William Gaddis - J R

— I have Mister Beaton for you Mister Crawley.

— Well so do I, get off the line.

— Hello?

— Hello…?

— This is Beaton yes I’m still on, what… certainly not no where did you hear… Of course I am yes obviously an action like that against the company would have come to my immediate atten… No no grounds imaginable it’s… definitely not no issuing a public denial would simply spread the rumor further and if it should reach Gov… yes especially at this particular moment oh and Mister Craw… in terms of issuing a denial yes I think it might be inadvisable to bring up the matter with Mister Davi… Exactly yes I think that’s precisely what we want to avoid, now… the Forbes piece? I did yes but I can’t get into it right now I’m… I will yes, goodbye… he pressed a button moving no more than the finger it took to do so, — Miss Bulcke? Will you please hold any calls unless they’re… thank you. I’m sorry Mrs Joubert I know you’re in a hurry and…

— It’s all right no, I have to meet Francis, she said into her handkerchief — I…

— Pardon?

— I’m meeting Francis to take him to the Cloisters, she said suddenly loudly.

— But, are you all right? has something happened?

— Nothing no, nothing an unpleasantness in the elevator it’s not important… she sat forward, knees clenched — Mister Beaton could, could Lucien Francis’ father, could he simply take Francis to Switzerland?

— Take him?

— Take him there, to live.

— Why, has he threat…

— Could he!

— Well as, as things stand of course Mrs Joubert if your, if he took the boy with any such intentions we would immediately apply for a court order to…

— Court order! can’t you, can’t anything simply be settled! she’d opened her bag, thrust the handkerchief in and snapped it closed — I’m sorry Mister Beaton, I know it’s not your fault…

— Yes unfortunately the complica…

— I just asked him, Lucien, why he couldn’t simply clear things up… she had her bag opened again coming up with dark glasses, thrusting those back to bring out a pair rimmed with tortoise shell — all he could talk about was this business settlement, are these the papers…

— Yes but, but when was this Mrs Joubert, have you seen Mis, I’m sorry… he got the phone, — hello, Bea… oh, yes sir… Yes go ahead yes sir…

— Must I read all this? she’d brushed her hair back putting on the glasses and as quickly it fell again over the murmur of her voice. — Please be advised of the possibility of highly damaging litigation involving our ethical product currently marketed in the class of monoamine-oxidase inhibitors whose chief active ingredient, tranylcypromine sulphate, recent confidential medical reports associate directly with fatality if taken inadvertently in combination with such strong cheeses as Stilton, Brie, Camem…

— Ex excuse me just a moment sir, I’m sorry Mrs Joubert those are the wrong papers you needn’t read… pardon? Yes sir she’s here now, she just stopped in to sign the… if that’s all yes sir I’ll take care of it with Frank Black… I will yes sir, goodbye. I’m terribly sorry Mrs Joubert, I went through the Nobili file in a hurry and, is something funny?

— The word ethical there, it’s just so utterly grotesque….

— No well of course that’s a, it’s only a term they use to distinguish prescription drugs… he recovered the papers from her, — and this really has nothing to do with…

— It has nothing to do with anything why am I reading it! Every time I come in I’m given something to read I don’t understand something to sign I don’t even…

— Yes well you see, Mrs Joubert, excuse me for interrupting you but some time ago, you see, a small company we had acquired because of its attractive patent position in the pharmaceutical field was negotiating a very substantial contract with the military due to the steady upsurge in demand by veterans’ hospitals and ah, at any rate these negotiations were suddenly broken off when an Italian firm came in with a far lower bid, since Italy is not a party to our patent agreements you see, and this Italian drug firm had simply pirated the patents on which our entire…

— Oh you do! pick things apart till no one can recognize them, I ask you about Francis and you talk about patents, I ask Lucien and he…

— Yes but don’t you see, Mrs Joubert, I simply wanted to give you the background because under the circumstances your father’s position in the government makes it a rather awkward moment to consider bringing suit since the validity of the patents themselves is, I won’t go into those details but these papers, you see, simply involve you in your capacity as a trustee of the foundations into which your father’s various holdings were placed when he joined the government, in order to allow us to handle this particular situation by making some accommodation with this Nobili firm, this Italian drug firm, in which as you probably know your former, Mister Joubert, is a principal. As an Italian firm, actually it’s Swiss based of course, Nobili is…

— In Geneva? It’s in Geneva?

— Yes but simply in terms of…

— Going to school in Geneva, that’s what he was talking about isn’t it, putting Francis in school in Geneva.

— Did he say that? When did you see him.

— Last night. She’d opened her purse again, getting her handkerchief. — I didn’t see him really, we just talked for a moment.

— He called you?

— No not on the phone, no, I just meant it was dark. I was in bed when he came in and we…

— He, when he came, into your bedroom?

— It’s his really, of course. She blew her nose. — His apartment, the only times I…

— But, I don’t quite understand… he turned in his chair to face her, drawing his small dulled black shoes close as he might have done placing them empty away in his closet. — You don’t still live together?

— Of course not.

— I don’t mean to be, to be indelicate Mrs Joubert but, in bed, you were in bed in his apartment?

— Why yes I’d, when Francis is down, it’s our arrangement when Francis is down from school.

— I’m afraid I still don’t quite understand.

— Simply we haven’t wanted to upset him. We simply, until everything’s definite there’s no reason Francis should be upset prematurely and so we simply, we simply want him to have a feeling of security as long as he can that we, that his parents live together like any parents that, that he has a home…

— I see. The ah, you must realize the ah…

— The what, the impropriety?

— I meant the ah…

— Oh nothing happens, in the bedroom? Nothing happens if that’s what you mean Mister Beaton.

— Ah. But you see Mrs Joubert it isn’t, it’s not simply a question of your actual ah, any actual…

— They’re separate beds after all Mister Beaton, last night in fact, she cleared her throat without looking up, — last night Francis slipped into bed with him and, and slept there all night with him…

— No but you see… he cleared his throat, — I’m afraid you still don’t understand Mrs Joubert, simply by returning voluntarily to his ah, I take it it is voluntarily, to his…

— I’ve just finished saying it’s, yes the arrangement we’ve…

— Yes but you must realize that if he, if Mister Joubert wished to make it appear that he, that you ah…

— He can’t make it appear anything Mister Beaton! he, he wants it cleared up as much as I do he’s mixed up with some, you probably saw her picture in the papers when she was still dancing not the one I saw this morning of course with a, an inscription his coq rouge in an inscription no, but…