![]() Bystander: Seven Stories from the New Espionage Collection
-- EXCERPT: Several of us were gathered in the television room, waiting for the third and final cigarette break — the last activity of the day. We were all watching NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, a preferred television program of the infirm, it seemed. I was reflecting on how bad the astigmatism in my right eye had gotten since my admittance to the Hampton Behavioral Health Facility, and I was thinking about what I would say to Lester Holt in a live television interview as I watched NBC Nightly News with my left eye closed. Lester Holt: Are you the spokesperson for your generation? Me: Yes. Then I reach out. And I throttle that poor, trustworthy news anchor. I’ll make a great famous person. This particular Nightly News segment was a follow-up to a story they had done earlier in the year about the instances of encephalitis in frozen broccoli, the subsequent cover-up by the agricultural conglomerates, and, ultimately, the manufacture of synthetic broccoli. This Nightly News segment included an interview with The Executive Agricultural Secretary of the United States. The interview illuminated several things, important to me personally:
Slowly, I put one, two, and three together, but I only arrived at a sum total of five. I blamed the medication for this. Meanwhile, The Man Who Ate the Letter H, my roommate at the Hampton Behavioral Health Facility, had leapt upon The Co-Executive Agricultural Secretary, I mean, like right up onto his knees, screaming and shaking him by the sweater vest. I marveled at his balance and tried to ignore the one-sided fighting. The Co-Executive Agricultural Secretary was still just babbling and shaking his head. Even now, I was adding things up and I still didn’t know what was happening. Later on that night, The Man Who Ate The Letter H told me everything.
in Bystander: Seven Stories from the New Espionage Collection ![]()
GIVEAWAY! Comments are closed.
|
Archives
February 2025
Categories
All
|