Daniel Keyes

If I didn't understand what was happening at the time, he says, then it doesn't matter. I'm no more to blame than the knife is to blame in a stabbing, or the car in a collision.
"But I'm not an inanimate object," I argued. I'm a person."
He looked confused for a moment and then laughed. "Of course, Charlie. But I wasn't referring to now. I meant before the operation."
Smug, pompous—I felt like hitting him too. "I was a person before the operation. In case you forgot—"
"Yes, of course, Charlie. Don't misunderstand. But it was different…" And then he remembered that he had to check some charts in the lab.

only her voice, but her touch, her look, her very presence—all changed. It was as if her magnetic poles had reversed and where they had once attracted now repelled.

Even as I try to get her out of my mind, the memories seep back from the past to contaminate the here and now.

If I could reach out into the past of my memories, I would make her see how much she was hurting me.

Baghdad-on-the-Hudson

shudder pass over

whisked the neckcloth off

That would make it all real. If he knew I was his son, then I would be a person.

pat me on the head

ash tray overflowing