Free You Play the Black & the Red Comes Up Up by Richard Hallas

Everyone does. They still think they're sane, but they're not. Everyone in this blasted state is raving mad. I'm mad. You're mad. So is Jira. We're all perfectly, gloriously mad.
     
    "You know,' he whispered again, real low, "we see things. Do you see things?"
     
    "Sure," I kidded. "I've never acted right since I've been here."
     
    "That's it. It's the climate," he said. "Now look, you see those mountains?"
     
    He pointed out to where the hills went up, blue-black against the darkness, and with lights winding round on the roads like fire-pearls.
     
    "Sure," I said.
     
    "There! That proves it," he said.
     
    "Proves what?" I asked him.
     
    "Proves you're mad," he said. "You see those mountains too just like I do. And you know what?"
     
    I shook my head.
     
    "They're not there," he whispered. "We only think they're there. And they're not. It's just a movie set. If you go round the other side of that mountain, you'll see noth ing but two-by-fours that hold up the canvas.
     
    "And you see this restaurant? Well, it isn't here. It's a process shot. All Hollywood is a process shot. It's a background just projected on to ground glass. And the only rea son nobody knows that is because we're all mad."
     
    "Why do you stay here then?" Mamie asked.
     
    "Ah, that's it," he said. "Those who are mad think they are sane. And I'd rather have my insane belief in my sanity than a sane recognition of my insanity. And then, too, I like the money they pay me for being mad. We all like money. That's what we all want. You want money. Jira wants money. Richard wants money.
     
    "I don't," I said. And I didn't. I wanted to get rid of what I had.
     
    "What do you want in California then?" Jira asked me.
     
    "I want my son," I said. I let it out just like that.
     
    Mamie didn't quite catch it. "You want a what?" she said.
     
    "A son," Jira said. She had her lips back and her teeth showed, tight together. "That is right. You should have a son. It is a big and fine and brave idea. You are big and strong. You are very strong. You should have a son."
     
    "I would like to have one, too," Mamie said. She looked as if she was frightened of something.
     
    "Indeed?" Jira said. "Then why don't you?"
     
    "They are not truly married," Patsy said. I saw that look coming into her eyes. "No union can prosper without the sanction of God's blessing. It is evil. I see evil lying before them. It can only be removed by lawful wedlock of man and woman."
     
    "Pipe down, Patsy," I said. "Who are you to talk?"
     
    "Wait, I've got an idea," Genter yelled in a whisper. "We'll have a wedding. Dick and Mamie shall be married right tonight. It shall be at my home. We'll have the biggest party I ever had. The elite of Hollywood shall attend. The celebration shall last for days."
     
    He kept raving on, talking so much I couldn't hear anything he said. I tried to think, but I couldn't. I kept saying to myself that Genter knew I was married to Lois down in San Diego, and he couldn't have forgotten it. Yet he was all for me marrying Mamie.
     
    Then I looked at Mamie, and I got to feeling sorry. She was looking at me like she'd cry any moment, and watch ing me to see what I'd say.
     
    So I thought, If you do marry her you'll never be able to get away when the money’s gone. Then I thought, But it won't be a real marriage because you're married already. And so you can leave her when the money's gone just like you've figured out, because you won't be deserting a wife because she won t really be your wife.
     
    Maybe that is cock-eyed thinking, but that's what I was thinking. And anyhow, things were moving fast and I got so rattled I couldn't have told shavings from wild honey.
     
    I don't know. Maybe it is just as Genter was saying—that something in the climate makes everyone in California ready to cut out paper dolls. Anyhow, I was trying to find somebody to explain it to, but everyone was so busy fixing the wedding nobody paid any attention to me. I was only