Page 34

By Jack Joseph Smith

"That wind is coming in so pretty," Animal con- tinues in excited statement. And all these young ladies on motorcycles with carts at that. A very incredible situation." word! When Animal was an actor to himself in an outland- ish way, he had the right upper lip up so high, he almost squeeked, so by the sound of him, the human world around did not know if he was a rabbit or a gangster. Presently thinking almost out loud, not a rabbit raised on wine, not a gangster raised on herbs, he lets himself ride. Laid back in the grip of his neck, his mind in the air, like finger motions lit red by little lanterns balanced on his palms. The night was quivering to exactness. A mirror was in the universe, showing them realistically spin- ning through space. The source of them together, and the ending of them together, already projected a single creative moment. And she looked back upon Animal, and she prophesied to herself that Animal was OK. As winds blow toward the canyons of Kauai, the winds in a moment, slipped into shapes equal to what they were about to enter, and in a last wide breath,

Original Scan

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AI Interpretation

GPT

Animal's exhilaration becomes performance, and the ride opens into a cosmic image of shared motion before the woman privately prophesies that Animal is OK.

The page tips between comic self-caricature and revelation. Animal sounds absurd as actor, rabbit, or gangster, but lanterned finger motions and a mirror in the universe make the riders' movement cosmic; her backward look and private prophecy then give that spectacle an intimate verdict before the winds carry the scene toward Kauai's canyons.

Claude

Riding through the night, Animal performs an exaggerated, half-comic persona, unsure whether he reads as rabbit or gangster, before settling into a dreamlike absorption in motion and starlight. He senses the ride's beginning and end fused into one creative instant; the young woman studies him and inwardly pronounces him OK as the winds toward Kauai's canyons take on the shapes they are about to enter.