Now You See It... Part 13

Then anger started rising.

"Did you ask-" He broke off, furious; he had begun to ask a question of me head.

Turning sharply to Max, he demanded, "Did you ask me all the way up here to have mis G.o.ddam gizmo tell me off?"

"m part," said Max.

The answer drifted over Harry's head as he stormed on.

"You knew before I came mat you were going to say no, didn't you?"

Max didn't answer. He depressed a b.u.t.ton on the remote control and me outer layer of the globe glided back into place. Max returned me box to his pocket.

Harry was in a rage now. '"You had no intention of taking me Vegas job!" he railed. "Of letting Ca.s.sandra even try to help you, much less share co-billing! Or of improving your G.o.ddam act one G.o.ddam little bit!"

With a grimace of disgust, he turned abruptly for me table by me chair. "Thanks to you, I've got a nice long, time- wasting ride back to Boston now/' he snarled.

Now Yw See It. 57

"What you, euphemistically, refer to as 'the Vegas job'

consists of second billing in a downtown burlesque show,"

said Max.

"We take what we can get, babe," Harry muttered, start- ing to return the contracts to his attache case.

"Like Magic Max, me half-wit host on me TV kiddie show?" Max asked. (That would have made me groan if I could have; I'd never heard about it.)

"It was good money," Harry snapped. "If you had any brains, you'd have grabbed it."

"Uke 'Delacorte's Dandy Magic Kif for preschool tod- dlers?" Max responded.

"It was good money, pal." (Dear G.o.d, hit him. Max! my brain cried.)

Harry slammed shut his attache case, then tossed it on the chair, turning to confront Max.

"I've got news for you," he said. (The man actually sneered as he spoke.) "Maybe you haven't figured it out yet, but The Great Delacorte has had it. m touch with the nicking mysterious has had it. People wanna laugh today. Have fun.

Be entertained."

"Yucks?" asked Max.

"You got it."

"Shtick?"

"Right on."

"Razzmatazz ?"

"Now you're talking." Harry was still sneering.

"How about changing the name of the act to Necromancy and Knockers?" Max suggested. "Bewitchment and b.o.o.bs? In Touch with the Mammaries?"

"Right!" Harry shouted.

"Wrong!" Max shouted back.

"Well, set me straight, 0 Great and Glorious Delacorte,"

Harry derided.

58 Richard Matbesm

Max had to smile at Harry's words. "That, I fear, would take an act of G.o.d," he said.

Harry made a contemptuous sound and started for the desk. Max moved to block his way-with an energy unex- pected by me as well as by Harry. "Usten to me!" he said.

Harry looked at him suspiciously but wouldn't stop to listen; he started to move by Max/ who clamped a hand on his arm with a grip so strong it made Harry wince. "Listen to me, I said," Max told him.

"J thought you were sick," Harry said.

"That is me effect I have created, yes," Max responded.

(My attention/ now, was really caught.)

Harry's eyes had narrowed. "What?" he said.

"Here is me reality/' Max went on/ pointing at Harry. "I have no intention of degenerating with the marketplace. I will not 'do' downtown Vegas, playing a buffoon in a breakaway tuxedo while surrounding chorus girls display their silicone-enhanced protuberances.

'Neither will I 'do' moronic kiddie shows on television. I will not create and market magic kits for second-graders. I will not perform at fairs or conventions or the openings of supermarkets. I will not 'do' witless commercials,

"m brief, I will not despoil an act which I have nurtured carefully for fourteen years-which my father nurtured for fifty years. Failing eyesight, hearing on the wane, dexterity declining, I am still The Great Delacorte and I will not dis- honor that most honorable of names!"

I felt a double-edged reaction in my vitals.

On the one hand/1 felt utter agony mat Max had been confronted by such humiliating offers.

On the other hand, I felt utter pride in his response to mem, more pride than I had ever felt for him before.

Harry, needless to say, felt neither emotion-if he felt emotion at all, which I doubt. He gazed at Max with a bale-

Now You Sea ft... 59

ful expression. "Sorry," he said. "I thought you needed money. My mistake."

He started by Max, who grabbed his arm again, restrain- ing him.

"If I wanted money," Max informed him, "I'd sell my blood. My soul is not for sale."

Bravo, Sonny! If only I could have shouted it aloud.

Harry regarded Max with cold amus.e.m.e.nt. "Big words, my friend," he said.