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the air without bending his knees. He started for the door, then realized
that if anyone saw him running from the house he would be blamed for
God knows what in the next room. He decided to give whoever came a
good story for his presence and went to see what happened.

When he went into the next room, (with his hands up) Normal Reality
slipped from his grasp forever. There was the neighbors' dog, pistol in his
right paw, brains on the couch. A note was lying next to the dog He sat
cross-legged on the floor to read it:

Fuck you all. I can't take it anymore. You know I lean to-
ward vegetarianism, yet you feed me Alpo, You know I like to
chase the Chicks in the neighborhood, yet you keep me in the
garage. You know I dig Ocean City but you don't take me along.
All of that I can put up with. But today you do me in; when this
guy was reported dead on the noon news, SHE says, "Didn't he
play the blues?" And HE says, "Blues Schmooz, that's for niggers
and hippies, the goddamn world's gone to the dogs when they cry
over something like him!"-Thafs it! I say the world's gone to
the Men! Nirvana for me. See you later.

Rufus' wife had called the police when she heard the shot. She had become
hysterical when it got dark and Rufus hadn't showed up. She went over
when the police arrived.

They found Rufus sitting cross-legged on the floor, note in hand, mouth
wide, staring into infinity. When they walked over to him and asked him
politely what the situation was, he turned his head slowly to them, handed
them the note, and put his head back where it had been. He was completely
catatonic. The police called the hospital. His wife read the note, dropped
cross-legged directly in front of him, staring into his eyes, mouth wide open,
also catatonic.

They took them both to the hospital. They're still there, sitting cross-
legged, staring at the infinity in each other's eyes, both eternally, blissfully,
lovingly fixed on each other. It's reported that they make the finest pot-
holders, (from little rings of multi-colored cloth) in the surrounding three
states.