Rereading Desperate Characters. My library queue seems to be in transit limbo. Yesterday at the grocery store I saw a guy with a t-shirt that read I Have Rabies. His face was vaguely familiar. He was in the line next to us, then he was pulling out of the parking lot ahead of us. His license plate read OKTHEN. Last night in Desperate Characters a character said I think I've got rabies. I think about despair. I know despair. I know there's a lot of it going around. People working away acting normal may have despair but what can they do? People have to make the money to live with despair.