PD. Why did you kill your girlfriend?
WT. She was cheating on me. Her name was Estelle. She denied everything. But you could tell she was lying and lying, the liar. She told me to go fuck myself. She kicked me out of her house.
PD. What did you do?
WT. I came back at two that morning with a can of kerosene and a pack of matches.
PD. Estelle died in the fire?
WT. Her kids and her. That is correct.
PD. How many children did she have?
WT. Three. Two girls, one boy.
PD. They were yours?
WT. One, maybe. The boy.
PD. How did that make you feel — knowing, I mean, that you were responsible for those four deaths?
WT. Hands do what hands do.
PD. You're telling me you felt guilt.
WT. Someone had to. Then that changed.
PD. They sent you to prison?
WT. Death row. Public beheading.
PD. Beheading?
WT. By sword. That is correct. The World Government looks to The Qur'an for guidance. Praise be to Allah. Et cetera.
PD. How long had you been there? In prison, I mean.
WT. They had already taken my measurements. The imam had already begun visiting in earnest.
PD. And that's where you met the Vice President for the first time.
WT. One afternoon this suit shows up outside my cell. I'm reading a comic book. They allow you comic books. They're not like yours. They're about events in The Qur'an. The astounding of the sleepers. The fallen angel of Babil. They come on a single sheet of thin translucent plastic and they move.
PD. Like movies?
WT. Only in three dimensions with floating thought-bubbles.
PD. And the suit?
WT. He goes he's from the government and he has this deal for me. What kind of deal? I go. He goes if I volunteer for this project and return safely, I get a full pardon.
PD. What sort of thoughts did you have when you lit the match?
WT. What match?
PD. At Estelle's house.
WT. There was this match. There was this can of kerosene. That's pretty much it.
PD. You weren't thinking anything else?
WT. I'm not what you might call a deep thinker.
PD. What did you tell the government official?
WT. Next day I'm in the travel chamber. It looks like one of your tanning booths. All this brightness inside a steel coffin. They've strapped me in. They've begun the countdown.
PD. That's when Burrows showed up?
WT. I'm lying there, squinting into this really bright light, waiting. Then all of a sudden he's leaning over me. He's leaning over so close I can smell his aftershave. It's Old Spice.
PD. What did he say?
WT. He's smiling really wide… like, um, like a cartoon shark smiles. He asks me, smiling and all, if I slept well last night. I tell him yeah, I did, as a matter of fact. Do I remember any of my dreams? he goes. I go no. He keeps smiling really wide. Try harder, he goes. I look at him a couple seconds, then it comes to me. Actually, I do remember a dream.
PD. Tell me about it.
WT. I'm woke up by these suits, five or six of them, in the middle of the night. They carry me by my arms and legs to the hospital ward. I'm struggling. I remember the sounds. It's that kind of dream. The clumping their feet make as we're going down the hall. The clatter of the, what do you call them. Of the gurneys around me. And when I finish recounting my dream, you know what Burrows goes?
PD. What's that, Bill?
WT. He goes, smiling and alclass="underline" It wasn't a dream, Bill.
PD. You're saying they really took you to the hospital ward?
WT. For the operation. That is correct.
PD. What operation?
WT. The kind to implant a transmitter inside my head.
PD. Why did they do that?
WT. He goes the transmitter will start barraging me with messages to return if I try to remain in this time and place past when I'm supposed to.
PD. The transmitter will broadcast every twenty minutes in your head.
WT. Till I return and file a report on the mission. That's when they'll take it out.
PD. So you obviously crossed branes successfully.
WT. What do you think about what happened last month?
PD. Pardon?
WT. What happened last month. In Oklahoma City.
PD. Why, uh, why are we talking about that at this point in our conversation, Bill?
WT. 5,000 pounds of fertilizer and nitromethane mixture packed into the back of a rental truck. It makes you think.
PD. What does it make you think about?
WT. 168 people dead. 800 wounded. What could possibly come next?
PD. We're not really here today to, uh, to talk about the Oklahoma bombing, Bill.
WT. I'm just saying. It's something to consider.
PD. Well, let's go ahead and save that for another day, all right? This morning I'd like to continue learning about your trip to our planet.
WT. Fine.
PD. So you arrived in Manhattan on…
WT. I arrived in your Manhattan on September 1, 1986.
PD. And how long were you supposed to stay?
WT. Two weeks.
PD. How were you supposed to get by, Bill — eat, sleep, that sort of thing?
WT. Rob people. Don't hurt them or anything. Don't draw any more attention to yourself than necessary. Get their cash. It was pretty easy. I walked up to people on side streets and pretended I had a gun in my pocket.
PD. What happened?
WT. They gave me what I needed. People are nice that way.
PD. Tell me about your mission. What were you supposed to do during your time in our brane?
WT. Record.
PD. What did they want you to do that for?
WT. Test pilots don't ask why the jets they fly are built.
PD. Would you maybe speculate for me a little?
WT. Why do you go to the moon?
PD. But it sounds like you're suggesting maybe it was something else as well.
WT. I'm suggesting why have a rebirth of a religion when you can assure that the religion never dies in the first place?
PD. You're suggesting maybe your trip was part of a plan to spread your religion?
WT. I'm not suggesting anything.
PD. You said you record, Bill. How, uh, how do you go about doing that?
WT. I just open my eyes and it starts.
PD. And everything went well at first.
WT. I was down in the Village. Near Washington Square. It was a little past midnight. I remember it was warm. I was recording nightlife at the cafés and bars along Sullivan. Then these two police on bikes were yelling at me.
PD. Why do you suppose they were they doing that, Bill?
WT. I was just standing there. Then they were yelling at me. I ran.
PD. But why, Bill, if you didn't know, uh, if you didn't believe you'd done anything wrong?
WT. Their voices scared me. I ducked left on Third, into this restaurant. It was vegetarian. They followed. One tackled me. The other handcuffed me. My wrists didn't feel good. Their mouths were doing things. It was all mixed up.
PD. What were their mouths doing?
WT. They were telling me I had the right to remain silent. They were telling me anything I said could be used against me in a court of law. I had the right to consult with an attorney and to have that attorney present during questioning. Their mouths were telling me if I couldn't afford one, an attorney would be provided at no cost.
PD. Did you tell them you hadn't done anything?
WT. I explained how they needed to let me up.