
[1418] I do forget them and I watch the couple as they watch each other, a
great way off.
[1419] But my feet are not like my hands, I do not bring them
back to me, when they become my feet again, for I cannot, but they stay
there, far from me, but not so far as before.
[1420] End of the recall.
[1421] But
you'd think that once well clear of the town, and having turned round to
look at it, what there was to see of it, you'd think that then I should
have realized whether it was really my town or not.
[1422] Nothing of the kind, [place = supralinear] But no,
I looked at it in vain, and perhaps unquestioningly, and simply to give
the gods a chance, by turning round.
[1423] Perhaps I only made a show of
looking at it.
[1424] I didn't feel I missed my bicycle, no, not really.
[1425] I
didn't much mind going on [place = supralinear] xx my way the way I said, swinging low in the dark over
the earth, along the little empty country roads.
[1426] And I said there was
little likelihood of my being bothered [place = supralinear] [⁁]disturbed [place = supralinear] interfered with and that it was more likely I
should bother [place = supralinear] [⁁]disturb [place = supralinear] interfere with them, if they saw me.
[1427] It's in the morning you must [place = supralinear] [⁁]Morning is the time to hide.
[1428] They wake up, gay as larks [place = supralinear] [⁁]hale and hearty, their tongues hanging out for order, beauty
and justice, baying for their due.
[1429] Yes, from eight or nine till midday [place = overwritten] [⁁] [place = supralinear] noon
is the dangerous time.
[1430] But towards midday [place = overwritten] [⁁] [place = supralinear] noon things get quieter [place = supralinear] [⁁]quiet down, the most
implacable are st [place = overwritten] ated, they go home, it might have been better but they've
done a good job, there have been a few survivors but they'o [place = overwritten] ll give no more
trouble, each man counts his rats.
[1431] It may begin again in the early
afternoon, after the banquet, the celebrations, the congratulations,
the orations, but it's nothing compared to the morning, mere sport [place = overwritten] [⁁] [place = supralinear] fun.
[1432] Coming up to four or five of course there is the night-shift, the
vigilantes [place = supralinear] [⁁]watchmen, beginning to bestir themselves.
[1433] But already the day is over,
the shadows lengthen, the walls multiply, you hug the walls, bowed down
like a good boy, bursting [place = supralinear] [⁁]oozing with obsequiousness, having nothing to hide,
hiding merely from [place = supralinear] mere terror, looking neither right nor left, hiding but
not provocatively, ready to come out, to smile, to listen, to crawl,
nauseating but not pestilent, less rat than toad.
[1434] Then the true night,
- Segments
Molloy © 2016 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Magessa O'Reilly, Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst and Vincent Neyt