Huh . . . ? We’re not
going to put up with it
anymore. We have a gift for
you from the animals. There’s
a bomb for you in your lab
now. Good luck.”
10. Colna struggled up from her Shows the hypocrisy of Colna’s
seat and was soon in her outward display of devotion, despite
beautifully maintained black her cruelty. Reader will wonder why
Seville, heading down the the author has not described the
narrow asphalt road to the consequences of her phone threat
immediately. Author’s aim is to
church in the town of
tease the reader.
Brenares in the valley below.
Her driver, Pedro, would wait
for her in an alley to the side
of the church and then drive
her back up the hill without so
much as a glance around at
 the shabby village.
11. The village of Brenares Another exposition of Colna’s usual
existed for no special reason distain for others.
except perhaps to administer
to the souls and extract taxes
from the Indian farmers who
had long cultivated corn,
fruits and vegetables in the
rich volcanic soil of the valley
between the pine-covered
hills. Since the town was near
the Acapulco road, some
locals had been making pots,
baskets and weavings for the
Mexico City bound tourists
whom they could lure to the
town’s open air market. What
they could not sell to tourists,
they would unload for
virtually nothing to rabid
wholesalers from the big
tourist shops of Mexico City,
who would sweep into the
market and offer to buy
everything for a pittance per
item. Vendors, tired of sitting
in the summer heat all day,
would lose resolve and
succumb to the wholesaler’s
ready cash.
12. The Spanish conqueror of
Mexico, Hernan Cortez, had
once built a palace for himself
not far away, using materials
from an Indian temple, and
from the Cortez “court”
 Jesuits had fanned out to
create church congregations
from among the natives
scattered there around.
13. Brenares had none of the Provides a contrast to Colna’s
outdoor cafes, cobbled affluence.
squares or public fountains
that might have made it
interesting to tourists. After
350 years Brenares had
grown no larger than the
number of families necessary
to plant and harvest the
surrounding lands, and the
only structure of any
consequence in the village
remained the Jesuit’s original
church. The volcanism that
had created hot springs in the
surrounding hills also
produced occasional
earthquakes, and the church
had suffered repeatedly over
the years. But repeatedly
patched, it remained standing.
14. The church itself was a
simple single nave affair after
the Jesuit style, built of the
local dark and ugly volcanic
stone. The interior had been
plastered at one point, and
some architectural
decorations in the form of
pilasters and niches had been
painted onto the plaster. Its
facade was equally drab—a
 dark monolith of rough stone
awaiting a covering of
dressed masonry, which the
village had not been able to
afford.
15. Colna would have never Colna’s lack of charity.
considered buying anything
at Brenares, except the labor
of those young adults who
had not yet fled to jobs in
Cuernavaca or Mexico City.
To buy supplies, Colna and
other residents of the hills of
Crespo took the 20 minute trip
to Cuernavaca, the central
city of the State of Morales.
16. Despite its Narrator does not have complete
unpretentiousness, Colna did access to Colna’s thoughts—at least
not hesitate to attend mass at not in church.
the church in Brenares, and
rather enjoyed appearing Shows Colna’s belief that by simply
fulfilling rituals she would be found
there almost as an apparition
favorable in God’s eyes, regardless of
at the morning mass every her actions outside the church
day. Colna’s formal religiosity building.
owed much to the model set
by her mother—who had
attended daily mass out on
the prairie almost every day of
her life with an almost
zombie-like obsessionality.
What Colna contemplated
during the services is hard to
guess, but at the least she
was attempting to make a
pact with God by which she
traded prayers and ritual in
 church for credit toward the
afterlife and perhaps toward a
little remission of her painful
rheumatism here on earth.
God, she imagined, should be
very agreeable to her style of
devotion.
17. Colna’s neighbors were also Shows her lack of charity and also
impressed, though not sets up the epilog in which she is
without a touch of cynicism, forced to donate to the church.
by her seeming piety. She
drew a hard and fast line
between giving to God and
giving to the church, however,
and when the altar boy
pushed the hand-woven reed
collection basket into her
aisle on a pole, she donated
only a few coins. “I support
my parish in the U.S.,” was
the reason she used to justify
her stinginess.
18. Colna had never learned A moral judgement on Colna, seen
Spanish, and had nothing but from the priest’s viewpoint.
a head nod for the priest,
despite his attempts to
introduce himself. From the
staff at her house, however,
the priest had learned a great
deal about her, and from the
reports of her abusive
gruffness and parsimony,
wished she had learned
enough Spanish to avail
herself of the forgiveness of
the confessional.
19. It would be wholly incorrect Shows her preoccupation with
to say that Colna was a miser appearances. This is of course the
though, for there were certain author’s slap in the face of the ethic
expenses upon which she that dominated America of the
would never stint. Those were 1950’s. This reinforces author’s
ubertheme about the greed of Colna’s
any expenses having to do
WWII generation.
with maintaining her social
position in the American
enclave in Crespo. Upon that
objective she would heap
enough money to rebuild the
village church many times
over. When establishing and
preserving her image as a
prosperous member of the
community, there could be no
such thing as waste. To have
not spent money on a large,
showy car, on a home big
enough for a bishop, and on a
large staff of servants, would
have amounted to snubbing
and degrading her
community. It would amount
to saying to her American
neighbors, “Your admiration
is not worth fighting for.” Had
she not entertained them in
the large marble-floored
reception rooms of her house,
her neighbors might fear that
she was allowing some
parasitic individuals, such as
lazy children, or unworthy
public charities, to leach her
honest money. With her
 money spent on public
display, at least they could
rest assured that no one
disreputable benefited from it.

CHAPTER 16 – SALVATION

This short chapter focuses on emcair’s long-postponed action against the

antag. Emcair has realized for a long time that the startema is inadequate.
But only now has he put a new schema (the thema) into force in order to
protect himself. He is motivated by the utter audacity of his mother’s most
recent attack.

Reader finally receives the promise of a reaction from the erstwhile passive
emcair. But author has allowed Colna to escape threats before, and reader
has no assurance that emcair can, alone, bring down the antag. Reader will
intensify his wiseting of antag’s vanquishment, by hoping for emcair’s
decisive action.

Once Neal hears his mother’s voice on the phone, harassing with a bomb
threat, he realizes she will not stop attacking until she has destroyed him.
His survival instinct is finally activated. Narrator has him state this
explicitly. He moves quickly to confront her.

16. Neal’s lab assistant held Author has kept Neal’s potential to
up the phone and motioned confront his mother unstated. Here
frantically for Neal to come author suggests that Neal may have
put his ear to the receiver. On the gumption—but does so
the other end, Colna was ambiguously.
making her bomb threat. Neal
recognized the voice
immediately, and when Colna
had slammed down the
receiver, he stood in stupefied
silence.
2. “Neal, I thought the animal ¶¶2-15 As if in answer to reader’s
rights people had agreed to a exasperation, narrator finally gives a
moratorium on harassing our promise that Neal will do something
 department. She says there’s to confront his mother. Reader
a bomb in the lab.” witnesses in paragraph 9 his fully
conscious statement of a realization.
3. “Has our door been
unlocked when we were out?”
Neal replied stonily.
4. “No.”
5. “Well then, don’t worry. I
used to get that kind of call all
the time. Of course the one
cruel thing about those calls
is that they never come on
Friday afternoon—when
everybody would gladly
evacuate. . . . Anyway, I
recognize the voice.”
6. “So, the animal people are
breaking the moratorium?”
7. “No, this woman doesn’t His tone is resigned.
really love animals, she just
hates me personally.”
8. “Why?”
9. “Well, she wants my Restatement of the realization
research to fail, I guess. She
doesn’t want me to succeed
in life.”
10. “If you know who she is, Ironically, it is the assistant who is
why don’t you just call the now, unwittingly, urging Neal to
police?” punish his mother.
11. “It’s not that easy. You
see, she’s in Mexico.”
12. “What!? That is bizarre . . .
Well, I still think you should
call the police.”
13. “No, I think I’ll take care of
this myself.”
14. The lab assistant looked at
 Neal with perplexed
amazement. “Well, I hope you
explain it to me some day.”
15. “Anyway, I’m going to take
the rest of the day off. I may
be in late tomorrow. If
anybody asks for me, tell
them I’m out sick.”
16. “Yeah,” the lab assistant
said with resignation, “while
I’m blown to shreds by the
bomb.”
17. Neal drove recklessly fast Reader will expect to quickly
to his apartment and then experience a confrontation between
went immediately to the Neal and Colna.
airport. From St. Louis Airport
no flights went directly to Neal’s action promises adaction that
will resolve the emasis.
Mexico City, so after changing
planes in Houston, he could
arrive in Mexico City at 10:45
in the evening, at the earliest.
It would be after midnight
before he would get to
Crespo.

CHAPTER 17 – GIVING AVEDRAM EVEN MORE POWER

Chapter 17 will empower the avedram with information about the antag’s
secret and illegal activities. Author will also empower avedram with the
discovery of the sepulchre of the antag’s venerated stillborn. The chapter
sets up antagonisms that will flare into a deadly struggle in the following
chapter.

Reader will have to suspend his hopes of seeing an immediate

confrontation between emcair and antag, because the narrator has reversed
time and shifted the scene to Mexico. Robanna does not appear as
obsessed with revenge as before, which may disappoint the reader.
However reader’s hopes may be sustained by Robanna’s zeal to empower
 herself with new information about Colna. As the novel approaches its
denu, events are occurring more abruptly, with vague causes. Normally
reader would be aggravated by events with elusive origins, such as the
scorpion leading to the sepulchre—since that would hamper werschema
formation. But in a state of skanomy, reader forsakes werschema formation
and passively observes strange events without the ordinary skepticism.

The scene has changed to Colna’s Mexican villa. Robanna is shown to

observe Colna’s life there, and deduce that there is something illegitimate
about Colna’s finances. Robanna is protective of her child, which irritates
Colna, who was used to drawing energy from the child’s infant vitality.
Colna’s rheumatoid problems have flared up, since the effects of the drug in
the mother’s milk have started to wear off, and Colna is convinced that she
needs another dose of the milk to restore her health. One day while Colna
is at church, the search for a scorpion in the house leads Robanna to
discover the corpse of Colna’s stillborn and to realize that Colna has been
hiding assets in Mexico.

