Endnote 67 — The Shed and its "objay darts"

Enfield Marine hospital security guards know Hal because Mario, and their father James, once hired them as background-extra cops for two of his films; they drink at The Unexamined Life and, when Hal is around because he alone seems genuinely interested, tell stories about the chronic mental patients in Unit #5. They call the unit "The Shed" (p. 997) and its residents "objay darts," and dwell on one woman, a "Debilitatingly Phobic" (p. 997) case who keeps her eyes shut and stays motionless to preserve the hope that she is not blind or paralyzed. The cops' recurring point is unsettling: the unifying symptom is "a terror so terrifying it makes the object of the terror come true" (p. 997) — and Hal, listening, blows out a flaming drink and makes a wish.