We treasure-hunters anchored off the Arabian coast--the legendary ruins of Orbutum. But
an American showed up with papers claiming his government had the rights to it all. And...
CAUTION: SNIPPY ABOUT AMERICANS
The newspaper said I was to be appointed Archbishop. But the Cardinal had
a detective investigate me, who found improprieties--ones that make no sense...
My family needs money, so I must publish. But my first draft is trash. My secretary and
my mistress try to calm me down but I consider suicide. At least then I won't have to see it...
From my sick ward I sent a last poem to a competition,
describing my decline into dependency. Death by TV...
DREAM: I dined with Khrushchev. I liked him. I told my friends "He has a beautiful face, the face of a saint."
NINE DAYS LATER: Of course saints can't be sanctified while they're living. Khrushchev was overthrown...
CAUTION: CHANCE OR FORESIGHT?
I go on a country ramble with writer Ford Madox Ford. He tells me local legends; he drapes a bull over his
shoulders; we cross a stream on a lock; he comments on men's fashion preferences. What's going on here?
I was at a play, A Game of Croquet, with lines that flowed so well I felt as if I'd written it myself...
CAUTION: NARRATOR UNRELIABLE?
Greene woke shaken. "I dreamt of catastrophe. I hope nothing has happened to one of my family or a close friend."
A few miles away, an airliner had been shot down, killing all. On board was his friend General René Cogny...
God has a night-side, as we do. We evolve, with slips back into darkness,
generations long; and God does too, though perhaps with more pain...
CAUTION: PHILOSOPHY
I infiltrated a Nazi nest to give Goebbels a poisoned cigarette. All I could do
was to light it, jam it up his nostril and flee, hoping the dose was enough...
Wednesday night I dreamed I had to jump overboard... that night there was a wreck
off the Yorkshire coast in a storm and the captain ordered his men to jump into the sea...
The ship I was on going down in the Irish Sea. It was not till yesterday,
looking at an old paper, I saw about the sinking of the Rowan in the Irish sea...
One image has remained with me for more than sixty years:
a man in oilskins bent double under the blow of a great wave...
Prime Minister Wilson was gushing about urban renewal. He planned to raze the slums
and make the poor camp in public buildings until enough apartments were built...
CAUTION: TECHNOCRATS!