ALCOHOLISM– Many potentially gifted clairvoyants have succumbed to madness and liver disease, a direct consequence of the instinct for self destruction that so often accompanies second sight. I've never touched alcohol, save for the occasion of Spencer's 21 st birthday when I was tricked into drinking a large quantity of coca-cola laced with vodka: a dangerous prank that resulted in the necessity of having my stomach pumped. A letter of apology from one of the perpetrators, incidentally, is included in the Hamilton Coe archive. Spencer, the stunt's instigator, however, only expressed regret that the party (to which he resentfully insisted I gained entry by the subterfuge of adopting the identity of ‘Heavy Metal Harry') was fatally disrupted.

While I'm resolutely abstemious, I refuse to stand in judgement of my peers. As I often remind people, the ability to peer into men's souls carries a terrible price. What child can bear to sense his father's boredom or his mother's yearning? Who can withstand the passing images of lust and brutality that might float into his consciousness over the course of any given day? Who can tolerate the company of friends and colleagues when their lies and hidden thoughts appear as clearly as graffiti? “But nobody wants you peering into their soul,” Spencer ripostes, unwittingly drawing attention to the clairvoyant's true tragedy: he is the man who sees what ought not be seen and, on that account, he's grouped with peeping toms and sneaks and despised accordingly.

 

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