Castle, Terry (b. 1953)

The Professor and Other Writings

New York

Harper Collins

2010

"Brain on fire, I then leadfooted it at once back to my mother's house."

The brief bacchanal, it must be said, had its imperfections, including one spectacularly ill-starred evening when P. and I went to visit Gus--a nice, hippy-dippy, none-too-bright acquaintance of mine from high school whom we'd run into at the beach--and got colossally stoned on his waterbed. Whether due to the waterbed of to Puff the Magic Dragon, the scene--to my horror--suddenly took al all to intimate turn. Emergency measures were called for. In a state of some panic I hurriedly frog-marched Phoebe--now mumbling and near-comatose but clearly loath to leave--out the door and into Turk's old Pinto, which I'd borrowed for the evening. Brain on fire, I then leadfooted it at once back to my mother's house. (I shudder now to recall this deranged freeway flight, my own faculties having likewise been considerably impaired by our debauch.) When we pulled up outside the house, Phoebe--who was very drunk as well as stoned--promptly vomited up her Spaghetti Factory dinner all over the floor of the Pinto, then flopped about flirtatiously on the front seat, slurpy and slurry and simpering like Dean Martin after six or ten double Scotches.
(pp. 176-7)

Fire

Reading

Terry Castle, The Professor and Other Writings (New York: Harper Collins, 2010).

05/18/2011