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.“So what happened?” I asked.“To this day, I really don’t know,” he said, and his bewilderment seemed genuine.“Things were going so well.I was happy, and I had great plans for a really splendid art exhibition that would have brought money and good publicity to The Institute.But then, suddenly, overnight, I was frozen out.I was an enemy.People I’d come to love like brothers and sisters spat when my name was mentioned.” The memory brought pain with it.“When was this?”“Early last December,” he said.“The art exhibition was to have been at Christmas time.But of course there was none.” He looked like a kid who’d been crossed off Santa’s list.“But you don’t know why you were frozen out?” I persisted.“It couldn’t have been over girls at The Institute as Wildenradt said?”He thought about that for a long time, massaging his lean jaw lovingly.“No, I honestly don’t think so.I’ll be honest with you, I like girls, young girls.” He peeked at me to see how I was taking this revelation.“And there is no shortage of friendly young girls at The Institute.”“Could the big freeze have had anything to do with Katie?” I asked, not really hoping for much from the question.He started to answer no automatically, but then paused.“I don’t think so,” he said, “but…”“But what?”“Well, something a bit strange did happen just before … before I wasn’t welcome at The Institute any more.I didn’t really know Katie very well.When she’d first come to live there her mind was so confused that it was hard to communicate with her at all.But,” Verrein went on, “the longer Katie stayed at The Institute, the better she seemed to get, and I began to notice that this was no ordinary girl.There was something very special about her.You could call it soul, if you like.And as autumn came on I got to know her and to like her very much.You know, Katie was a very good singer.And she played guitar, too.I can still remember her sitting on the terrace, playing and singing ‘Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.’ You know, the Bob Dylan song.”I nodded appreciatively just to keep him going.He closed his eyes soulfully and swayed a little, recapturing the scene.I could almost see it myself.“Katie and I became quite close,” he said.“I liked her, and I’m pretty sure she thought of me as something more than a friend.”There must have been some doubt in my expression because Verrein drew himself up like a goosed librarian and insisted: “I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong.Katie wasn’t ready for that yet.I’m not saying that one day…but I’ swear to you, at that time there was nothing between us but affection, purely affection.”“I believe you,” I said, as sincerely as possible, not adding that there were thousands who wouldn’t.“But you were saying that something strange happened, possibly because you were…close to Katie.”He let the little hesitation pass.“Yes, it was very odd,” he said.“I began to notice that some of the old-timers had begun to give me hard looks when I came around the mansion.These were mostly former drug addicts.I’ve never found it easy to understand the drug addict’s mentality, anyway.To me, The Institute had gone a long way past the stage of just drying them out and keeping them away from the needle.”“You began to sense that someone wasn’t too happy with your behavior,” I said.“To put it mildly,” he said.“I began to encounter real hostility at The Institute.Even Tommy Carter seemed to be unfriendly.At first, I shrugged it off, but then, late in November, Don Moffitt got in on the act.”“He was trying to protect Katie’s chastity, too?” I asked.“I don’t know,” Verrein said.“I’ve never liked Moffitt.I think he’s a thug.And when he started to lean on me about Katie, I’m afraid I overreacted.I told him to stay the hell out of my business.”“And then the iron curtain came down,” I said.“No,” Verrein said.“Not exactly.You see,” he said with a self-mocking laugh, “I was convinced that I was a pretty important person around The Institute, and that I could handle professional hard nuts like Moffitt.”“But you were wrong,” I prompted.“I guess so,” he said.“Nothing happened at first, except I kept catching a lot of hostility from the dope fiends.Moffitt pretended I didn’t exist, but I didn’t mind that.But then one day early in December I was sitting in the Horizon Room with some friends when Hugo came wandering in and said casually: ‘Oh, Rudy, about that art exhibition thing you’ve been planning: it’s off [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]