17. Whatever the charms the Robanna is bored and will get into
Mexican house may have had some kind of mischief.
for Colna, Robanna found life
there quite dull, and had to Narrator teasingly avoids continuing
content herself with whatever the adaction that was promised at the
end of the last chapter. Reader is
English-language television
diverted to the conflict between
programming she could raise Colna and Robanna.
through Mexican satellite
television. She would never
have been allowed to join
Colna’s social activities, nor
would she have wanted to.
She did begrudge Colna
chasing her away from the
poolside in the afternoons on
the chance that Colna might
have guests, when she was
enjoying the warm southern
sun and lush pine scent.
2. Robanna was sustained, Reader finds that Robanna has the
though, by an abiding power of mischievous curiosity.
curiosity about what form
Colna assets took in Mexico.
That Colna had a stash of
money and was not by any
means living off her welfare
benefits was laughably
apparent from the moment
she, Colna and the baby were
met in Mexico City in the
chauffeured Seville for the
drive south. Yet Colna never
gave up the pretense that she
was renting the place and
claimed that the car and staff
came with it. But Colna
seemed to treat the place very
much as her own. Colna also
seemed to be on quite good
terms with some of the
Mexico City big-wigs who had
homes in Crespo. Those
characters had a certain
roughness that suggested
new and maybe not entirely
legitimate money. Colna’s
house manager, though
somewhat bilingual, would
not talk about Mrs. Mackart’s
finances—and had been well-
primed by Colna herself to
avoid such questions. So,
Robanna had to rely on the
meager bits of information
she could acquire by simply
being in the right place at the
 right time.
3. Her baby had become more Having reached the point of
robust since moving to skanomy, reader will have given up
Mexico. On her guard now, on creating werschema and will be
Robanna had been nursing focusing on wiseting antag’s
her child entirely at her own downfall. Colna’s craving for “milk”
is a rather ludicrous device, but at
breast, and had brought along
this point reader’s thinking, under
the breast pump only for skanomy, is apt to be uncritical.
eventualities. Of course Colna
was plainly aware of the Colna is now desperate to restore the
absence of fresh “milk” in the fertility she has lost, and craves
refrigerator. “I see you’re contact with the infant.
breast-feeding your baby now
—just like a Mexican peasant
woman. I’m surprised you’ve
taken to the local culture so
fast, Robanna. Just stay in
your room when you’re
suckling—even if I’m away—
in case somebody comes by,”
was Colna’s caustic
observation. The baby had
also spent more time in
Robanna’s arms than
otherwise, partly because
Colna was more preoccupied
and had less time to grab the
baby, and because Robanna
did not trust the local staff.
Occasionally Colna would
burst into the house, and not
finding the baby as usual in a
crib by the television, would
hunt her down in Robanna’s
room where Robanna would
have taken her for nursing or
 changing. “Have you got the
baby in there?” Colna would
shout.
4. “Yes, I’m nursing,” would be
Robanna’s reply.
5. “How come that thing’s
always nursing? What have
you got in there, a child or a
calf!? It’s going to be as big
as you are pretty soon if
you’re not careful,” Colna
would then say in
exasperation.
6. The exhilaration Colna had Because reader will sense Colna’s
enjoyed from the breast milk upcoming desperation, he will ready
doped with prednisone had an adrenalin reserve to combat her
begun to wear off, and she inevitable aggression.
began suffering a severe Author makes plain here that antag is
increasingly vulnerable to the akeel.
rebound of her rheumatic
The reader will feel a partial
symptoms. Her knees and fulfillment of his wiset in Colna’s
shoulders were now so stiff loss of physical vigor, but still prays
and sore in the mornings that for her total vanquishment.
she would lie awake for hours
fearing the pain upon trying to
get out of bed. Her gait had
become almost a shuffle, and
she her arms had almost lost
their strength so that she
could barely move even a
toothbrush. Even turning the
handle on a door took
perseverance. As the day
wore on, however, Colna
would usually gain flexibility,
so that by dinner time she
could move about without
 embarrassing herself as a
cripple before her social
acquaintances. Some days
Colna could persuade herself
to get out of bed only through
the self-imposed obligation to
attend morning mass. Her
driver would help her shuffle
into the last row of chairs at
the back of the nave, and
there she would sit out the
service, without even
attempting to kneel. During
the service, especially in the
winter months, she would
sustain herself with the
thought of going immediately
to the mineral hot spring pool
upon arriving home, where
the water would be nearly
warm enough to cook an egg.
There she could eat breakfast,
brought to her on a tray from
the kitchen, while the warmth
eased the pain and brought a
modicum of suppleness back
to her limbs.
7. One morning Colna had ¶7-9 Symbolic portrayal of Colna’s
gone to church as usual and feigned religiosity, “The Devil’s
one of the housemaids had favorite place to hide is behind the
taken the opportunity to clean cross.” This provides a symbol of
Colna’s room. She had dusted Colna as a [tool of the] devil and sets
up the discovery of another of
the fixtures and tabletops, but
Colna’s shrines to her stillborn.
for the large polished wood
crucifix above the bed, she
dared not commit the
 sacrilege of using the dirty
feather duster, and instead
she got a special clean soft
cloth and stood carefully on
the bed so she could remove
the crucifix from the wall. As
she reached around the base,
at the feet of Christ, she
suddenly felt a tremendous
sting. The pain was so great
she fell back on the bed,
screaming. As she held up
her hand in agony she saw a
scorpion scurrying away
across the bed. In a rage of
tormenting pain, she followed
the insect as it hurried across
the floor and stomped with
her foot with an enormous
thud. The insect had evaded
her, however, and had gone
across the tile floor and under
a door in the boudoir.
Fortunately she had not been
bitten by a lethal species, but
nonetheless received an
agonizing bite. Her cry had
brought the entire household
to the bedroom, including
Robanna whose bedroom was
nearby.
8. The housekeeper recited a
Spanish proverb while
holding the girl’s hand, “The
Devil’s favorite place to hide
is behind the cross.” The girl
 pointed to the boudoir, and so
it was there that the house
manager started her hunt for
the scorpion. The house
manager had asked one of the
women in the room for a
shoe, and with it raised
tensely in her hand, she had
proceeded into the boudoir.
9. In her boredom, Robanna
found all this excitement to be
quite a draw, but because she
could not understand
Spanish, had little idea of
what was occurring. When the
house manager used her keys
to open a locked closet in the
boudoir, Robanna was close
behind, gazing over the
woman’s shoulder. Others in
the room were standing
cautiously back. What
Robanna saw as the door
opened was no mere closet,
however, but apparently a
small chapel devoted to the
Madonna and Child, for there
were small brilliant hued
mosaics of the sacred infant
and mother set into tiled walls
on all three sides of the
closet. Light filtered into the
room through two thin sheets
of alabaster. On the far side
was a virtual altar in creme-
colored marble. Strangely
 incongruous, though, a
framed pair of baby socks
stood propped atop the altar
—the baby booties and
children’s clothing and toys
she had seen at Colna’s U.S.
home.
10. Robanna’s startled reaction Robanna’s knowledge of Colna’s
consisted of two parts: one, secrets increases and thus so does her
“What a sick woman! Why power vis Colna.
would she deify a dead baby!”
and the other, “So, she owns
this place—just as I thought.”
11. As Robanna stood gazing This paragraph terminates the
into the room, the house facilitating action, ending with the
manager was busy looking symbolic smashing of the “devil”,
into corners and cracks for which is of course a premonition of
signs of the scorpion. Aware the triumph.
of the hunt in progress on the
floor, the creature had
crawled up the wall, until with
a crash Robanna’s fist
reduced it to writhing mush.
“You are a brave one,
Robanna,” the manager said
in surprise, and quickly
retreated to the bathroom to
get something to clean up the
mess. “You must never tell
Senora Mackart that you have
seen this place,” she
implored. Robanna, looking
with disgust at the insect’s
remains on her palm, nodded
her head.
CHAPTER 18 – DENU

In this highly important chapter, adaction will set up a resolution of the

action for the following chapter. Author gives the emcair and avedram the
resources to successfully confront antag, and underscores akeels to which
antag is vulnerable. Both the emcair and avedram’s new powers and the
akeels will enhance the credibility of antag’s sudden downfall. Author also
intensifies his villainizing of antag so as to heighten reader’s antipathy
toward antag. Reader will ferociously wiset antag’s vanquishment.

The chapter marks the victory of the author in imposing his thema upon the
reader. Author has designed every aspect of the short novel with that
outcome in mind. This critical chapter requires impeccable design to bring
to fruition the final inculcation of the thema.

For maximum effect the author will try to hurry the conclusion of the novel
at this point. The action will be very telescopic—very brief and fast-paced
—with weighty consequences for the power balance among the characters.
This rapid change in the power balance will discourage the reader from
resuming any attempts at werschema formation, and perpetuate the state of
skanomy that is already in place. Notice that in just the brief opening
scene, describing Robanna on the telephone with Patrick, Robanna
increases her power enormously through significant new information about
Colna’s financial situation.

The actions in the few days that follow the death of Robanna’s infant are
described in a few paragraphs, with the action proceeding at an
extraordinary pace to its violent end.

Another device that the author uses to hurry the action to a conclusion is
the akeel. Akeels are vulnerabilities planted much earlier in the novel and
thus not seen as wholly improbable when they bring down the antag in the
end. Akeels are really the old “deux ex machina”, an expedient to end the
action. If the reader’s mind is properly prepared, the reader will accept the
author’s wanton use of akeels without complaint. By this point in the novel
the reader detests the antag and is anxious to vanquish her. In this frame of
mind, the reader would be willing to accept uncritically the use of devices
like the akeel. (This is not to say that the author does not have to use some
skill in planting the akeel to give them some measure of probability.) In
this chapter Colna suffers from two akeels, one of them is rheumatism,
which the author has mentioned on several occasions starting almost from
the beginning of the novel, and the other is alcohol, which the author has
introduced fairly late, in the prior chapter.

Akeels help end the action, but the author’s primary artistic goal is to
inculcate the thema into reader’s body of schemae. The reader undoubtedly
has accepted the thema as a good solution to the emasis. The author has
inculcated that thema through rational arguments, through symbolic
transference and by the action of the novel thus far presented. The author’s
task in this chapter 18 is to make reader believe that he has accepted the
thema through his own real experience and that therefore the thema is
applicable outside the novel.

As the theory summary has described, this mental process is achieved

through encouraging the reader to attempt to affect the outcome of the
novel by primitive forms of thinking (wiset and back-causation), and then
to give reader feedback that will make him believe that his primitive
reasoning has been successful. Thus the reader will believe, in his own
primitive mind, that he has affected the outcome of the novel. Author will
want the reader to believe that without reader’s intervention the antag
cannot be vanquished.

Author will vanquish the antag by a sudden and unique serendipitous event.
Reader’s rational faculties will be further stunned by this, and lead him to
think that only his wiset could have accomplished that event. To vanguish
the antag, the author creates serendipitous opportunities to empower
opponents of the antag or gives the antag some vulnerabilities that will be
cataclysmic. Reader will identify himself as the author of those unlikely
incidents. If the reader sees the author as the originator of these
incidents, the reader will not take responsibility for the outcome and
his experience will not feel real. The reader is less likely to think of them
as author-derived if they are highly imaginative or improbable. That points
to one of the weapons of the skillful author—his imagination—his ability
to defy reader’s incredulity that anyone could have conceived of such
serendipitous incidents.

The improbable incidents that I would point to in this chapter are the death
of the child in the hot spring, Robanna’s incredible greed for Colna’s
money, Colna’s enraging the grieving Robanna with hideous abuse,
Robanna’s dishonoring the corpse of her own child in order to infuriate
Colna, and of course Colna’s utterly obscene act of trying to extract
mother’s milk, which contains a barbiturate that she herself injected.

The author must stoke the reader’s desire to vanquish the antag in this
chapter to a very high degree in order to stimulate wiset. He does that by
truly villianizing the antag. In this chapter of course author makes Colna
perpetrate outrageous crimes that are thoroughly evil, obscene and criminal.
Author will of course have prepared the reader for the utter outrageousness
of these action in the prior chapters by planting this villainy in the antag’s
character, but the actions in this chapter will even exceed the reader’s
imagination in terms of outrageousness and bizarreness.

Why, it should be asked, would the reader attribute the serendipitous

incidents to himself, to his own wiset, and not to the author’s desire to
rapidly terminate the action? The answer is that the incidents defy ordinary
imagination and thus could only be the product of something supernatural,
such as the reader’s wiset. The creative author is no ordinary human,
however, and a reader will usually underestimate author’s superhuman
power of imagination. The reader, using primitive back-causal reasoning,
is prone to believe that if he wishes for something and then it suddenly and
improbably occurs, that he is its author—especially when author has worn
down reader’s critical faculties.

In chapter 18 the avedram is strongly motivated to empower herself

through new information about the antag. The kerflat Patrick is amenable
to helping her because of a grievance against the antag for sending him to
work at a nursing home. The avedram reveals her cupiditous interest in the
antag. Reader does not know whether this is for revenge or simply greed.

Colna is combating her akeel, rheumatism. She is starting to lose the battle
but is determined to find some elixir to help her prevail. That elixir is the
child’s milk that she had been drinking. Reader finds also that she has a
problem with alcohol, which will later become another akeel. She is under
the influence of alcohol when she heaps abuse on her driver and strong-
headedly goes to the mineral spring.

She is still in need of the revitalizing rapport of the infant, but her poor
judgement leads catastrophically to the infant’s death.

The relationship between the antag and the avedram becomes greatly
intensified after the child’s death. However for the time being the
avedram’s powers have been reduced by her grief, which prevent her from
acting. The reader will attempt to introduce himself as an avenger, because
of his desire for some retribution against the antag. Naturally the reader
will use wiset as his tool. In this sense the reader has introduced himself as
an extra character.

Antag tries to take advantage of the avedram’s grief to reassert her

dominance, using an insulting tone. The antag realizes quickly that despite
her grief, the avedram is considerably empowered by her bitterness, and the
antag becomes wary and offers to terminate their relationship in order to
move the avedram a safe distance away. Of course the antag is prevented
by public opinion from dismissing the avedram outright during this period
of mourning.

