and when we explained- '' at the wheel of his slow car , bob arctor forgot theoretical matters and did a rerun of a moment that had impressed them all : the dainty and elegant straight girl in her turtleneck sweater and bell- bottoms and trippy boobs who wanted them to murder a great harmless bug that in fact did good by wiping out mosquitoes-and in a year in which an outbreak of encephalitis had been anticipated in orange county-and when they saw what it was and explained , she had said words that became for them their parody evil-wall-motto , to be feared and despised : if i had known it was harmless i would have killed it myself .