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0 & = Big hunk of ice shelf broke off and fell in, some of it on TV, how big he did not know, big as a building or big as a city or big as half a small state, how would he know? That ice important the TV said. The ice necessary to our project. Afraid that ice somehow—not now—some time—involved with him— not directly—involved with him in some bad way. Maybe the TV said. The rest, they had nothing to do with him, those people on TV, the rich, the celebrities, the politicians, the writers, the painters, the singers, the religious, the neighbors—any of them. The Pop Star Of Good Intentions with his precious superior goodness should be muzzled or killed—told yes, yes, yes and put far out of sight— the ubiquity of virtue as identity, otherness. Was that all TV had for him? Some preacher who could not shut up. What with the Son of God and what was he—how was he—and with the Noble Savage—and he was supposed to compete with which when he could hardly see and was a poor athlete? The story was—he thought—they were there in paradise, and paradise was not good enough for them, so they had to get out. Or it was the other way. Paradise was not bad enough for them, so they wrecked it. Something like that. Had to be some fish under that ice or if not fish some squid or shrimp or creature. Something down there. And that shelf coming loose could be no good for whatever was below though maybe only a matter of displacement. Displacement could be lethal. He, after all, displaced from his once unhappy home. Done now with seeing the future. Ice or no ice. He had not seen the ice—he had seen the TV image of the ice. And and. She’d started every note that way but not with the word, with the symbol. Ampersand. And not a full ampersand at that. Her ampersand like a plus. Her ampersand like a cross. That woman who was not for him. He who was not for her. The life that was not for them. The world he could not abide. All of it that ice and what did it or the dirt or the sky matter? It mattered, he knew. It was that he could do nothing. With her too. He tried and she tried and they tried and ended. End. & 0 ...

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