The avedram renders a horrible punishment upon the antag, by perpetrating

an almost unbelievable outrage on both herself and the antag, that is, using
Colna’s stillborn’s clothing in the coffin. The antag’s reaction is of course
utter rage. That can be an empowering state; however in this case it is only
febrile power since it leads to irrationality and risk-taking.

The antag then prepares a savage physical attack on the avedram. [When
the drama becomes physical like this, it becomes rather shallow and fast-
paced, which suggests it is in a denu phase.] The antag’s rage is further
fueled by her apprehension of the avedram’s conspiring with the kerflat
Patrick to defraud her of her assets. In this regard, the avedram has been
quite successful, that is, in making alliances with others from whom she
can get good information about the antag.

To physically attack the avedram, the antag uses the utmost of cunning and
sacrilege to catch the avedram off guard. She then performs an utterly
hideous action on avedram, that is, using the breast pump. The utter
outrageousness of this action will further intensify the reader’s antagonism
toward the antag, and stoke the reader’s desire to see retribution. It will
also stun reader’s critical faculties. Reader pours curses upon the antag in
hopes of vanquishing her. Ultimately, antag’s heedlessly irrational actions
sacrifice her judgement and imperil her. She makes herself vulnerable to
the deleterious effects of an akeel, i.e., the alcohol in her system.

Chance leads emcair to encounter antag in her debilitated state. Emcair

 confronts antag, who then savagely hurls invectives against him. The antag
in her debilitated state is no longer able to conceal the stillborn cult from
the son’s scrutiny and from any rational arguments he may have. The fury
of her insults removes any reservations the emcair may have about his filial
duty. Although he can see that she is in a drug-induced delirium he
abandons her to her fate.

The reader’s desire for revenge is satisfied by Colna’s suffering destruction

in the hot water just as did the child.

The avedram is rewarded for the antag’s aggression by becoming the

guardian of the antag’s assets.

18. Patrick had been online all

evening, as usual, when he
heard the telephone ring.
Thinking it may be another
potential assignation, he
quickly snatched up the
phone and answered in a
smooth, sonorous voice. His
look of anticipation turned to
one of impatience upon
hearing the familiar voice on
the other end.
2. “Huh, it’s you, Robanna, Reader will see Robanna
what are you calling about? aggressively trying to empower
Checking up on me?” herself by getting more information
about Colna’s assets. Robanna’s
knowledge could threaten Colna’s
financial secrecy.
3. “Your mother told me she
was renting this property,
right?”
4. “Yes.”
5. “You know she owns this
place, don’t you?” she said
accusatively.
6. “What are you asking,
Robanna?”
7. “What ALL does she own
down here, anyway?”
8. Patrick, still angry at his Provides a reason for Patrick to
mother for sending him to overcome his fear of Colna and to
work at the Tuscana, relaxed disclose some information.
his filial loyalty for a moment.
“She’s rich you know—but
everything’s in a Mexican
trust—it’s all in pesos. She
only gets the money in dribs
and drabs whenever she’s
down there . . . Tell her I told
you this, and you’ll DIE,
Robanna,” he said matter-of-
factly.
9. “Why does she trouble
getting the welfare money in
the U.S. then?” Robanna
asked.
10. “That’s just to give the IRS
the impression that she has
an income from within the
U.S., so she can mix in the
Mexican money without
creating suspicion.”
11. “What a crafty woman.
That’s more than I gave her
credit for.”
12. Having gotten the
information she wanted,
Robanna quickly ended the
conversation with a few
pleasantries about the
house’s setting.
13. “The old woman’s using Reader sees that Robanna is
 one stream of cash to cover
another stream of cash,”
Robanna found herself
thinking irresistibly. There
ought to be some way of
diverting some of the stream.”
14. Colna’s stiffness and pain
continued unabated, and she
began spending more and
more time in the hot springs
pool. The heat of the pool,
however, limited the amount
of time she could spend there,
and she was frequently
trundling back and forth
between social visits and
soakings in the pool. To
watch her health relapse so
suddenly had depressed her
and made her desperate to
recapture the vigor she had
experienced during her last
few days in the U.S. She tried
to relieve the pain with even
greater consumption of
alcohol and cigarettes. She
avoided the temptation to
increase her dose of anti-
rheumatoid medicine,
however, as her doctor had
frightened her with
predictions of severe organ
damage at high doses.
15. It was a sultry night in late
spring, and Colna had just
returned from a cocktail party
escalating her quest for power, and
for the first time he realizes she
covets Colna’s money.
Colna is becoming physically
weaker. Reader may anticipate a
diminution of Colna’s powers.
Author gives no clue of the upcoming
provocations that will change Colna’s
strength.
This is the first mention of Colna’
reliance on alcohol. This will be a
new akeel.
Author devises an excuse to keep
Colna suffering from her other akeel,
rheumatism. Her suffering from the
ailment provides a reason for her
craving the “elixir” of mother’s milk,
which in fact was nothing more than
the same rheumatoid drugs her doctor
had prescribed, doped in the milk.
¶¶15-20 Facilitating action designed
to mark the last phase of the denu—
the Triumph. Of course the
“cooking” of the child is symbolic,
 to welcome one of the which narrator makes explicit in
American couples who had paragraph 21. Robanna now has a
returned to Crespo after conflict between her grief and her
spending the winter and desire for revenge. Colna’s typical
spring in the more balmy surly aggressiveness is beyond all
decency and will incense the reader.
Cancun. Colna had had
several cocktails, and was
more unsteady than ever as
her driver helped her into the
house. To her disgust, she
found Robanna sprawled
across the television room
couch like an overstuffed rag
doll, fast asleep with the
television blaring a Spanish
language program. Her baby
daughter, also fast asleep
despite the noise, lay in a crib
next to her. “The pigs,” Colna
said to herself.
16. “Pedro,” she called out into The paragraph is a facilitating action.
the hall to the retreating It sets up a witness for the following
driver, “Help me to my room, adaction. Reader may move
I’m going to change for the viewpoint to Pedro during the
hot spring.” adaction.
17. Pedro tried his best to Author uses a little humor to create
dissuade her from entering calm before the storm—so as to
the hot water in her obviously increase the impact of the upcoming
inebriated condition, but the shock.
alcohol had made the old
woman more aggressive and
headstrong than usual. He
had insisted on standing by
while she soaked, but at the
pool, she noticed his
frightened eyes glaring at her
 unsteady body, and she
refused to take off her robe.
“What the hell are you gaping
at,” she snapped, “No, you’re
not going to get to see me
half nude. Get out of here.”
And she waived him off.
18. Pedro decided to wait in the Facilitating action
television room, which had
French doors leading to the
patio and pool, while she
bathed. Suddenly he heard
her cry out, “Pedro, roll the
baby out here. It needs some
fresh air.” Pedro did so
obediently, gently pushing the
crib so as not to wake the
sleeping child. It was a
wonderful night to be outside,
and Pedro envied the old
woman as she relaxed with
her head resting back against
the rim of the bubbling pool,
with eyes looking up at the
sky full of stars.
19. The driver had become The chapter’s adaction will accelerate
engrossed in the television in pace and intensity at this point.
program, and jumped to his Reader will have little time to be
feet with a start when he rationally critical—and will passively
realized he had left the old observe the action.
woman in the hot water for
over 20 minutes. When he
arrived at the hot spring bath,
to his horror, he saw Colna
pulling the infant out of the
water. The child’s skin had
 turned a dark red, and it
seemed lifeless.
20. “I thought it’d like a dip. I Reader’s pity for the child will
guess it got too hot. Better produce a wiset for the child’s
leave it nude on the patio to recovery and punishment of antag.
cool down,” Colna said with
irritation as Pedro
approached. Pedro could see
no life in the child, however,
and despite his crude attempt
to administer resuscitation,
the child was clearly beyond
reviving.
21. Death was officially Symbol of the witch’s reputation for
attributed to hyperthermia, cooking children.
and the examining doctor had
brusquely announced in Reader’s wiset is flaunted, which
Spanish to those assembled makes reader’s desire to intervene in
the action even more aggressive.
that the baby had been
cooked to death.
22. Robanna blamed herself for Robanna’s powers have been
allowing the infant to share substantially reduced by her grief,
the company of such an and so she is hindered from acting.
inhuman woman, and
resolved immediately to Although reader now wisets
Robanna’s vindication, author
neutralize her so that she
withholds any suggestion that that is
could not practice her evil on a possibility. That has the effect of
someone else. In the days increasing reader’s resolve to
before the funeral, she had intervene.
tried not to show the full
extent of her grief, and tried to
express gratitude when Colna
offered to compensate her, in
pesos, for the accident. Her
grief and self-incrimination
were unrelenting however and
 she became withdrawn and
sullen.
23. After a few days Colna had We find Colna remorseless.
already grown tired of
Robanna’s moodiness, and The irony of Colna’s advice lends
though Colna should have believability to the following scene.
been the last person in the “Get over it” is quite ironic since
Colna remains obsessed with her
world to tell the mourning
stillborn. Colna courts destruction
mother to stop grieving, here—by taunting a clever,
Colna could not contain aggressive and much aggrieved rival.
herself when she saw
Robanna sitting inanimately
in a dark corner of the patio.
“I lost a child, too, Robanna.
You need to get over it.”
Robanna remained silent.
Colna’s patience had finally
worn out, and she shuffled
over to where the grieving
woman was sitting
motionless. “Have another
baby! There are lots more
where that came from,” and
on saying that she lifted
Robanna’s skirt, “. . . and
here’s the mold for making
more!”
24. “Get away from me before I Robanna is totally incensed and is
throw you in the hot spring motivated even further for revenge.
myself,” the infuriated young
woman yelled.
25. Colna quickly shuffled Colna senses the increasing strength
backward, and turning said and determination of her opponent
over her shoulder, “If you and wishes to end the contest. Colna
want to leave after the funeral, seems to be backing away from
I will gladly buy you a ticket, further confrontations.
 in addition to the money I’ve
already promised you.” Colna
then limped away leaving
Robanna to soak up the
gloom of the patio shadows.
26. Robanna’s revenge came Robanna is enraged and moves
quickly, even before she had quickly to exact her revenge. This
interred the infant. The paragraph is structured in such a way
infant’s tiny casket stood as to shock the reader, first leading
ceremoniously in the center reader to believe in reconciliation
between the rivals, and then showing
of the village church with its
avedram’s revenge.
lid tightly closed. Colna
seemed to be much affected The action will be credible because
by the death and funeral, and reader is passive and stunned and so
wore an expression of sincere foregoes rational scrutiny. Reader
dejection during the expects characters will do anything at
ceremony. Both she and this point. Reader’s chief reaction to
Robanna had shed tears the paragraph will be to exult at
before the ceremony was Colna’s humiliation.
over, and in a communion of
sympathy, Robanna had led
the old woman to the casket
for one final look before it was
lifted away for burial.
Robanna helped the crippled
woman out of her seat and,
holding her with a hand
gripping her shoulder, had
brought her to the tiny
wooden box. Colna felt
honored by the respect
Robanna was paying to her
and was highly grateful for
this gesture of forgiveness.
Robanna lifted the lid to give
the woman one last view of
 the infant who had cheered
and comforted her in her
rheumatoid distress. As the
old woman gazed into the
coffin however, a look of
almost diabolical rage came
over her face, and only by
putting her knobby hand over
her mouth and eyes, was she
able to conceal its contortions
from those gathered in the
church. Robanna was unable,
even through her fresh tears,
to repress a smirk, for inside
the coffin, her infant’s corpse
was dressed in the booties
and baby clothes from the
shrine in Colna’s boudoir.
27. Colna immediately left the The antag is becoming further
church and refused to attend vulnerable to the akeel alcohol. The
the burial. Instead she had alcohol will give author license for
gone immediately to her having Colna perform outrageous
house to inspect the acts, subsequently.
sacrilegious pilferage of the
shrine to her stillborn. Colna
had already decided to have
Robanna’s child’s casket
disinterred as soon as she
could get the hideous
Robanna out of Mexico. In the
meantime, she would have to
do something to punish the
woman’s sacrilege. Colna was
not mollified when she found
a packet under her bedroom
door that evening containing
 the booties and other clothing
that had dressed Robanna’s
dead infant in church. And
several glasses of alcohol
could not soothe her rage.
28. Amongst her We find Robanna more bent on
pharmacopoeia, the old revenge than on grieving.
woman found a syringe.
Loading it with barbiturate, Reader sees a deadly confrontation in
she approached Robanna’s the offing and will be physically
tensed as if personally threatened.
room. From outside she could
hear her talking in excited
tones—very unlike a mother
who had just buried her infant
daughter. Colna’s timing
could not have been more
fortunate. Robanna was
obviously on the telephone,
which she had pulled into her
room from the hall. When
Colna heard the name of her
son, Patrick, in the
conversation, she trained her
hearing to the conversation
on the other side of the door.
29. “Don’t try to discourage me, The avedram’s greed motivates her to
Patrick, I know you’ve thought stay with Colna, and she has
of keeping her as an income obviously conceived a plan to get the
COW yourself. She’s perfect— old woman’s money for herself.
almost an invalid already. Reader will encourage her.
Leave the rich cow to me.”
30. Colna returned to her room The avedram and antag fight a battle
and waited for Robanna to to the finish, using the utmost of craft
return the phone to the hall and aggression.
table.
Reader will hurriedly speculate about
Colna’s next step. Colna is well-
 informed about Robanna, so has the
upper hand, allowing her to act
quickly and fatally.
31. After a short while, Facilitating action
Robanna’s door opened, and
there was an audible plunk as
she put the telephone back on
the hall table.
32. Sensing her opportunity, The sacrilegious use of a sacred
Colna then shuffled anxiously object as a decoy further stokes
into the hall. The old woman reader’s antipathy toward antag.
had irreverently chosen a
rosary as a prop to distract
the young woman, and carried
it strung loosely between her
gnarled fingers.
33. Robanna warily admitted
Colna to her room. She could
see that Colna had been
praying, perhaps even
contritely, because the old
woman was carrying a rosary.
34. “I’m so . . . sorry,” Colna
said, raising her hand to her
face as if to instinctively wipe
away a tear. As she raised her
hand, however, she let the
rosary drop. The holy string
of beads coiled onto the
carpet almost noiselessly.
35. Colna feigned great
consternation at the sacrilege
of dropping the holy beads,
and continued to fret until
Robanna, who was also eager
to deceive with a show of
solicitousness, bent to pick
 them up. With Robanna bent
over and distracted, Colna
hurriedly shot the syringe into
the fat woman’s enormous
buttocks. Robanna had begun
to call out in pain, but
slumped to the floor in a
semi-conscious state before
she could get a sound from
her throat.
36. Colna worked slowly and
agonizingly to lift the drugged
woman to a chair, all the while
asking her what had
happened. She then used
clothing and belts she found
in the closet to tie Robanna to
the chair. Robanna was
vaguely aware of the old
woman moving around the
room, but had become too
doped to remember the
events leading to her present
loss of consciousness. The
sting of the needle remained
in the mind however—but as
her consciousness was not
under her control, the events
of the several days before
flooded into her mind and she
came to imagine that she had
been a victim of a scorpion
bite, and reasoned that the
old woman was frantically
attempting to locate the
creature before it could bite
 again.
37. Colna continued to move
wildly about the room and at
last found in a drawer what
she had in fact been
searching for. “There,” she
said triumphantly as she
pulled the breast pump out of
a drawer.
38. Robanna had not nursed for This is the author’s victory over
a couple days, and her blouse reader—a scene nigh unbelievable
seemed to burst open as that, by inhibiting reader’s critical
Colna undid the buttons. The faculties and encouraging wiset,
drugged woman, strapped to author compels the reader to believe.
Reader is seething with aggression at
the chair, could vaguely feel
Colna’s outrage.
the chill of the pump as the
old woman clamped it to her
breast. “We’ll see who the
COW is now,” Colna said as
she pumped milk through the
tube to her own mouth.
39. Colna, in her frenzy to enjoy Reader grasps at this hope that Colna
the elixir of fresh mother’s has wounded herself.
milk, had carelessly failed to
account for the almost
instantaneous contamination
of the milk with the
barbiturate she had just
administered, and as she
squirted the warm milk into
her mouth, she was in fact
drugging herself. The traces
of barbiturate in the milk
coupled with the alcohol in
her system made her wildly
intoxicated, and, abandoning
 her victim, Colna returned in a
delirium to her bedroom.
40. Neal had arrived in Mexico Sets up a confrontation between Neal
City that evening and hired a and his mother.
car to take him to Brenares.
When he arrived at the The tension accumulated in previous
Mackart house in Crespo it scene is overwhelmingly—but reader
must now prepare to intervene in a
was late, and all the staff had
fresh confrontation: between mother
left for the evening, except the and son.
driver, Pedro, who lived above
the garage. Much to his
dismay, Robanna had
apparently also gone to bed,
and Neal was forced to rouse
Pedro in an attempt to get into
the house.
41. The house was dark and Neal has steeled himself for a
ghastly silent. He found his showdown. Colna is in a fervor of
mother’s bedroom alight, but agitation.
saw no trace of her. As he
opened the door onto the
patio the smell of minerals
mixed with pine wafted
heavily on the night air.
Seeing no sign of her, he
decided to return to her room,
to look for some indication of
where she might have gone at
that very late hour. It was then
that he heard muffled sounds
coming from the boudoir.
Pulling open a door, he stood
unbelieving before Colna’s
hidden shrine. Colna, with her
back to him, was frantically
trying to open the lid to a tiny
 weathered coffin with her bare
hands. “If that bitch has
opened this casket, I’m going
to kill . . . I’ll inject her with
everything I’ve got.”
42. “Is all this for Andrew?” Emcair is finally motivated for a
Neal said. showdown with antag, but reader
knows that by merely confronting
Colna, he cannot stop her aggression.
43. Colna looked around wildly.
At the sight of her son, she
yelled in fury, “Don’t you
EVER mention his name. You
are unworthy of mentioning
his name!”
44. “Why?”
45. “Because you’re nothing!”
46. “And why am I nothing?”
47. “Because you will never Reader will fear Neal’s physical peril
replace my Andrew—my first and will pray for his escape.
born—and ONLY son.” Colna
pushed the coffin behind her
and came forward with
ferocious vigor to prevent
Neal from profaning the
shrine any further. Her arms
hit him with such force that he
was knocked against the
shelves on the other side of
the boudoir.
48. Before he had a chance to ¶¶48-55 Reader will believe that the
straighten up and recover antag is diabolically insane and must
from the blow, Colna had be destroyed.
closed the door to the shrine
behind her. “You always
thought of yourself as the first
born, didn’t you. You took
 great pride in your place in
the birth order. You profited
from Andrew’s death! You
and your brother, the first
born males—bah—gloating to
yourselves. If Andrew had
survived he would have made
you look pathetic. He would
have been a real man I could
have been proud of. Don’t
pretend to replace my Andrew
—you are NOTHING!”
49. “But I am your son, . . . your
flesh and blood.”
50. “You're not a son. You’re a
cheap substitute for my real
son.”
51. “Who is your REAL son?—
certainly not a child who was
born dead!”
52. Neal would have liked to Neal is so empowered by his anger
have struck the old woman that he actually contemplates
down for her taunts, but filial physical action but does nothing
duty stayed his hand. “Why because his sense of duty or native
try to hurt me—to wreck my passivity overwhelms him.
career? How could you be so
evil?” he yelled, his voice
seething in anger.
53. Colna’s eyes flashed, and This is the full explanation of the
her stare pierced the air antag’s motives. This is a frightening
between them. “I AM evil, admission. By revealing her
don’t you get it? I’m a child motivation, Colna weakens her
killer. Didn’t you see it, power.
Andrew’s little coffin? I killed
him at birth!”
54. “He was stillborn—how can
you blame yourself?”
55. “I KILLED HIM! He would As usual, Colna allows no retort and
have been born alive if I had thus the confrontation ends
done everything right. There unresolved.
was something I did—
something in what I ate, in the Witches are persons who act out
inner evil. They are motivated by a
way I sat, in the way I slept
hope to transfer their guilt to others,
that killed him. The doctor because of paranoia, a weak sense of
suggested a caesarean. I said responsibility for their own evil, and
no. I was afraid I’d become extreme hormone-induced aggressive
sterile. And I killed him natures.
before he could even breathe
his first breath of air. I am
damned to be an infertile
witch—I kill my own
children!” Colna looked away
momentarily as if to
strengthen herself. Her
expression now took on fresh
resolve, “Now get out of here,
get out! Pedro will drive you
to Cuernavaca.” Colna looked
frantically around her until
she found the syringe where
she had left it on her bed
table. She grabbed it and
pointed it at Neal. “Get out!”
56. “Whom should I pity more, Adaction has not yet come to a halt.
myself or her?” he thought, There still remains the problem of
finding to his amazement that how to deal with antag in the future.
his rage had evaporated. The The chapter ends on a note of hope
smell of alcohol was strong that emcair may be able to deal with
his mother on the following day.
on her breath, and she
After all, he still has not confronted
apparently had been using the her about her attempts to destroy
syringe to inject some drug. him.
Neal decided to leave the
house and to return again the Emcair still feels affection for antag,
 following day, when she though now it is merely pity. Reader
would be less delirious. will feel no such pity, and will not
trust emcair to deal antag a necessary
final blow.
57. Neal had barely left the Setup for antag’s self-destruction.
bedroom before Colna was on The rheumatism akeel will provoke
the phone, “Pedro, drive Neal her recklessness.
to the Hotel Villa Bejar in
Cuernavaca. I don’t want him
to stay here tonight.” The old
woman then began tearing at
her clothes. “I’ve got to soak
in the hot spring. I have to
have some relief.”

