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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOK96 Jack Fritscher%u201cEveryone at the drugstore calls me %u2018Doc,%u2019%u201d he said. %u201cI like it.%u201d%u201cThen you%u2019re a pharmacist now,%u201d I said. I should have shut up.%u201cOh, Michael, how could you wait till now?%u201d Julia cried.%u201cI think it%u2019s very funny,%u201d Mike said. %u201cI don%u2019t tell everything I know.%u201d He grinned at me. %u201cDo I, confessor?%u201dDoc stood up. %u201cI am not a pharmacist.%u201d His voice was imperious. He pulled a folded white Nehru cap from his back pocket, placed it on his head. %u201cI am not a practicing dentist. I never was a pharmacist. I am a jerk. I run a soda fountain and milk bar.%u201d He saluted, making fun of us all.%u201cBut you are a dentist?%u201d I asked.%u201cYou%u2019re like all Americans, sir. You question everyone who doesn%u2019t fit some national stereotype. The national syndrome is to question everything along preconceived lines. Ryan, what holiday is this?%u201d%u201cThe Fourth of July.%u201d%u201cThe first Independence Day of the 1960s.%u201d%u201cYes, sir.%u201d%u201cAre you a questioning boy?%u201d%u201cHe%u2019s questionable,%u201d Mike said.%u201cHave you noticed,%u201d Doc said, %u201cthat our national anthem, %u2018The StarSpangled Banner,%u2019 begins and ends with questions?%u201d He began singing, %u201cOh, say, can you see?%u201d He stopped. %u201cBut no one ever asks me the most dignified of all questions: What do I prefer? What is my choice? Has anyone recently asked you what you%u2019re all about? What might be your choice?%u201dJulia broke into such tears she had to excuse herself. %u201cNot this again.%u201d She headed to the kitchen.%u201cGood-bye, Julia, my wife,%u201d Doc said. He turned to me. %u201cAre you an independent boy or a dependent boy?%u201d%u201cI don%u2019t know. Independent, I guess.%u201d%u201cThat%u2019s good for a guess and better as a choice...if it%u2019s true.%u201d Doc threw his napkin on the table full of china and stood up. He was quite tall. %u201cMike%u2019s an independent boy.%u201d He looked at his son and we all waited the longest moment. %u201cWell...Good-bye, my boys. I%u2019m off to the bright-lighted chromium drugstore to serve up malts on the Fourth of July. Later on, come on down, and I%u2019ll treat you to an independent independence sundae.%u201d He exited singing, %u201cOh, say, does that star-spangled banana still wave....%u201d Mike and I sat alone.%u201cMy mentor is my tormentor, %u201c Mike said. %u201cNine rooms and a bath.%u201d He gestured across the shambles of the meal.%u201cThere was no call for you to lead me into an ambush,%u201d I said.%u201cThey deserved it.%u201d