Jerome Salinger - Nine Stories

HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO LOVE AND KISSES CHALES

It was a long time before X could set the note aside, let alone lift Esme’s father’s wristwatch out of the box. When he did finally lift it out, he saw that its crystal had been broken in transit. He wondered if the watch was otherwise undamaged, but he hadn’t the courage to wind it and find out. He just sat with it in his hand for another long period. Then, suddenly, almost ecstatically, he felt sleepy.

You take a really sleepy man, Esme, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his fac-with all his f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s intact.

WHEN the phone rang, the gray-haired man asked the girl, with quite some little deference, if she would rather for any reason he didn’t answer it. The girl heard him as if from a distance, and turned her face toward him, one eye—on the side of the light—closed tight, her open eye very, however disingenuously, large, and so blue as to appear almost violet. The grayhaired man asked her to hurry up, and she raised up on her right forearm just quickly enough so that the movement didn’t quite look perfunctory. She cleared her hair back from her forehead with her left hand and said, “God. I don’t know. I mean what do you think?” The gray-haired man said he didn’t see that it made a helluva lot of difference one way or the other, and slipped his left hand under the girl’s supporting arm, above the elbow, working his fingers up, making room for them between the warm surfaces of her upper arm and chest wall. He reached for the phone with his right hand. To reach it without groping, he had to raise himself somewhat higher, which caused the back of his head to graze a comer of the lampshade. In that instant, the light was particularly, if rather vividly, flattering to his gray, mostly white, hair. Though in disarrangement at that moment, it had obviously been freshly cut—or, rather, freshly maintained. The neckline and temples had been trimmed conventionally close, but the sides and top had been left rather more than just longish, and were, in fact, a trifle “distinguished-looking.” “Hello?” he said resonantly into the phone. The girl stayed propped up on her forearm and watched him. Her eyes, more just open than alert or speculative, reflected chiefly their own size and color.

A man’s voice—stone dead, yet somehow rudely, almost obscenely quickened for the occasion—came through at the other end: “Lee? I wake you?”

The gray-haired man glanced briefly left, at the girl. “Who’s that?” he asked. “Arthur?”

“Yeah—I wake you?”

“No, no. I’m in bed, reading. Anything wrong?”

“You sure I didn’t wake you? Honest to God?”

“No, no—absolutely,” the gray-haired man said. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been averaging about four lousy hours—”

“The reason I called, Lee, did you happen to notice when Joanie was leaving? Did you happen to notice if she left with the Ellenbogens, by any chance?”

The gray-haired man looked left again, but high this time, away from the girl, who was now watching him rather like a young, blue-eyed Irish policeman. “No, I didn’t, Arthur,” he said, his eyes on the far, dim end of the room, where the wall met the ceiling. “Didn’t she leave with you?”

“No. Christ, no. You didn’t see her leave at all, then?”

“Well, no, as a matter of fact, I didn’t, Arthur,” the gray-haired man said. “Actually, as a matter of fact, I didn’t see a bloody thing all evening. The minute I got in the door, I got myself involved in one long Jesus of a session with that French poop, Viennese poop—whatever the hell he was. Every bloody one of these foreign guys keep an eye open for a little free legal advice. Why? What’s up? Joanie lost?”

“Oh, Christ. Who knows? I don’t know. You know her when she gets all tanked up and rarin’ to go. I don’t know. She may have just—”

“You call the Ellenbogens?” the gray-haired man asked.

“Yeah. They’re not home yet. I don’t know. Christ, I’m not even sure she left with them. I know one thing. I know one goddam thing. I’m through beating my brains out. I mean it. I really mean it this time. I’m through. Five years. Christ.”

“All right, try to take it a little easy, now, Arthur,” the gray-haired man said. “In the first place, if I know the Ellenbogens, they probably all hopped in a cab and went down to the Village for a couple of hours. All three of ‘em’ll probably barge—”

“I have a feeling she went to work on some bastard in the kitchen. I just have a feeling. She always starts necking some bastard in the kitchen when she gets tanked up. I’m through. I swear to God I mean it this time. Five goddam-“

“Where are you now, Arthur?” the gray-haired man asked. “Home?”

“Yeah. Home. Home sweet home. Christ.”

“Well, just try to take it a little—What are ya—drunk, or what?”

“I don’t know. How the hell do I know?”

“All right, now, listen. Relax. Just relax,” the grayhaired man said. “You know the Ellenbogens, for Chrissake. What probably happened, they probably missed their last train. All three of ‘em’ll probably barge in on you any minute, full of witty, night-club—”

“They drove in.”

“How do you know?”

“Their baby-sitter. We’ve had some scintillating goddam conversations. We’re close as hell. We’re like two goddam peas in a pod.”

“All right. All right. So what? Will ya sit tight and relax, now?” said the gray-haired man. “All three of ‘em’ll probably waltz in on you any minute. Take my word. You know Leona. I don’t know what the hell it is—they all get this god-awful Connecticut gaiety when they get in to New York. You know that.”

“Yeah. I know. I know. I don’t know, though.”

“Certainly you do. Use your imagination. The two of ‘em probably dragged Joanie bodily—”

“Listen. Nobody ever has to drag Joanie anywhere. Don’t gimme any of that dragging stuff.”

“Nobody’s giving you any dragging stuff, Arthur,” the gray-haired man said quietly.

“I know, I know! Excuse me. Christ, I’m losing my mind. Honest to God, you sure I didn’t wake you?”

“I’d tell you if you had, Arthur,” the gray-haired man said. Absently, he took his left hand out from between the girl’s upper arm and chest wall. “Look, Arthur. You want my advice?” he said. He took the telephone cord between his fingers, just under the transmitter. “I mean this, now. You want some advice?”

“Yeah. I don’t know. Christ, I’m keeping you up. Why don’t I just go cut my—”

“Listen to me a minute,” the gray-haired man said. “First—I mean this, now—get in bed and relax. Make yourself a nice, big nightcap, and get under the—”

“Nightcap! Are you kidding? Christ, I’ve killed about a quart in the last two goddam hours. Nightcap! I’m so plastered now I can hardly—”

“All right. All right. Get in bed, then,” the grayhaired man said. “And relax—ya hear me? Tell the truth. Is it going to do any good to sit around and stew?”

“Yeah, I know. I wouldn’t even worry, for Chrissake, but you can’t trust her! I swear to God. I swear to God you can’t. You can trust her about as far as you can throw a—I don’t know what. Aaah, what’s the use? I’m losing my goddam mind.”

“All right. Forget it, now. Forget it, now. Will ya do me a favor and try to put the whole thing out of your mind?” the gray-haired man said. “For all you know, you’re making—I honestly think you’re making a mountain—”

“You know what I do? You know what I do? I’m ashameda tell ya, but you know what I very nearly goddam do every night? When I get home? You want to know?”