FR. DAMIEN KARRAS - "Who are you?"

PAZUZU, THE DEMON INHABITING THE 12 YEAR OLD GIRL'S BODY (speaking backwards, voiced by RMT alum Mercedes McCambridge) - "NOBODYYYYYYYY..."

From the movie version of "The Exorcist"



Friends, if you were condemned eternally, having chosen not only to serve but to be evil for that time, and you had no hope of anything but bondage to a master who hates you, you'd not be happy either.

Neither is "Rodney", a 12-year-old thin, pale boy who has been befriended by the brother of a man who lives quite comfortably out in San Diego with his wife. The brother, an east coast attorney, is going to a law convention in Switzerland and needs his brother to care for Rodney for that time, so he flies him out to southern California.

The brother and his wife appear to genuinely want to make the boy's stay a pleasant one. The brother says he'll take Rodney to a San Diego Padres game (first reference to a pro sports team I'd heard in the RMT)...he also attempts to play with Rodney in the family pool, inviting the boy to climb up on his shoulders. Rodney is so strong he almost drowns the man though. Oh, and Rodney doesn't say a word. The man and his wife learn to communicate with him through notes.

Not long afterward, the boy writes a note which bothers the wife: "Your cat is going to die". Shortly thereafter, the family's kind neighbor finds their dead cat Sylvester under her doorstep. They take it to a vet for an autopsy but he can't find a cause. The couple, uneasy at first, think that's cleared Rodney until he writes them a note: "Told you so." Rod gets a slap (apparently) from the husband who's getting irate.

The kind neighbor, talking to the wife, says her sister is a handwriting analyst and might be able to tell something about young Rod by his notes. She does, and it's all the more perplexing...the sister is astounded to learn he's only 12, as the notes appear to have been written by a very old man.

Soon afterward, Rodney writes a note to the couple: "You're next". 