JR (55 page)

alone, observing the mortality in that place is marvelous, passed on unrankled by that phrase doing his best, redolent of chance and the very immanence of human failure that century of progress was consecrated to wiping out once for all; for if, as another mother

country throwback had it, all art does constantly aspire to the condition of music, there in a Colorado mining town saloon all art's essential predicament threatened to be laid bare with the clap of a pistol shot just as deliverance was at hand, born of the beast with two backs called arts and sciences whose rambunctious coupling came crashing the jealous enclosures of class, taste, and talent, to open the arts to Americans for democratic action and leave history to bunk. Now God damn it Bast anything hard about that?

—Well, well no … he eased the shoe off.

—Good, nothing so God damned hard about this, anything hard about this? A remarkable characteristic of the Americans is the manner in which they have applied science to modern life Wilde marveled on, struck by the noisiest country that ever existed. One is waked up in the morning, not by the singing of the nightingale, but by the steam whistle … All art depends upon exquisite and delicate sensibility, and such constant turmoil must ultimately be destructive of the musical faculty and thus, though the flute is not an instrument which is expressive of moral… what's the matter.

—Nothing I'm, I just have to get this envelope you're sitting on and this, these newspapers…

—Good yes, yes though the flute is not an instrument which is expressive of moral character, it is too exciting, it had not taken this particular rebuke of Aristotle's to check young Frank Woolworth's rash ambitions on the instrument. He was becomingly tone deaf, and by eighteen seventy-nine had already crowned a decade of insolvency with the failure of his five-cent store in Utica, New York, where the

rewards of leisure were then being advertised in the hapless passage of George Jones through McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, last glimpsed as a poor wanderer, without money and without friends. Such are the wages of idleness. I hope every reader will, Bast God damn it keep complaining about how hard it is and then wander around the room while I'm trying to…

—No but I have to leave Mister Gibbs, I told you I …

—Good. I hope every reader will, from this history, take warning, and stamp improvement on the wings of time problem most God damned readers rather be at the movies. Pay attention here bring something to it take something away problem most God damned writing's written for readers perfectly happy who they are rather be at the movies, come in empty-handed go out the same God damned way what I told him Bast. Ask them to bring one God damned bit of effort want everything done for them they get up and go to the movies I mean I'm the one who told him about agapë Bast, formulated the law of common foci

did I tell you that? Promised to tell you about Grynszpan I tell you that?

—No but I have to leave now Mister Gibbs I …

—Bast? Listen the better among us, said I'd tell you what Beethoven listen…

—You did Mister Gibbs now I really wait no don't try to get up just, I really have to leave… his armload of papers bumped 36 Boxes 200 2-Ply backing past —I'll be …

—What he wrote the countess of, the better among us Bast?

—Yes … ? he got the door poised on one hinge.

—God damn it listen! Bast? The, the better among us bear one another in mind…

For a moment he hesitated there and then put down his papers on the descending stair behind him taking both hands to fit the door closed silent as the dim hall till he made for the stairs, the separating sole of his shoe lending a percussive effect to his haste down them broken only for his pause on the pavement where he stared at the vacant limousine double parked there, abruptly recovering a rhythm double time past a fleet of garbage cans, another, down a curb, curbs, declining at last to a flapping cadence up the wide range of museum steps to find brief echo through the rotunda and recover silence in a sudden glide toward the sculpture gallery, as a horde emerged from the armor collection.

—Bast?

—What? I …

—Not you back there is it? Mister Bast?

—No I, I think so yes … he peered round the marble buttock of a marble Hermes —I mean I, I didn't expect to see you here Mister Craw- ley I …

—Can't say I expected to see you here either no, might have looked for you in the Museum of Natural what the devil's happened to you, you look…

—Nothing no I'm, I think I cut myself shaving a few times shaving I haven't had much sleep because I've been…

—Good good yes, been working hard have you? Looks like you've got something there about ready for me to listen to?

—Yes well not quite no, no you see I …

—Expected to hear something from you before this you know, called your office and your girl said you were out of town on business. Want to get yourself back to your music Mister Bast.

