— Yes well those are just, they’re in connection with some business I’ve been, I mean I think they just entered these subscriptions so I could, read up…
— And like this… cottonseed oil ran down the diploma from her thumb — I mean like it says you graduated from the Alabama College of Business?
— Well I, no not exactly, I mean that came in the mail too and I haven’t found out what…
— Man like you keep saying you write this music but like everything I see you say it’s some business you’re in.
— No I do, all that over there is, wait don’t touch it…! she dropped a cherry wood smoked oyster. — No I’m sorry it’s just, those are scores I’ve copied over and if spots get on them these musicians can be so temperamental that…
— Look man like don’t keep being sorry you know? She poured grape drink. — And like then who’s this Hyman Grynszpan? She tore open the top one, — Dear WHO’S WHO IN AMERICA Biographee your generous cooperation, I mean like he’s in Who’s Who?
— I don’t know but he…
— I mean like he’s just going to walk in here?
— Oh no, no I don’t think so no in fact I’ve never…
— Man look at that, like he owes Consolidated Edison twelve hundred sixty-seven dollars and nine cents, like no wonder he split… she took the last frog’s leg, put the tin back in its puddle on Moody’s. — And like what are these?
— Oh those are just, just slides, pictures of…
— I mean like what’s this supposed to be?
He held it to the light looking through her cottonseed oil thumbprint. — Yes that’s, a dik-dik I think, a little…
— Like a what?
— It’s a small breed of antelope someone I, I’m writing some music for a film and those slides are just…
— Man you must write some music… she came down to one elbow as he took the last smoked oyster.
— Oh I’m sorry did you, I mean did you want that? or, or anything else?
— Like if you have something to smoke man.
— No, no I’m afraid I, wait right under you… he came forward over Moody’s — no I meant under the sofa, there’s an old package of Chesterfields that…
— Of what? Like I mean are you kidding?
— No I, I don’t… he sank back on Hoppin’ With Flavor!
— Like to turn on man. I mean I have this stash right over there he didn’t even know about if I could get in there and get it.
— Oh in the, over in the other apartment? maybe you could…
— What like just walk in while they’re balling and ask the chick move your ass please while I reach under you? Like they’d think I came in for a double bill, I mean like if I knew them that’s something else.
— No I just meant…
— But like man you must be kidding, I mean I never knew a musician that doesn’t turn on. Like you must write some music.
— Yes well recently I haven’t had much chance to do what I…
— I mean some music. I mean like that’s what everybody I know is in, music. Like I mean you ought to talk to Al.
— Oh, oh yes well, well who’s Al.
— Like he’s just Al, okay? Like some time he could bring up his guitar.
— Oh, yes well that might be…
— Because like I mean he really can talk about it, you know?
— Yes well I’d…
— I mean he can really talk about it.
— Yes well I’ve missed talking to, having Mister Schramm to talk to, he had insights in music that I’ve never…
— Look like will you just do me this favor and…
— No I’m, I was just going to say when I was working on an opera… he turned to get a knee on H-O, reach up to 12–38 Oz Btls Won’t Burn, Smoke or Smell, — the problem was I didn’t have a very clear picture of the libretto I didn’t really have a libretto… he opened the manila folder, — and so when I…
She stared at it. — Like that’s an opera?
— No well this is, I’m working on this cantata now and, do you read music?
— Like read that?
— Yes it’s still very rough but…
— Man like nobody could read that, I mean like that’s supposed to mean something right there?
— Yes well this is, you see these are the strings that come in behind the soprano and… pages turned — here, the woodwinds come in here behind the tenor and then when the brass…
— Like you said a what?
— The brass, it comes in behind the…
— No like what did you call it?
— Oh a cantata yes that’s, it’s a choral work voices and a large chorus with an orchestra, it’s a sort of dramatic arrangement of a musical idea that…
— I mean it’s all this messy?
— Yes well this is just the, it’s like a sketch a painter does before he starts painting, to work out the form and structure so every note and measure will…
— So like you never heard this, right? I mean how do you know what it even sounds like.
— You don’t yes that’s one of the, you don’t really know till you hear it performed that’s one of the…
— Man like you really better talk to Al some time he can really, what was that…! she was over Moody’s past him, parting the blind — oh wow, I mean like three, five of them, like these five Porto Ricans down there pushing this car across the street this bus almost wiped them out.
— I’ve seen them before yes I don’t think the car runs at all, they have to push it back and forth for the alternate side of the street parking it’s kind of their clubhouse, they sit in it with a portable radio and…
— Man like I don’t care if it’s their fucking clubhouse I mean who wants to walk past it down there in the dark, man.
— Well you, you can stay here if you…
— Like where, in the sink?
— No I meant right, right there you can sleep right there…
— Here? So where are you supposed to be on the bottom or on top I mean look man, I didn’t sleep any last night I’m really beat I mean if you think you’re going to grab a handful of…
— No no I just meant, I mean you can sleep there I won’t even, I have to stay up and work anyhow if the light won’t bother you…
— What, on your cantata?
— Well not, no not yet I’m working on a long piece of music somebody wants for a film, the one those slides are for, you see once I get paid for that finished music up there I can get this done and have enough money to…
— Man like I just don’t want to walk past that clubhouse down there that’s all, like I mean I even hate to go down to this cold can in the hall here…
— I know yes it’s, be careful of the door…
When she came back the blanket was clear, mail stacked on H-O and the diploma protruding from the volume of the Musical Courier for 1903, Moody’s wiped in a stack with Thomas Register of American Manufacturers under the front blind and Hoppin’ With Flavor! drawn up to it. — Like you’re going to work right there?
— Well yes if the light won’t bother you, I have to have it right over me because…
— I mean this place is really dirty you know? she brought one foot up, the other, pulling off the moccasins. — Like I don’t want to get my feet black… and she stood on the blanket to zip down the denims, a shoulder against the wall as she bent to pull them off leaving nothing behind, pausing up there opposite 2-Ply Facial Tissue Yellow — like wasn’t that picture over in the other place?
— Yes it… he coughed staring up, — I, I think Mister…
— Like see those are these kind of little bubs they want you for modeling you know? And like where you can see her ass in the mirror with those like dimples like that chick in the back but like look at her belly, I mean it’s this real pot, like I mean mine’s real flat compared to that… she drew breath parting the shirt — but like see…? she flexed closer reaching below for — this like bulge here? how it… listen!