Irwin Shaw - Rich Man, Poor Man

When Gretchen came to where Rudolph was standing, making notes on a pad on a clipboard he was carrying, the photographer was crouched a few feet in front of him, shooting upwards, to get the Calderwood sign in behind him. Rudolph smiled widely when he saw her and Johnny and moved towards them to greet them. Dealer in millions, juggler with stock options, disposer of risk capital, he merely looked like her brother to Gretchen, a well-tanned, handsome young man in a nicely tailored, unremarkable suit She was struck once against by the difference between her brother and her husband. From what Johnny had told her she knew that Rudolph was many times wealthier than Colin and wielded infinitely more real power over a much greater number of people, but nobody, not even his own mother, would ever accuse Colin of being modest. In any group, Colin stood out, arrogant and commanding, ready to make enemies. Rudolph blended into groups, affable and pliant, certain to make friends.

‘That’s good,’ the crouching girl said, taking one picture after another. ‘That’s very good.’

‘Let me introduce you,’ Rudolph said. ‘My sister, Mrs Burke, my associate, Mr Heath. Miss … uh … Miss… I’m terribly sorry.’

‘Prescott,’ the girl said. ‘Jean will do. Please don’t pay any attention to me.’ She stood up and smiled, rather shyly. She was a small girl with straight, long, brown hair, caught in a bow at the nape of her neck. She was freckled and unmade-up and she moved easily, even with the three cameras hanging from her, and the heavy film case slung from her shoulder.

‘Come on,’ Rudolph said, I’ll show you around. If you see old man Calderwood, make admiring noises.’

Wherever they went, Rudolph was stopped by men and women who shook his hand and said what a wonderful thing he had done for the town. While Miss Prescott clicked away, Rudolph smiled his modest smile, said he was glad they were

enjoying themselves, remembering an amazing number of names.

Among the well-wishers, Gretchen didn’t recognise any of the girls she had gone to school with or had worked with at Boylan’s. But all of Rudolph’s schoolmates seemed to have turned out to see for themselves what their old friend had done and to congratulate him, some sincerely, some with all too obvious envy. By a curious trick of time, the men who came up to Rudolph with their wives and children, and said, ‘Remember me? We graduated in the same class?’ seemed older, grosser, slower, than her unmarried, unimpeded brother. Success had put him in another generation, a slimmer, quicker, more elegant generation. Colin, too, she realised, seemed much younger than he was. The youth of winners.

‘You seem to have the whole town here today,’ Gretchen said. ‘Just about,’ Rudolph said. ‘I even heard that Teddy Boylan put in an appearance. We’ll probably bump into him.’ Rudolph looked over at her carefully. Teddy Boylan,’ she said flatly. ‘Is he still alive?’ ‘So the rumour goes,’ Rudolph said. ‘I haven’t seen him for a long time, either.’

They walked on, a small, momentary chill between them. Wait a minute for me here,’ Rudolph said. ‘I want to talk to the band leader. They’re not playing enough of the old standards.’

‘He sure likes to keep everything under control, doesn’t he?’ Gretchen said to Johnny, as she watched Rudolph hurry towards the bandstand, followed, as ever, by Miss Prescott.

When Rudolph came back to them, the band was playing Happy Days Are Here Again’, and he had a couple in tow, a slender, very pretty blonde girl in a crisp, white-linen dress, and a balding, sweating man somewhat older than Rudolph wearing a wrinkled seersucker suit. Gretchen was sure she had seen the man somewhere before, but for the moment she couldn’t place him.

This is Virginia Calderwood, Gretchen,’ Rudolph said. The boss’s youngest. I’ve told her all about you.’ Miss Calderwood smiled shyly. ‘He has, indeed, Mrs Burke?’ ‘And you remember Bradford Knight, don’t you?’ Rudolph asked.

‘I drank you dry the night of the graduation party in New York,’ Bradford said.

She remembered then, the ex-sergeant with the Oklahoma accent, hunting girls in the apartment in the Village. The accent

seemed to have been toned down somewhat and it was too bad he was losing his hair. She remembered now that Rudolph had coaxed him to come back to Whitby a few years ago and was grooming him to be an assistant manager. Rudolph liked him, she knew, although looking at the man she couldn’t tell just why. Rudolph had told her he was shrewd, behind his Rotarian front, and was wonderful at getting along with people while carrying out instructions to the letter.

‘Of course, I remember you, Brad,’ Gretchen said. ‘I hear you’re invaluable.’ ‘I blush, ma’am,’ Knight said.

‘We’re all invaluable,’ Rudolph said.

‘No,’ the girl said. She spoke seriously, keeping her eyes fixed in a way that Gretchen recognised, on Rudolph.

They all laughed. Except for the girl. Poor thing, Gretchen thought. Better learn to look at another man that way.

‘Where is your father?’ Rudolph asked. ‘I want to introduce my sister to him.’

‘He went home,’ the girl said. He got angry at something the Mayor said, because the Mayor kept talking about you and not about him.’

‘I was born here,’ Rudolph said lightly, ‘and the Mayor wants to take credit for it’

“And he didn’t like her taking pictures of you all the time.’ She gestured at Miss Prescott, who was focusing on the group from a few feet away.

‘Hazards of the trade,’ Johnny Heath said. ‘He’ll get over it’

“You don’t know my father,’ the girl said. ‘You’d better give him a ring later,’ she said to Rudolph, ‘and calm him down.’

‘I’ll give him a ring later, Rudolph said, carelessly. ‘If I have the time. Say, we’re all going to have a drink in about an hour. Why don’t you two join us?’

I can’t be seen in bars,’ Virginia said. “You know that’

‘Okay,’ Rudolph said. ‘Well have dinner instead. Brad, just wander around and break up anything that looks as if it’s getting rough. And later on, the kids’re bound to start dancing. Make them keep it clean, in a polite way.’

‘I’ll insist on minuets,’ Knight said, ‘Come on, Virginia, I’ll treat you to a free orange pop, courtesy of your father.’

Reluctantly, the girl allowed herself to be pulled away by Knight.

‘He is not the man of her dreams,’ Gretchen said, as they started walking again. That’s plain.’

‘Don’t tell Brad that’ Rudolph said. ‘He has visions of

marrying into the family and starting an empire.’

‘She’s nice,’ Gretchen said.

‘Nice enough,’ said Rudolph. ‘Especially for a boss’s daughter.’

A heavy-set woman, rouged and eyeshadowed, wearing a turbanlike hat that made her look like something from a movie of the 1920s, stopped Rudolph, winking and working her mouth coquettishly. ‘Eh bien, mon cher Rudolph,’ she said, her voice high with a desperate attempt at girlishness, ‘tu paries frangais toujours bien?’

Rudolph bowed gravely, taking his cue from the turban. ‘Bonjour, Mile Lenaut,’ he said, ‘je suis tres content de vous voir. May I present my sister, Mrs Burke. And my friend, Mr Heath.’

‘Rudolph was the brightest pupil I ever taught’ Miss Lenaut said, rolling her eyes. ‘I was certain that he would rise in the world. It was plain in everything he did.’

‘You are too kind,’ Rudolph said, and they walked on. He grinned. ‘I used to write love letters to her when I was in her class. I never sent them. Pop once called her a French cunt and slapped her face.’ ‘I never heard that story,’ Gretchen said. There’re a lot of stories you never heard.’ ‘Some evening,’ she said, ‘you’ve got to sit down and tell me the history of the Jordaches.’ ‘Some evening,’ Rudolph said.