George Mills Part 50

" 'The family,' Losey says. 'The family comes first. The home.'

"It's the long view, you see. The long view he takes. Marriage like princ.i.p.al. Not to be disturbed. He's a doctor, a surgeon. He hates a complication. Side effects spook him, they give him the w.i.l.l.i.e.s. Sure, that's got got to be it. The principles of science carried over into life. Well, why not? What the h.e.l.l? I'm glad we had this chat, George. It's clearer to me now." to be it. The principles of science carried over into life. Well, why not? What the h.e.l.l? I'm glad we had this chat, George. It's clearer to me now."

But not to Mills.

"Well," Messenger said, "he has trucks."

"Trucks."

"And an interest in freight cars."

"I don't--"

"That he bought with some guys, that he leases back to the railroad."

"I don't--"

"Because a lot of this s.h.i.+t must have been in her name, joint tenancy, something sufficiently complicated so that even if he's audited and they find against him it's probably a judgment call. And, oh yes, meanwhile he gets the use on the money, the interest compounding against the penalty even if there is one. A divorce could ... Well, you can see for yourself. And maybe that's what he means by 'home.' Maybe it's only his pet name for tax shelter. The horror, the horror, hey Mills?"

Who wanted names and dates, the places of these horrors, whose own interest was compounding now too, but in a different direction, so that when he again asked "Then what happened?" Messenger only looked at him. "What happened?" he repeated.

"What do you think happened?"

"I don't know, that it got out of hand."

"It was his idea that Nora become a graduate student."

"I see," Mills said, but didn't.

"He even picked the discipline. And picked it mercilessly, pitilessly. Architecture. She'd need math, she'd need mechanics. She'd need drawing skills. She'd need calculus and physics, statics and dynamics, and a knowledge of mechanical systems. She'd need to know stresses. She'd need acoustics and drafting, axonometrics and isometric projections. She'd need to know project financing. She'd need a knowledge of real estate and whose palm you greased to get round the zoning codes. So she'd need political science, and a little law too. You see?"

"But--"

"Medical school would have been a breeze, compared."

"But why did--"

"Because he really is is your paste a.s.shole, your rat of sw.a.n.k. Only I didn't know he was so clever. Christ, he must have studied the catalogue like a doting daddy. He must have your paste a.s.shole, your rat of sw.a.n.k. Only I didn't know he was so clever. Christ, he must have studied the catalogue like a doting daddy. He must have pored pored over that f.u.c.ker. He must have laughed his a.s.s off when he had to look a term up. over that f.u.c.ker. He must have laughed his a.s.s off when he had to look a term up.

"But I don't know. I don't know know why he did it. Maybe it was only that same hierarchical predilection for profession that put nurses off limits but drove him into their arms once they were doctors' wives. Maybe that's why he married her in the first place, maybe it's why he loved her. Maybe he was just showing off. Because once he got his license to practice he could, by the simple act of marrying her, take any girl off the street and turn her into a doctor's wife. why he did it. Maybe it was only that same hierarchical predilection for profession that put nurses off limits but drove him into their arms once they were doctors' wives. Maybe that's why he married her in the first place, maybe it's why he loved her. Maybe he was just showing off. Because once he got his license to practice he could, by the simple act of marrying her, take any girl off the street and turn her into a doctor's wife. Any Any girl. A typist, a beautician, someone in trade school. girl. A typist, a beautician, someone in trade school.

"Maybe excitement quits on you. Maybe it pales. Maybe pride is the least complacent of the qualities, and it's true what the songs say--the thrill is gone, the blush off the rose. Pa.s.sion like the seasons, like land that gives out."

"Maybe he didn't want her around at those doctor conventions," George said.

