Dr. Rhinehart looked from Peerman to Cobblestone to Weinburger to Moon to Mann. `Blasphemy. God creates, experiments, rides the wind. He doesn't wallow in the accumulated feces of his past' Dr. Rhinehart put two sheets of paper back into his briefcase and stood up.
`I'm going now, and you can vote. But remember, you are all potentially chameleons of the spirit, and thus of all the illusions that rob men of their divinity this is the cruelest; to call the rocklike burdensome shell of "character" and "individuality" man's greatest development. It's like praising a boat for its anchor.'
Dr. Rhinehart walked away alone to the door.
`A genuine fool,' he said. `A few genuine fools. A few a generation, a few per nation. Until the discovery of the Die it was too much to ask.'
With a final smile at Dr. Ecstein, he left the room.
Chapter Forty-nine
[Being a Special Die-Dictated Dramatization of the Judicial Deliberations of the Executive Committee of PANY as Recreated from the Tape Recording and Testimony of Dr. Jacob Ecstein.]
For several moments the five members of the committee sat in silence, broken only by the harsh, uneven 'breathing of the sleeping Dr. Moon. Doctors Weinburger, Cobblestone and Mann, were all staring at the door which had closed behind Dr. Rhinehart. Dr. Peerman broke the silence `I believe we should conclude our business: 'Ah. Ah. Ah, yes,' said Dr. Weinburger. `The vote. We must have the vote.'
But he remained staring at the door. Thank God, he's insane,' he added.
`The vote,' repeated Dr. Peerman in his shrill voice.
`Yes, of course. We are now voting on Dr. Peerman's motion that our committee expel Dr. Rhinehart for the reasons
listed and request that the AMA consider taking action against him as well. Dr. Peerman?'
`I cast my vote in favor of my motion,' he said solemnly to the chairman.
`Dr. Cobblestone?'
The old doctor was fingering nervously the cane held erect between his legs and staring blankly at the empty chair of
Dr. Rhinehart.
`I vote aye,' he said neutrally.
`Two votes to condemn,' announced Dr. Weinburger. `Dr. Mann?'
Dr. Mann shrugged his right shoulder violently and jarred Dr. Moon into a more or less vertical position, Moon's eyes
flaming open briefly and erratically.
`I still think we ought to have asked Dr. Rhinehart quietly to resign,' said Dr. Mann. `I make a pro forma vote of no.'
`I understand, Tim,' said Dr. Weinburger sympathetically. `And you, Dr. Moon?'
Dr. Moon's body was balanced erect, and his eyelids slowly rose, revealing the red coals of his dying eyes. His face
looked as if it had suffered all the miseries of every human that had ever lived.
`Dr. Moon; do you vote yes to the motion to expel this man we've been listening to, or do you vote no in order to
permit him to continue?'
Dr. Moon's fierce red eyes seemed the only things alive in his wrinkled, ravaged face, but they were staring at nothing,
or at the past or at everything. His mouth was open; he drooled.
`Dr. Moon?' repeated Dr. Weinburger a third time.
Slowly, so slowly that it must have taken thirty or forty seconds for him to complete the motion, Dr. Moon raised his
two arms up over his head, feebly closed the palms of his hands into a half-fist, and then, mouth still open, dropped
them with a crash onto the table in front of him.
'NO!' he thundered.
There was a shocked silence, broken only by the explosive gasps of Dr. Moon's now totally sporadic breathing.
`Would you care to explain your vote?'
Dr. Weinburger asked gently after a while.
Dr. Moon's body was beginning to slump and slide toward Dr. Mann's shoulder again and his fierce, all-seeing eyes
were now only half open.
`My vote's obvious,' he said weakly. `Get on with it'
Dr Weinburger stood up with a dignified smile on his face.
`The vote on the motion to expel Dr. Rhinehart being tied at two to two, the chairman is obliged to cast his vote to
break the tie.'
He paused briefly and poked formally at the crumpled papers in front of him. `I vote yes. Consequently, by a vote of
three to two, Dr. Rhinehart is expelled from PANY. A letter will be sent to -'
`Point of order,' came Dr. Moon's weak voice, his eyes now open just a slit, as if permitting people only the tiniest of
glances into his red inferno.
`Beg pardon?' said the surprised chairman.
"Cording to our, bylaws . . . man presenting charges 'gainst colleague can't . . . vote . .. on motion to accept . . .
charges.'