[Pg 81] "I don't see what's troubling you," said Fabiola. "You'd think I'd said heart or something." "Maybe it's the name," Stern said. "I can't even get myself to say it." It sounded to Stern like a mean little animal with a hairy face. See the coarse-tufted, angry little ulcer, children. You must learn to avoid him because of his vicious temper. He is not nice like our friend the squirrel. And here Stern had one running around inside him.... "I can see all of this if I'd said heart," Fabiola said, beginning to write. "All right, we'll get right at her. We can do it without moving in." "Don't write," said Stern, searching for some last-ditch argument that would force Fabiola to reconsider. The writing would make it final. If he could get Fabiola to hold off on that, perhaps a last-minute call from Colonel Treadwell would clear him. "I wear these tight pants," Stern said. "Really tight. I think the homosexuals are influencing all the clothes we wear, and it's silly, but I wear them anyway. I can hardly breathe, I wear them so tight. Do you think that might have done it?" "No," said Fabiola, filling up little pieces of paper with furious scribbles. "You've definitely got one in there." Once, on a scholarship exam, Stern had gotten stuck on the very first question. There were more than four hundred to go, but, instead of hurrying on to the next, he had continued for some reason to wrestle with the first, aware that time was flying. Unable to break through on the answer, he had felt a thickness start up in his throat and then had pitched forward on the floor, later to be revived in the girls' bathroom, all chances of passing the exam up in smoke. The same thickness formed in his throat now[Pg 82] and he toppled forward into Fabiola's carpeting, not quite losing consciousness. [Pg 82] "I didn't say heart," Fabiola said, leaning forward. "I could understand if I'd said heart." Helped to his feet, Stern felt better immediately. It was as though he had finally demonstrated how seriously he was opposed to having an ulcer. "I think we ought to bed this one down for a while," the doctor said, writing again. "I know an inexpensive place. Can you get free?"
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