Part 9 Summary

The entries in this section of Jim's diary take place during the Winter of 1966.

In the first entry, Jim brings up a recurring fantasy in which he brings a machine gun into school and opens fire during his first class of the day. While he is at a loss to explain why he continues to have these thoughts, he believes that part of it has to do with the fact that before school begins, he usually stops by the apartment of a friend to either smoke dope or shoot up. Once he is in class, he finds himself lapsing into a fantasy in which he is in the midst of a battlefield being approached by the enemy. When he eventually emerges from this fantasy, he finds himself wishing for just one chance to use a machine gun to, "cut the place to ribbons...