William Gaddis - J R

— Well yes well as soon as I see if there’s a letter for me I…

— Look back there in Appletons’, GRIN-LOC Volume three Jack said he’d put some there. Hello? Fine yes, just picking up his mail here and they can get started, now what… I’ll tell him that yes now what about this matter I called you on earlier, the… to sue him and this Walldecker too yes, look this is the way I reconstruct it. I gave a copy of my play to this young man Gall to read just to read, instead he sold it to this company Angels West for fifteen hundred dollars worth of their stock and they sold it to Angels East for a hundred thousand in stock that showed up as a ninety-eight thousand five hundred dollar profit on their books, when the… because no they’re both Walldecker that’s the point, Angels East and Angels West are both Walldecker and when he… No but it was produced that’s the God damn point! ran for three days it was sold out and the backers suddenly stepped in and closed it without any explan… Wait no what do you mean a misdemeanor, they… No for defamation punitive damages anything you can think of all of them yes, the backers all of them and listen there’s something else, I… No, no this is an ad in today’s paper for a concert by some rock group called Baby Jeeter and the Three Wide Men, I… no it’s Jeeter, Jeeter and I want an injunction to make them stop using that name I don’t know how the hell they… Because they have no right to it’s mine! I… it’s not registered in my name no but it’s, look it has personal associations it’s mine and my son’s and I won’t let it be dragged through the… who my son? Look God damn it he’s four years old how could he have a rock group he can’t even… the same one yes David the only one I have that reminds me yes, when am I supposed to get these Letters of Guardianship I thought… No record of what…? No, no I sent the estate a check for sixty-eight dollars the next morning, if there’s no record of one from Mister Gibbs he probably never sent it he’s, look I’d better just give it to you myself God knows when he’ll be able to, he’s got the IRS after him on some stock he gave his ex-wife in a settlement when she… didn’t have any idea no he thought it might be worth a few hundred a few thousand, it was just a token severance he got from some small family company he’d worked for once, turned out they’d been putting all their earnings back into the company ever since. When he handed it over in this alimony settlement the IRS stepped in and figured his long-term capital gains tax around twenty-eight thousand dollars he’s never seen a God damn penny of the… yes I know it but… He’s here yes but he can’t come to the phone, he’s… Look it wouldn’t do any good anyhow! I just had to lend him twenty dollars to buy his daughter a pair of boots when he sees her this afternoon he can’t even… Yes of course I’m aware you’re attorney of record for the estate Mister Beamish but… in granite yes I know it was expen… I know she’s upset yes I don’t blame her either, we talked about it at breakfast this morn… what letter, from Arlington? No, no just that piece in the paper that called the epitaph a desecration to all who fought and lie buried in these hallowed… Well they can’t prosecute him for that can they? He was named an executor in the will he says he was just carrying out what Schramm would have… All right look I’ll talk to her again this evening, I think we can straighten it out before you leave for… what on that tobacco stock? I think she’s decided to hold onto the whole thing yes, of course she’s delighted at the remarkable recovery it made I’ll talk to you tomorrow then, good… I wrote it down yes thanks for taking care of it, goodbye. Bast? find your mail?

— Yes but, but who’s that back in the…

— Christ will you get away from that window!

— Yes but what happened back there who’s, everything’s covered with…

— What does it look like happened, the old man slammed the door brought down half the God damn ceiling when he look, look those papers jammed in with the paper bags right under your those yes, yes is that my, no, no Christ what a mess he must have jammed them back there himself here just just throw them wait, that box two-ply facial no right on the sink there, is it empty? Just throw them in that he might still want to keep them, hardly make out what the hell he ever thought he was trying to wait, wait where are you going…

— I think I just saw Mister Gibbs with somebody back there in Schramm, in the back apartment I have something to…

— Well God damn it I just told you didn’t I? We just got him quieted down back there, portrait he’s been trying to finish for years the old man knocked on the door one night he dragged him inside made him sit for it day and night fed him on boiled potatoes till it was done the old man just broke out, plaster in the wet paint we just got him quieted down Jack’s in there reading him Broch’s Sleepwalkers, been on page thirty-five for two hours if you go in he’ll start the whole God damn thing again grab you and shout look! if you could have seen what I saw there! Listen they’re waiting for you to bring Freddie, got your mail now…

— No but I have to tell Mister Gibbs something there’s somebody waiting for him, a woman she’s waiting for him downstairs in a cab she…

— Christ how did she, I mean do you know her too?

— Yes well she’s…

— All right I’ll tell him, I’ll tell him now will you…

— No but if he doesn’t come down I know she’ll…

— Look I know all about it I’ll tell him! Now…

— But why doesn’t…

— Because he had some more blood tests they told him he’d live another fifty God damn years that’s why! told him what had sent his white count through the roof and everything else was all this penicillin he’d taken for his throat when she finally called he wouldn’t speak to her, heard her voice he pretended he was an old black retainer yas’m, yas’m, dat ole Mistah Gibbs he a genuine rascal to play de ladies so, say he clear out to a place yonder call Burmesquik set him up a little factory there hasn’t answered the God damn phone since now look, here’s the address it’s his sister Mrs, where the hell’s that ad…

— But I mean I still don’t under…

— Look Bast you don’t have to understand nobody expects you to! What you just threw in that box on the sink nobody expects you to know what it cost him, nobody expects you to see what he saw there all these papers, these boxes what we saw here that painting back there it’s magnificent, the way it looks right now it’s still magnificent he’s down on his knees picking plaster out of it nobody expects you to see what he saw there! what Jack saw, what Schramm…

— Mister Eigen?

— Any of us! because you’re just a young…

— Can you cash a check? I’ve got one here for four hundred dollars I’m not sure it’s any good, one from Ascap for twenty-six fifty, one from a school for a dollar fifty-two and this torn one from Texas Gulf for fifteen cents. We need carfare.

— Christ just, here take this and wait here’s the address, Mrs Cutler she’s told the doorman to expect you, Mrs Richard Cutler here, address like that they might give you a tip. Freddie? Let’s go, this young man is taking you down to your sister’s she’s waiting for you…

— And some papers, I put down some papers when I…

— Well Christ what do they look like.

— They don’t look like anything Mister Eigen, just a lot of papers with crayon…

— Wait look under the, those?

— Yes, yes here they are look. They don’t really look like anything do they.

— Yes fine, now…

— A lot of, like a lot of chickentracks don’t they, look. I mean it’s all still just what I hear there isn’t it.