The Stories of Paul Bowles (68 page)

The sunny holiday continued for a few weeks more, with longer trips now to the east, to Tissamaharana and the wild elephants in the Yala Preserve. We did not go to Colombo again until it was time for me to put them onto the plane.

The black weather of the monsoons was blowing in from the southwest as we drove up the coast. There was a violent downpour when we arrived in mid-afternoon at Mount Lavinia and checked into our rooms. The crashing of the waves outside my room was so loud that Dodd had to shut the windows in order to hear what we were saying.

I had taken advantage of the trip to Colombo to arrange a talk with my lawyer, a Telugu-speaking Indian. We were to meet in the bar at the
Galleface, some miles up the coast. I’ll be back at six, I told Hannah. The rain had abated somewhat when I started out.

Damp winds moved through the lobby of the Galleface, but the smoky air in the bar was stirred only by fans. As I entered, the first person I noticed was Weston of the Chartered Bank. The lawyer had not yet come in, so I stood at the bar with Weston and ordered a whiskey.

Didn’t I see you in Gintota at the races last month? With an elderly couple?

I was there with my parents. I didn’t notice you.

I couldn’t tell. It was too far away. But I saw the same three people later with a local character. What did you think of Sonny Gonzag?

I laughed. He dragged us off to his house.

You know the story, I take it.

I shook my head.

The story, which he recounted with relish, began on the day after Gonzag’s wedding, when he stepped into a servant’s room and found his bride in bed with the friend who had been best man. How he happened to have a pistol with him was not explained, but he shot them both in the face, and later chopped their bodies into pieces. As Weston remarked: That sort of thing isn’t too uncommon, of course. But it was the trial that caused the scandal. Gonzag spent a few weeks in a mental hospital, and was discharged.

You can imagine, said Weston. Political excitement. The poor go to jail for a handful of rice, but the rich can kill with impunity, and that sort of thing. You still see references to the case in the press now and then.

I was thinking of the crimson blazer and the Botanical Gardens. No. I never heard about it, I said.

He’s mad as a hatter, but there he is, free to do whatever he feels like. And all he wants now is to get people into that house and show them the room where the great event took place. The more the merrier as far as he’s concerned.

I saw the Indian come into the bar. It’s unbelievable, but I believe it, I told Weston.

Then I turned to greet the lawyer, who immediately complained of the stale air in the bar. We sat and talked in the lounge.

I managed to get back to Mount Lavinia in time to bathe before dinner. As I lay in the tepid water, I tried to imagine the reactions of Hannah and Dodd when I told them what I had heard. I myself felt a solid satisfaction
at knowing the rest of the story. But being old, they might well brood over it, working it up into an episode so unpleasant in retrospect that it stained the memory of their holiday. I still had not decided whether to tell them or not, when I went to their room to take them down to dinner.

We sat as far away from the music as we could get. Hannah had dressed a little more elaborately than usual, and they both were speaking with more than their accustomed animation. I realized that they were happy to be returning to New York. Halfway through the meal they began to review what they considered the highlights of their visit. They mentioned the Temple of the Tooth, the pair of Bengal tiger cubs in Dehiwala which they had petted but regretfully declined to purchase, the Indonesian dinner on Mr. Bultjens’s lawn, where the mynah bird had hopped over to Hannah and said: “Eat it up,” the cobra under the couch at Mrs. de Sylva’s tea-party.

And that peculiar young man in the
strange
house, Hannah added meditatively.

Which one was that? asked Dodd, frowning as he tried to remember. Then it came to him. Oh, God, he muttered. Your special friend. He turned to me. Your mother certainly can pick ‘em.

Outside, the ocean roared. Hannah seemed lost in thought.
I
know what it was like! she exclaimed suddenly. It was like being shown around one of the temples by a bhikku. Isn’t that what they call them?

Dodd sniffed. Some temple! he chuckled.

No, I’m serious. That room had a particular meaning for him. It was like a sort of shrine.

I looked at her. She had got to the core without needing the details.

I felt that, too, I said. Of course, there’s no way of knowing.

She smiled. Well, what you don’t know won’t hurt you.

I had heard her use the expression a hundred times without ever being able to understand what she meant by it, because it seemed so patently untrue. But for once it was apt. I nodded my head and said: That’s right.

