Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock(62)

68 And given what public school teachers are paid, this is really saying something.

69 It sounds so weird to be saying the word kill to my Holocaust teacher—admitting that I actually attempted to kill a classmate. Allowing the words to exist in the two or so feet between Herr Silverman and me—it feels surreal. It makes me realize how crazy I was earlier—how crazy I’ve been. I’m simultaneously freaked out and relieved. Fucked but freed, if that makes any sense at all. Reminds me of what Herr Silverman says about doubling in his Holocaust class.

70 It’s funny because we never used Bogart hats before yesterday, but somehow I understand that his putting the hat on is symbolic—a sign that we are about to talk in code. Walt and I have something going on that’s hard to explain. We understand each other. We just do. And I love that so much. Good-guy pheromones.



MATTHEW QUICK (aka Q) is the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook and three young adult novels, Sorta Like a Rock Star, Boy21, and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages; has received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention; and was called “beautiful… first-rate” by the New York Times Book Review. The Weinstein Company and David O. Russell adapted The Silver Linings Playbook into an Academy Award–winning film. Q lives in Massachusetts with his wife, novelist/pianist Alicia Bessette. His website is www.matthewquickwriter.com.