![]() ![]() His position with a large insurance company was safe and steady. A small job a small room these quite comfortably fitted his small desires. The highways for others-the byways for him. Luckier than most men, he never was troubled by an all-consuming ambition. Jay grew older and finally left home to establish his own way in the world. The reverberations went on and on and on. It bad the constant impact of a sledge-hammer swung against a huge brazen gong. Jay finally fainted.Ī graphic experience is forever etched upon the consciousness of a child. down and down it beat against the semi-conscious jerking form that was Jay Swarz. Things, after a while resolved into a whirling world of unbeheved torture. The steadily flailing strip of leather effectively stifled everything but an agonized wish for death. Jay's cry of pain suffered the same brief span that his gasp had lasted. The shaving strop was seized, raised aloft, then brought down with a singing swish. His gasp was cut off as a gnarled hand jerked at the back of his collar. "It was the big word I didn't understand. "Ungodly brat! You were lasciviously admiring yourself!" He swerved, nearly upsetting himself, and paled. The mirror helped a great deal as he probed and poked. He'd lost a tooth, as boys will, and was entirely engrossed in exploring the bloody cavity with an inquisitive finger. O ne of Jay's most memorable recollections was the time that he had been caught. Thus, logically, it was a thing to remain unseen avoided. The human form was a debased thing of evil that only served to lead its owner off the garden path. How? By looking, smiling at, daring to admire one's reflected form in a mirror. Serving the interests of virtue, one might do everything in one's power. but never the immodest truth.īut all these bugaboos paled before the one strict immutable rule that pervaded the Swarz household. Any simple excuse to leave the room was acceptable under those conditions. ![]() That would have been grievously shocking. It he had to go to the lavatory it would never do to say so. If, even in the privacy of one's room, it was immodest and wrong to undress before dousing the lights, he carefully put out the lights before removing his breeches. He was the sort born to accept orders unquestioningly. Indoors, their comportment was such as to assure them frontrow seats in the heavenly orchestra of harpists. No matter the season, their bodies were swathed in layer upon layer of raiment. they balanced themselves with practiced step upon the tightrope of virtue. Jay Swarz' family proudly outdid themselves in righteous self-effacement.Ĭompletely cloaked with the mantle of selflessness. In an era where modesty was considerably more than a fetish an era where the most innocuous words called down condemnation upon the luckless user. To speak with exactitude, it is better to say that he had been brought up primly. But that is an expression that has lost its true meaning. Once again he shot a covert glance at the mirror. Three drinks before dinner and his reactions unmistakably informed him that he'd had enough. He wore his habits the way he wore his clothes. Most certainly, then, he would have looked into mirrors a great deal oftener.īut Jay Swarz was a mild man a meek man a man completely devoid of ego. It is logical to suppose that he would have known of it sooner if he had been a vainer man. He had first noticed it a short time ago seven days to be exact. A pulse was drumming fiercely in his forehead as he backed away from the mirror. He closed one eye entirely, then opened it, slowly, Hoping against hope, he then worked his tongue into a corner of his cheek and rotated it about. His concentration was so great that he didn't know he had spoken aloud. ![]()
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