Dog Soldiers (27 page)

She stared at him. The reptile faces of the other viewers turned toward them.
“
Come on,
”
Converse said. He managed to keep smiling.
“
We
’
re going to lunch.
”

“
Oh,
”
his mother said.
“
Lunch?
”

He helped her up, and they walked slowly out of the lobby, past the stare of the clerk.

“
You
’
re in Vietnam,
”
his mother said when they were out on the street.

“
Not any more. I
’
m back now.
”

After a few uncertain steps, he got her to take his arm and he led her across Turk Street. He had thought that he would take her to Joe
’
s Place where they had large martinis and good beef but it no longer seemed a very agreeable idea.

“
How
’
s everything?
”

She answered him with a snarl of disgust. She had always been good at dramatizing
herself; the sound conveyed gen
uine and profound bitterness.

“
… everything!
”
She shook her fist as she had at the old man in the lobby.

Joe
’
s Place had a
maître
d
’
hôtel
who seemed quite pleased to see them until he had a closer look at Converse
’
s mother.

He seated them at a small table in the rear room, in close proximity to two sunburned couples with Texas accents.

Converse drank his first martini quickly and hastened to order a second. It was, he reasoned, the only way through it. His mother drank her own drink greedily and although it did not make her a bit more presentable, it seemed to improve her mood.

“
What do you think of my face?
”
she asked when she was three-quarters through the martini. While trying to appear attentive, Converse had avoided looking at her face for very long.

“
You look very well.
”

“
I
’
ve got it back in place,
”
she whispered happily.
“
I
’
ve been doing special exercises.
”
She jerked at the folds of ruined tissue. In a moment, her expression darkened.

“
They had it wrong. They had it all haywire.
”
Suddenly she clenched her teeth and stared at him in a frenzy.
“
They were making me black!
”

Converse glanced nervously about the restaurant.

“
They talked to me through a tube. They said I had to marry Hodges!
”

“
Hodges?
”

“
Oh,
”
she cried impatiently,
“
the clerk!
”
She commenced an impe
rsonation of Hodges, piping in
audible words in effete falsetto, rolling her eyes like a stage Othello. Converse drank deeply of his martini. A freckled blonde
among the party of Texans tapped her escort on his beefy forearm and nodded in their direction.
“‘
Johnny,
”
Converse
’
s mother was saying,
“
they
’
re after all your money! You mustn
’
t give it to them!
”

Converse watched her uncertainly.

“
Who is?
”

His mother flung her head in exasperation.

“
The people in the hotel!
”
She lowered her voice and gripped his arm.
“
They
’
re black but they pose as white! Except Hodges because he can
’
t. That
’
s why they want him to marry me. So they can have your money.
”

The money with which she was so obsessed was the money he had made from his play ten years before. Money had always been the overriding interest of her life and since the play she had come to see him as a guileless wastrel of limitless wealth.

“
You mustn
’
t let them have it!
”

“
Of course not,
”
Converse said.

“
Last night they came in and stretched my tights!
”

Converse
’
s eyes met those of the Texas blonde. She was eating chocolate and vanilla ice cream mixed together on her spoon; at the moment of eye contact she had removed the spoon from her mouth with some melting ice cream still on it and was dipping it into the dish for more.

“
They came in and stole them and wore them all up and down the hall. Now they
’
re all stretched and out of shape because it was some fat person. Fat!
”
She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“
A big fat woman!
”
She gulped down the rest of her martini and clenched her fist.

The Texans were awaiting their check in silence. At Converse
’
s signal, a waiter rolled up a serving table and began to carve slices of roast beef. Converse
’
s mother watched him divide portions with the closest attention. When the beef was served she called for horseradish and spooned an enormous amount of it out on her plate.

“
Did you make a lot of money in Vietnam?
”
she asked, after a few mouthfuls.

Converse blinked.

“
No,
”
he said.

His mother looked alarmed.

“
Why not?
”

“
It isn
’
t a place where you make a lot of money.
”

“
Yes,
”
she insisted.
“
Yes it is!
”

Converse addressed himself to the roast beef.

