William Gaddis: A Folic Of His Own

— What shall I…

— Don't ask me Lily do what you want to! There's that flounder for supper I'm going in to get a drink, now where did he go? but she raged past the dim room festooned with blankets without a glance in at the figure looming in the cadaverous pallor of the halide lamp tapping a teaspoon of God only knew what over the blades of the Amazon sword plant, settling on the Madagascar lace where the recent wave of immigrants seemed to have thinned considerably since their arrival as a glittering turquoise discus passed trailing a shred of black skirt from its jaws and the sea horses, gliding past the walls of the castle with all the diminutive rectitude of the knights of King Richard the Lionhearted raising the siege at Acre, only for it to fall once again to the gleaming ranks of the Saracens a century later ending the last Crusade and, with it, the kingdom of Jerusalem, were now nowhere to be seen.

— He said he's not hungry for us to go ahead and eat. He's in there now watching some mystery with a peanut butter sandwich.

— Well I'm simply exhausted, it's been dark for hours I'm going up as soon as we're done. Will you tell me what those blankets are doing strung up in the sunroom?

— Because I can't sleep with that spooky light in there, like it's always daytime in the middle of the night.

Day for night, good cop bad cop, undercover sleuth tracks serial killer, incest victim seeks revenge, heavy metal star on killing spree and the screen ablaze with an overturned patrol car, flashing lights merging with the late night news, spy in mafia drug orbit and the door battered in: police! freeze!

— Well my God where is he, I thought he was down here.

— No it's real Christina, there's somebody out there! as the red and blue lights flashed across the walls and the pounding on the door continued.

— Well open it!

— Mrs Crease? We picked up your car, you want to come out and identify it?

— But who, what time is it? She stared at the policeman half her age weighted down with the hardware strung at his waist — I mean I'm not even awake, I can't go out there now I'm not even dressed.

— We picked up Pedro there riding around the neighborhood, he says he was lost but he doesn't speak much English, probably just took it out to do a little partying. You leave the keys in it?

— I don't, Pedro who, I mean yes it's our car I can see it from here but who's Pedro.

— Just meant one of your Hispanics, probably one of them working on that site out at the corner of the driveway and he happened to spot it, they're checking him out now for drugs and alcohol. You can come down in the morning and sign a complaint.

— Yes all right I, what time is it I'm still half asleep.

— It's one twenty Mrs Crease, just take your time. He's not going anywhere.

— Yes I, good night and thank you.

She was down the next morning with the first rumble of trucks out there on that site at the corner of the driveway raised to a dull roar with the arrival of backhoes and bulldozers suddenly pierced by the scream of a chainsaw, — well can't you hear it Oscar? It's enough to wake the dead! I mean do you hear anything in that little room on the top floor? God knows why you want to sleep up there you'll freeze to death, did you hear that racket last night when the police brought the car back? I was barely awake I didn't know what was happening, the whole thing is like some wild dream now where are you going. Do you think you could clean up after yourself when you're done in here? If you won't sit down at the table with us like the last civilized man couldn't you at least put your dishes in the sink and throw out these crusts and empty milk cartons? doing so herself as her voice followed him through the door before she wiped up the spilt milk, swept the floor and made tea, sitting there staring at the back of the cereal box.

— Are you okay?

— I'm not okay Lily nothing is okay, will you listen to this? You talk about nobody in the house reading, do you want to hear what he's been reading? Win big prizes. Official entry form. If you're the grand prize winner you'll take your whole family on a fun filled vacation to Disney World. Second prize winners take home a family bicycle set. The more times you enter the more chances you, what are you looking for.

— I just need some money for this delivery out there? she said digging in the towel drawer. — He just got some more fishes.

— Well can't he pay for them himself?

— I don't know, he said he found a quarter and a penny in the cushion of that big chair from when Harry was out here but…

— That's ridiculous, I mean you've seen that hundred dollar bill sticking out of the breast pocket of that old jacket he wears haven't you? God knows where he got it, when I asked him he said he had some riddles too, what gets harder to catch the harder you run? What can run but can't walk, where in God's name is he now.

— He's out there watching this man that's looking at the car, maybe you better go out and…

— Oh my God I forgot all about it, is it the police? and by the time she got out there the engine was already running, coming down waving her arms — wait a minute! Who are you, what are you doing! Mrs Crease was it? He'd come to repossess the car, they'd been duly notified — but you can't no it's my, Oscar come down here! Make, model, license, registration inspection stickers it all checked, sorry to inconvenience her, rolling up the window as it moved away, just doing his job — oh my God, oh my God.

— Christina what happened! Who was it!

— Oh my God! she whispered, coming slowly back up the steps — what I've done, what I've done, I didn't know what I was doing! suddenly moving quickly down the hall — Quickly! with the phone in her hand turning it up for the number pasted there — hello, yes hello, hello. Last night, you brought a car out here last night a stolen car, I thought it was my car that had been stolen but the man who was driving it, the man you arrested, he's… Crease yes that's right but the man you… he what? No but where, where did they take him, he's… oh my God. But what will happen to him! oh my God she whispered, finally hanging it up. — No. No no no. Pedro, just one of your Hispanics I wasn't thinking, I wasn't even thinking!

It was one of the boys from the garage, it was Oscar's car it was Jose or Carlos driving it out here and I didn't even…

— But why didn't you just tell them that, why did…

— Because he's gone! Because his papers weren't right so they called the Immigration Service who came and took him away, just doing their job, all of them just doing their job and they'll probably deport him for, for just doing his job?

— But wait a second Christina, maybe you can…

— I can't do a damn thing! When I could just pick up the phone and call Harry? He'd know what to do, he'd know exactly what to do and where is he! and she got unsteadily to her feet echoing — where is he, reaching up to open the cabinet.

— I don't think you should have a drink Christina, it's still early and…

— I don't care what you think Lily. I don't care if it's still early. I don't care if it's the day or the night I don't, God will it stop! at the scream of a chainsaw — just doing their jobs like those maniacs out there tearing out the bowels of the earth cutting down every living thing and where is he! with her glass up the hall as the trucks continued to rumble out there through the trees still standing in their path, out over the pond where she stared for a full minute stirred by a west wind blowing toward the ocean before she swallowed her drink and — no, listen…

— Just those trucks and…

— No listen! Don't you hear it? broken notes of a piano far away flatting the G within three bars, holding her breath till the A came in, late, starting again — he's up there Lily! He's up in the music room get him my God, he'll freeze to death go and get him! putting down her emptied glass to go for the door.