CHAPTER 19 – TRIUMPH

In this highly important chapter, the author resolves the main action of the
novel by destroying the antag’s power and rearing the avedram as the new
power master. The emcair annihilates the antag by abandoning her to the
avedram’s greed and vengefulness.

In chapter 19, reader will congratulate the emcair on executing the coup de
grace to the antag (by abandoning her to the avedram). As emcair’s
telepathic [wiseting] motivator, reader believes he was instrumental in
emcair’s using the thema to finally resolve the emasis. Reader also
believes that his wiset has so cursed the antag as to make her an easy target
for emcair. Reader thus shares in the triumph over the antag. Reader feels
the success that comes only from real experience. He now embraces the
thema as a permanent part of his everyday schema, and discards forever the
discredited startema.

Although not, herself, a model of morality, avedram receives from author a

triumph of her own, as she flaunts her control of both Colna’s person and
her money. Reader is gratified to see avedram rewarded for her help in
subduing the antag.

In the chapter, Colna’s vengefulness and drug-induced delirium trigger the

poor judgement that leads to a stroke from overheating in the hot spring.
 Robanna immediately puts into force a plan to keep Colna a paralyzed
hostage while she collects the woman’s income. Neal realizes that Colna
was never a real mother to him, so abandons all sense of duty toward her
and vengefully decides to abandon her to Robanna’s greed.

