— Hello Mister…?
— Wait somebody’s at the… yes she wrote them all down wait somebody’s at the door… and he was down past 200 2-Ply, reaching under the sullen heave on the couch.
— Hello? Mister…?
— Go away! He got back up smoothing the brown paper out on 24-One Pint Mazola under the bulb — it was nobody, nothing, now what… Your call yes I just told you she wrote it all down and then this Leva called B F Leva, he said he might want to make a deal I told him you’d… yes well fine then tell him that, don’t shout at me who does he think he is he might want to make a deal shout at him shout at Piscat… Well if you’ve already told Piscator to figure something out what do you want me to… Yes it’s right here, the stock’s book value is six wait, one sixty-eight and… I told you she’d written it all… because it’s a little smudged that’s why look what makes you think that, of course she’s dependable she… Well what do you mean company loyalty! she’s not even… No no listen that’s very kind of Mister Davidoff but I don’t need Virginia up here no, everything’s… Yes I know she is but I don’t need her here and look what do you want to go over these figures in the middle of the night for anyhow, I’m… from the Times? When today…? No I haven’t just given an interview to anybody no and listen… Well listen what did you do that for look Mister Davidoff’s your public relations that’s what you’re paying him for let him call them, he’s already upset the way you tape these statements and play them over the phone to every… No of course he doesn’t know you do it so you can hold the tape back to make your voice sound deeper he doesn’t even know you tape them, he just doesn’t like being taken by surprise every time you… No I didn’t see our neat write-up in U S News and… I didn’t see that one either no but… Yes the new company logo’s real neat you’re welcome now is this all you… Yes she did but you know more about them than I do anyhow, Mister Beaton called and this man Stamper but I thought you said this neat lawyer you got from Triangle this Mister Beamish was supposed to be handling that whole… well look he’s a lawyer isn’t he? And this law firm you got out there Milliken Mudge whatever it is that represents this gas business let him talk to Senator Milliken about gas exploration and all the rest of this Alsaka Devel… what? What do you mean who changed it nobody did, you… because you spelled it that way in these memos you send out that nobody dares… Look I know how to spell Alaska but you spelled it a 1 s a… Because I know you did! Piscator sent me your memo when he registered the… Yes you did… you did so… you look goodbye I’m not going to spend the rest of the… what? What one more little thing… Listen we just talked about that, I said I was going didn’t I? to… No now wait wait what do you mean take the bus what… The General took it? he just took it…? Yes but who said he could just take the company plane any time he… These neat research contracts at Ray-X yes but does that mean he can just take it to go get some honorary degree from this broken down Tex… look I don’t want to hear about this neat real estate deal with them no why didn’t you just send away and get him one from Alabama like the rest of us, he… Yes all right! but that’s no reason to take a bus I can get a regular… No now wait… No no wait wait how many Indians… No wait look is this why you really called me tonight? to tell me Charley Yellow Brook and his brother are waiting for me at some bus station and you… you said I’d meet them when…? Yes I know I said I’d be out there in time for the funeral but… No but you mean twen, twenty-four hours on the bus with the Brook bro… What do you mean this neat chance to get acquainted by the time we get there we’ll all be… No now wait look it’s always just this one last time! will I just do this one last… Yes I know it but… Well why shouldn’t Crawley tell you I’d exercised my stock option what did you expect me to… no who said I was going to sell it I just… All right yes I know it but… Yes my work is, it’s fine yes I know you do I didn’t say I don’t appreciate this music grant but that’s what I mean, you say just this one last time and now you’re talking about two hundred thousand shares of something and meeting Boody somebody when I get back and some golf game look did it ever occur to you I might not want to learn to play golf…? All right yes all right! just don’t start to talk to me about company loyalty again and look I can’t listen to all the news about school now I can’t listen to your plan for a field trip just tell Davidoff to… yes and tell him I’m dropping all the music off at the hotel desk he said he’d arrange the whole… Well then why don’t you just not call here at all till I get back just let him… what? I just told you, a hundred dollars… No but wait if the round trip is eighty-eight fifty-five that only leaves me with… Look I’m, I’m just too damned tired to argue about it if we’re taking the bus just because they’ve already got bus tickets tell me what bus station they’re at and… at what? Look don’t try to explain it just tell me where the police station is and I’ll… Well I said I would! just don’t tell me to have a neat time at a funeral and twenty-four hours on a bus with two… Yes well I wish you could too goodbye… you’re welcome yes goodbye goodbye!
— Bast…?
— Yes I’m coming… he paused to wet a shirttail at the sink.
— Man like is that you?
— Yes are you all right? you, you had a nosebleed… and he reached the wet cloth down as white spilled full with her sudden turn toward him blotting pinks against his knee there.
— Oh man…
— I think you had a bad dream… he licked his lips come down a breath away to draw the blanket up, yanked to her in her sharp turn from him leaving white massed now in featureless descents to the dark fissure where first his eyes and then a hand came down to hesitate, draw back abruptly at her voice in the sofa’s crevice.
— Like are you coming in?
— No I, I can’t’… he cleared his throat and took both hands to pull the blanket down, turned back to spread fresh staves on Standard & Poor’s, scarcely looked up from one page to the next till light came separating the blind askew behind the punctured lampshade, reaching beyond to 36 Boxes 200 2-Ply by the time he capped the ink bottle, preceding him past 24-One Pint Mazola to the torrent at the sink where he’d pulled off his shirt, propped up the cookie tin top and got a razor from its plastic display when the door sounded with a knock.
— Hello…? It shuddered in with a familiar care for its infirmity, — Bast? Anybody here…?
— No who, oh oh Mister Gibbs…
— Little early, I’m not disturbing you?
— Oh no it’s, it’s all right yes come in…
— My God I forgot your waterworks here, like living under Victoria Falls. Is everything all right?
— Yes it’s, everything’s fine yes it’s…
— Can’t say you look, tell you the truth Bast you look like hell.
— Yes well I’m just, I haven’t had much sleep I’ve been working and I have to go somewhere I…