But meanwhile he had his work to do. Little jobs here and there. Odds and ends, daily routine work. Ed had been in such a rage, so burnt up, that he had forgot to fire Al, and despite everything he had said, he had not indicated that he intended to fire Al. In their line of work it was one thing to have a scrap, a mouth fight, or to be angry for a day or two at an associate. But to fire a man was something else again. You didn’t just fire a guy like that (finger-snap). Not even in Gibbsville, which was not Chicago.
That was the trouble, in a way. In a way maybe it was a break that it wasn’t Chicago, because out there they knocked each other off with less excuse than a fight over a dame. But in another way Al was sorry it wasn’t Chi. In Gibbsville they never had a gang war, because Ed Charney simply didn’t have any competition. Whereas on the other hand, in Chi they did. They had gang wars all the time. They were used to it. In Chi you could get away with it. In Gibbsville it would be just a murder, and they would have to make a pinch and have a court trial and all that, and the juries around here were so screwy, they might even send you to the chair. “That Rock View, I don’t want any part of that,” said Al.
So now he had a nice little job to do. A little odds and ends. He had to take this champagne and this Scotch out to where English lived. English, the mugg that caused all the trouble in the first place. Although as he drove along he could not stir up any very strong hatred of English, because the truth of the matter was, if you wanted to know who was responsible, it wasn’t English or it wasn’t even Helene with her hot pants. It was Ed Charney himself. A married man with a kid, and absolutely haywire on the subject of another woman not his wife. That was where the trouble was. He wanted everything, Ed did. Well, that remains to be seen, as the elephant said.
“I’m above this kind of work,” Al said, as he lifted first one case, then the other, out of the Hudson and laid them down on the kitchen porch of the English house. He rang the bell.
“How much is it?” said the old woman.
“You don’t have to pay me,” said Al, who knew that English had credit with Ed.
“I said how much is it?” said the old woman, the cook, he guessed she was.
“A hundred and seventy-five. A hundred for the champagne, seventy-five for the Scotch.”
The woman closed the door in his face and in a few minutes she came back and handed him a check and a five-dollar bill. “The cash is for you. A tip,” said the woman.
“Stick it—” Al began.
“Don’t you say that to me, you dago wop,” said the old woman. “I got two boys would teach you how to talk. If you don’t want the money, give it here.”
“The hell I will,” said Al.
“Aw, my goodness. Where you going, beautiful lady? You going somewhere?” said Foxie Lebrix.
“Can that stuff,” said Helene Holman. “Will you phone down to Taqua and get me a taxi? I’ll pay you for the call.”
“Aw, but I hate to see you leave. I t’ought you and I—”
“I know you thought, but we ain’t, see? If you don’t want to get me a taxi, say so and I’ll walk it,” said Helene.
“Wit’ all dose bags?”
“You’re damn right. The quicker I get out of this place the better I like it. Well, what about the taxi?”
“Wall, I would not see you walking in the snow. Maybe we see each other in New York some day, and you get me a taxi when I leave your place, eh? Sure I get you a taxi.”
8
Mary Klein had gone home to lunch and Julian was alone in the office, with a small array of sheets of paper on which were rows of figures, names, technical words: Number of cars sold in 1930; our cut on new cars sold; gas and oil profit 1930; tires and accessories profit 1930; profit on resale of cars taken in trade; other profit; insurance on building; ins. on equipment; ins. on rolling stock; interest on bldg.; taxes; advertising; graft; expenses; light; other elec. outlay; heat; tool replacement; licenses; office stuff, incl. stationery; workmen’s compensation; protective association; telephones; bad debts; stamps; trade-in losses; lawyer & accountant fees; building repairs; losses not covered by ins.; plumber; depreciation on bldg.; deprec. on equipment; depr. on trade-in jobs; depr. on new cars not moved; contributions to charity; cash advance to self; notes due at bank; cash needed for payroll…. As a result of his figuring Julian announced to the empty room: “I have to have five thousand dollars.”
He stood up. “I said, I have to have five thousand dollars, and I don’t know where I can get it…. Yes, I do. Nowhere.” He knew he was lying to himself; that he did not need five thousand dollars. He needed money, and he needed it soon, but not five thousand dollars. Two thousand would be enough, and with any break in the beginning of the year, after the auto shows in New York and Philadelphia (which are attended by a surprising number of Gibbsville automobile enthusiasts), he would be able to get back on his feet. But he reasoned that it was just as hard to get two thousand as five, five thousand as two. It was easier to get five, he told himself; and as he had argued less than a year ago, when he had gone to Harry Reilly for a loan, he might as well go for a neat, convenient-sounding sum. The question seemed to be: Where to get it.
Tempers are better in summer than in winter, in Gibbsville; Julian’s summer life had included a good deal of Harry Reilly last summer, and it was easy enough to get away from him. If you didn’t want to play golf with Harry, you said you had promised Caroline to play a match for blood with her, which did away with the necessity of asking Harry to play along. On the other hand, it was not bad to drink with Harry in a party of undershirted convivials in the locker-room, and Harry was a fair tenor and even knew songs about the roll of Delta Kappa Epsilon, Lafayette was Lafayette when Lehigh was a pup, the Lord Jeff of Amherst, and a lot of other college songs. Of course Harry got the words wrong sometimes, but Julian was no purist who would discourage the progress of a fair tenor. No, a good tenor, as locker-room tenors go.