—Yes there's nothing I'd rather…

—Didn't want to press you on that of course, reason I called was just to let that associate of yours know I think I can unload that, what was it? wallpaper you brought in?

—Yes Eagle Mills, yes, well that's where I've just…

—Might get him twelve or thirteen cents on the dollar, kind of a favor of course, how many lots you say he has?

—Well he doesn't have it anymore, they gave him some stock in place of it and now…

—Oh, heard about that have you? Yes, you're well out of it Mister Bast, and now back to the music, eh? That's the right spirit, want to see you have a little more room there to exercise your talents.

—Yes well I certainly…

—Good, yes, now the idea is, Bast, they're having one hell of a problem there in the Uganda with elephant damage, overgrazing and all the rest of it, don't do a damned thing for sixteen hours a day but stand around and eat you know…

—Yes I, I see … Bast sidled toward a marble raised in the contorted grace of sport as the cafeteria horde reappeared.

—Talking about cropping around four thousand of them to preserve the habitat, of course Stamper and I want to get in there and do our part but it's a damned nuisance when they could ship them right over set them up a habitat right down in the Everglades is Stamper's idea, give us all the hunting we could ask for preserving a habitat like that one, he came on stalking Bast beyond the athlete's flanks, —think we can work in a little elephant music, Bast?

—A, little elephant… ?

—Big fellows Bast, big fellows, eat five or six hundred pounds of rubbish a day you know, grass and tree bark, a good bull runs up over ten feet and damned smart too, see all eight tons of him coming down on you and he's the most dangerous game you could ask for. Of course this time we'll bring along our own boy to run the camera but don't let that hold you up, got a good imagination have you?

—I, I think so, I… Bast retreated round sarcophagi edging deeper among the marbles as the dispersing horde spreading down the gallery toward the splash of fountains shed an unkempt fragment knelt knotting a knotted lace at the foot of the Sardis column.

—Want to leave yes, I won't keep you from your work but take your time to it Bast, don't want to hurry you, Bast? Exit's out that way…

—Yes I, I was just going to stop in the men's room.

—You all right there Bast?

—Fine yes I, I'm fine.

—Don't look fine to me. Outdoors, when you've cleaned up this work of course. Have something for me to hear in a day or two will you?

And his —I'll try, was lost to the cadenced flap of his shoe taking up toward the splash of water, round the column's base, where he tripped.

—Hey look out you … oh hi, boy am I glad to see you Bast!

—Well get up off the floor.

—Okay just a, shit… no but this lousy lace broke again, what do you expect me to do … With a final yank he straightened up and hurried alongside, the attache case he carried barely clearing the floor between them. —Where shall we go hey.

—Anyplace, I just want to give you these papers and…

—Because I just had this neat idea. See I could just sneak away for

like an hour and we could go up to the office. Okay?

—What office.

—This here new office you said you just got to do your work at, okay?

—No.

—How come? See they're all going down to this here snack bar anyway so …

—I said no! now, now just…

—Okay don't get mad, I only thought…

—I'm not mad I, I'm just tired and I don't feel very well.

—You don't look very good, did you look like this up there hey? Hey Bast? Did something happen to your foot?

—Nothing happened to my foot, no. Now…

—No it's just your shoe, I think I got this big rubber band hey wait. We can't go down there, that's where they all went to this here snack bar. You ever been here before hey Bast?

—Of course, now will you hurry up?

—You know where the Egypt exhibit is at?

—Yes but why do you…

—No I just wondered, wait I can't hurry or my sneaker will come off

… and side by side, left foot, right foot, they got through the door marked men. —Back here hey … he mounted the attaché case on the first flat surface he found and lifted out the battered portfolio mended, now, down one end with black friction tape. —See? he stepped back, —isn't it neat?

—Well why don't you throw the old one away.

—No see I got this one for you. Doesn't it look like real leather hey?

—Well it's, it's a little shiny but…

—No but I mean if you don't get real close, you know? So you won't have to carry these papers and stuff around in this here dirty envelope for like when you go to these meetings, and when they see you on the train and all, you know?

