Chapter Twenty-Five
So the waking nightmare claimed him. Just to keep from hyperventilating or convulsively ejecting that ball and scaling off into shrieks of agony, anguish and terror became an unending struggle. The call of hysteria was madly seductive. It held forth the promise of at least a break in the monotony of just endless blind agony. Constantly Karl had to lash himself with the shame of the sins that had put him there and with reminders of his promise. He simply could not fail her again, and certainly not so soon. At last he fell back on a trick he used in the dentist’s chain, or with his head stuck in a CT or MRI scanner. He began to sing inside his head.
Methodically he worked his way through the lyrics to his favorite songs. He sang entire CDs track by track, not moving on
