John Passos - Manhattan transfer

They went down the stairs that smelled of shavingsoap and then of brasspolish and then of bacon and then of singed hair and then of garbage and coalgas.

‘You’re damn lucky Herfy, never to have gone to college.’

‘Didnt I graduate from Columbia you big cheese, that’s more than you could do?’

The sunlight swooped tingling in Jimmy’s face when he opened the door.

‘That doesnt count.’

‘God I like sun,’ cried Jimmy, I wish it’d been real Colombia…’

‘Do you mean Hail Columbia?’

‘No I mean Bogota and the Orinoco and all that sort of thing.’

‘I knew a darn good feller went down to Bogota. Had to drink himself to death to escape dying of elephantiasis.’

‘I’d be willing to risk elephantiasis and bubonic plague and spotted fever to get out of this hole.’

‘City of orgies walks and joys…’

‘Orgies nutten, as we say at a hun’an toitytoird street… Do you realize that I’ve lived all my life in this goddam town except four years when I was little and that I was born here and that I’m likely to die here?… I’ve a great mind to join the navy and see the world.’

‘How do you like Dingo in her new coat of paint?’

‘Pretty nifty, looks like a regular Mercedes under the dust.’

‘I wanted to paint her red like a fire engine, but the garageman finally persuaded me to paint her blue like a cop… Do you mind going to Mouquin’s and having an absinthe cocktail.’

‘Absinthe for breakfast… Good Lord.’

They drove west along Twenty-third Street that shone with sheets of reflected light off windows, oblong glints off delivery wagons, figureeight-shaped flash of nickel fittings.

‘How’s Ruth, Jimmy?’

‘She’s all right. She hasnt got a job yet.’

‘Look there’s a Daimlier.’

Jimmy grunted vaguely. As they turned up Sixth Avenue a policeman stopped them.

‘Your cut out,’ he yelled.

‘I’m on my way to the garage to get it fixed. Muffler’s coming off.’

‘Better had… Get a ticket another time.’

‘Gee you get away with murder Stan… in everything,’ said Jimmy. ‘I never can get away with a thing even if I am three years older than you.’

‘It’s a gift.’

The restaurant smelled merrily of fried potatoes and cocktails and cigars and cocktails. It was hot and full of talking and sweaty faces.

‘But Stan dont roll your eyes romantically when you ask about Ruth and me… We’re just very good friends.’

‘Honestly I didnt mean anything, but I’m sorry to hear it all the same. I think it’s terrible.’

‘Ruth doesn’t care about anything but her acting. She’s so crazy to succeed, she cuts out everything else.’

‘Why the hell does everybody want to succeed? I’d like to meet somebody who wanted to fail. That’s the only sublime thing.’

‘It’s all right if you have a comfortable income.’

‘That’s all bunk… Golly this is some cocktail. Herfy I think you’re the only sensible person in this town. You have no ambitions.’

‘How do you know I havent?’

‘But what can you do with success when you get it? You cant eat it or drink it. Of course I understand that people who havent enough money to feed their faces and all that should scurry round and get it. But success…’

‘The trouble with me is I cant decide what I want most, so my motion is circular, helpless and confoundedly discouraging.’

‘Oh but God decided that for you. You know all the time, but you wont admit it to yourself.’

‘I imagine what I want most is to get out of this town, preferably first setting off a bomb under the Times Building.’

‘Well, why don’t you do it? It’s just one foot after another.’

‘But you have to know which direction to step.’

‘That’s the last thing that’s of any importance.’

‘Then there’s money.’

‘Why money’s the easiest thing in the world to get.’

‘For the eldest son of Emery and Emery.’

‘Now Herf it’s not fair to cast my father’s iniquities in my face. You know I hate that stuff as much as you do.’

‘I’m not blaming you Stan; you’re a damn lucky kid, that’s all. Of course I’m lucky too, a hell of a lot luckier than most. My mother’s leftover money supported me until I was twentytwo and I still have a few hundreds stowed away for that famous rainy day, and my uncle, curse his soul, gets me new jobs when I get fired.’

‘Baa baa black sheep.’

‘I guess I’m really afraid of my uncles and aunts… You ought to see my cousin James Merivale. Has done everything he was told all his life and flourished like a green bay tree… The perfect wise virgin.’

‘Ah guess youse one o dem dere foolish virgins.’

‘Stan you’re feeling your liquor, you’re beginning to talk nigger-talk.’

‘Baa baa.’ Stan put down his napkin and leaned back laughing in his throat.

The smell of absinthe sickly tingling grew up like the magician’s rosebush out of Jimmy’s glass. He sipped it wrinkling his nose. ‘As a moralist I protest,’ he said. ‘Whee it’s amazing.’

‘What I need is a whiskey and soda to settle those cocktails.’

‘I’ll watch you. I’m a working man. I must be able to tell between the news that’s fit and the news that’s not fit… God I dont want to start talking about that. It’s all so criminally silly… I’ll say that this cocktail sure does knock you for a loop.’

‘You neednt think you’re going to do anything else but drink this afternoon. There’s somebody I want to introduce you to.’

‘And I was going to sit down righteously and write an article.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Oh a dodaddle called Confessions of a Cub Reporter.’

‘Look is this Thursday?’

‘Yare.’

‘Then I know where she’ll be.’

‘I’m going to light out of it all,’ said Jimmy somberly, ‘and go to Mexico and make my fortune… I’m losing all the best part of my life rotting in New York.’

‘How’ll you make your fortune?’

‘Oil, gold, highway robbery, anything so long as it’s not newspaper work.’

‘Baa baa black sheep baa baa.’

‘You quit baaing at me.’

‘Let’s get the hell out of here and take Dingo to have her muffler fastened.’

Jimmy stood waiting in the door of the reeking garage. The dusty afternoon sunlight squirmed in bright worms of heat on his face and hands. Brownstone, redbrick, asphalt flickering with red and green letters of signs, with bits of paper in the gutter rotated in a slow haze about him. Two carwashers talking behind him:

‘Yep I was making good money until I went after that lousy broad.’

‘I’ll say she’s a goodlooker, Charley. I should worry… Dont make no difference after the first week.’

Stan came up behind him and ran him along the street by the shoulders. ‘Car wont be fixed until five o’clock. Let’s taxi… Hotel Lafayette,’ he shouted at the driver and slapped Jimmy on the knee. ‘Well Herfy old fossil, you know what the Governor of North Carolina said to the Governor of South Carolina.’

‘No.’

‘It’s a long time between drinks.’

‘Baa, baa,’ Stan was bleating under his breath as they stormed into the café. ‘Ellie here are the black sheep,’ he shouted laughing. His face froze suddenly stiff. Opposite Ellen at the table sat her husband, one eyebrow lifted very high and the other almost merging with the eyelashes. A teapot sat impudently between them.

‘Hello Stan, sit down,’ she said quietly. Then she continued smiling into Oglethorpe’s face. ‘Isnt that wonderful Jojo?’

‘Ellie this is Mr Herf,’ said Stan gruffly.

‘Oh I’m so glad to meet you. I used to hear about you up at Mrs Sunderland’s.’