Free How It Is by Samuel Beckett

see
    moving right my right foot encounters only the familiar mud with the result that while
     the knee bends to its full extent at the same time it rises my foot we’re talking
     of my foot and rubs down one can see the movement all along Pim’s straight stiff legs
     it’s as I thought there’s one
    my head same movement it encounters his it’s as I thought but I may be mistaken with
     the result it draws back again and launches right the expected shock ensues that clinches
     it I’m the taller
    I resume my pose cleave to him closer he ends at my ankle two or three inches shorter
     than me I put it down to seniority
    now his arms Saint Andrew’s cross top V reduced aperture my left hand moves up the
     left branch follows it into the sack his sack he holds his sack on the inside near
     the mouth more daring than me my hand lingers a moment on his like cords his veins
     withdraws and resumes its place on the left in the mud no more about this sack for
     the moment
    in the deeper silence succeeding Pim’s song finally vast stretch of time a distant
     ticking I listen a good moment they are good moments
    my right hand sets off along his right arm toils to the limit of its reach and beyond
     tips with finger-tips a watch wristlet to the feel it’s as I thought it will have
     its part to play yes I hear yes then no
    better a big ordinary watch complete with heavy chain he holds it tight in his fist
     my index worms through the clenched fingers and says a big ordinary watch complete
     with heavy chain
    I draw his arm towards me behind his back it jams ticking very greatly improved I
     drink it for a moment
    a few more movements put the arm back where I found it then towards me again the other
     way overhead sinistro until it jams one can see the movement grasp the wrist with
     my left hand and pull while bearing from behind with the right on the elbow or thereabouts
     all that beyond my strength
    without having had to raise my head from the mud no question I finally have the watch
     to my ear the hand the fist it’s preferable I drink deep of the seconds delicious
     moments and vistas
    released at last the arm recoils sharp a little way then comes to rest it’s I again
     must put it back where I found it way off on the right in the mud Pim is like that
     he will be like that he stays whatever way he’s put but it doesn’t amount to much
     on the whole a rock
    from it to me now part three from way off out on the right in the mud to me abandoned
     the distant ticking I derive no more profit from it none whatever no more pleasure
     count no more the unforgiving seconds measure no more durations and frequencies take
     my pulse no more ninety ninety-five
    it keeps me company that’s all its ticking now and then but break it throw it away
     let it run down and stop no something stops me it stops I shake my arm it starts no
     more about this watch
    no more than I by his own account or my imagination he had no name any more than I
     so I gave him one the name Pim for more commodity more convenience it’s off again
     in the past
    it must have appealed to him it’s understandable finished by appealing to him he was
     calling him by it himself in the end long before Pim Pim ad nauseam I Pim I always
     say when a man’s name is Pim he hasn’t the right and all the things a man hadn’t the
     right always said when his name was Pim and with that better from that time out livelier
     chattier
    when this has sunk in I let him know that I too Pim my name Pim there he has more
     difficulty a moment of confusion irritation it’s understandable it’s a noble name then it calms down
    me too great benefit too I have that impression great benefit especially at first
     hard to say why less anonymous somehow or other less obscure
    me too I feel it forsaking me soon there will be no one never been anyone of the noble
     name of Pim yes I hear yes then no
    the one I’m waiting for oh not that I believe in him I say it as I hear it he can