George Higgins - A change of gravity

Rage, for ballroom instruction.

"It's a pretty big room, though," Hilliard said. "Do we really need all that space? And can we afford it?"

"It is a lot of space," Merrion said, 'and we probably don't really need it. But we can afford it. It's not only more space'n we need; it's more space'n anybody in these parts right now seems to need.

Carnes people aren't giving it away that'd be against their religion.

But they also know that if the dancing-school lady doesn't come back to life or they cough up what it'll cost to partition it, they might not ever find someone who'll rent it. The room is just too fuckin' big."

"I wonder who it was originally built for," Hilliard said. "Wasn't for a dancing school, for sure. What'd someone want all that space forV "The agent said he thinks it was a meeting hall," Merrion said.

"Catholic Order of Foresters, something like that; one of those fraternal groups the new immigrants used to join. Organized to sell themselves insurance. Hire someone to teach them all altogether how to learn English, take the exam for citizenship." He snorted. "Kind of newcomers we got comin' up now could use that kind of ambition, you ask me. But then of course they've already got the right to vote, not that they use it. And speaking English don't interest them a lot. Don't need to speak English, get welfare."

"How much a foot?" Hilliard said. "You'll notice how I tactfully pretend I didn't quite hear what you just got finished saying, toward the end there."

"Yeah," Merrion said, 'you may not hear it, and you'll never say it; but you think it, pal; I know that. You think the same way as I do on that. You keep it all to yourself all the time, and deny it when you're out in public'

Hilliard sighed. "Some day I've really got to set some time aside, close the door and figure out how we reform you," he said. "It's something that we got to do. Otherwise some night you'll start showin' up for one of my debates wearing a sheet and a hood, calling yourself the Grand Kleagle. People'll start thinking I must have something wrong with me, I've still got you around, killin' time between lynchings. Definitely have got to do that, and I will, too, some day, right after I finish rebuilding the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

"But in the meantime, let's see if we can't talk about something less troublesome. How 'bout we start with the rent what're they asking for this place?"

"The agent's saying two-fifty," Merrion said. "I know he'll take two-twenty-five."

"What's that work out to, about?" Hilliard said. He liked strutting his mathematical skills. He had taught algebra, trigonometry and calculus during the six years preceding his election to the House. He looked forward to public budgetary debates; his calculating ability enabled him not only to show off but sometimes to intimidate his fellow aldermen and later on his colleagues in the House. "About twenty-five hundred bucks a year?" In private he played down his talent a little, deliberately only coming close to exact answers.

"About that," Merrion said, 'twenty-four-seventy-five."

"Two hundred a month and change," Hilliard said. "Let's see how he likes the sound of one-seventy-five. That'd bring it in under two grand, nineteen-and-a-quarter, one-sixty a month — quite a bit closer our speed.

"In fact," he said, 'more I think about this, what we ought to be saying's one-fifty. Sixteen-fifty a year, just under one-forty a month. We're going to be paying to heat the place. What do they burn there, anyway oil or coal?"

"I think the agent said oil," Merrion said.

"Good," Hilliard said. "Probably means the heating system's newer; wont be breaking down all the time. Tell him I'm terribly busy on the Hill and I wont have time enough to take a look at it until sometime next week. In the meantime, find out all you can, so when I do go over there, the two of us know more about the place 'n Carnes's fuckin' agent does.

"We're the ones doing the favor. Without us he's stuck with that space. Old Roy should be moistening his lips, getting set to pucker up and kiss me on the ass, I'm willing to be nice enough to take it off his hands."

The landlord's agent, Brian Fontaine, looked to be in his late forties.

He had reddish-blond hair that he combed back, and) rather sharp features. He shifted a lot in his clothes, as though confined in them. He spoke softly and admiringly to Hilliard and Merrion about the building's many advantages, as though he had been calling their attention to subtleties of composition in a fine painting. Their conversation reverberated in the empty building.

Citing the fact that Hilliard's older or less able constituents would have only one flight of stairs to climb when they came for appointments, Fontaine pointed out that the broad wooden staircase was equipped with a pipe handrail in the middle as well as those fitted to the walls. He said the sturdy fixtures to hold onto with both hands would make older visitors feel secure while using the stairs. Hilliard remembered climbing those steps, treads worn even then, as slowly as he possibly could, and then after dancing school was over, vaulting down them two and three at a time, using the handrails as exercise bars.

"Yes," Hilliard said, 'there's that. But they'd feel even better if there was an elevator, so they wouldn't have to lug their old bones up two flights, holding on for dear life with both hands."

"One flight," the agent said. "You'd be on the second floor."

"Two flights," Hilliard said. "One flight up to the landing. Then, after you catch your breath, you've got to climb another flight — making two to reach this level."

"The staircase was built that way to save floor space in the building," the agent said with weary testiness. "It's one floor above the ground floor only one flight of stairs."

Merrion nodded. "That sounds right to me, Mister Hilliard," he said obsequiously, as though as anxious to ingratiate himself with Fontaine as he was to please Hilliard. "It's a reasonable thing that he's saying. You could have two landings, three landings, four, you didn't mind how narrow and steep they hadda be. Still only the one flight of stairs."

Fontaine took that as vindication. He let the reaction show on his face, sneaking a glance at Hilliard. Hilliard nodded and looked thoughtful.

"In fact," Merrion said, the conciliatory tone vanishing, 'the only problem I still have is do you think your elderly constituents, the ones with the cardiac conditions, pains in their chest all the time; ones who're all crippled-up and lame, need to use a cane; and in wheelchairs, even do you think they're gonna find Mister Fontaine's explanation as reasonable as I do?

"Or are they maybe gonna say: "Hilliard'! Second-floor Hilliard? He doesn't want to hear from me, what I need to have him hear. He said he did, when he was runnin', but that was to get elected. Now he's not mnarested anymore. Next election he's gonna find out something from me: I'm the one not innarested. I'm voting whoever the other guy happens to be." I'm afraid that's what those voters'll do, Mister Hilliard. You know how demanding they are.

They think we ought to cater to them."

Fontaine had to work his facial muscles to dispel the expression of chagrin that displaced the look of victory on his face, but he did his best to agree smoothly, pointing out the availability of similar space on the second floor of another brick building nearby, owned and managed by the Carnes family. "It's almost identical space, except that it's newly renovated and refurbished. Brand new Westinghouse elevator's just one of the many improvements. Best one they make, four-man car, top-of-the-line but very compact; so you don't lose that much of floor space where you put in your shaft. And at the same time it operates almost silently, very nice, and quiet. Most of the machinery's down in the basement. So that means you don't hear it start grinding and banging away up there over your head on the roof, every time someone enters the building or leaves. Be equally glad to show you that. Take you over right now, in fact. Got the key with me, right here.