(1983)

J
UST APPLEJACK
Little mint little lemon nothing better on a hot afternoon you want more ice it’s here I don’t like ice in my drink nor ice cream either funny when I was a little tyke they gave me some and I spit it out said it burned my mouth yep that’s thunder all right I figured we were about due for a shower we get some bad ones here they come rolling up the valley God you’d think it was bombs sit here wondering where it’s going to hit next got the barn out there twice once two years ago didn’t do any harm other time oh fifteen years ago more than half of it burned down got the horses out all right though had horses then that was one time when the family was lucky we get some corkers here generally come in August the worst ones my wife my first wife that is as soon as she’d hear thunder she’d go to pieces all white and start trembling couldn’t do anything with her lightning rods didn’t mean a thing to her I’d tell her Susan even if it hits the house it’s not going to hurt you when women get nervous no use trying to make ‘em listen to reason go right on with the same thing over and over yep this is the house I was born in always lived here didn’t use to look like this it was my second wife brought all this furniture here it doesn’t belong in an old place like this yes the house is pretty old seventeen ninety-six you can
see the numbers chiselled on the doorstep out front all these old houses have little rooms there’s no space for big chairs and tables I told her the only room in this house big enough to hold that grand piano is the kitchen but there it is takes up half the room that was a loud one it’s coming this way all right look at the sky out there over the top of the hill black as sin yep live here alone since my last wife died haven’t even got a dog to keep me company I don’t mind it too much never could stand a lot of commotion around anyway can’t abide noise that radio there never turn it on except I want to hear the news how’s that drink coming here I’ll fix you another yes hits the spot but you know you can’t use peppermint got to use spearmint funny the peppermint won’t give it the flavor so you saw my ad came all the way here to see the place not much to see just the old house got a hundred and forty-five acres of woods down back there’s a pretty good brook runs through got some fruit trees out on that side that’s about all I keep busy got fifty-odd cord of wood stacked in the shed for cold weather too bad you didn’t get here an hour sooner we could have gone down to the woods presume you’d like to see the whole property well we can look around outside a little we’ll have to stick close to the house though you can smell the rain in the air bring your drink along that’s all right those four old maples were just as big when I was a boy I recall my grandfather told me he couldn’t remember a time when they weren’t there the two little windows upstairs well there’s two bedrooms and a garret up there here it comes it’s going to come down hard too bad well we didn’t get wet this room on the right is the parlor I keep it shut off never come in here got plenty of room without it it’s stuffy you can smell the dust come on in the other room and get a fresh drink the applejack glad you like it that’s right make it myself down cellar I’ve got a little still down there my father had it before me it’s real good stuff if you make it right Christ that was near must have been over by the Henderson farm hit something I’ve got to shut the windows the rain’s coming in I make it every year God no I don’t sell it that would be asking for trouble it’s just for household consumption except I’ve got no household no no more marriage for me I’ve tried it twice and both times it turned out bad tragic awful they were both of them very refined and sensitive the first one had a little money the second was as broke as I am a few shares of Tel and Tel but she did have all this furniture well it’s nigh on ten years since I married my first wife my old man died and the place was up to here in mortgages she wanted to
get them cleared up first thing so I got that off my mind yes I did say tragic terrible I’m coming to that after about a year I begin to notice that Susan isn’t in such good shape she’s sort of going to pieces I don’t know nervous as a witch and can’t sleep and I have to put up with her nagging nag nag day and night night most of all wouldn’t let me sleep so finally I slept on a sofa we used to have in here I don’t know if you noticed this shotgun in the corner in the parlor I always keep it there ready for action so I can get at it fast maybe a woodchuck in the garden or a red squirrel can’t leave them around tear your house to pieces anyway Susan knew it was there only she never even touched it when she dusted she was afraid of it well she’d been going from bad to worse finally she just clammed up on me wouldn’t say a word that was all right with me I had this new Ford truck I used to drive into town every few days stock up on food it’s only eighteen miles if you go straight through by the back road some of it’s pretty rough didn’t bother me any in the truck though I generally went in the morning so I’d be back by noon but this day I didn’t start out till after lunch about two it took me longer than usual in town got home a little after sundown went into the house looked around for Susan no sign of her when I went in to the room across the hall there the parlor I found her dead yes she’d shot herself she sat down in a chair rested the stock on the