William Gaddis - The Recognitions

Chaby opened the door. His sleeves were rolled up, and his shirt, the back of the collar turned up, was unbuttoned to the waist, showing a blue tattoo line which carne, apparently, from the shoulder.

Otto stared at the miraculous medal swinging from his throat, and then looked up at Chaby's small good teeth. — Is she. .

Chaby nodded over his shoulder and turned away, leaving the door ajar. Otto pushed it open.

She came out to him from the other end of the double room. She wore a clean red cotton dress, and had a spotted blue coat on over it. She greeted him with almost a smile, her tranquil face looking as though she were going to smile, and then not.

— But you. . are you all right? he asked going in to her.

— No. She must go to the doctor, she said to him. In her hand she held the book she had been reading, finger still between the closed pages. It was Uncle Tom's Cabin.

It was only as he came close that he realized how heavily made-up she was. From the door, there was an almost bluish look to her face, but this proved to be a reflection of the careful make-up on her eyes, which seemed to be diffused over her face by the paleness of her skin. Her lips were as carefully made-up, with a slightly softened but still brilliant red. On the wall where she had just come from hung a mirror, rather an unsquared piece of mirror going off to a sharp point at one side.

— There, Otto said, holding out an empty hand which he let fall slowly. — I'm sorry about… I can. . She waited, with this same unachieved smile. — Are you all right?… he repeated, noticing the great hoops of earrings for themselves for the first time. Until that moment they simply served to complete her figure.

— She must go for a long walk, for today she has had nothing to eat, she said to Otto, — and the doctor put barium sul-phate in her stomach so that he can X-ray her and find out if she has a stomach. Isn't that silly? she added after a pause.

— Yes, but you… I mean I heard that you. . that something happened to you last night. .

— Last night, she repeated, looking away from him, — last night she did a very foolish thing, turning on the gas. . She swung round to him suddenly, her tone mocking laughter and her eyes bright open: he looked from one to the other, saw in both his own distended reflection. — Turning on the gas, when the bill was so high already. .! And she allowed him a moment longer to stare at the image on the surface of her eyes, before she turned away to say, — But then Chaby came and everything was all right.

Otto rubbed his hand over his face and muttered something without turning round to Chaby (where she looked then, over his shoulder) who was seated smoking a cigarette in the room behind him.

— Oh yes… he said and took a step away from her, dropping his hand, looking down to where the rug painted on the floor came to an end between them.

She went over to a drawer, looking for something, a handkerchief, and left him standing there looking round, but keeping his eyes from the room behind him. — I see you've finally got a mirror up, he said, rather distastefully, glancing into it to see his face shorn off at the jaw. When she said nothing he added, — You must need it, to get all that paint on your face.

— Oh no, the paint is not for the mirror, she said looking at him, half turned from the opened drawer and clinging to it. — But now a ghost lives here who is not happy. And when it comes she hides in front of the mirror where it cannot find her.

Otto muttered — Oh. ., glanced in at the other room, and took a cigarette out. He lit it and tapped his foot on the floor, looking for a place to throw the match. — What's this? he said suddenly, over near the bookcase, turning a drawing round with his toe on the floor where he'd found it. — Why. . who is this? he asked, and stooped over to pick it up and look at it close.

— Some one, she said.

— But where did you. . how do you know him?

— It is just some one, she said.

— But it's. . what's wrong with this? He stared at the face: it stared back, exactly like, but exactly unlike he remembered, faithfully precise but every honest line translated into its perfect lie, as a face seen from behind.

— It's a funny joke, she said suddenly, speaking more loudly, and she laughed but the laugh was gone by the time he looked up to her face.

— No, it isn't funny, he said, looking back at the picture. He started to hold it up before the mirror out of curiosity, and then abruptly he threw it down and turned to her. — Can you come out for a walk?

— She must go for a long walk with the chem-ical in her no-stomach, she said. She was pulling on gloves.

As they went out, she stopped in the door. — You will be here? she asked Chaby. Chaby nodded.

— But you will!. . she said with a desperate step toward him.

— Sure, I'll be here, Chaby said from the chair, and he winked at her and smiled, hardly raising the ends of his hair-line mustache.

At that she lost her rigidity, and wilted against the edge of the open door, smiling at him.

Otto waited at the stairhead. As they went out he tossed an end of the green scarf over his shoulder and spoke as casually as he could, — Where'd you get those earrings, anyhow?

— She has always had them.

— I never saw them on you. I didn't even know your ears were pierced. She said nothing. — Don't they hurt? I mean, they're so big.

— Yes, she answered turning away, — they hurt her.

Otto thought of taking her arm, but he did not, yet. Also he was walking on her right, and could do no better than bump her with his slung elbow. He was thinking about the picture he had found, and left, on her floor; was, in fact, intensely curious about it, but put it off, as he was putting off taking her arm until they should be well away from her door (as though once into territory strange to her, she would be at the mercy of his protection): all this, though the self-portrait hung square before his eyes, as he said to her, — I have to meet my father in a little while, in an hour or so. When she did not comment, he added, — For the first time.

— That will be nice, she said.

— I don't know how nice it'll be, he said. — Imagine, being my age and meeting the old man for the first time. He paused as they turned the corner and sorted themselves out from strangers walking there. — Put off the old man, says the Bible, put on…

Suddenly she took his arm, his whole slung arm in hers. — Do you know?. . she said.

— What?. . He tried to reach his hand out the end of the sling, and snare her gloved hand, but he could not find it.

— I have discovered that there is no one, she said, in intimate confidence.

— No one?

— Last night there was a knock upon the door. I went and opened the door, and no one was there. No one was really there at my door. No one had come to call.

Otto mumbled and looked at her quickly, at the blue hollows of her eyes in the light of the street. — And. . did no one come in? he managed to say, reaching across with his right hand to find hers.

— No, she said, and let him go as abruptly as she had caught him.

— Now look, you know. . you mustn't get. . you mustn't be too upset, you know, I mean after what happened…

— Do you know what happened too? she asked, looking up at him quite surprised.

Otto looked at her excitedly. It is true, he was confused; but she was with him, they were together after what seemed a very long time, and — All this… he said, — All this. .

— He made love to her, and then she went away.

— What did you say?…

— Love that smelled like lilies of the Madon-na, she went on, her voice rising evenly to a plane of wonder and distance. — Yes, she said intently; then her voice dropped. — Like the pus of Saint John of the Cross.