William Gaddis - A Folic Of His Own

— Right there where we were looking at it yester…

— Today's! Today's paper has it come yet? My God Lily don't stand there, get a coat and go out for it! Quickly! doing up the dishabille of the gown she'd slept in with the same distracted intensity she'd turn to the pages of the paper now she had her hands on it, — the obituary page, you've got the business section there, look in the index.

— Is this it?

— Yes, give it to me yes she said almost a whisper, sinking back on the sofa — this is it, staring as fixed as the black words staring back at her there, THOMAS L. CREASE, 97, VETERAN JURIST, the unsparing finality of the bold letters belying the hesitating retinue of finer shades in the halftone likeness peering over her shoulder at — Lily? will you, just make some tea will you?

— I put the water on. He looks real young doesn't he.

— Well my God it's an old picture, I mean it was probably taken before you were born. Judge Thomas L. Crease, a veteran of almost a half century on the Federal bench and the son of a legendary Supreme Court justice for whom he clerked as a youth, died yesterday in his chambers at the district court here. He was ninety seven years old and succumbed to a massive heart attack, according to his law clerk who was with him at the time. As highly regarded by his colleagues for his wide grasp and strict interpretation of constitutional law as for the fastidious language with which he framed that idiot, why didn't he call us! With him at the time, he could have picked up the phone right there in the Judge's chambers and called us couldn't he? What time is it now, I'll try to call him before we have Oscar on our hands here, I don't think we need to tell him just yet Lily. For his own sake, God knows what state he's in and Harry's coming out, I think we can wait till then when I've talked to this law clerk, he probably sat right down and poured a stiff drink when it happened thank God he didn't call, he would have got Oscar and we would have been up all night weeping and wailing, I mean it had to happen sooner or later there's nothing to go to pieces about, he was almost a hundred years old wasn't he? Where are you going, you're not going to wake him up are you?

— No, I think the water's boiling for the…

— Well just try to be as quiet as you can, I want to make this call and find out what arrangements he's making down there before the juices start flowing and he sets up a state funeral, and some toast if there's any bread? And by the time the tray came rattling uneasily up the hall she'd hung up the phone and was back with the paper, — of course he doesn't answer but it's all right here at the end anyhow thank God. His appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals which, where is it. Regarded by his colleagues as intransigent and even somewhat eccentric, his fierce judicial commitment to First Amendment rights occasionally collided with an equally strong sense of privacy in such intemperate outbursts off the bench as 'Damn the public's right to know!' This disposition found similar expression elsewhere in his habit of destroying early drafts of his judicial opinions threatening to place him at the mercy of collectors and biographers, echoing Justice Holmes in his wish to be known only by the final product with the observation that how he got there was his own affair, an approach carried through to the last in his stipulation, according to his law clerk, for immediate cremation with no funeral services of any sort and the forbidding of a grave marked by a cross or any other such barbaric instrument of human torture well thank God, I mean that takes care of that. There's no toast?

— There's no bread.

— Hand me my cup, I'm going up and get dressed, you'd better get something on before the oh, get the phone, if it's Harry again…

— Hello? who… Oh. It's him.

— Harry?

— It's this law clerk, he…

— Here give it to me. Hello? He's not up yet, this is… yes, Christina. I just saw it in the paper, I mean why didn't you call us yesterday when it happened, we… Well I know there's nothing we could have done but my God! Letting us just happen to stumble on it in the paper like every Tom Dick and… Harry? my husband Harry you called him? When was… well when did he call you!

— I just heard Oscar coughing in there, I think he's awake.

— Just a minute. Take him something Lily here, take him this cup of tea and make him stay in bed until we, hello? Well I know that yes, I know that it's right here in the paper isn't it? I have to learn there's no funeral by reading it in the paper like a million other… Well I'm sure you've been catching them faster than you can string them down there but my God after all we, what? up here? Why are you coming up here, we… You? you mean he made you his executor? but, but… Well my God I know we're the next of kin! I mean why in God's name did he make you his… Well if it's that simple an estate and you've already filed his will for probate what do we… what papers to sign, we… I said I know we're the survivors! My God, do we need you to tell us we're the beneficiaries of course we're the beneficiaries! Now… well when, when are you coming, we can… No now don't be ridiculous you can't come on the bus, you can fly up here and… on a plane, you can fly up here on a plane can't you? and we'll send a car to the… Well a lot of people have never flown before I mean my God the woods down there must be full of them, you… I know the bus is cheaper! We'll pay your air fare we're not penniless are we? I mean you can charge it to the estate you're the executor aren't you? We'll send a car to the airport to meet you and… no I appreciate it thank you, I appreciate your trying to save the estate's money but that's hardly the… Well I'm sure whatever these personal effects are you can get them on the plane, if you can't you can ship them up later but I mean don't bring up things like all his old clothes, if there's one thing we don't need here it's a closetful of… Well fine. If there are a lot of needy folks there fine, give them whatever you… and his books yes, you can simply ship those later can't you? I mean I'm sure they're no earthly use to people who probably never reached third grade or can even… No I have to go, will you call? when you've made your travel arrangements and we'll see that someone meets you? Now, Lily? Lily!

— He's getting up anyway, I couldn't…

— I'm sure all this will keep until Harry gets out here with some bad news of his own, isn't that what he told you yesterday when he called?

— Only something about Oscar's appeal that he said may not please him before he sees the…

— Well of course that's a lawyer's delicate way of putting things, I mean he could say it may not please you to learn that we think you have cancer thank God he's coming out here, imagine Father making that law clerk his executor? Taking the bus, I mean he'd certainly been drinking or he's particularly dense, telling me that we're the survivors the whole world knows it, it's right here at the tail end isn't it? with a flourish of the paper, — Judge Crease was married to the daughter of a wealthy Long Island architect and landowner, the former Winifred Riding, and following her early death for a second time to a Mrs Mabel, a Mrs? that's my mother, what do they mean a Mrs! Surviving are his son, Oscar L thank God they didn't say Oswald, Oscar L Crease, a historian and playwright well that should please him, who resides on Long Island, and a stepdaughter, Christina Lutz, of Manhattan and Lily, get the phone if it rings before he does, it might be the newspapers or God knows who and put this out of sight somewhere will you? I mean speaking of survivors there'll be plenty of time for it if we're all still in one piece after his gala television premiere tonight, now what time is it. I had some tea didn't I? Where did you, oh. Oscar, here, sit down here, here's a pillow. You look perfectly awful.