Page 199

By Jack Joseph Smith

offices, just tombs to lead the advertiser's through, feeding them acknowledgement from the green tainted silver spoon, the accounting personnel wish they had- n't lost at middle-age." "The frog just bit your big toe," announced Mont- real. Animal threw back his head to put his self at dis- tance; "That's the Frog I mean. Green on gold, not green on silver." "You mean the people you are talking about married on the death of the child?" This young fellow takes it all very seriously, th- ought Animal. "To abstract. Much to abstract. Why don't we all let's hear why you are hear?" Animal moved his arm in a gesture toward Jaqueline. "I'm Jaqueline," she gave notice; "I am hear because I have just meet Marie, and she carries a heavy load." Looking at Jaqueline, he then glan- ced at Marie, and then turned to Jiven Joe who also had remained standing. Joe motioned Montreal to a cushion directly oppisite Marie, where Montreal sat, while Joe took his desk chair over by the door placing his right foot on it, and put his elbow on his knee, with chin in palm, when Montreal lit a long wooden match to a short thin wooden pipe he had pulled from his

Original Scan

Page 199

AI Interpretation

GPT

Montreal shifts the conversation from abstract social talk toward Marie's personal heaviness, recasting the room as a place of diagnosis rather than loose hanging out.

The move is abrupt but effective. He claims to perceive a burden in Marie, and that claim rearranges everyone else's posture, giving the gathering a ceremonial focus it did not have before. This reading remains provisional because the lower handwritten correction near Joe's chair posture still needs follow-up.

Claude

Montreal shifts the conversation away from abstract social talk and toward Marie's personal heaviness. The page is where the gathering becomes about her.