William Gaddis - J R

— I don’t know, he’s been asleep there since I…

— Just from the smell in here he probably did. Where’s Nora. Nora…?

The elderly dog eyed their passage from under a table but did not move.

— I think she’s helping Donny with his bed, he…

— His bed, are you going to do something about it? Nora…? Bring Donny for supper. He’s going to spend his life in it, the way he goes around trailing those wires looking for a place to, Nora? I said bring Donny for supper!

— Well I, I, I think he should see someone, I’ve said I think he should see someone, we should take him to…

— See someone, what do you mean see someone, he can see someone on the BMT. To see a psychiatrist? that’s what you mean? Then say it, to see a psychiatrist… The lid of a saucepan fell to the floor and rolled toward him. — You think I want everybody saying my son’s crazy, I had to send him to the psychiatrist? They should have sent you, that’s who they should have sent, before you got loose in this house with your ideas about controlled envirement and everything else, Nora what are you coming in here like that for. Pick up that lid, will you? You think it’s funny dressing up in bandages like your father? Can’t you show him some respect? Now what are you crying about.

— I’m a bride.

— Dressed up in toilet paper you’re a bride?

— It’s a bride dress. Daddy don’t I look like a bride?

— Maybe it’s something she saw on television, she…

— Saw what, Nora I said get Donny for supper and take off that mess, you’re trailing it all over the floor. Here, sit Donny here and you…

— But Mama Donny has to sit by where the plug is so he…

— All right, my God it’s probably too late for a psychiatrist anyhow, we should take him to the electrician. Here, put down that spoon till I finish serving.

— Daddy I got fourteen Brownie points, while you were at the hospital I got fourteen Brownie points.

— That’s fine Nora, that’s…

— Fine? She got twice as many as anybody, is that all you can say, fine?

— And I still didn’t spend any allowance, you know how much I saved already Daddy? I’ve saved two dollars and six cents already except Mama…

— All right Nora stop talking and eat.

— Except Mama borrowed two dollars so I only got…

— I said stop talking and eat.

— What is it.

— What do you mean what is it, it’s your supper. What does it look like.

— It looks like Lingam.

— Like what?

— Like a lingam.

— Like a lingam! How do you know what a lingam looks like.

— Because it looks just like this.

— Maybe she, maybe she saw that book you had…

— I can’t hear you, will you stop whispering?

— That book you had about, about India, things they do in India.

— Things they do in India! My God! You sound like, I don’t know what. You think they aren’t doing them right this minute someplace a block away?

— No what I meant was, just the book, I put it up on the bathroom shelf so Nora…

— So Nora what. So she couldn’t read at home what they want me to teach them at school?

— No I, I thought Mister Whiteback wanted Mister Vogel to try to, to work up some visual aids that would…

— Vogel! What’s he going to do, build a model? Did you hear he had the whole fourth grade out sniffing glue? What do you think the police picked him up for, with those scars on his face, my God. Daisies won’t tell. He ought to be locked up. So what did Whiteback tell you.

— Well just before I had my, before I went to the hospital, he wanted me to feel you out on this job of curriculum specialist…

— Feel me out, I’ll tell you what he wants with his dirty mouth Nora come back to the table, where are you going.

— Just in the bathroom to vomit.

— Well clean up when you’re finished and come back to the table, I’ll tell you what he wants. He wants me to forget about this strike, he wants to give me that stinking Ring that that bag in the car with that book salesman was rubbing everybody’s face in so I’ll forget about this strike. They know him all over, that’s the way he made his commissions, getting the textbook orders from bags like her in the back seat of his car, the kids saw them right up in those woods where we dumped that old washing machine going at it like, what’s the matter you’re not hungry?

— Not very I, what is it…

— It’s tongue what does it look like. The only reason Whiteback wants you to feel me up is this greasy little dago politician with the wife that was Miss Rheingold so it’s her Ring they’re rubbing everybody’s face in for the Spring Arts Festival in this Cultural Center he’s getting put here.

— Oh.

— Oh. What do you mean oh.

— No I meant the strike, when is the strike…

— When is what strike. How can we strike if Fedders put the whole of the union war chest in buying deposit certificates at the bank now we can’t get the money out for two years, and mortgages, so he buys mortgages with it. Now they’re trying to fire the one teacher left in the place that knows what it’s all about so what does Fedders do he buys mortgages, and you talk about a strike.

— Who? Who are they firing?

— Don’t worry it’s not you, I said the one man who knows what it’s all about, he opens the day without singing them the Star Spangle Banner so they start a loyalty day parade. You never heard of the Citizens Union of whatever it is? Nora go wash out your mouth and get ready for bed, I can smell it way over here, and take Donny. Of Neighborhood Teaching or whatever it is with this mother going around to classes spying dressed like a kid, where were you keeping yourself.

— Yes well I, I’ve been in the hospital but who…

— Who? I just told you, it’s some kid’s mother when the kid stays home sick she dresses up like her and comes to school, can you pick up your dish and put it in the sink instead of leaving it there for somebody else to clean up? Where are you going now.

— I thought some mail might have come for me while I was…

— What do you think that pile on the bread box is, Mister Coded Anonymity.

— Oh, oh yes this is what I’ve been…

— They want you to be president of General Motors? Wait till they get a look at you… a fork dropped, a spoon followed it.

Somewhere a clock made a try at striking the hour. A door banged; a toilet flushed; a door banged. — Dad…? are you in there? A rude sound responded promptly from within. — My God… rounding a corner shedding one shoe, the other. — Now what are you looking for.

— I had some money put away here, in the back of this drawer. It’s gone.

— What do you put money in the back of a drawer for?

— There was almost fifty dollars it, it’s gone.

— Nora? Come in here.

— What Mama?

— I said come in here. Daddy says he put some money in that drawer and it’s gone. Do you know…

— Donny found it.

— Well where is it, get it.

— He sold it.

— What do you mean he sold it.

— He sold it to some boys.

— He sold it?

— He didn’t know, he thought the coins were better because the other’s only paper. He sold the fives for a nickel and the ones for ten cents.

— Well why did he, my God, why did he…

— He thought the ones were better because they had George Washington.

— My God.

— But, but Nora what boys. Why didn’t you stop him.

— I don’t know Daddy just these boys, I wasn’t even here. He got eighty-five cents, I helped him count, after. Mama…

— All right Nora that’s enough, I told you to get ready for bed and pick up that toilet paper, it’s all over the house. So what are you going to do now Mister Morgenthau.