Daniel Keyes Fullscreen Flowers for Elgernon (1959)

Pause

Other things is at nite its suppose to make me have dreams and remembir things that happened a long time ago when I was a very littel kid.

Its scary.

Oh yes I forgot.

I asked Prof Nemur when I can go back to Miss Kinnians class at the adult center and he said soon Miss Kinnian will come to the collidge testing center to teach me speshul.

I am glad about that.

I dint see her so much since the operashun but she is nice. March 25

That crazy TV kept me up all nite.

How can I sleep with something yelling crazy things all night in my ears.

And the nutty picturs.

Wow.

I dont know what it says when Im up so how am I going to know when Im sleep­ing.

I asked Burt about it and he says its ok.

He says my branes are lerning just before I got to sleep and that will help me when Miss Kinnian starts my lessons at the testing center.

The testing center isnt a hospitil for animils like I thougt before.

Its a labortory for sience.

I dont know what sience is exept Im helping it with this experimint.

Anyway I dont know about that TV. I think its crazy.

If you can get smart when your going to sleep why do pepul go to school.

I dont think that thing will werk.

I use to watch the late show and the late late show on TV all the time before I went to sleep and it never made me smart.

Maybe only certin movies make you smart. Maybe like quizz shows.

March 26

How am I gonna work in the daytime if that thing keeps waking me up at nite.

In the middel of the nite I woke up and I coudnt go back to sleep because it kept saying remembir… remembir… remembir. ..

So I think I remembird something.

I dont remembir exackly but it was about Miss Kinnian and the school where I lerned about reading.

And how I went their.

A long time ago once I asked Joe Carp how he lerned to read and if I coud lern to read to.

He laffed like he al­ways done when I say something funny and he says to me Charlie why waste your time they cant put any branes in where there aint none.

But Fanny Birden herd me and she askd her cusin who is a collidge studint at Beekman and she told me about the adult center for retarded pepul at the Beekman collidge.

She rote the name down on a paper and Frank laffed and said dont go getting so eddicated that you wont talk to your old frends.

I said dont worry I will always keep my old frends even if I can read and rite.

He was laffing and Joe Carp was laffing but Gimpy came in and told them to get back to making rolls.

They are all good frends to me.

After werk I walked over six blocks to the school and I was scared.

I was so happy I was going to lern to read that I bougt a newspaper to take home with me and read after I lerned.

When I got their it was a big long hall with lots of pepul.

I got scared of saying somthing wrong to sombody so I startid to go home. But I dont know why I terned around and went inside agen.

I wated until most everbody went away exept some pepul going over by a big timeclock like the one we have at the bakery and I asked the lady if I coud lern to read and rite because I wanted to read all the things in the news­paper and I showed it to her.

She was Miss Kinnian but I dint know it then.

She said if you come back tomorow and rejister I will start to teach you how to read.

But you got to understand it will take a long time maybe years to lern to read.

I told her I dint know it took so long but I wantid to lern anyway because I made believe a lot of times. I meen I pretend to pepul I know how to read but it aint true and I wantid to lern.

She shaked my hand and said glad to meet you Mistre Gordon.

I will be your teacher.

My name is Miss Kinnian.

So thats wear I went to lern and thats how I met Miss Kinnian.

Thinking and remembiring is hard and now I dont sleep so good any more.

That TV is too loud.

March 27