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Read Ebook: The Back of Our Heads by Barr Stephen Dillon Diane Illustrator Dillon Leo Illustrator
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Ebook has 498 lines and 19654 words, and 10 pages
The Back of Our Heads
Illustrated by DILLON
She traveled from life to death and back again like a commuter on the 5:15 ... except each trip brought her nearer the beginning of the line!
In reading this report, it must be borne in mind that when the word "they" is used, it does not refer necessarily to separate entities as individuals.
It is possible that a closer analogy would be the cells of an organism--which, in a sense, we ourselves become when we are in a pack or forming a mob.
On the other hand, that particular cell or entity which this report deals with exhibited at all times marked individuality--even eccentricity--and will hereinafter be referred to as "she." This is because "she" invariably assumed a female form when visiting us, and because she furthermore gave every indication of that type of mind and point of view which is generally met with in the more noticeable, effective or contentious members of that sex.
As she put it herself during the hearing, she was always in hot water.
The four teen-agers--one girl, three boys--weren't allowed in the bar, so they went down the street to a joint where there were a soda fountain, booths and a jukebox. They sat in a booth and a waitress came to take the orders: three hot dogs and three cokes.
"What about you, dear?"
"Just a glass of water." The waitress started to leave. "No, wait--gimme a white on rye, too."
The waitress left, then came back again. "What was that you wanted, dear? Some kind of rye-bread sandwich?"
"Changed my mind. Make it a buttered pecan, but tell 'em to go easy on the butter. And I don't want no French dressing. Make it on whole wheat."
"Yeah, only malted. With lettuce and chocolate sprinkles."
"Who you kiddin'?" the waitress said, and turned to go.
"No, hold it. Tell Joe to please scramble them on both sides."
"So okay, Joseph, then. Tell him just a boiled egg sunny side up."
The waitress left, frowning.
"Our Miss Framis," one of the boys said, meaning the girl, and the others smiled. They looked as though they were sneering at the same time and hoped they would be taken for juvenile delinquents.
There were two very odd-looking men in the booth opposite and they were listening to the conversation. Their oddness lay in an atmosphere rather than in any physical abnormality. The girl noticed them and nudged one of the boys.
The three boys looked at the men resentfully and one of them said something under his breath, but the girl said, "Button it." Then she asked the men opposite, "Lookin' for someone, mister?"
The two men looked away, and this made the boys feel brave. One of them said, "Let's give 'em the works."
"No, leave it to me." The girl got up and went across to the two men. "Me and my friends was wondering. Maybe you gentlemen would like to come to a trake in the gort later?"
The three boys snickered and the men looked up at the girl and waited with blank faces.
"Or maybe you'd rather we put on a hanse for you?" she said.
"No, sit down," one of the men--the bigger one--said, and moved back to make room for her. She glanced at him with surprise for a moment and sat down next to him.
One of the boys started to get up when he saw this, but the others pulled him down again.
"What did you say to us just now?" the big man asked. "It was too small in here."
She shook her head and frowned. "Why, that was just ... I said did you want for us to put on a hanse, is all." She had a rather feeble grin.
"Yes," the big man said. "We do."
She glanced back at her friends nervously, and then at the man again. "I don't get you," she said.
"Neither do we," the smaller man said.
The boys across the room were listening quietly and then one of them said, "Go on, tell 'em, Miss Framis."
"We just want you to quint," the big man said, "and won't thursday on it."
She stared at him without expression and got up slowly. She went over to her friends. "Let's get out of here," she said.
She was shivering.
Q. You say you object to this line of questioning?
A. No, I just don't like being spied on. And it made the kids ... mad. They wrecked the car and that meant starting all over again.
Q. The car?
A. Yes, their hot-rod. When we got outside, they acted the way teen-agers do and went too fast. They were sore at those spies--they took it out on the car, so it went off the road. It turned over three times and we were all killed.
Q. They were not spies. They were acting on their own.
Q. It is your own fault if you were split. You cannot blame us. This has happened before--you have aimed badly and arrived wrong. Don't forget about the help.
Q. This has not been reported.
A. I'm reporting it now. It wasn't dull in the least, but they were very superstitious about cats in those days, and they decided I was possessed.
Q. They saw through you?
A. Oh, yes. People usually do.
Q. You couldn't have been very successful if they saw through you.
A. It doesn't make any difference if they see through you. The important thing is to see through them.
Q. But you were a cat.
A. Cats are in a very good position to see through people. I think they sensed that. Anyway, I was ... done away with.
Q. Burned again?
A. Yes.
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