William Gaddis - Carpenter's Gothic

— I mean every time I go in there Adolph has to remind me how they smoothed the way for the old man's retirement when he could have gone to prison instead. I mean why didn't he. He should have gone so should Paul, so should…

— Billy please, I don't want to go over it again, just go over it and go over it Paul just did what he was told, it was all going on long before he went there anyway. What was Paul supposed to do, they even said it wasn't against the law didn't they? Even the papers, when the…

— Then how come there's all these lawsuits? If it wasn't against the law how come there's twenty three lawsuits, if the old man wasn't as smart as Uncle William he'd be in prison right now but he takes the fast way out like he always did, like he always did Bibb. He crapped on the floor for somebody else to clean up that's all he ever did and there was always somebody there to clean up. There was always Adolph cleaning up that's what he's doing now, that's all he knows how to do. Two hundred dollars an hour he'll keep cleaning up till there's no fucking estate left, you know what he just did? Adolph? He just gave Yale ten thousand dollars did you know that? From the estate, ten thousand dollars for Yale while you're living in this old dump and I'm out driving a broken down…

— But it's not! It's a beautiful old house it's what I always…

— Come on Bibb it's a heap, look at it. Over there in that alcove, take one look at the ceiling and it's ready to fall down, you know what Adolph just spent on those copper roofs at Longview? He just came back, him and Grimes and Landsteiner all of them, they were all down there. You know why? Reviewing the estate's assets Adolph tells me, you know why? right now? It's duck season. Go down there and blow every duck they can see out of the sky and the estate pays every nickel, Adolph doesn't know a twelve bore Purdey from a Sears, Roebuck but he's down there banging away at anything that moves. Conserving the assets they call it, so they decide to spend thirty seven thousand dollars on the roofs, I mean thirty seven thousand dollars. Those copper roofs they're supposed to turn green to go with all that fucking moss hanging off the trees, Longview they call it Longview you can't see ten feet through the…

— Oh I know it I know it…! The saucer rattled the cup and she set it down, — please don't let's keep going over it please!

— All right Bibb, but I mean he could have left it to us couldn't he? Or Bedford, even Bedford, I saw Lilly…

— Leave you Bedford? You think he'd have left you Bedford after that last party you had there? That party when he was off in Washington putting cigarettes out on the carpets and all the broken glass and Squeekie passed out right in his own bathtub? and then somebody painting a hat on his portrait in the library with Day-Glo, you thought he'd leave you the house after that?

— He could have left it to you at least.

— I never liked it. Paul would go crazy at Bedford.

— Paul will go crazy right here. Let Lilly go crazy at Bedford, I saw her coming out of Adolph's office. She was in there trying to get some money to heat the place this winter, she's scared all the pipes will break. Not a nickel, not from Adolph. He always hated her.

— He didn't hate her, he just didn't like the idea of a big country house like that going to a secretary who…

— Who the old man had been screwing for twenty years? so he leaves her a lousy house without a nickel to run it and Adolph jumps right in and pulls out all the furniture? Where is it anyhow, those two big marquetry chests and those chairs from the…

— In New York. It's all in New York, in storage there. We had to rent this furnished, for a while anyhow till they get their things out, or her things, I think it's all hers it's all kind of confused…

— But I mean what are you doing here anyway Bibbs, this broken down little town how did you…

— We just had to get out of New York that's all, we just found this through an agent and took it. You saw me down there the last time I couldn't even breathe, it's filthy, everything, the air the streets everything, and the noise. They were tearing up the street it sounded like machineguns and then they started blasting right on the corner. They were starting a new building right there on the corner and every time it went off Paul went right up the wall, he still wakes up at night with…

— Man like he's already up the wall, he's been up there since he came back whose fault is that.

— Well it's not his! If you'd been old enough to be…

— No come off it Bibb, I mean all that southern officer bullshit of his? that dress sabre with his name engraved down the blade from that half ass military school he went to? And I mean what he told you his father said? his fucking own father? That it's a damn good thing he was going in as an officer because…

— I've told you! It's not, I never should have told you that it's not your…

— I mean how could he tell you! Like how could anybody tell something like that he's already up the wall, he can't get a job he can't even look for one so he pretends he's setting up his own business? I mean he goes in and tells Adolph he's…

— Well he is.

— He's what, setting up his own business where, here? Like what's he going to do, open a laundry? buy you a washboard and…

— Billy stop it, honestly. It's a consulting, being kind of a consultant, I mean it's what he's done before when he was…

— Paul the bagman.

— Please! Don't, start all that… She was up, through to the kitchen. — Twenty? is that enough?

— Bibb…? He followed her in, — I mean you know what he…

— Please I don't want to talk about it… She'd pulled open a drawer, digging under linen napkins, under placemats, — just twenty? You're sure that's enough?

— It's plenty… and as she bent tucking the napkins back he ran a hand over her arm bared to the shoulder, over the bruise there. — This some of Paul's work?

— I said I don't want to talk about it! She pulled away, — here! I, I just…

— Bumped into a bookcase, great… he thrust the bill into a shirt pocket. — I mean you know why he married you, we all…

— All right! I, I just… she came after him to the front door, — I just wish…

— I wish too, Bibb… he pulled the door open, grazing the newel there, and he was out, shoulders hunched against the chill. — You any better up here? your asthma?

— I don't know yet I, I think so. Will you be all right Billy?

— You kidding?

— But where do you, where are you staying, we never…

— Sheila. Where else.

— I thought that was over. I thought she went to India.

— She came back.

— Will you call? Will you, wait will you hand me the mail? I don't want to come out… She reached a bare arm for it, he slapped the mailbox shut and then stopped by the car stalled on the apron there, rocked it with one hand.

— What's wrong with it.

— I don't know, it just doesn't go. Will you, there's the phone, Billy? Please call me…? She came through looking up to the clock, sat down with a shiver. — Yes hello…? No, no but I expect him any minute. Could he call you back when he… Yes any time, this evening yes any time this evening, I'll tell him yes… She hung it up and left her hands there, resting on it, and her forehead down to rest on the back of a hand drawing breath, drawing breath, till she heard the door.

— Liz…?

— Oh. There was a call for you. Just now, a Mister…

— What the hell is he doing out there!

— Is, who…

— Billy, your God damn brother Billy he's out there under the car, what the hell is he doing here.

— Well he just, I thought he'd…