Shock Corridor Page #5

Is your desire for your sister

still as strong as ever?

I'll tell you what, Doc. You level me off,

and I'll share all my dreams with you.

I'm cold and sweaty!

Chill sweats are usual in your case.

What is my case?

You're suffering from

a form of dementia praecox...

incident to the age of puberty...

characterized by childish behavior...

hallucinations...

and emotional deterioration.

"Somebody's sleeping in my bed,"

said the Papa Bear.

Come on. Get up.

Go to your own bed. Go on.

What are you in here for, Mr. Barrett?

"God-haunted Ghost

and the Street of No Return."

Oh, Cathy, what a story

this is going to make!

Don't you dare strike me!

I'm pregnant. I've been carrying

my baby for five months now.

"God-haunted Ghost."

Not bad for a lead.

If only Stuart had held on a little longer.

Another two seconds,

and I'd have cracked this yarn!

Trent.

Only Negro student

in a Southern university.

collecting pillowcases.

- Trent!

- Yes, sir?

- A pillowcase is missing.

- I don't have it, sir.

- It's from your bed!

- I don't have it, sir.

- Want to go back into the hole?

- I don't have it, sir.

- Let him keep it.

- Keep out of this, Wilkes.

Dr. Cristo said not to get him excited.

You know what that pillowcase means.

It's all right, Trent.

We know you don't have it.

Thank you, sir.

Come on, Lloyd.

He does that every day.

He's reaching out for his nerves.

- Friend of yours?

- No. He's a n*gger-lover.

Didn't make his kid spit on a black boy.

God punished him.

That's why he's in a catatonic stupor.

Watch this.

Now he's the Statue of Liberty.

What are you doing here?

- Visiting a friend.

- So am I, friend. So am I.

The hole is for dangerous

and troublesome people.

- They put me in by mistake.

- So I heard.

- No, you didn't. I just told you.

- That's right.

I know why you're shining up to me.

You want to carry my sign.

- No, I don't.

- Calling me a liar?

No.

Go make your own sign and carry it.

You coming to the meeting?

What meeting?

I forgot.

Do you know the conductor

of the state symphony orchestra?

No.

I do.

He comes here now and then

as guest conductor of our own hospital band.

I like him, but, uh, he's mixed up.

How do you mean?

He permits a black boy

to play with white musicians.

Imagine - a black boy!

Oh, they're all right as entertainers, but -

Let's get him before he marries

my daughter!

Trent! Trent!

Trent! Come on!

Trent! Come on, snap out of it!

Trent! Come on!

All right, break it up!

What's the trouble?

- There's no trouble!

- What are you hatching up now?

- He's not hatching up anything!

- I'm talking to him!

Leave him alone.

Is everything all right, Trent?

Yes, sir.

No trouble now, Trent.

Promise?

Yes, sir.

Let's check the back ward.

Come on, Lloyd.

Thank you, friend.

It's all right, friend.

You, uh, ever been on the Mississippi?

No.

You like to watch the paddleboats

go up and down the river?

I'd like that.

Yeah, I'd like that.

I know the captain.

Mark Twain is a friend of mine.

Come on.

Mark Twain!

Whoo! Whoo!

I like this trip.

So do I.

What's that?

A sign of the invisible empire.

That's a cyclos -

from the Greek word kuklos.

It means circle.

This baptizes a new organization -

the Ku Klux.

Sounds good.

No.

Ku Klux Klan.

Sounds more mysterious,

more menacing, more alliterative.

Ku Klux Klan. Say it.

Ku Klux Klan.

- KKK.

- KKK.

It'll catch on quick. It'll drive

those carpetbaggers back north.

Scare the hell out of 'em,

tar and feather 'em, hang 'em, burn 'em.

- Who are you?

- Your friend.

- I don't know you.

- I got here firstest -

With the mostest men.

General Forrest.

Nathan Bedford Forrest.

General...

you going around taking credit

for founding the KKK.

I'm the founder. I'm the Grand Wizard.

What's our code word?

"Secrecy."

General...

if Christ walked the streets

of my hometown, he'd be horrified.

You've never seen so many black people...

cluttering up our schools

and buses and cafes...

and washrooms!

I'm for pure Americanism!

White supremacy!

Listen to me, Americans.

America for Americans.

We got to throw rocks

and hurl bombs.

Black bombs for black foreigners!

So they like hot music, do they?

Well, we'll give them a crescendo

they'll never forget!

Burn that freedom bus!

Burn those Freedom Riders!

Burn any man who serves them

at a lunch counter!

Burn every dirty, n*gger-loving

pocketbook integrationist!

Collect a lot of blackjacks

and good long lengths of pipe.

We'll show those rabble-rousers

they can't breathe our white air...

and go to school with our white children.

We'll get some infallible liquid

and pour it on 'em!

We'll pour it on their homes

and burn 'em!

Pour it on their pickaninnies

and set them on fire!

Call out of the members

of the White Citizens' Council.

Call out the KKK!

Yes, we'll sponsor the Africans north!

Get rid of every black mother,

son and daughter!

America for Americans!

- Keep our schools white!

- Keep 'em white!

That's right! Keep 'em white!

- I'm against Catholics!

- Hallelujah, man! Hallelujah!

- Against Jews!

- Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

- Against n*ggers!

- Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

- Against n*ggers!

- Hallelujah!

There's one!

Let's get that black boy

before he marries my daughter!

- Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

- Hallelujah!

Wednesday...

August 30, 1954.

Wednesday, August 30, 1954.

The U.S. Supreme Court decreed the nation's

schools must be racially desegregated...

with all deliberate speed.

I'm a boy in the Amazon jungle.

A brown boy, not a black boy.

Someone is scraping my thigh

with the teeth of the piranha fish...

to change my blood to white blood.

I'm a boy in the Amazon jungle.

A brown boy, not a black boy.

And someone is scraping my thigh

with the teeth of the piranha fish...

to change my blood to white blood.

August 30, 1954.

The U.S. Supreme Court decreed

a ceremonial dance...

to be racially desegregated

with all deliberate speed.

Wednesday, August 30, 1954.

The U.S. Supreme Court decreed

a ceremonial dance...

to be racially desegregated

with all deliberate speed.

It's the KKK.

Run. Run. Run for your life, Trent.

I can't see his face.

Here comes the KKK. Run! Run!

Run for your life, Trent.

I can't see his face. I can't see his face.

Here comes the KKK. Run. Run!

I can't see his face. I can't see his face.

Run, Trent! Run!

Run, Trent! Run!

Run, run, run!

Always in color.

It's that same nightmare,

always in color.

Strange how I always get my mind back

after that dream.

What's your name?

Johnny Barrett.

I know all about that trouble

you had in that Southern university, Trent.

You don't sound sick to me.

We were in a race riot.

You leading, and me trying

to save your neck.

So you know I was a guinea pig

in a classroom, huh?

The whole country went to school with you

every day, Trent.

No. I failed.

Well, people were counting on you.

Oh, I wish I'd had the guts

to have stuck it out.

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