Whenever he thought that he detected the fatal flaw in his opponent's reasoning, he had a curious habit of pulling on his earring, rubbing his two hands all around the back of his head, and then folding his hands on the table in front of him. When this occurred you had three options: you could sit tight and wait to see if you were ready to counter what he brought; if you were lucky and you noticed in time you might be able to change your argument or tactic in mid-stream; or you could put something down on the table in front of him before he was able to put his hands together. This would so discombobulate him that he would forget the train of his attack and give you a reprieve.

One time Drexler was carrying on about the Professor and he said, "I bet that rat-bastard would rather argue than get laid." ...almost as though Drexler had been one of his students once. Memo was there when he said it and everybody laughed, and she smiled along with them, but not because she thought it was funny, but because Memo knew for a fact that when he was presented with the choice between an argument and a blowjob, the Professor would stop to think.

Tonight, in George's, the Professor's ecstasy was truly profound.

It had started innocently enough, seemingly. The Professor, Memo, and Echo were sitting in their usual booth, smoothing out the end of the day. Echo was killing time until the traffic died down. The Professor is in the middle of telling them about rice production, when the door opens about half way and just stops, and there is this very loud noise, like from a broken boombox which then goes silent. And the door just stays propped open.

The pool table goes silent, and everyone is looking at the door, their eyes clouded a little, the way they do when they know the world's regular pattern is about to break. Then they see the ass of a pair of jeans poke past the door and the back of a big black leather jacket with "the King" written in silver across it. It is a big guy carrying a guitar case and covered all over with duct tape. He needs a haircut and a shampoo, a shave for that matter, and when he turns around you can see that his eyes have the kind of faraway look in them that makes people nervous.

The place is quiet for three beats, one too many, and the guy looks around kind of dazed, and he asks somebody sitting at the bar, "Hey man, is there a bathroom in here I can use?"

Behind the bar, Jerry moves over to him and he says, "Out of order. Sorry." And the guy just stares at him.

That's when Memo tapped the Professor's arm and handed him a note, "He needs help -- his hand is bleeding."



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