“Nothing.”
17
“Then why did you call?”
18
I wasn’t prepared to set up a date with a real person.
19
Not with Narciss at any rate.
20
“Did you ever study evil at college?” I asked instead.
21
The question surprised me. “I mean, what people in the 22
past thought made a man evil, bad?”
23
“No,” she said with a note of wonder in her voice. “No, 24
we never studied that. And now that you mention it, it 25
seems that it should have been at least a seminar if not a 26
whole branch of study.”
S 27
“That’s the thing, right?” I said. “I mean, here we got R 28
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Walter Mosley
1
evil all over the place: in our history books and fiction and 2
on movies and TV. We just fought a war against a sup-3
posedly evil man, but then if you ask what
body has a different answer.”
5
“I suppose they cover it in divinity school,” Narciss 6
said, “but that would be religious, and you’re really asking 7
about something else. The idea of evil. Why do you ask?”
8
what came to my mind.
10
“I don’t know,” I said. “I was just sitting up thinking 11
about it and I thought about you and archaeology and 12
thought maybe you would know. I went to college for 13
three years and I never heard anything about it.”
14
“What college did you go to?”
15
“Long Island City College. I studied political science 16
mainly.”
17
“Why’d you stop going?”
18
“I don’t know. I really don’t. My grades weren’t so good 19
and I couldn’t remember anything. Nothing. The last se-20
mester of my sophomore year I was going to fail a course 21
