— But like when’s your appointment, I mean like how can you have appointments when you don’t even know like what time it is here.
— No there’s… the razor raked down, — there’s a clock on the floor right there under the…
— Are you kidding? I mean I just saw it it says like one o’clock.
— Yes it’s… electric and it runs backwards, someone…
— Man like don’t try to explain it to me okay?
— No it’s very simple it… there’s a little conversion chart I made beside it you add whatever number to what it says to get ten except when it says…
— Man like I just don’t want to know! I mean are you done with the soap?
— Oh I’m, yes, yes… he turned to her shirt suddenly empty dangling from the dishcloth rack and she reached from the short tub knees drawn up failing to cover the circles gone pink from the edges somewhere the wrong way down the spectrum toward hollyhock.
— Like, man like this is laundry soap.
— I know but it’s the only…
— I mean like this will take the skin right off my, like I didn’t see this since my grandmother.
— Yes I’ve been meaning to get some but…
— I mean you’re not wearing that shirt are you?
— Yes well I, it’s the only clean…
— Clean? Like man look at the front of it where you were climbing around back there, like that should be some business appointment.
— Yes well, but there’s nothing I…
— Like just turn it inside out, I mean like then where the collar’s dirty it’s inside the collar you know?
— Oh, oh I never thought of that, he came out of it pulling its sleeves through.
— And like where’s there a mirror here.
— Well I, there isn’t really one but I’ve been using this…
— Man… she dropped a knee to reach for the cookie tin top, — like it looks it. I mean you’re leaving right now?
He paused there swallowing — I, I have to yes, yes I’d hoped I could wait for the mail but…
— Oh wow.
— No there’s something I’m waiting for…
— Like what, she had an arm up soaping under it, — the new issue of Forest Industries? I mean it already came didn’t you hear it? she called over the water tumbling at her feet, — like there was this tremendous thud out in the hall like it’s the next fifty volumes of… he came past her without even looking up, got the door open and balanced with a heel against it dragging a box over the sill and then envelopes, envelopes, grabbing one up addressed Edwerd B ast and tearing it open to pocket the crumpled bills inside before he stood. — Like you’re not opening your present?
— Oh, oh no I’ll look at it later, he dragged it under the sink, picked up his case and a soiled manila envelope.
— Wait like before you go, like right over the sink there’s some pins there, like I saw these rusty pins in a crack there.
— You, want one? he dug one out with a thumbnail.
— Just one like and I mean like turn around… she reached up for the hem of his jacket, folding it in working the pin — and then like where’s a towel when I’m done.
— I thought you, I mean all there is is this shirt, I…
— Like man if I use that I’ll be worse than when I got in here.
— I’m sorry I thought you, I didn’t think of it… he stood over her knees drawn up again there, looking slightly off balance. — When you, if you leave I don’t know how you’ll lock up, I only have this one key and if I lock the door now you…
— Are you kidding man? I mean like you think I’m going to get locked in this place? Like I mean I could drownd and nobody would know it, she said, the tumbling water still rising around her.
— Yes well, but if you leave can you fix the door so it…
— Look man like don’t worry, okay?
— Yes well, yes well, well it was nice to meet you maybe I’ll get back before you go if you, I mean, I mean you’re welcome to stay if you… he cleared his throat as her head went down, knees went down, hand seeking deep for the soap.
— Man like all I want is to get in over there and get my stuff okay?
— Well, well yes okay and, goodbye then… he hesitated, and then the door came into place behind him, shuddered once or twice and was still, leaving only the rush of water at her feet. She spread her elbows up to the tub’s sides and came back slowly to rest against its slope, one foot then the other rising prehensile at the opposite end as the water slowly climbed pink to hollyhock, closed over deep magenta at the tips and mounted to her armpits before her feet came down and she forward to reach the tap. Her knuckles went white. Her other hand came up, did the same, and she held there long enough to whisper — oh wow… before she grabbed the sides and stood over the rush of water at her knees in a pose broken only by a sharp knock on the door.
— Come in, is that you? Like quick…!
— Telephone company…
— I said come in will you!
— Telepho…
— And like watch the door but quick…! The door shuddered open, came to abrupt rest at an angle — man like quick, turn this thing off or we’ll drownd… He was there in the step it took, no strain discoloring the rich dark of his hand as he reached the tap and broke it off. — Oh wow…
— Wow.
— Well like do something quick man or we’ll…
— Maybe first just pull out the plug… his arm plunged past her knees, she reached the shirt and stood there holding it pendant, watching the water slowly reveal her calves. — Going out faster than it’s coming in, no problem just leave it run.
— I mean that was close man, like where’d you come from.
— Telephone company, I…
— Are you kidding? Like I mean there’s no telephone here so don’t give me…
— No I came to install one if, this is, Bast? I mean are, you’re the lady of the house?
— Like what do I look like the fucking butler? She started to dry a shoulder with the shirt, and stopped. — Look man if you came to install a telephone install a telephone.
— If you just ah, he looked around, — just tell me where you’d…
— Come off it man, I mean like you’re this telephone man okay? Like how am I supposed to know where you install a telephone, I mean just install it like they taught you how to install a telephone in telephone man school okay? And she got a foot up on the side of the tub to dry a knee as he turned to hurry a box through the door and knelt beside the film cans opposite her to tear it open. — Man like wait a minute, she paused on a dry knee, — I mean like that’s supposed to be a telephone?
— Call that a picturephone… he raised his eyes slightly to her face.
— Are you kidding? She got the other knee up.
— Talk to somebody you see their face right there… and he stood as though seeking a vantage point. — Somebody walking the walls here, must have been some great grass.
— Like man there’s nothing here but like Chesterfields, I mean like I have this stash next door but I can’t get in there.
— Why not.
— Like I don’t have the key man.
— Old place like this what do you need a key? He picked up a coathanger.
— Oh wow… she stood, reached down her shirt from the dishcloth rack — like I mean could you get in there and get it for me? Wait, like right in past those boxes throw me these shoes, they’re these moccasins like, she said getting into the shirt, buttoning it — I mean like I don’t want to get my feet black again you know? And she stood away from the tumbling water to put them on, stepped out and closed the tops of the tub. — Like go get it man, I mean I don’t want to go in there.