19. Two servants grabbed Colna is portrayed as a metaphor for

Colna by the arms and pulled a witch, i.e., with barren teats. Colna
her from the spa early the is miraculously annihilated.
next morning. Neal regretted
later having waited in
Cuernavaca for her to sober
up and wondered whether she
had had her stroke in the hot
water or on the deck after she
had been pulled out. The drug
and alcohol had rendered her
almost unconscious in the
water, and by the time she
had been discovered, she had
suffered a disastrous brain
hemorrhage. The servants
had noticed that after she had
been out of the water for a
several minutes, her body had
seemed to shrink as if drained
of whatever human vitality it
may have contained.
Her breasts, lying shriveled
and flat against her sunken
chest, seemed to have never
been capable of nursing a
child, the servants said
among themselves.
2. Robanna had recovered Robanna’s triumph is complete.
after sleeping soundly in
drugged unconsciousness
through the night, and had
 been greeted with news
pleasant enough to satisfy her
wildest dreams: the old
woman was now paralyzed
and bedridden—a potential
cash cow of unearned
income.
3. Robanna had then
reconsidered her departure,
and would now happily stay
to minister to the
incapacitated old woman and
collect the woman’s money.
4. After a sleepless night in Neal’s triumph consists of
which his mother’s rejection successfully using the thema to
played over and over in his liberate himself from Colna, the anti-
mind, Neal abandoned his mother. He is now free from her
mother to her fate and threats, but will still regret having to
acknowledge that he is emotionally
returned to the U.S., leaving
an orphan, with no hope of maternal
Robanna to care for her in any affection. Reader will congratulate
manner she pleased. Robanna himself on having helped liberate
had decided not to call a emcair.
physician, and for the first
couple weeks directed Reader celebrates his wiset’s role in
Colna’s perfunctory treatment the thema’s ascendance, and takes up
herself. A short time later she the thema as one of his permanent
moved Colna to one of the schema.
smaller bedrooms in the
house. Colna could neither
move her arms, nor speak,
but from the guttural sounds
she made seemed infuriated
by the change of room.
5. Sensing that Colna was Colna’s victims get their revenge.
desperate to say something,
Robanna condescended to Narrator mocks the startema by
having avedram say to the paralyzed
speak for her. “It’s your turn Colna, “It’s your turn to be
to be mothered now. I’m mothered.”
going to take good care of
you. You like that idea, don’t
you? I knew you would! I’m
not going to tell anyone in the
U.S. for the time being. Neal
and Patrick are not going to
tell anyone either. We want
you to get better first. You
agree, don’t you? I thought
you would! I’ve discovered
the trust you set up for
yourself in Mexico City—the
one that sends you a bale of
pesos every month. Don’t
worry, the trust is going to
keep sending you pesos.
Patrick and I will keep the
money for you. We’re raising
the wages of your staff. They
said they wouldn’t tell anyone
about your stroke. Is that
okay? Good! The priest was
here. He will be saying
novenas for you. In return, a
lot of your money is going to
pay for a facade for the
church in Brenares. You like
that, huh? I knew you would!
Patrick sends his best. He’s
going to keep your secrets
and your government
benefits. He wants you to
recover completely before
returning to the U.S. That’s a
 good idea, isn’t it, mom?
That’s going to be a long,
long time from now, though,
huh, mom? And Andrew’s
coffin . . . Neal took that with
him. He’s going to send it to
Father O’Lann in Morrisville
for reburial in the church
graveyard. You’re delighted?
Of course you are! We all are!

CHAPTER 20 – PRACTICATION

In chapter 20 the narrator states the practical lesson that emcair could learn
from the thema. Emcair tries to avoid applying the thema to his other
conflict, the one in his work life. He finally acknowledges that the thema
can help predict his chances of succeeding in his great ambitions. Upon
reflection, he becomes modest and practical, and accepts that in the absence
of a nurturing mother, he may have been wounded for life.

Neal wrestles with himself over the question of what his fate is in light of
his new realization that he was unlucky as far as his mother was concerned.
He realizes that he is not carrying a lucky hand in life and therefore should
be modest in his goals. That then leads him to resign himself to the petty
circumstances of academic life at the lower echelons, with hopes but not
the certainty of success he had felt before.

20. Winning the grand prize in a
game of chance, such as in
the game of life, requires a big
win at the start. That provides
the wherewithal to stay in the
game and ultimately beat the
odds. In life there are many
who continue to take great
risks, even though they’ve
never won big and will never
beat the odds. Ultimately,
This paragraph describes the practical
playing out of the thema for Neal’s
work situation, which is the value of
knowing just how lucky you have
been in life and keeping your
aspirations within the bounds of your
fate. It makes explicit that Neal’s
mother was a case of very bad luck.
Neal, ever the passive optimist, tries
to find some source of good luck that
may have mitigated the damage done
by the mother. In the end, he realizes
 when losses force them out of he has a handicap to bear that may
the game, they are totally prevent him from achieving the very
ruined—unable to make any high goals he had set for himself in
further investments, and not life.
even capable of winning one
The narrator implies that this novel’s
of life’s many tiny prizes.
thema is not positive—it is merely a
negation of the startema. It is merely
a caveat to the startema. If it were
an alternative to the startema, for
example it would suggest substitutes
for reification of the nurturer
archetype—a substitute for the
mother. A thema that offers such a
substitute has probably already been
used in literature: a partisan of
ancient Sparta or a totalitarian
communist state would employ a
thema that offers the State as an
alternative to the mother as nurturer.
2. “Have I been lucky in life,” Neal tries to shake off his naivete.
Neal asked himself as he sat
facing Sarzolian on his return
from Mexico, “. . . or have I
just won an untenable grip on
a minor prize?”
3. Fate had not dealt him a He has no reified nurturer archetype
good hand in giving him the now.
woman Colna Mackart as a
mother—that was now
obvious. Her personality, the
events of her life, and the
distorting effect of the loss of
her first child had made of her
the anti-mother, the woman
who, far from nurturing her
children, seeks instead to
destroy them.
4. “In the end,” Neal thought, Neal tries half-heartedly to find some
“perhaps the schools that substitute for a mother that could
passed me along with good satisfy his need for a nurturer.
grades—maybe they were an
adequate substitute for a
loving mother.”
5. Neal had merely to reflect He admits there is no realistic
on his disappointment with substitute. His current life, he
his current academic position believes, will never give the support
—constricted as it was by his spirit needs to self-actualize.
Sarzolian’s fatuous, career-
oriented goals—to see that
institutions would never
nurture his spirit.
6. He had finally weaned Neal has seen Colna self-destruct and
himself from the idea that is free from that threat, but is still
Colna Mackart could ever be a without a functioning mother—
true mother to him. But the unable to reify the nurturer archetype.
need for a nurturing figure
would remain with him. How
was he to fill the void?
7. “I guess I deceived myself Neal chastises himself for his naivete.
when I considered myself He had deluded himself in thinking
lucky in life,” he concluded to that material prosperity alone would
himself, “As a good student, I give him a satisfying life, even
thought I would have a without maternal nurturing.
satisfying career—and
growing up in the 50’s and
60’s, society’s material
prospects seemed
unbounded. I knew my mother
wasn’t the greatest, but I
would have never thought of
her as a threat. Anyway, I
always assumed every
woman would naturally be
 motherly to her children—that
would be every woman’s
instinct—wouldn’t it?”
8. Neal felt overwhelmed by Neal does not know what the
feelings of resignation. practical outcome of the thema will
Sarzolian had been talking to be. He has given up and feels he has
him but had now paused no options.
because of the deep sadness
weighing down his young
colleague’s face. He sensed
Neal’s thoughts had drifted
away to a disturbing, personal
subject.
9. “I don’t know why,” Neal Neal’s restates the chapter’s opening
continued to ponder, “but I paragraph in terms of his own
had always wanted to win the situation.
grand prize in life—a
professorship at a great
research institution, a great
discovery—fame, power. I
was foolish not to realize I
had never really had the
wherewithal. I hadn’t had the
initial good fortunate of a
good mother—and without
that, how could I have
dreamed of beating the
odds?”
10. “Neal, what are you thinking
about?” Sarzolian asked, “Are
you listening?”
11. “I’m sorry, Dr. Sarzolian,” Neal realizes that the status quo does
Neal said, realizing he had not satisfy his ambitions, but is
been ignoring the P.I., “I was probably the best he could hope for.
just thinking how sorry I was He openly capitulates to the pocal
to have suggested I distrusted Sarzolian.
 your research methods. I just
want to let you know that my
job here is the greatest thing
that’s happened to me.”
12. Although flattered Sarzolian Neal has established a new, stable
was quite perplexed about equilibrium.
what might have triggered
Neal to interject such a thing.
“I wonder what’s happened to
him? Thank God he’s
changed his attitude.”

A Concise Formula For

Short Novel Writing

The novel used as an examplar in this essay,

Two Cuckoos, is copyright 2009.

This text hopes to make novel writing as craft-

like as possible, for those who are not
necessarily imaginative yet want to write a novel
by formula. Great imaginations dominate the
world of great art, that goes without saying. A
couple factors give those great authors an
advantage over others. The first is a native
ability to entertain. That means they have a
sense of how to keep listeners in suspense, have
a capacious memory filled with strange events,
and have the ability to make imaginative
connections between events. I suspect that
those people, like chess players, actually use
more of their brains than the average person.
The second advantage is sententiousness—a
desire to convince persons of one's opinions—
accompanied by a keen sense of how to take
advantage of people's natural credulity. Authors
with strong opinions will make the best novelists.
If an author wants his novel to have wide
appeal, he will be certain his topics are
interesting to contemporary readers. He will also
want to pick a genre that is currently popular, for
example, social rivalries, sexual competition,
mystery/detective, horror, historical, adventure,
science fiction, etc. He will want to keep the
style of his language simple enough for the
average reader.
One need not have a special novel-writing
talent in order to complete a readable novel. If
you are an ordinary person, and your imagination
runs out while composing a novel, do as a lot of
commercial artists do: use a stock device or
situation. Don't worry about being original. Pride
yourself in completing a technically good novel.
In this course we will examine only one
standard formula for novel writing. Learn that
formula and then use it for your first couple
novels. After that, you can experiment with
variations on the formula at will. If you like, you
can use the same formula for all your novels.
That has been done by famous best-selling
novelists who like to churn out work.
One key to writing, that all novelists, whether
born-novelists or trained craftsmen, must have, is
a positive mood. Some novelists have used
stimulants, like alcohol or coffee, or other drugs,
to put them in the mood. Honore Balzac was
said to have consumed as many as 50 cups
(volume and strength unknown) of coffee a day.
Prolific writer Edgar Wallace supposedly
consumed 20 cups of very sweet tea every day
and 4 packs of cigarettes and claimed that the
regime was "inspiration enough". An ability to
cheer oneself naturally would be a great asset for
novel writing. A novel is a social product,
something one produces for the benefit of others.
So a novelist must also have a real desire to help
others. If you are bitter and have no desire to
improve society, then you will never find the
incentive to write a novel.
One cannot expect to have enough imaginative
resources available to plan out a full short novel
in one sitting. Many details, even major ones,
will have to be conceived on the fly. But a
general plan should be conceived before writing.
The following pages outline the steps for
designing such a general composition plan. It
assumes you are well-acquainted with novel-
theory definitions presented earlier.

The 10 Major Steps for Creating a

Composition Plan

(Step 1 – Select the Ubertheme) After reading

the novel theory used in this course, you may be
surprised to learn that the first activity in
designing a novel is to select its uberthemes.
While uberthemes do not seem to play a vital
role in the novel mechanism outlined in the
theory, they are the reason the author writes the
novel. They are the opinions that he wants to
inculcate into the reader's mind. The rest of the
novel is just a vehicle.

If you have no strong social opinions, which

could be uberthemes, then you should borrow
some from someone else.

(Step 2 – Create Thema) Thema will be your

next decision. Thema and uberthemes are
related, and work in tandem in the novel. Thema
is a broad social statement reduced to a schema.
As the novel theory informs us, schema are a
formula for survival devised by an individual
based on his experiences. In our sample novel,
Two Cuckoos, the ubertheme was the greed and
selfishness of the American post-war generation.
The thema, on the other hand, reduced that
social statement to the schema that one cannot
expect all mothers to be nurturing.

(Step 3 – Create Startema) A startema follows

next. Startema is a dysfunctional schema that
the author will replace before the end of the
novel. The author will use the mechanism of the
novel to overturn the startema and substitute the
thema. The thema and startema can be an
antithesis of each other, as they are in Cuckoos:
startema: for nurturance you can always look to
your mother; thema: not all mothers are
nurturing. However, the thema need not be
merely a negation of the startema, but a
constructive one, for example, "the State is the
best source of nurturance", or "religion is an ideal
source of nurturance".