floor leaned way over put the barrel into her mouth and pulled the trigger a terrible thing you don’t want to hear all this how did I start on it don’t see so many people these days somebody comes I open up I guess can I make you another no not even a small one you’re right it packs a wallop well you don’t mind if I help myself I don’t have to drive anywhere well this awful thing damn near broke me up after the funeral I went down to New York took in a few shows Christ I’d have gone crazy if I’d stayed here it was down there I first met Laura didn’t see much of her that year the next year I went to New York again and we saw a lot more of each other wasn’t till the year after that we got married she was wild about the house always wanted to live in one just like this we got rid of the old tables and chairs weren’t any great shakes anyhow and she shipped all her stuff here Laura she was very delicate high-strung used to having her own way she loved the country she’d walk for hours in the woods at least she did the first year or so she was artistic too set up her easel out in the orchard and paint the trees she didn’t do anything with the pictures she just liked to paint ‘em there’s a whole stack up in the garret she was a good sport we used to go berrying up on Hawk
Mountain fix sandwiches stay there all day don’t know how many quarts we’d bring back could hardly carry it all between us it’s letting up a little going on down the valley still coming down all right though the trouble was my fault ought to have told her about Susan I mean how she died I ought to have told her right off might have known she’d hear about it somehow you know women’s gossip so she wants to know all about it and why I didn’t tell her in the first place instead of letting her find out she kept asking questions how Susan could have reached the trigger with such a long barrel figure it out for yourself I told her she thought there was something I was trying to hide she got so she wanted to talk about it all the time she’d say oh sometimes I get to thinking about Susan and it makes me feel so blue I wonder what she was feeling and how she could have done that to herself I’d tell her for Christ’s sake you never even met Susan how can you think about her that’s why I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d take it this way it wasn’t long before I see we were never going to get on together she didn’t exactly nag but she was sarcastic and she had her own ideas anyway too late now I thought just have to make the best of it well one way of making the best of it was to get out of the house whenever she started playing the piano it’s stopped going to open the windows no air in here sure you don’t want another I’m helping myself again hope you don’t mind don’t drink much when I’m alone don’t enjoy it no fun to drink if you’ve got nobody to talk to right and worse to drink with somebody who won’t drink and doesn’t want you to drink either Laura couldn’t drink claimed it gave her a headache so she took exception to it when I drank even wanted me to get rid of the still said it made her nervous knowing it was down there did my drinking out in the tool shed you know it’s a bad thing when a man can’t do as he’s a mind to in his own house we were getting on each other’s nerves something terrible and she was spending more and more time at the piano what kind of music God I don’t know but it was always loud I didn’t stay to listen I got out she’d be pounding there all afternoon long I put up with it till one day I told her look we’ve got to have an understanding about that piano right now it seems to me an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon’s enough for anybody and by God that’s all you’re going to play I’m going to time you and if you go on after your time’s up I’m going to come in and drag you out of here by force you hear well that didn’t go down with her after that she wouldn’t play at all said I’d ruined it for her you see this was just part of her nervous
breakdown cutting off her nose to spite her face but she held it against me right up to the end I even tried once in a while to get her to play but she wouldn’t wouldn’t even come into this room any more sat in the kitchen by the big window mooning I didn’t know then but she must have had Susan on her mind the whole time I think even if I’d told her myself instead of her finding out from the neighbors the way she did I think it would have been the same anyway one morning I was out in the field hoeing and I heard a funny noise in the house by God I said she’s playing with that shotgun and I started to run well I found her in the parlor she’d done it the same way as Susan both of them I couldn’t believe it couldn’t believe it things like that don’t happen I mean twice exactly the same way no well it was terrible I asked Doc Synder about it later if he thought it was my interfering with her piano but he said no she was melancholic and would have done the same thing anyway so I mustn’t feel to blame but I still did he told me Caleb when a woman like your wife gets an idea into her head you might as well give up you’re not going to get it out he didn’t help Laura any he’d joke with her but she just nodded her head Doc said he wasn’t much surprised at what she’d done he’d sort of been expecting something bad well it was a pleasure talking to you come back if you still want to see the place in good weather be glad to see you any time a pleasure take it easy on the road you won’t get back before dark anyway

(1983)