misc #30

Prew did not hear about it until he came out of the Black Hole three days later.  That was the day they were burying Bloom.  It is very hard to communicate with anyone in the Black Hole, which is called Solitary Confinement officially.  "Black Hole" is only a descriptive slang term created by prisoners.  College professors call it an "Americanism," a descriptive slang term created by college professors...

He came out at 1840 hours, right after evening chow, shaky from loss of food and blinded by the dazzling brilliance of the bare 40-watt bulbs...  He was a different man than when he had gone in, and he was very surprised to find the world basically unchanged.

It had not turned out to be nearly as bad as he had thought it would be.  He came out of it feeling he had been tested and not found wanting, he was almost as proud of it as he was of the Taps he had once played at Arlington; but it was not any of it nearly as bad as he had thought it would be.  That was one of the virtues of being a pessimist:  nothing was ever as bad as you thought it would be.