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The Painter of the Night
Someone called in a report that she had seen a man painting in the dark over by the pond. A police car was dispatched to go in- vestigate. The two officers with their big flashlights walked all around the pond, but found nothing suspicious. Hatcher was the younger of the two, and he said to Johnson, "What do you think he was painting?" Johnson looked bemused and said, "The dark, stupid. What else could he have been painting?" Hatcher, a little hurt, said, "Frogs in the Dark, Lily- pads in the Dark, Pond in the Dark. Just as many things exist in the dark as they do in the light." Johnson paused, exasperated. Then Hatcher added, "I'd like to see them. Hell, I might even buy one. Maybe there's more out there than we know. We are the police, after- all. We need to know."