William Gaddis - J R

— Delivery for Grynszpan.

— Oh, oh just a, just a minute… the door shuddered.

— Where do you want them.

— But, but what are they, it just looks like…

— Look I don’t ask questions buddy, to me they look like bundles of old newspapers but I don’t ask questions, where do you want them.

— Well, well I, but where did they come from.

— Here, you want to sign here? Party named Eigen downtown.

— Oh, yes well, yes and you can put them, put them right up there on the tub.

— You got your water running in there.

— Yes I know it’s, it’s all right just, here let me help you… With the last of them he stood and brushed his shirt front.

— Got your water running in the sink there too.

— Yes I, I know… He fitted the door closed and turned, a foot up on 24–12 Oz Btls Fragile! and paused to draw a hand over his face before he reached up for the receiver. — Now hel, what…? No it was just, just a delivery, it… No it’s not, it’s… No a heavy box came this morning and I haven’t opened it yet but… you had a what sent here…? No but look what do we need an electric letter opener for? You keep talking about running a low-cost operation what… No but if you send away for every… No I know you want it to look like an up-to-date operation but I keep telling you I… No all right, all right! But listen this list of telephone messages Virginia had waiting for me about all kinds of… no that broker Crawley about some drug company with an Italian name and something called Endo whatever it is, somebody named Wiles had been trying to reach me about a string of nursing homes and a lawyer named wait a minute, here it is Beaton who wants to discuss drilling rights on those Alberta and Western right of… what? No but listen he’s a lawyer and Piscator’s a lawyer, let him discuss it with… well when he gets back then and you and Piscator can get out there and play to… to see who…? No, no I haven’t been up to the hospital today and I… look I don’t know if he’s still whispering his trade secret to the nurse and I can’t sit beside his bed day and night to… no I don’t have a map right here! and I… Well of course the brewery is on a river but I don’t know where it is in relation to these Ace mining claims or the Alberta and… what? You meant to tell me about what Indian reservation right in between what… No listen I don’t… I said no! And now listen, four calls from Pomerance Associates who the, who the hell are Pomerance Associates and Hopper, she said old man Hopper up at Eagle kept calling very upset about some big plans you have for a cemetery and salary cuts at Eagle I didn’t know anything ab… what? No now wait a minute what do you mean take a salary cut, I don’t even have a salary in the first place you… No what do you mean set this here example by not taking one yourself, I… No look, look don’t try to tell me you’re just doing this so we can tell them the truth up at Eagle that we’re not taking salaries until we get everything on its feet, you don’t even… Listen I don’t want to hear about stock options and tax benefits! I just want to get… get what? Yes I did, I got it this morning but it wasn’t twenty dollars it was eighteen and I had to give Virginia… Yes I am sure, two fives and… yes all right go ahead and look at your accounts but I’m telling you it… Well of course I need it! why do you think I’m… No, no I know I told you that but I can’t settle everything up with you right now I, when I took the music down to their rehearsal today they said come back Friday when everybody else gets paid so I… Yes I paid Virginia four thirty-five out of it and bought her the ninety cent blueplate, and then… because you have to do things like that sometimes they’re just forty-eight cent dollars aren’t they! Of course we paid for Mooneyham’s too, his and mine came to three twenty and ninety cents carfare for… yes I did go to the nightclub on the same trip so… Yes all right then! All right! Forty-five cents! so it all comes to… to make three copies of all this? Look of course Virginia doesn’t itemize everything, what do you… what rent, this rent? I don’t know, I… as a business expense? Well fine yes if you… Yes I know you think you’re trying to help me out but… No it’s a cantata, I’ve just… Well maybe I did say it was an opera but now it’s a cantata and I’ve… to look up what…? Well I’ve already told you yes I did get the eighteen dollars not twenty and I… Yes of course I appreciated it but after all what do you think I’m… look up what mortality figures, the whole United States…? Yes all right! all… Statistical not statistican, the Statistical Abstract of… No I can’t do it right now no, no and look there’s somebody at the door, I have to hang up… No, and I… Me? No I don’t know how to play golf and… No and I don’t… No I said no! Look goodbye, I have to get to the… Mister who…? Look I don’t know who’s at the door no and listen you don’t have to give this address out to everybody you… Printed on what letterhead… What telephone number, this one? with this telephone number? what… No I can’t no, goodbye… no, goodbye yes, goodbye…! and he sat up there and drew a hand down his face watching the door shudder in.

— Bast…?

— Mister Gibbs? Is, that you Mister Gibbs?

— Bast…? A bottle appeared thrust through the opening, and then — where is everybody?

— No there’s no one here but me, I…

— Thought I heard you in animated discussion Bast, he said briefly forming the side of an isosceles triangle there with the door — didn’t want to intrude…

— No that was, just talking to myself I, let me get the door…

— Don’t want to intrude Bast thought you might like some company, meeting a man named Beamish here we thought you might like some… he stopped abruptly. — Listen…!

— What the, the water? Yes well…

— Through caverns measureless to, where the hell…

— Yes well the, I had the tub running and the handle broke off the…

— Bosom where the bright waters meet, like living in Pittsburgh Bast… he was under way again, — confluence of the Mongahela and the vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet to form the mighty Ohio… and he stopped short of Moody’s Industrials. — Bast never seen anybody with quite such fastidious tastes…

— Yes well that’s just… Bast got by him for the cup, — just eating what was here… he went on, back to the sink to rinse out the discolored water, wipe away bouillon clots with the shirt sleeve — I’ve been trying to…

— Don’t want to intrude Bast looks God damned epicurean, sorry wait… he brought the bottle up to the cup wavering before him, — there, meat in the hall, a bin of wine, a living river by the door what the hell more would you…

— No no I, I brought the cup for you Mister Gibbs, I don’t…

— Problem Bast you’re too God damned considerate, God damned people take advantage… he got the cup in both hands, — have to meet Mister Eigen here Bast, don’t want to disturb you… he drank, put the cup down on — Thomas Register of American Manufacturers, haven’t read that in a long time if then, mind if I try one?

— Oh yes please…

— Have to meet Eigen… he speared at the cocktail onions with a pencil point, — said he’d meet me here what the hell time is it…

— Yes the clock’s right under you there but…

— Clock…? and two, three cocktail onions rolled merrily down Forest Industries — fine only three o’clock, got all afternoon Bast have to do some research, came up here to check out Raindance and Mister Fred…

— No but the clock is, it isn’t really quarter of three it’s, wait, the clock runs backwards but I made a little table there beside it to figure out the right time and it’s, it’s about seven fifteen, you subtract what the clock says from ten unless it says ten eleven or twelve and then you have to…