She made thick, unconscious noises in her throat as he whirled
around madly, looking for an instrument; her head lolled brokenly
on the thick stalk of her neck.
* * *
He seized the hose of the air-compressor.
'All right,' he said thickly. 'All right, now. All Tight.'
* * *
bitch fat old bitch youve had yours not big enough is that right well
youll be bigger youll be bigger still
* * *
He ripped her head back by the hair and rammed the hose into her
mouth, into her gullet. She screamed around it, a scund like a cat.
* * *
Part of the inspiration for this story came from an old E. C. horror
comic boo), which I bought in a Lisbon Falls drugstore. In one
particular story, a husband and wife murdered each other
simultaneous))- in mutually ironic (and brilliant) fashion. He was
very fat; she was very thin. He shoved the hose of an
aircompressor down her throat and blew her up to dirigible size.
On his way downstairs a booby-trap she had rigged fell on him and
squashed him to a shadow.
Any author who tells you he has never plagiarized is 2 liar. A good
author begins with bad ideas and improbabilities and fashions them
into comments on the human condition.
In a horror story, it is imperative that the grotesque be elevated to
the status of the abnormal.
* * *
The compressor turned on with a whoosh and a chug. The hose
flew out of Mrs. Leighton's mouth. Giggling and gibbering, Gerald
stuffed it back in. Her feet drummed and thumped on the floor. The
flesh of her checks and diaphragm began to swell rhythmically.
Her eyes bulged, and became glass marbles. Her torso began to
expand.
* * *
here it is here it is you lousy louse are you big enough yet are you
big enough
* * *
The compressor wheezed and racketed. Mrs. Leighton swelled like
a beachball. Her lungs became Straining blowfish.
* * *
Fiends! Devils' Dissemble no morel Here! Here! It is the beating of
his hideous heart!
* * *
She seemed to explode all at once.
* * *
Sitting in a boilin hotel room in Bombay, Gerald re-wrote the story
he had begun at the cottage on the other side of the world. The
original title had been 'The Hog.' After some deliberation he
retitled it 'The Blue Air Compressor.'
He had resolved it to his own satisfaction. There was a certain lack
