took one look and slammed steel shutters of survival.
He ordered the burning bed and its occupant immediatelv evicted from the hospital premises.
“Guess he can make his own penicillin!” snarled the
doctor.
But the infection burned the mold out. . . . Lee lived
now in varying degrees of transparency. . . . While not
exactlv invisible he was at least difficult to see. His
presence attracted no special notice. . . . People covered
him with a project or dismissed him as a reflection,
shadow: “Some kinda light trick or neon advertisement.”
Now Lee felt the first seismic tremors of Old Faithful the Cold Bum. He pushed Miguel’s spirit into the
hall with a kind, firm tendril.
“Jesus!” said Miguel. “I gotta go!” He rushed out.
Pink fires of histamine spurted from Lee’s glowing
core and covered his raw periphery. (The room was
fireproof, the walls of iron blistered and spotted with
moon craters.) He took a large fix and falsified his
schedule.
He decided to visit a colleague, NG Joe, who got
hooked during a Bang-utot attack in Honolulu.
(Note: Bang-utot, literally, “attempting to get up
and groaning . . .” Death occurring in the course of a
nightmare . . . The condition occurs in males of S.E.
Asiatic extraction. . . . In Manila about twelve cases of
death by Bang-utot are recorded each year.
One man who recovered said that “a little man”
was sitting on his chest and strangling him.
Victims often know that they are going to die, express the fear that their penis will enter the body and