(Step 4 – Designate Antag's Inner Guilt) The

previous 3 steps have been closely related,
having to do with "themes". With the fourth step
we move into providing elements to create an
artificial experience (that will end with reader
embracing author's thema and uberthemes).
The great mover of a novel's action is the antag.
So we will start with that character. Antag's
baleful actions are not the normal human vices of
cupidity, lust, pride, envy, etc. They are an angry
projection of inner guilt that antag can no longer
keep internalized, so projects onto the innocent
emcair. The emcair becomes a symbol for
antag's own guilt—and thus becomes antag's
target for destruction. In Cuckoos, guilt over the
loss of a stillborn leads antag to conceive more
and more children, none of whom she loves.
When she discovers she can no longer conceive
children she becomes vindictive against the
children born after the stillborn's death. An
antag's inner guilt is easy to keep secret from
reader, and so can generate a lot of mystery and
uncertainty (skanomy) that will make reader
susceptible to author.

Step 4, then, is to designate the antag's inner

guilt.

Also, give antag a special power that would be

difficult to detect. In Cuckoos that power was
drugs, which incidentally the avedram too uses
against antag.

(Antag's personality and situation are left

undecided at this point).

(Step 5 – Create Emcair) Create a target for

antag to project his guilt onto (the emcair).
Describe the social situation that links antag and
emcair. (In Cuckoos that relation was
mother/son)

(Step 6 – Designate Antag's Previous Coping

Mechanism) Imagine a coping mechanism that
antag used for his inner guilt, before he projects
that guilt upon emcair. In Cuckoos, antag's
coping mechanism was to surround herself with
infants.

(Step 7 – Antag's Point of Attack on Emcair)

Decide on antag's point of attack on emcair.
Antag's attack will focus on something that
emcair's survival depends upon. In Cuckoos,
that was emcair's career.

However, first decide on emcair's vulnerabilities,

including aspects of his circumstance and his
fears. (Show him as struggling in a noble way,
as having some handicap against which he must
fight and that makes him vulnerable.)
(Step 8 – Create Anterreg) Create an anterreg
who could pose a threat to emcair's needs.

(Step 9 – Antag's Situa) Design antag's "shell

circumstance", i.e., (1) his point of vulnerability to
avedram; (2) a character weakness that makes
him need avedram; (3) aspects of antag's
character that provoke enmity from reader
(pagathy); and his akheel(s).

(Step 10 – Create Avedram) Create an avedram

who could take advantages of antag's needs and
vulnerabilities.
*****

Having completed that design sketch, you are

prepared to begin writing chapter-by-chapter.
You do not yet know the course of adaction, and
that ignorance is an advantage since you it will
allow you to be spontaneous and write with a
fresh imagination. It will also keep your narrator
naive about the course of events, since you, the
author, do not even know what that will be.

However, each chapter should be outlined just

before writing it. The outline sketch could be as
little as a half page. When sketching, keep in
mind the basic tasks the novel-writing formula
requires of each chapter. [See Chart 1, Major
Writing Tasks for the Short Novel, included in this
text.

General Theory of Writing Tasks

for the Short Novel

The author’s primary task is to produce skanomy,

that is, reduce reader’s confidence in his own
judgement. After that loss of confidence reader
is prone to turn to primitive forms of thinking
when evaluating events and to accept as realistic
events imposed by author.

Skanomy is author's major tool to make reader

believe he has had a real experience.

Author’s secondary task is to inculcate thema.

He does that by showing that the antithesis of the
thema (the startema) ought to be replaced by
thema.

Author writes his novel to impose his ubertheme.

He will rely on moments of susceptibility to
suggestion to impose the ubertheme. For their
cogency and believability, uberthemes will rely in
part on rhetoric and clear exposition. The novel's
action, also, exemplifies the uberthemes.

The thema is a symbol of the ubertheme, and

they are mutually corroborative.

Author must provide a level of believability and

not be seen by reader to be abusing literary
devices. His effect on reader must be imposed
in a studied manner. Author can seduce reader
by making the reading entertaining and highly
relevant to reader’s own situation.

A List of the Basic Writing Tasks

for the Short Novel

Skanomy

Skanomy is a state in which reader, whose

werschema formation is impeded by author,
accepts events without critical scrutiny and relies
on primitive forms of reasoning. It functions to
end both (1) action and (2) thema, by (a) giving
author license to introduce improbable events
that incapacitate antag; and (b) causing reader to
discard the startema and embrace the thema.

To impede werschema, author uses a host of

skanomy devices, as listed in Table 2 of this
webpage. Author will engage characters in an
unending series of conflicts ("adactions") that
become progressively more consequential.
Eventually reader will become exhausted by the
need to create werschema despite being starved
of the data necessary to do so, and thus he will
reach the state of skanomy. To create skanomy
in Cuckoos the author gives reader scanty
preliminary data before adactions, shocks him
with certain incidences, leaves adactions
unresolved, leaves reader's tension unrelieved,
and employs an inconsistent narrative viewpoint
(sometimes partial-impartial, sometimes moving
from one character's viewpoint to another). All
those devices thwart werschema formation and
thus lead to skanomy by chapter 15. See the
skanomy devices, listed chapter-by-chapter, in
Chart 1 of this webpage.

Adaction

Adactions record the power balance among the

characters. Readers, as humans, are extremely
attentive to changes in that balance. Both antag
and emcair are troubled people and so create
adactions, which affect power balance. A third
character, Avedram, is aggressive too and so
provokes adaction also. The more scrappy those
characters, the better for provoking adactions.
Every chapter should have an adaction, though
sometimes it may be merely for entertainment,
such as in Cuckoos: antag and avedram's
bragging match about welfare benefits, or the
confrontation about money between antag and
her son that ends with antag putting money down
the garbage disposal. The first 3 chapters
should be filled with adaction in order to stimulate
reader to make werschema. After the emasis,
the consequences of the adactions will become
increasingly weightier. By delaying
confrontations or by infarving readers, author
brings about skanomy, which lowers reader's
critical faculties, allowing author to rush to the
denu. After skanomy sets in, reader can be fed
adactions without much development or
believability, allowing the power balance to
rapidly tip up and down, moving the action
forward at a fast pace.

Situa

Situa is the matrix of (1) characters’ needs and

(2) characters’ need-satisfying resources (i.e.,
their power resources). As the action
progresses, that matrix will change. Characters
will acquire new understandings and new
resources at the author’s discretion. As the
novel begins, the situa is in equilibrium, but
antag’s aggression destabilizes it, leading to the
emasis. The data of the situa is the basis of
reader's werschema.

Setting

Setting is the physical environment in which the

action takes place. It has an entertainment
value, and serves as an excuse to make
changes to the situa. Since in the short novel,
adaction predominates, setting receives little
attention.

Mood

Author uses mood to forebode action.

Sometimes the novel's action contrasts to that
portended by mood, and so shocks the reader.
In Cuckoos, author uses antag's unremitting
malevolence to create ominous threat throughout
the novel, typical of the horror genre.

Schema Progression

The novel uses schema for two quite different

ends: one to affect the emcair (schema
progression), the other, to affect the reader
(egotify). The first is to motivate the emcair's
action, to cause him to make a major change in
his perspective on life. In the second (egotify),
author must take reader further than emcair—he
must make reader not only accept the thema but
feel he has had a real experience [egotify]. Only
then will reader incorporate the thema into his
own schema for use outside the novel. [See
"Egotify" below for an explanation of how reader
believes his curse upon antag has actually
effected antag's demise.]

Schema Progression traces emcair's progress

from the startema to the thema. In the early
chapters emcair receives strong indications that
the startema is not practical, but he ignores
them. At the emasis he receives incontrovertible
evidence that the startema must be replaced with
a new schema. Rather than abandon the
startema, he enters into a realm of denial,
inertness, and half-measures that prevent him
from embracing a replacement schema. At the
Realization, after suffering badly in a state of
malschema, he finally accepts he must replace
the startema with the thema. Yet he is still too
irresolute, intimidated or preoccupied to use the
thema. At last, the Salvation marks the point
when he resolves to put the thema into practice,
even though that may require major changes in
his life.

Werschema

Werschema are temporary schema used by

reader to quickly map the relative power and the
motivations of actors in any conflict—so as to
anticipate the outcome. But author thwarts
reader’s werschema formation, so as to make
reader abandon critical reasoning and fall back
upon primitive forms of reasoning, which the
author can then manipulate to inculcate his
thema.

Author will induce werschema formation as soon

as the novel begins, and through constant
adaction, compel reader to formulate them
constantly. Yet author sabotages werschema
formation, as described under skanomy.

In Cuckoos the adactions become increasingly

consequential, with the antag's unopposed
bullying and malice leaving behind a trail of
deaths and near-deaths. Those in a position to
stop her are prevented by their own weakness of
will (emcair) or by hand-outs from antag
(avedram and kerflat Patrick), making adactions
unpredictable. The result, by chapter 15, is
skanomy—reader's fatigue and frustration at
attempting to construct werschema.

Egotify

Author prepares reader to adopt the thema by

means of a long process of devices, tergathy-
pagathy-wiset and egotify. From the beginning,
tergathy brings the reader to identify with the
object of attack (emcair) and to become
aggressive toward antag. Also from the start of
the novel, pagathy renders the antag an object of
immense loathing. As the novel reaches its
denu, reader falls prey to wiset, a primitive form
of thinking that reader believes he can use to
influence events in the novel. When reader
accepts he has influenced the novel's outcome
(by vanquishing the antag in the denu), he has
egotified the main thrust of the novel, the thema.
That is, he sees himself as a participant in the
action and as having induced the thema from a
real experience. Author's objective to cause
schema change in reader is then complete.

Tergathy

Reader is naturally drawn to tergathize with

emcair because (1) people instinctively identify
with persons reacting to threat; and (2) people
instinctively identify with those most likely to
solve problems. By tergathizing with emcair
reader shares emcair's schema progression
experience and feels the threat posed by antag.

Emcair suffers threats from two sources, antag

and anterreg. Antag evinces a masked hostility
to emcair from the beginning. By the emasis,
antag's hostility comes into the open. While
emcair acts aggressively with anterreg, he
responds passively to antag's continued menace.
Emcair responds aggressively to antag only
when antag's threats become unbearable to
reader.

Reader's tergathy will be exasperated by

emcair's failure to confront antag, and reader will
wish to telepathically take matters into his own
hands.

Pagathy

Antag initially seems frightening then obnoxious,

then abhorrent and finally a lethal foe to be
exterminated at all costs. Reader's hatred of
antag is cultivated so as to provoke reader's
wiset of her demise—setting up the egotifying
that will seal author's triumphant imposition of the
thema upon reader.

Wiset

Reader will sympathize with certain characters

and hope for certain outcomes throughout the
novel. More often than not, author will
intentionally flout those hopes as part of his
strategy to create skanomy. Eventually reader
will become so desperate to see antag
vanquished that he will use primitive reasoning,
wiset, to curse the antag and bring about the
denu. Resorting to the primitive reasoning to
which skanomy has reduced him, reader sees
himself as emcair's avenger, emcair's telepathic
motivator and antag's imprecator.

Ubertheme

Since the author's reason for writing his novel is

to communicate uberthemes, he will make them
highly appealing. He presents them in two
fashions: (1) by rational exposition enhanced
through rhetoric, and (2) by exemplifying them
through the novel's action.

So that uberthemes receive the reader's fullest

attention and credulity, author will position them
at optimal points in the novel. Those points are
(1) immediately after the first confrontations have
grabbed reader's interest, and reader's credulity
is highest; (2) at the beginning of chapters,
where reader's attention is highest; (3) after a
highly gripping adaction that elevates reader's
attention; (4) in conjunction with entertaining
twists such as change to a new and unique
setting, or in the context of a comic confrontation
where reader's attention is also higher; and (5)
when skanomy has increased reader's credulity.

Readers are more credulous at some points in

the novel reading experience. These are optimal
points for the insertion of ubertheme. As any
rhetorician knows, following a shock, a heart-
warming anecdote or a joke, audiences will be
less critical. Readers will be less critical at the
beginning of the novel because they are in a
data-accumulation mode then and not critical.
Likewise reader will be uncritically open to new
information at the introduction of a new
character. Reader will be especially eager, at
certain points in the novel, to acquire information
and will temporarily accept information
uncritically in hopes of discovering clues as to
the course and nature of events and thus
empowering himself. He knows he may be being
fed misinformation and will have to apply critical
scrutiny once better informed. Reader knows he
dare not ignore information, though it may be
misrepresented, because he does not know
whether or not it will be valuable in the
construction of werschema.

