The Crom Pill

Doctor Phataphais finally returned.  He was gone all day yesterday.  He looks different now.  I didn’t notice before, but he looked tired.  Now he looks awake.  There’s a light in his eyes that I don’t remember.  That might be because I’m crazy, though.  I’m typing this from an institution.  They don’t like it when I call it a booby hatch, but that makes me want to say it over and over and over.

I don’t.  I don’t say it.  I don’t want the hose again.  But I say it quietly at night, when they can’t hear me.

Docotr Phataphais told me that Conan didn’t say, “I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, I am content,” in the book he gave me.  Phataphais gave me “Beyond Thunder River”.  Conan said it in “Queen of the Black Coast”.  How did I know that?  The Doctor said it was a breakthrough, but he was really excited.  He said he had to read five or six Conan stories to find the quote.  That’s why he was gone yesterday, and now he can’t get enough of Robert E. Howard.  That’s why he was gone yesterday!

“You should,” I told him.  He was interested and leaned in.  “You should.”  I grunted and shook my head.  “You should Appendix N.”

He ran out of the session.

I think maybe some of the other patients in the ward might like to play a new game with me.