in his state of semi-consciousness , he wondered if he would dream again tonight , dream his favorite dream , the one in which he leisurely places his hands around his wife 's neck and in something approaching a sexual orgasm , presses and presses until her voice leaves her and her eyes begin to bulge and her tongue protrudes from her mouth , and then the neck and the whole body go limp , like a broken cornstalk he remembered as a child on the farm , and as with that broken cornstalk , he would casually throw gertrude 's body to one side , free at long last of that voice he swore was recorded in hell .