Incidentally, the student may be surprised that

author does not attempt to restate or summarize
the uberthemes at the end of the novel. Instead
he distributes the uberthemes in bits and pieces
throughout the novel. There is a rhetorical
reason for doing that. The author wants the
uberthemes to seem a rationale part of the
narrator's commentary, rather than as a
sententious piece of oratory. In the small space
of the short novel a long rational argument for the
uberthemes, presented as data, propositions and
conclusions, would be inappropriate. Though
authors may venture a few short studied
arguments, authors will rely on the above-
mentioned rhetorical and novel-writing devices to
persuade reader of his ubertheme exposition.

Author will also make arguments for ubertheme

by exemplifying them in the action. Characters
act as symbols or metaphors for aspects of the
ubertheme argument. Author exemplifies
ubertheme through dialog or through behaviors.
In Cuckoos, chapter 12 presents a dramatization
of the ubertheme, ridiculing the post-war
generation's delusions of grandeur in the form of
a luxury nursing home and a demented
housewife who laughs at her easy lifestyle and
scorns a duty to care for children.

For clarity's sake, a distinction should be made

between ubertheme and author's casual
sententious opinions interspersed in the novel.
At moments in the novel when reader's attention
has been pricked, an author may find the
temptation to insert off-topic opinions almost
irresistible. Those sententious opinions add
nothing to the novel's effect, but may interest the
reader. The author must avoid squandering
primary moments of reader credulity to those off-
topic sententious opinions when he could be
using them for ubertheme exposition.

Thema

Thema is a schema—a formula for evaluating the

survival value of information, allowing humans to
act quickly when presented with new
circumstance. Specifically, thema is the end-
schema of the novel, the schema that author
inculcates into reader through the devices of the
novel. (It is a replacement for the dysfunctional
startema.) The Cuckoos thema is a reification of
the archetype of nurturer. We seek a nurturer
because we are born with an archetype of
Incompleteness of Self. Even before we are
born, we know we will have to rely on others.
And our first instinct is to seek another person.

All of what has been said about the rhetorical

and exemplified presentations of ubertheme, can
be said for thema. Author presents his
arguments for thema when reader is most
credulous. Inculcating a thema also relies
heavily on exemplification by action. In Cuckoos,
the antag's actions offer proof of the validity of
the thema ("Not all mothers are nurturing.")
Novels need not have a character who so directly
exemplifies the thema. But that strategy is an
easy way to support a thema.

Believability and Conrelact

If a novel were 100% believable to a critical eye,

it would probably require extraordinary length to
explain convincingly the relations of all its
circumstances. Readers will tolerate
unbelievable actions and coincidences in the
name of furthering the action. However they
must egotify their novel reading experience to
make themselves feel they are live witnesses to
actual events. Author uses skanomy to make
reader suspend critical judgment of events. He
also uses devices such as shock, vividness,
bizarreness, and irony to make circumstances
believable.

There are certain points in the novel, especially

chapters 4-6 when reader is less tolerant of
author's devices, and it is at that point that an
unskilled author loses his readers. Readers,
subconsciously, resent the control a clever
author has over their gullibility. Author must
temper his seemingly free license to impose on
reader. For example, he must suppress his
desire to expedite the actions by using
circumstances that are outrageously and patently
coincidental—without increasing reader's
credulity through skanomy. On the other hand, if
author timidly panders to reader's expectations of
believability, he is allowing reader to dictate the
action and narrative.

Entertainment/Sops

Goading reader's curiosity or amusing him is

often necessary in order to expose him to action
for which author has provided little or no
antecedents, action that on the face of it has little
believability. Sops and entertainments also
function to maintain reader's interest through dull
set-ups to later action. A unique setting, for
example, can mask a lot of author's devices. In
Cuckoos the change in setting to Nebraska and
Mexico allows author to reveal antag's secrets to
emcair and avedram, and the comedy of the
Tuscana Elder Resort lures reader into a lengthy
illustration of the ubertheme.

Entertainment also serves to allow reader's mind

to rest after intense adaction.

CHART 1
Major Writing Tasks for the Short Novel,
Illustrated Chapter-by-Chapter in Two Cuckoos

TERMS IN ALL CAPITALS REFER TO THE LIST OF SKANOMY

DEVICES, CHART 2, OF THIS WEBPAGE
 CHAPTER 1 – HOOK

WRITING TASK HOW USED IN TWO CUCKOOS

Situa · show antag has exhausted her

coping mechanisms (which will set
up her later transfer of aggression
to emcair) [Colna's coping with guilt
over loss of stillborn]
· use unusual situa to grab attention
[elder woman in a fertility clinic]
Adaction · present several concurrent
adactions [doctor versus nurse;
doctor versus patient; mother
versus son]
Skanomy · stimulate reader to construct a
werschema [by immediately
presenting conflicts]
· RELEVANCY (Who are the novel's
main characters?)
· INFARVING (narrative begins in mid-
conflict, forcing reader to intuit the
background to circumstances)
· use unusual circumstances,
preventing reader from employing
his experience to orient himself to
the situa [conflict about how to deal
with a patient in a fertility clinic;
conflict with the patient herself, and
the patient's attempts to control her
manic son in the waiting room]
· design adaction to provide a
tantalizing clue as to the true
nature of the coming emasis [antag
has a strange obsession with
infants]
Conrelact · stimulate the reader to engage
aggressively with the author (to
 take up author's challenge to figure
out what is going on. Only a fiction
writer would make a reader go
through hoops to figure out what is
happening.)
· convince reader that the novel will
provide useful survival information
[i.e., how to fathom someone's
peculiar obsession]

CHAPTER 2 – IDENTIFY KERUNDS

Egotifying · stimulate Tergathy [show emcair's

earnestness, his loyalty to parent-
ideal]
· stimulate Pagathy [show antag's
greed, her cruelty, her theft]
Situa · identify kerunds and introduce
anterreg
· describe the circumstance of their
relationship to each other
· describe their relative powers
· describe their needs
Adaction · present antag's first strike against
emcair [killing lab animal]
Skanomy · SHOCK [startling death of animal]
· UNRELIEVED TENSION [what will be
the fallout from animal's death]
Schema · introduce startema as motivation
Progression for emcair's actions [his duty to
mother induces him to drop
everything to go meet her]
Thema · exemplify Thema by situa [antag as
unmotherly despite being mother]
Ubertheme · exemplify by situa [antag’s selfish
extravagance, yet expecting
younger generation to foot the bill]
 · narrator's commentary about the
luck of the post WWII generation, a
small generation with the world at
its feet after WWII, yet retaining
their uncharitable depression-era
outlooks. Reader eager here for
information on antag, so absorbs
the commentary without hesitating.
That ubertheme commentary is set
up by the situa.]
Entertainment/Sops · create high drama [cat's murder]
· use an unusual environment
[scientific research lab]

CHAPTER 3 – DISPLAY OF ANTAG’S POWER

Egotifying · Pagathy [antag's abuse of

everyone]
Setting · creating a hostile, counter-intuitive
environment [with children but
unfriendly to them; antag's strange
love/hate attitude toward
babies/children]
Adaction · kerflats trying to defend themselves
from antag's display of power
[Teresa and Patrick]
· give reader feedback on his hopes:
grant his hopes for limits to antag's
powers [kerflats Patrick and Teresa
manage to defend themselves from
antag's abuse]
Skanomy · INFARVING [antag abuses kerflats
Teresa and Patrick. Reader does
not know until the chapter end
whether kerflats are capable of
defending themselves]
Ubertheme · exemplifying [antag as symbol of
 ubertheme—especially in her
generation's callousness about
children, and selfish disconcern for
their wellbeing after infancy]
· exposition [antag's generation's
generally callous treatment of
children]
Believability · use drama with lifelike characters,
dialogs and circumstances, to
create aura of reality
· make antag believable by graphic
description of adaction
Conrelact · author casts his lot with those who
like the horror genre (believing that
it is generally popular among
contemporary readers. Readers
who cannot bear horror devices,
such as savagery, graphic
vividness and shocks, ought to
abandon the novel this point).

CHAPTER 4 – PRESENTING THE AVEDRAM

Egotifying · Pagathy [antag's pride in cheating

and scheming for benefits]
Situa · introduce avedram and provide
reason for her indispensability
[infant]
· avedram's self-empowerment [her
curiosity leads to discovering
shrine]
Adaction · antag's attempts to weaken
avedram's self-aggrandisement
[antag's chastisement of avedram's
presumptions (of being a greater
welfare scammer than antag)]
· antag's angry attempts at
controlling avedram's wantonness
[avedram's snooping around]
 · TEASE [antag's mention of the
"burden of twins"]
Skanomy · AMBIGUITY [antag's benefits fraud a
point of vulnerability?]
· INFARVING [not revealing antag's
motivation for fraud, the nature of
her dislike of her twins, and
contents of secret closet]
Ubertheme · exemplifying ubertheme [bragging
match]
Believability · introduction of a new major
character (avedram) puts reader
into a data-acquisition mode and
hence increases reader's credulity
Entertainment/Sops · comedy [comic bragging match—
an ubertheme lampoon of public
benefits]

CHAPTER 5 – TERGATHY WITH EMCAIR

Egotifying · Tergathy (with emcair as a result of

his (underdog) conflict with
anterreg)
Situa · emcair motivated to encounter
antag [sees antag as solution to his
need for emotional support]
· startema oracle (lab assistant)
promotes [duty to mother] in line
with startema
Adaction · red herring crisis (conflict with
anterreg reveals emcair's strong
determination)
· show emcair's discontent with self
[regarding inability to act to improve
social life]
Skanomy · UNRELIEVED TENSION [conflict with
anterreg not decided (emcair has
not conceded to anterreg)]
 · FOREBODING (caused by emcair's
determination to interact with
antag, in accord with startema,
despite the manifest dangers of
contact with antag)
Schema · restate startema [emcair admires
Progression lab assistant's rapport with her
mother, sees that as natural]
· restate emcair's needs [needs for
fuller social life and emotional
support]
Entertainment/Sops · present author's sententious
opinion [a commentary on animals
as research subjects]

CHAPTER 6 – ANTAG’S POWER ASCENDANCY

Situa · set up for emasis action [trip to

Midwest]
Adaction · show emcair uncovering antag's
sabotage (unwittingly) [antag's
poisoning cats]
· show antag battling to keep her
motives secret [her attempts to
discourage emcair from
accompanying her to her
hometown]
Skanomy · MISLEADING (about antag's real
intentions [re feeding cats])

CHAPTER 7 – EMASIS

Situa · present the Emasis (emcair unable

to confront antag despite his
discovery of her active hostility)
· show emcair empowered by that
knowledge [he now knows to be
suspicious of antag's every action]
 · continue antag's verbal abuse
[antag's accusing emcair of mental
problems]
· give hints of motives for some of
antag's actions [antag' desire to
escape from her dull hometown
and her delusions about life "on the
outside", her obsession with
stillborn]
Adaction · show antag protecting source of
her (evil) guilt [Andrew's grave]
· have antag subject emcair to peril
[disavowing emcair's presence in
the burning house]
· show the scale of antag's enmity
[her attempt to leave him to burn in
the house]
Skanomy · FLOUTING HOPES. Flout reader's
hope that antag will become the
“nurturing mother” of the startema
[she leaves son to die in burning
house]
· SHOCK reader with antag's active
hostility toward emcair [her insults
and her malevolent consignment of
emcair to the burning house]
· use adaction to demonstrate
antag's power ascendancy over
emcair [her taunts and bullying of
emcair]
Schema · confront emcair with utter failure of
Progression startema [his mother is not
nurturing]
Entertainment/Sops · change to a new, bizarre, setting
[antag’s hometown out on the
prairie, which brings emcair closer
to antag's secrets and to her
wrathful malevolence]
 CHAPTER 8 – EMCAIR’S EMPOWERMENT

Situa · show that antag has become quite

paranoid and defensive [shuffling
Andrew's remains]
· empower emcair by third-party
revelation [explanation of “Andrew”
by priest]
Adaction · show that emcair does not confront
antag for explanation of her
revealed hostility [the reason she
left him to burn in the house when
she believed he was inside]
Skanomy · UNRELIEVED TENSION (at emcair's
failure to confront antag regarding
her aggression)

