"He leaped up blind, hands out or claws out, he leaped up in a foam of stink and screams, no matter what next but up—"It happened he touched the clerk first. The clerk was slow with disinterest. And when the man touched he found a great deal of final strength and with his hands clamped around the clerk's neck got dragged out of the box because the clerk was dragging and the captain tried to help drag the clerk free. Before this man from the box let go they had to hit him twice on the back of the head, with the wooden axe handle."
The Box
by Peter Rabe
(Gold Medal, 1962)
Can't tell you how much I enjoy starting the day with these heart-warming words. And that is not meant to be ironic. They send me off to my PC full of resolve.
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