their eyes were so cool and somehow detached ( shock can do that : you 're ejected like a fighter pilot from a humdrum dream of life to a grinding , overloaded slice of the real meat , and your brain refuses to make the adjustment ; you can only free-fall and hope that sooner or later your chute will open ) , and a ghost of grammar school came back to me : teacher , teacher , ring the bell , my lessons all to you i 'll tell , and when my day at school is through , i 'll know more than aught i knew .