CHAPTER 9 – EMPOWERING AVEDRAM

Situa · empower avedram with insider ally

[Patrick]
· show antag's vulnerability on the
score of insider's hostility [the
enmity of her son Patrick]
Adaction · have avedram assert power over
weak kerflat [chastising Patrick
regarding Internet sex guests]
Entertainment/Sops · show Lust thwarted by Self-
righteousness [Patrick
apprehended by avedram]

CHAPTER 10 – RED HERRING CRISIS

Situa · show that emcair has become

paranoid [he imagines some of his
colleagues have tried to sabotage
his academic work]
· have emcair determine to try again
 at improving relations with antag
[after a long repetition of the
startema by lab assistant, he
leaves the lab to visit his mother at
her home]
Adaction · have emcair tangle with anterreg
again while looking for perpetrator
of recent attack on him [death of
cats]
Skanomy · UNRELIEVED TENSION (reader tired of
waiting for emcair to confront
antag, despite his many
opportunities to do so)
· UNRELIEVED TENSION (no resolution
to threat of mystery saboteur
[antag])
· UNRELIEVED TENSION (leave
unstated the long term
consequence of emcair's loss in
confrontation with anterreg, with no
hints as to its resolution [anterreg
brushes off emcair’s confrontation
about cats’ deaths])
Schema · show that emcair is still clinging to
Progression startema [with aid of startema
oracle, the lab assistant]
Conrelact · Reader is tired of waiting for emcair
to drop the startema and confront
his mother. Author continues to
impose startema through
exposition [lab assistant] even
though author has already
debunked it through exemplification
[antag' actions]. Author’s waffling
on the point of supporting or
debunking the startema goads
reader to "take control" of the
action (through wiset)
 CHAPTER 11 – REALIZATION

Situa · have kerflat [Patrick] reveal his

antagonism toward antag [his
malicious fantasy about getting his
mother’s money]
· show avedram undermining antag's
power (revealing antag's resources
[drug cache] to emcair)
· show avedram keen to acquire
information about antag's
resources [her keen interest in
antag's stash of pesos]
Adaction · antag's abuse of kerflat Patrick
furthers his hostility
· A flat confrontation from which
emcair escapes verbally abused,
but empowered [by knowledge of
drug cache, when antag catches
him snooping around her bedroom
with avedram]
Skanomy · UNRELIEVED TENSION (withholding
resolution of conflict)
Schema · Realization (emcair embraces
Progression thema) [emcair discovers antag's
drug cache and realizes that antag
killed his cats]
Entertainment/Sops · antag’s histrionic lambasting her
son's expectation of charity
(regarding sending him to cooking
school)

CHAPTER 12 – ILLUSTRATING THE UBERTHEME

Ubertheme · exemplify uberthemes [displaying

the selfishness of post-war
generation, their delusions of
 grandeur, the laziness of the
housewife, their neglect of children]
Entertainment/Sops · absurd new setting [Tuscana Elder
Care Resort]
· mania of kerflat [Patrick]
· demented woman (a sop for
exposition of the ubertheme)

CHAPTER 13 – MALSCHEMA

Situa · show that emcair is still too weak to

confront antag [he reasserts his
duty to her as his mother]
Skanomy · UNRELIEVED TENSION (withholding
resolution of conflict) [author makes
emcair too fearful and respectful to
confront antag]
Schema · show emcair stuck in malschema
Progression [in a state of denial]

CHAPTER 14 – FURTHER EMPOWERING AVEDRAM

Egotifying · stimulate Wiset (antag's perverse

aggression becomes unbearable to
reader who wisets her downfall)
Situa · show antag desperate to invigorate
herself [by contact with baby]
Adaction · bring avedram and antag into
conflict over control [conflict over
handling of infant]
· show that antag makes an arch-
enemy of avedram [selfishly
drinking baby's milk]
· have avedram make a deadly
attack on antag [drugging the milk]
Skanomy · FLOUTING HOPES of avedram's
ascendancy over antag [failed
poisoning attempt]
 · SHOCK [antag drinking milk]

CHAPTER 15 – SKANOMY/WISET

Egotifying · stimulate Wiset (hoping for antag's

vanquishment) [because of antag's
seeming invulnerability despite her
maliciousness]
· stimulate Pagathy [reader’s ire
raised by antag's disdain for locals,
complicity with money launderers,
her mock religious devotion]
Situa · provide avedram with opportunities
to get intimate information about
antag [by accompanying her to
Mexico]
Adaction · have antag continue her campaign
of harassment against emcair
[bomb threat]
Skanomy · Werschema Exhaustion (due to
constant conflicts between antag,
emcair and avedram)
· UNRELIEVED TENSION (author
postpones to another chapter
emcair's reaction to antag's most
recent attack)
Ubertheme · exposition by metaphor (antag's
disdain for the Mexican community
is a metaphor for the "I got mine.
You get your own." arrogance of
post-war generation)
Entertainment/Sops · a new environment [filled with post-
war generation American villas
near Cuernavaca. Author uses
description of the community as an
excuse for further exposition of the
ubertheme.]

CHAPTER 16 – SALVATION
Situa · give emcair the power/willingness
to finally confront antag [he
recognizes antag's voice in the
bomb threat call]

CHAPTER 17 – GIVING AVEDRAM EVEN MORE

POWER

Situa · empower avedram with information

about antag's erstwhile secrets
[money laundering, shrine to
stillborn, tax evasion, welfare fraud]
· make avedram protective of herself
[keeping her child from antag]
· show antag’s physical powers are
failing (due to akheel) [rebound of
rheumatic symptoms after drugs in
baby's milk wear off]
· [the sudden appearance of
scorpion, which is symbolic of
antag's religious pretenses and her
vulnerability to extermination]
Skanomy · UNRELIEVED TENSION [author
retrogrades in time and so avoids
confrontation between antag and
emcair]
· have avedram assert herself
against antag [withholding infant
from antag]
Entertainment/Sops · shift of scene [to Mexico]

CHAPTER 18 – DENU

Egotifying · stimulate Pagathy [antag's

carelessness leads to infant's
death; antag abusive to avedram
even after infant's death; antag's
malicious physical attack upon
 avedram]
· stimulate Wiset (reader
passionately wisets antag's
destruction because of the
unbearable savagery of antag's
actions)
Situa · show antag's akheels make her
reckless, desperate for relief
[alcohol, anti-rheumatic elixir milk]
· empower avedram by knowledge
from antag's kerflat relative
[Patrick]
· show antag desperate for relief
from her furor and akheels [she
runs to the hot spring ripping at her
clothes]
Adaction · have avedram's powers wounded
by a savage attack by antag [the
accidental death of the infant]
· show avedram obsessed with
antag's money [extracting
information about antag's income
from Patrick]
· empower avedram with rage after
antag's hideous abuse [antag
taunts avedram about having
another child to replace the one
she lost]
· have avedram revenge herself on
antag [placing her dead baby in
antag's dead stillborn's clothes]
· have antag physically abuse
avedram [barbiturate injection and
milk extraction]
· have a showdown between emcair
and antag [antag reveals the
reason for her animosity toward
emcair; emcair decries antag's
irrationality in worshiping her
stillborn]
 · have akheels impair antag [her
rheumatism rebounds after effects
of drugs in mother's milk wears off;
she has taken to drinking
excessively]
· empower emcair with anger over
antag's damning insults [when
emcair confronts antag at her
stillborn's shrine, she tells him he is
nothing but an imposter. Antag's
insults destroy any feeling of duty
emcair may have to her]
Skanomy · SHOCK (author uses shock
repeatedly: death of avedram's
infant; antag's horrible abuse of
grieving avedram; avedram's
revenge of placing her dead baby
in antag's dead stillborn's clothes;
antag's physical attack on
avedram; antag's abuse of emcair
when he confronts her)
· Reader in state of skanomy, so
reluctant to attempt werschema

CHAPTER 19 – TRIUMPH

Egotify · provoke reader to egotify the denu

[when his wiset seemingly
vanquishes antag]
Adaction · have antag destroy herself
[desperate to sooth her anger, a
victim of her akheel harpies (and
drugs)]
· have emcair administer coup de
grace [abandoning antag to
avedram]
· show avedram's triumph [she
becomes the pivot of a conspiracy
 to exploit the paralyzed antag]

CHAPTER 20 – PRACTICATION

Situa · show emcair using thema to

improve his life-planning [to be
more realistic about his academic
ambitions]

CHART 2
LIST OF SKANOMY DEVICES

FUNCTION NAME OF DEVICE

Create ambiguity. Provide reader with AMBIGUATING

several possible interpretations of
circumstances or actions.

Result: hindered werschema

formation

Use a rapid change of circumstances, CHANGE

so rapid as to prevent reader from CIRCUMSTANCES
doing the mental work necessary to
create a viable werschema before an
adaction occurs.

Result: guesswork instead of a real

werschema

Reduce situa to a complicated COMPLICATIONS

interrelation of circumstances, that
make perpetrator/victim and
cause/effect difficult to disentangle.

Result: weak, hindered werschema

Lead reader to a certain (false) belief FEEDALZ

and then confirms it in an adaction.

Result: reader's confidence is

raised unwarrantedly, and a false
belief acquired, all handicapping
reader's future werschema

Flout reader's expectations by giving FLOUTING

adaction an unusual outcome, using EXPECTATIONS
information disguised/concealed from
reader.

Result: reader's werschema fails to

predict outcome of action

Encourage reader to hope for a FLOUTING HOPES

certain outcome to adaction, and then
flout him.

Result: reader loses confidence

Create a foreboding of future FOREBODING

adaction. That will cause reader to
set aside energy reserves and
become vigilant.

Result: reader's energies

exhausted

Disguise adactions as something HIDING ADACTION

else, give false clues that an adaction
has ended, or, in the narrative,
stopping and starting the adaction, so
that its scenario is never clear.

Result: no feedback on werschema

Present adaction so suddenly that IMMEDIATE DECISION

reader has no time to formulate a
werschema but must rely ones he has
used before.

Result: guesswork instead of a real

werschema

Deliberately withhold exposition of INFARVING

vital information about the situa, so
reader has inadequate data on which
to create werschema.

Result: incomplete werschema

Deliberately entice reader into MISLEADING

interpreting a symbol, a circumstance,
or an action incorrectly, so as to make
his werschema worthless for
predicting the outcome of an adaction.

Result: werschema fails to predict

adaction

Provide no clues as to whether RELEVANCY

adaction will contribute to
development/resolution of emasis
(e.g., reader cannot identify players in
a conflict as kerunds or kerflats, or
anterreg). [Despite RELEVANCY being
a device to lessen the novel reader's
self-confidence, Theater of the
Absurd has shown that people can
enjoy an entire play with no
RELEVANCY. The play's adaction
supports no thema and has no
resolution; it is simply drama for its
own sake.]

Result: reader reluctant to form

werschema

Use shock (e.g., repulsive actions, SHOCK

highly abrupt disjuncture of events).

Result: reader cannot think clearly

enough to create werschema

Reader will be irritated by author's SOPS

sometime arrogance. That irritation
can be assuaged with
amusing/interesting sops.

Result: reader continues to make

werschema and try to outwit author
as before

Use teases (promise data to help TEASES

reader create werschema and then
providing nothing, e.g., from Cuckoos:
"Neal often asked himself how it was
he had risen and survived. What was
it that had built up his character?"
Reader thinks the answer to that
rhetorical question will enable him to
size up Neal’s power. But author
leaves the question unanswered.]

Result: reader reluctant to create

werschema

Create unrelieved tension/suspense, UNRELIEVED TENSION

provoke impatience (by not bringing
tensions to a confrontation or not
resolving a confrontation).

Result: mental exhaustion

Make abrupt changes in narrative VIEWPOINT CHANGES

point of view (from compassionate to
critical or realistic) in an arbitrary
fashion.
Result: without a key to narrator's
sympathies, reader can be less
confident the data presented is
accurate. Thus he he cannot
create werschema with full
confidence.

The end.