A Cockroach Stepped Out

                     A cockroach stepped out from behind the ketchup, gave me a quick impassive once-over, decided i was of the Brahmin faith, and walked earnestly across the table on errands of his own. Somebody had left a newspaper on the bench beside me and i picked it up and swatted the cockroach, permitting his soul to transmigrate into the body of a quartermaster.

Ross MacDonald
Blue City
1947

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Ross MacDonald
Bantam Books