NOS4A2

A man named Bing Partridge looks at the August 1949 issue of the magazine Spicy Menace in his basement. He likes the pulp ads, and especially the gadgets in the back of the magazines, which belonged to his father. He reads an advertisement for a place called Christmasland. Bing is 42 years old. His favorite Christmas memory was when his father gave him a gasmask, a year before Bing had a brain injury. His father wore the gasmask in Korea during the war and bragged about the enemy soldiers who saw the mask before they died. He and Bing had played war all day on Christmas. As he reads the ad again, he wonders if he could feel that way again, let alone every day.

He responds to the ad on a typewriter and includes his custodial resume. His spelling is bad, and his language is childish. Bing says he wants to work security and says he is willing to die for the opportunity. When he rereads his draft, he isn’t sure whether he should have added a line about “youthful indiscretions” (64) but decides that his time in the correctional youth center has paid his debt. He mails the note with a Christmas postcard.