—When who sees me on the train.

—I mean like these other businessmen and see I even got your initials on in gold, even if they…

—But, those aren't my initials.

—No I know see that's what I was going to say, see when I sent away they must have thought this here B I made looked like a D but I was thinking maybe you could just change your…

—Look it doesn't matter now, just let me…

—And anyway if some wiseass says something you can just say it says like E D for Edward, so what happened up there anyway I mean did everything…

—I brought you the newspaper you can read about the whole thing later, now…

—No but I mean didn't they get mad when you just walked in and said we're taking over? Let's see hey what, holy look hey! I mean it's

the whole front page almost! Is this you?

—Yes, it …

—Who you shaking hands with?

—That's Mister Hopper, he runs the bank that took over the receivership and…

—I didn't know he looked like that, I mean like I've talked to him on the telephone and all but I didn't know he's this nigro.

—Well he's not, what makes you…

—Because doesn't he look like it in this here picture? No but I guess you do too wait let me read it hey. One of the oldest textile mills in the region and mainstay of the Union Falls economy for more than a century, Eagle Mills changed hands this week following a shrewd move by down-state financial interests headquartered in the New York area where hey that's us right? I mean shrewd financial interests what are they trying to say we screwed them?

—No, it just means…

—Rumors of bankruptcy which have circulated here for many years were confirmed in an exclusive statement to the Union Falls Weekly Messenger by bank president Fred Hopper, who has also served on Eagle Mills' Board of Directors since nineteen twenty-eight. In his exclusive statement Mister Hopper outlined the procedure by which outstanding stock of Eagle Mills, which has paid no dividends since nineteen thirty-four, was dissolved and the company assets handed over to bondholders in a court action presided over by Judge R V Begg, whose marriage to Mister Hopper's younger sister Adeline in nineteen twenty-seven will be remembered by older Union Falls residents as the leading social what's all this crap hey.

—I told you to read it later, if you'll just…

—Okay wait a second, generally, it had been generally understood that wait where does it tell about us, that it came as a surprise to many that the bond issue, which had been selling at a discount in recent years, had been snapped up in a lightning like stroke by outside interests here it is, since it had been generally understood that the majority of Eagle bonds were held in this area. The recent rumor that the mills were to be closed and the extensive site converted to a public park and speedway had already been denied in an exclusive statement to the Union Falls Weekly Messenger by Park Commissioner Edgar

Begg, reached at his home on North Main Street where he has been confined since returning from the service with injuries sustained in the Mouse Argonne. Again disclaiming these and sim continued on page five…

—Look don't read it all now, I just brought it so you could…

—No that's okay, came through the flurry of paper, —page five, end of the baseball season approaches the hometown Eagles have racked up another wait, here it is, ilar rumors in an exclusive statement to the Union Falls Weekly Messenger, the youthful representative of the downstate financial interests Mister Edwerd Bast asserted hey see? how

they spelled it? See so you can just…

—They got hold of one of those idiotic cards before I …

—And like how come everybody's always giving them these exclusive statements hey.

—Because there's nobody else to give them to, now…

—Bast asserted that although present plans remain somewhat indefinite, he knew of no park or speedway being contemplated for the area at this time boy that's no shit, a public park boy. Mister Bast, whose associate was unable to accompany him on his whirlwind visit due to is that me hey?

—Who else would it be? Now will you just read that later and…

—Okay but just let me finish this part hey, press of urgent demands in the New York city area, appeared somewhat surprised himself at the swift turn of events. Declining to discuss financial details related to the takeover, Mister Bast stressed the investment nature of his associate's interest in Eagle Mills, hastening to reassure the many Eagle employees among loyal Weekly Messenger readers that he saw no reason for apprehension at this time. Hardly fitting the description of the hard driving financial interests he represents, Mister Bast's modest and courteous manner won him many friends on his short visit. When not occupied with the demands of business he enjoys cultural and artistic pursuits, and music being the hobby Mister Bast enjoys most his visit fortunately coincided with the long awaited fall concert of no wait a second…