>From AA Fair's (Gardner) Top of the Heap:
Something hit me on the side of the head. A wave of blackness
came up from my stomach. The bitter of nausea was in my mouth
and my knees went limp.
I tried to hang onto the dooknob, turning aroun, jerking my
head back as I did so.
I had a glimpse of Bill, his arm upraised, a blackjack looped
around his wrist. There was no expression on his face. He
even looked slightly bored.
Then the arm chopped down.
There was a blinding flash inside my brain and the floor
smacked my face.
That was the end of Chapter Sixteen (aren't they always at
the end of a chapter?), page 187 in the Hard Case Crime
edition. This is the beginning of Chapter Seventeen (and the
next page):
I had no idea what time it was when I regained consciousness.
I was sprawled on a bed in a cheap, dingy bedroom equipped
with an iron bedstead, a chair, a dresser, a washstand, and a
wardrobe closet. . . .
I moved my head and the room stated rocking around as though
it were a cabin on a boat in a heavy sea.
I felt sick. . . .
It was a smelling salt that did a great deal to revive me. .
. .
Gradually the throbbing left my head. The room steadied down
and my head settled into a dull, constant ache with a sore
spot above and back of my right ear that felt like a
boil.
Richard Aleas is far more succinct about the knockout at the
end of Chapter 19 (page 138) in Little Girl Lost:
I pieced this all together later. At the time, I only knew
that there was someone behind me when Lenz smiled, a look of
relief blossomed on his face, and something heavy smashed
into the back of my head.
However, he goes into far greater detail, several paragraphs,
about the physical aftermath in Chapter 20. It's more than I
feel like typing right now, but it involves a pulpy area on
the back of his head where he was hit and an urge to vomit.
The consequences of this and other beatings also linger with
him much longer than in book of Fair's time.
Mark
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 01 Nov 2004 EST