William Gaddis - J R

— Anything new on Freddie, Beaton?

— No sir he was out again late last week and apparently eluded his attendants for most of a day but…

— Devil’s this back here looks like a bus sign.

— A New York City bus sign yes sir, since its meaning is clearly unintelligible I expect to use it in court to support Deleserea’s contention that rather than soliciting she was merely asking passersby for dir…

— I want her back by lunchtime Beaton and I want that carload of nig…

— Whole damn board waiting Zona probably all asleep in there, Beaton get on those phone calls hear me? While you’re at it get that damn fool running that bank out there Whitefoot something like that Bulcke’s got the number just see if he sounds ready to talk business once we get this little wop straightened out.

— Yes sir… and for a moment he appeared to cling to the doorknob for balance once he got it closed behind them before his own black shoes parted to tread by turn a breast, a face, Heiress in Bomb Plot, Andros viewed over tawny buttocks across the carpet to the desk where they drew close again and his hands briefly cradled his face before one dropped to the telephone. — Miss Bulcke I want you to place a call to Mister Crawley and another one to a bank executive with a name like Whitelaw the Governor says you have his number, out on Long… yes and Miss Bulcke I want you to try to reach Mrs Joubert it’s quite urgent, I suppose the school where she’s teaching would be the… yes and if I’m on another line when you reach her simply cut in and… yes simply say you have a call for me from Senator Broos… and his face was gone in his hands again until a button glowed. — Yes hello…?

— Hello, hello…

— Paint dropping off the ceiling into my soup and I’m litigating with the landlord, I’ve brought suits against two publishers and Tuesday I have to go into small claims court for…

— Excuse me I have your call from Senator…

— Hello…? Shirley what in the hell is… no I know it’s a crossed line nobody I know’d be in small claims court, if Stamper’s trying to get through stay on it and then come in here and fix these electrodes, just hang this up for me there will you Bast? Six thousand shares of phone company stock and I can’t reach Billy be damned, well. Brought our magnum opus in, have you? no just put the whole case here in front of me, have to keep my feet in this damn tub, it… hand me that letter opener.

— Yes here the, that catch sticks sometimes but…

— There… wait, probably want to save this piece won’t you, might want to get it repaired. Now, let’s have a look… and he held the page from the top at arm’s length.

— Oh yes well no that’s just…

— See how those beggars got off with a billion dollars? Next thing we’ll be handing money out to the reindeer up there, sorry…

— No I’ll get it, it’s just something I…

— Might just roll up that right trouserleg while you’re down there, don’t want it copper plated eh? Now, yes this is more like it yes, this the opening bars is it?

— Oh that’s I forgot I’d, that’s an accordion solo I…

— Accordion eh? Sounds interesting Bast but I think we’ll want something a little more impressive to open up, looks like a footprint on it too…

— Yes the accordionist did that, I just went down there to get paid and he said the dancers were the ones who’d hired me and since they’d both just been fired nobody was responsible for…

— Yes come in Shirley tighten up these electrodes will you? Slipping like that no current coming through at all, now what was that Bast?

— Nothing just the first violin was the only nice person there, he said he’d call up somebody he knows at ASCAP and I might get a job listening for their songs on the…

— Little tighter there Shirley, ever pick up jungle rot Bast still the best treatment for it there is, did all this by hand did you?

— Well yes but that top part’s something I…

— Little string of black notes running along here, might be our dik-dik is it?

— Well I’d indicated castanets for the…

— Almost see the little fellow running there can’t you, glad my slides were a help, yes. Tum tumti, tumti tumti, of course I can’t really read it you know that, just a lot of hentracks to me. You know Bast I still find it one of life’s great mysteries, people like you who can look at these hentracks and hear those soaring tones that conjure up the vastness of the plains, the purple mountains’ majesty, here… I’m just looking for one of our big fellows here somewhere, here now this might be one yes… his clear nail traced a double mordent, — eland maybe?

— Yes well that just indicates a grace…

— That’s it Bast grace, did your homework didn’t you, and I think you’ve captured it. Find some game’s about as graceful as a hatrack till it moves and then this grace comes in yes, all these notes here looks like you’ve got a lot of movement in here and I think you’ve captured it Bast, remarkable, just remarkable. Just tell me something, Bast. When you sit down to compose, do you hear this tumti tumti tum and then get it right down on paper? or…

— Yes well that’s a little difficult to…

— No no don’t try to explain it to me probably wouldn’t understand it if you did, prodigious Bast, prodigious, that grandeur we talked about I can almost feel it right here in my hands… and the case came up briefly — just the sheer bulk of it, spared nothing have you.

— Yes well I felt you’d want it scored for full orchestra and of course dealing with ninety-five instruments is…

— Each playing its part to fill the screen with the breath of life, to make us feel the vastness of the plains, the purple mountains’ majesty all down in these little hentracks. Ever happen to read a novel called Trilby, Bast?

— Well no I don’t think I…

— Probably a little before your time yes but there’s a passage in there I never forgot, the man standing there at the piano staring at the music can’t read a note and he can’t play. All the soaring tones and rapturous sounds that could express his highest dreams and desires right there in front of him and he can’t get at them, yes of course that was all back in the days before tapes and records so we won’t have that happen here will we. Shirley on your way out there look on my calendar, I think I’ve got some free time this afternoon in fact Bast and Shirley bring in my checkbook, here this may be Stamper now just hand me that will you? I know he’ll want to hear the, yes hello…? Who…? Beamish? no don’t think I ever… oh yes yes heard of your company of course been having your troubles haven’t you… Yes I don’t know why he’d tell you to call me about it though, these people who’ve taken over X–L Lithograph are still having a little cash flow problem of their own and whether they’re in any position yet to settle this old debt to Triangle right now is… haven’t discussed it with them no just this item in this morning’s paper, speculation seems to be they went after X–L strictly as an advertising medium, diversifying right and left expanding line of products plan to use these matchbook covers all over the country to put themselves across move in on these markets and saturate the… topflight aggressive young management yes, happen to have one of their principals sitting right here in fact, Mister… no no their executive officer, probably clear up the status of this long-term debt right now, Mister Bast…?

— No well if you wouldn’t mind speaking to him Mister Craw…