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Leadem, Christopher

"The Mantooth"

He lifted one and turned it in his hand,
wondering. It had helped him to understand once before..... Perhaps it
would show him something now, which he could see no other way.
Guided by an impulse he did not completely understand, and half against
his better judgment, he put the first in his mouth, and chewed it. Then
slaked his throat with water. Again. And a short time later, again.

*

There are no words to describe LSD. For the person who has taken it
before it is still like landing from another planet: nothing is
familiar, and nothing can be taken for granted. Everything is powerful,
evocative, unknown. For the person who has not, it is like a bewildered
and even unconscious dream. If the experience is good, it is life at
its deepest and most intense. If it is bad, there is no greater horror
on the Earth. And in either case, the mind is never quite the same.
Doors are opened which cannot later be shut, and some residue, both
chemical and spiritual, remains forever.
The acid that William had made was not particularly strong or pure, and
this alone saved her sanity. But it was strong enough, and tinged with
strychnine and speed. She could not hide, from anything.
Sylviana tried to master her panic. And so far, by the narrowest of
margins she had succeeded.


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