William Gaddis: J R

— Now now let’s act our age let go of the…

— Here nurse give me the, hello? Senator? Yes sir he’s going up in just a minute, he’s… to call you later sir I’m sure he will, goodbye…

— Some, water…!

— Go up when I’m damn ready! Beaton? What’s that other call.

— That was Mister Leva again sir, he…

— Get that damn payment stopped?

— No sir it was too late Mister Crawley had already nego…

— Drop in the damn bucket won’t do Crawley any good will it? Find out where he got the title to that damn music in the first place?

— No sir he said he’d commissioned it but…

— Could you get your briefcase out of the way sir? We’re…

— Watch my damn foot there! What the devil’d this Leva want.

— He’s furious because the new management has told Erebus to fire him sir, he insists this Mister Grynszpan assured him he…

— Thirty damn million not enough to waste on one picture goes out spends another sixty thousand on music for it I’m the one fired him damn it, thought we’d put this Grynszpan in there he bought them the damn outfit didn’t he? Deals he worked out sound like he might have a crackerjack mind help untangle the whole damn thing told you to get me the story on him didn’t I?

— Yes sir in fact there’s been speculation he may have been the éminence grise behind the company’s meteoric expansion, he seems to have led quite a varied career. According to yesterday’s paper he developed the Grynszpan theory of common foci and was engaged in a major work on mechanization and the arts, he apparently worked his way through Harvard selling encyclopedias and has left them a vast sum in securities and real estate although when the will was probated both the IRS and the Edison Comp…

— Will was what? mean he’s dead damn it?

— He’s reported to have died suddenly in Yucatan of leuk…

— Dead what damn good is he! damn it Beaton what’s…

— Joe just get the foot of the bed there and…

— Water…?

— By God damn it Beaton? Where the devil are you, want you to get that damn stockholder letter out while I’m up there Beaton hear me? Want you to look into the ownership on the shirttail family outfit in that damn patent suit have it ready when I come down hear me? Get that damn JMI stock out where we can get at it hear me? Court decision goes the wrong way whoever’s sitting on that JMI stock still give this shirttail outfit one hell of a fight on appeal, too damn much at stake here for any slipups you get that JMI out where we’ve got our damn hands on it hear me Beaton? Where the devil…

— Please if the patient doesn’t lie dow…

— Get out of the damn way where is he, Beaton? Get over here where I can see you, you get that JMI out hear me?

— No sir.

— And you look into the own, what did you say?

— The current assets of both foundations have been frozen under an injunction, sir.

— What the devil do you, why didn’t you tell me! what…

— You didn’t ask me sir.

— Well by God I’m asking you now! Whose injunction!

— Mrs Cutler, sir.

— Mrs, Emily? by God what…

— Yes sir, she informed me this morning she had an injunction to freeze their assets pending resolution of control of both founda…

— Control the, Amy by God no damn question who controls the, when’s that dividend told you to keep an eye on that damn fourth dividend didn’t I?

— I have, yes sir.

— Well damn it when’s it due!

— In about twenty minutes, sir. In fact I believe she may be meeting with the other trustees right now and of course if no dividend is declared, her failure to have signed over these last powers of attorney will give her the additional votes of both her brother’s and her son’s…

— I declare it hear me!

— No get his arm Joe here, get his arm! He’ll go under in a…

— As their duly appointed guardian in each of these…

— Fourth damn dividend I declare it hear me! Hear me?

— Joe get the supervisor he’s beginning to throw p v c’s, I think you ought to leave sir the patient is…

— Yes I, I do too quickly where’s the men’s room…

— There’s one out to the left, just…

— Oh and the lady here nurse… he made the door between rustles of white, — she seems to be in difficulty, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her quite that color…

— Hear me…!

The door jarred behind him with the first surge and he caught the rim of the nearest basin, clung there brought down by heaves, clung there.

— Excuse me would you, would this help?

— What? oh, thanks… a hand came up freed for the wet towel — I’m, kind of you sorry I, I hope I didn’t…

— No that’s all right it’s, I mean I just did the same thing do you need any help? Shall I send in a nurse or…

— No! no, thank you I’m, I’ll be all right…

— Yes well, if you’re sure… the door jarred again.

— Careful! the cartload of lunch trays clattered still, — don’t get run over the day you’re leaving us Mister Bast, still a little shaky? Your friend Mister Coen just came he’s in your room waiting, that suit doesn’t look bad on you at all… she came on up the greens behind him, pushed — here we are Mister Coen. You want to just sit on that empty bed while I pull the sheets off yours Mister Bast? That suit doesn’t look bad on him does it Mister Coen, if he just keeps the jacket buttoned where the waist is doubled over? It’s not the latest fashion but what he had on when you brought him in that night, it was so shrunk he couldn’t wear it anyplace could you Mister Bast.

— No but, if you think it’s all right for me to take this I…

— He would have wanted you to have it, he really liked you a lot Mister Bast the way he was always telling us to do things for you and reading you the papers… a sheet came billowing to the floor. — He was a real character wasn’t he.

— But, yes but how did it happen!

— Don’t let yourself get all upset again now Mister Bast, sometimes they just slip away like that… the second sheet followed in a heap — you can’t blame anybody. Sometimes when you think they just really want to go and get it over with they hang on like your friend up in intensive care, you said his wife just came to see him Mister Coen he probably didn’t even know her, did he.

— No, no he doesn’t know anyone no, she should be down in a moment Mister Bast and I think she, I think you should be prepared for the fact that this ordeal has taken quite a toll. Her deeply exaggerated feelings of responsibility that led her to insist on being held by the police are not entirely dissipated, her appearance of cold calm I think may be deceptive and her reactions to certain situations are liable to be somewhat, somewhat erratic, especially concerning these unresolved aspects of your family situation as they relate to her father’s estate. The sooner your own position is clarified and your aunts’ situation more clearly resolved…

— No but wait they, what happened where are they…

— Yes I was about to say, I was finally able to learn they seem to have somehow managed to return to that town in Indiana where they’ve entered a nursing home. I tried to call them there earlier in fact, but was told they’d just been temporarily evacuated when a small fire broke out in the upper story and I do owe you an apology Mister Bast. That was indeed your house we saw that night you became so understandably distraught. It now appears that when the property was condemned, the advertisement for the auction of the house itself appeared only in a newspaper in Poughkeepsie, when the auction was held in Albany by the State Department of Public Works the only bid submitted came from a Mister Cibo who heads the Catania Paving Company I believe it’s called. On further inquiry his one dollar bid appears to have been submitted on behalf of a Father Haight with the understanding of a substantial fee for moving it down next to the church where we saw it that night, to serve as a teen center for…