Invisible Man: Chapters 12-19

The moment I entered the bright, buzzing lobby of Men's House I was overcome by a sense of alienation and hostility.

It was a most painful position, for at the same time, Mary reminded me constantly that something was expected of me, some act of leadership, some newsworthy achievement; and I was torn between resenting her for it and loving her for the nebulous hope she kept alive.

If only all the contradictory voices shouting inside my head would calm down and sing a song in unison, whatever it was I wouldn't care as long as they sang without dissonance; yes, and avoided the uncertain extremes of the scale.

Then far down at the corner I saw an old man warming his hands against the sides of an odd-looking wagon, from which a stovepipe reeled off a thin spiral of smoke that drifted the odor of baking yams slowly to me, bringing a stab of swift nostalgia.

Editorials would demand that he either recant or retire from public life.

But they're already dead, defunct.

For it was as though I were looking at my own legs for the first time — independent objects that could of their own volition lead me to safety or danger.

He stood up front beside a microphone, his feet planted solidly on the dirty canvas-covered platform, looking from side to side; his posture dignified and benign, like a bemused father listening to the performance of his adoring children.

He pronounced "incorrect" as though the term described the most heinous crime imaginable, and I stared at him open-mouthed, feeling a vague guilt.

He can be depended upon in the most precarious circumstance.

The Brotherhood is against violence and terror and provocation of any kind — aggressive, that is.

Since there was no liaison between the Brotherhood and the community leaders I assigned myself the task of creating one.

I ask myself every day, 'What are you doing against Brotherhood?' and when I find it, I root it out, I burn it out like a man cauterizing a mad-dog bite.

Let them go ahead, they'd find that none of the charges were true and I'd be vindicated.

It was only after the meeting was breaking up that there came the developments which even my volatile suspicions hadn't allowed me to foresee.