William Gaddis - J R

— Rose get in here!

He stood there looking after her for a moment and then up the empty block where she’d pointed, breaking that way suddenly in a near trot and looking, down every curb, in both directions, dropping finally to a walk where the elevated limb of subway loomed ahead off one curb, up the next to stop off balance there and turn abruptly as though sheltering from the wind in the drugstore’s entrance, apparently absorbed in Surgical Appliances for the Whole Family as cadenced heels stabbed the pavement passing behind him.

— So what happened.

— So I’m bringing this file folder over to his desk to check this specification, I guess he didn’t see me because I look down and he’s sitting there with all these dirty pictures in his lap, honest.

— Him?

— Honest, so he sits forward real quick and…

— No if you hardly saw them then maybe they weren’t…

— Are you kidding? This one on top where she’s going down I mean he’s hung like Kenny you couldn’t, wait you got a token? They stopped at the foot of the steps rummaging in purses, bumped by a man escaping a bar gleaming red behind them who muttered — sorry passing up the stairs where they followed, rummaging, through the turnstile and out to the platform pausing sheltered by a billboard loaf of bread surcharged Astoria Gents. — You want to come up that way? So I can be up front for when I change, don’t look back he’s really checking you out.

— Who.

— He’s got on this gray suit with these big checks on his tie… they stopped toward the end of the platform. — Him.

— He just bumped us down at the bottom, he looks… the train roared in against the platform. — I swear, they’re like animals… and they settled back to a gentle rocking motion — with all these rhinestones down the shoulder but I’m scared to wear it… lights dimmed, came up, halts became more frequent filling the aisle with feet kicking aside torn newspaper, flattening candy wrappers, — sitting right acrost yeah, your stop’s next?

— Yeah good night, I’ll see you…

— I’ll see you Terry… and she settled back appearing to seek a gap between trouser seats and shifting bulks from cloth coat sales across the aisle to where arms folded over the tie’s bold check he sat eyes fixed above her on a car card burgeoning the Statue of Liberty garnished with appropriate verse and the train stopped, and started, stopped as though exchanging refuse from one teeming shore to carry to the next.

— Watch out you stupid fuck you.

— Watch the doors there…

— Is this the Penn Station?

— Who you calling stupid you dumb fuck, you want me to bust your fucking ass?

— Let them out there, let them out… resonant, unrelated, syllables blared from a loudspeaker, purse clutched her glance over a shoulder swept ahead ready when he turned square in his path steadied against a vending machine.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Use it as a

Lucky Charm Medal

25¢

OUT OF ORDER scrawled across it — sorry… he caught her elbow, — are you all right?

— I think I hurt my ankle, they’re like animals I swear.

— Can’t get you a lucky charm how about a drink… elbows found ribs and shoulders backs — place is like the dawn of the world here, this way… countless hands and unattached eyes, faces looking in different directions, rolled newspapers clutched and their wives’ umbrellas, frankfurters redolent, a muffled explosion and falling glass.

— Here, I’m over here…

— My God a bomb…

— Five thirty-eight to Babylon…?

— To Jericho…

— Over here…!

— What are you standing here shouting for. I was over there.

— What? Oh, Ann I didn’t see you I didn’t even know you were, I just thought I saw Mister Gibbs over there with a young…

— What are you doing here in the first place.

— Getting the five thirty-eight, I had an appointment I didn’t even know you came in.

— You’re the only one that can have an appointment?

— No I just, are you getting the train?

— What do you think I’m here for, the fresh air? I’m getting the train if we’re not all killed first.

— So am I…

— If you don’t push me down the stairs first.

— I just thought we should hurry…

— Then maybe you could have offered to carry something.

— Oh here…

— Well not now we’re practically there… Elbowed, stabbed by folded umbrellas, they got two together staring at backs of necks as the procession shuddered into motion and the lights went out. After a wavering try they came on again. The conductor stood tapping his punch.

— Shall I pay for yours?

— Is that too much to expect? She looked back to her book.

— No no I, I just thought maybe you’d bought a round trip…

The lights went out and stayed out until the train emerged in what was left of the day. His head nodded slightly. He was staring over her shoulder.

El hedouli: hands and feet brought together so that her vulva stands out like a dome, the woman is raised by means of a pulley until the lingam is…

— Haven’t you got something of your own to read?

— I, I meant to get a paper.

— Why didn’t you get a paper? Everybody else has a paper. The train settled to a gentle swaying motion and suggestions of buildings fled past the filthy pane. — What are you doing?

— Me?

— You’re making faces at yourself in the glass.

— No I’m, it’s called role playing industrial consultants are beginning to…

— Well stop it.

The train was seized with a series of spasms, came to a halt to moan outside a bottling works and moved again. His head nodded.

Lebeuss er djoureb: seated between her legs, the lips of the vulva are fitted over the lingam with the thumb and first finger, so that…

— Haven’t you got something to… but his eyes were closed and remained so until she dug his ribs. — Come on, we’re here. He walked behind her, out and down the platform past Debbys cespool and We kick ass yours too down the steps and ranged rumps of cars to one that finally started with a tremor right through his livid grip on the wheel out in a whirl of gravel disputing passage only for the time it took his foot to reach the brake — unless we’re both killed first… into Burgoyne Street menaced by kerosene flares toward a corner invitingly lighted, — Straight! Go straight! and the car righted narrowly missed from another direction.

— He almost, almost ran right into me!

— Well turn on your lights, my God.

Past ships’ lanterns lighted now and sentry carriage lamps, they mounted the curb and fell to silence. — We’re home.

— Home!

The frame door slammed with the sound of a shot.

— Mama we made a puppet show Mama, me and Donny.

— My God. Did you eat?

The door slammed with the sound of a shot.

— Daddy me and Donny made a puppet show.

The elderly dog eyed him from under a table as he leaned a shopping bag against the room divider, peering through the display of preColumbia erect to the flaccid saxophone, stilled fingers halted up its length to the mouthpiece hung between dentures left ajar. — Hello Dad…

— He’s asleep and Daddy you want to see the puppet show me and Donny made? See it’s this clown and this mouse and the clown says hey Donny! Come here, we’re going to show the puppet show.

— Where’s Donny?

— He’s with his bed. Hey Donny?

— After supper Nora, he said starting the round of turning off lights, foyer, hall, bathroom, foyer, snap, snap, snap, — Nora?

— What are you doing now.

— We don’t need lights on in rooms nobody’s in.

— Rooms nobody’s in, put them out in the kitchen too we can all eat in the dark. Nora get Donny for supper.