“
Did the girl get it?
”

She meant Marge.

“
Did she? Oh,
”
she wailed disconsolately,
“
the girl got it.
”

“
Nonsense,
”
Converse said quickly and looked at his
watch.

“
There is money in Vietnam,
”
his mother said.
“
Did you know that Ho Chi Minh used to cook in the big hotels?

Smart men very often like to cook.
”

The Texas tourists paid their bill and filed out, glancing sideways at Converse and his mother. The last out was a small pinch-faced man who had been sitting through lunch with his back to them. He had had a great deal to drink during lunch and he paused on his way to stare down at them with a mixture of bonhomie, curiosity, and suspicion. Converse
’
s mother looked up at him in dread.

“
Y
’
all havin
’
a nice time?
”
he asked.

“
You!
”
Converse
’
s mother cried.
“
Are you a friend of Johnny
’
s?
”

“
No, ma
’
am. I just ast ye if y
’
ore havin
’
a nice time.
”

“
Do you know a place I could stay? Somewhere they won
’
t stretch my tights?
”

“
Thanks a lot,
”
Converse said.
“
We
’
re fine. You enjoy yourselves.
”

“
Stretch your tights?
”
the Texan asked. His friends called for him and he went out with a puzzled expression.

The waiter brought coffee while their luncheon plates were still on the table. Converse hastened to call for the check but his mother lingered over her horseradish.

“
They followed me to the Turkish bath,
”
his mother told him.
“
They said I put dirt on the towels.
”

As Converse was shaking his head in sympathy, two long haired youngish men came in and sat down where the tourists had been. One of them had a beard. He looked very much — very much — like the bearded man whose eyes Converse had fled in Macy
’
s. He insisted to himself that it was not possible but the food went cold in his guts.

“
As if I
’
d put dirt on the towels. They
’
re devils, Johnny! They
’
re devils!
”

Converse glanced at the bearded man and the thrill of recognition rang loud and clear. The man was watching his mother eat in a way he found particularly unpleasant.

The second man was younger and fair-haired. When Converse essayed a look at him he raised the point of his chin and bared his teeth in a kind of smile. It seemed to Converse that he heard someone speak the words
“
too old to fuck.
”

“
The girl does bad things with Hodges,
”
Converse
’
s mother said.
“
I hear them through the tube.
”

The
maître
d
’
hôtel
had come to the table where the two men sat. He was telling them that they could not sit there if they did not care to order lunch. They paid absolutely no attention to him.

Finally, Converse turned to face them. He tried at first to register indifference shading into disapproval. He and the two men looked at each other for a considerable time; when the exchange was over they rose and left as though they had come for no other purpose than to stare at him.

As he watched them leave Converse felt that he had failed to communicate indifference. It seemed to him that a surprising degree of intimacy had been established during the short time in which they had faced each other, that there would be things to talk about and that he would not enjoy it.

O
nly angels have wings was on the television
set
. Black and white. Converse had just had an injection; there were spots of bloo
d on his forearm which were run
ning into streaks. The blood tracks were familiar in some way. They had made him take his clothes off like doctors. The set was turned up to high volume.

“
So nu,
”
the bearded man named Danskin was saying,
“
where is it?
”

“
Where is what?
”

“
Where is what,
”
the bearded man said mockingly. He pinched Converse on the cheek.

Smitty came in from the bathroom. The shower was on.

“
What did he say?
”

“
He said
‘
where is what
’
.
”

“
Ooh,
”
Smitty said in an affected effeminate manner. He punched Converse across the face with a stiff girlish forearm. It was a joke but each of the punches hurt.

Converse was kneeling on the floor. He was extremely confused. His breath was labored and he felt very hot.

“
I can
’
t get no hot water out of that shower,
”
Smitty said.

Danskin shook his head.

“
What kind of a place is this?
”

Converse went into some kind of glide. It
was the injec
tion. When he came out he was looking at the television set. He knew what was happening there — he had seen the film. A mustachioed coward was attempting to bail out of his stricken aircraft with the only available parachute.