"Symposiums, conferences," Messenger said. "Maybe. But I don't think so. I think he's better than that. I take him at his word. I believe he really is this rat of sw.a.n.k, that he has this toney, back-of-the-book vision. The couple-she's a brain surgeon, he sits on the Supreme Court; she skydives for relaxation, he's into archeology; they swig tiptop scotch and lie around listening to old 78's-that has it made. The best condo at the fanciest address, who weave great salads and whip up j.a.p foods which they eat off the carpet before great open fires. (He gets closed-circuit TV, pulls big Vegas bouts from his dish in the yard.) Because he really thinks like that. And what I I think, what think, what I I think, is that he was honestly trying to make her over. Take this perfectly nice, ordinary girl whom he'd already turned into a doctor's wife pretty as any he screws in Europe, well dressed as any, tricky as any in bed, well heeled and knowing as any, and go for it. That's why he chose architecture to be her fate. Out of love and an honest pleasure and pride in just more gracious living. And that could explain Jenny Greener, too." Mills looked at him. "Think about it." Mills shrugged. "They're cla.s.smates. They're cla.s.smates, George. She came to your house. What did you think?" think, is that he was honestly trying to make her over. Take this perfectly nice, ordinary girl whom he'd already turned into a doctor's wife pretty as any he screws in Europe, well dressed as any, tricky as any in bed, well heeled and knowing as any, and go for it. That's why he chose architecture to be her fate. Out of love and an honest pleasure and pride in just more gracious living. And that could explain Jenny Greener, too." Mills looked at him. "Think about it." Mills shrugged. "They're cla.s.smates. They're cla.s.smates, George. She came to your house. What did you think?"

"I didn't think anything. Why? What should I I think?" think?"

"Did you notice anything special about Jenny?"

"Jenny?"

"Jenny Greener, yes."

"I'm trying to remember."

"That's right. Do you?"

Mills tried to recall the polite, somewhat nervous young woman who'd come with the doctor's wife that day. She was, he'd thought, ill at ease, and had given him the impression-stiff, unmoving, perched on the edge of their sofa, holding herself carefully, almost tenderly, as if she were sore, as if she held a saucer and teacup in her lap, a napkin, invisible cakes-of restrained fidgets. She hadn't talked much. He couldn't remember that she'd said anything. She hadn't asked questions, as Nora had, about the house, the neighborhood. Louise had said afterward that Nora had taken Polaroids of the house, flashes, three or four rolls. That she'd gone around shooting one picture after another, of the cellar steps, the ceiling, the bas.e.m.e.nt, their closets and doorways, their small backyard. "I tell you, George, she could have been from the insurance," Louise said, "taking pictures of water damage, busted pipes." He couldn't remember Jenny Greener having a camera.

"I think she was embarra.s.sed," George told Cornell. "I don't recall what she looked like."

"Plain?"

"I don't remember."

"Nora Pat. Mrs. Losey. What did Mrs. Losey look like?"

"Oh, she was beautiful. Very well dressed. She had on this linen suit. Boots. She had beautiful boots. Sort of a blonde. I don't know. I can't describe people's looks. She was very pretty. I remember she was very pretty."

"A smasher?" Messenger said. "A knockout?"

"Yes," George Mills said. "She was very beautiful." He remembered that when they were introduced she'd taken his hand and held it in both her own.

"You were with Judy," she said. "You're the man with the back." And she'd touched Mills there, where his back ached, and her touch had radiated comfort through his s.h.i.+rt, warming him.

"I suppose if you thought about it you could remember the boots, how they laced up the side, the way they were tooled, the particular purchase they gave to her stance?"

"She stood," George Mills said, "like someone poised on a diving board. Jenny Greener was plain."

"Nora wouldn't let her alone once she found out how smart she was. She kept inviting her over to the house. (She introduced them.) After a while Jenny couldn't figure out how to turn her down anymore. She had this way of explaining things. Formulas, principles. Better than professors. So that for as long as she could keep Jenny talking even Nora believed she'd get the stuff. She could even give it back, work out the problems, solve them, get round the doglegs and sand traps of architecture, cracking all the difficult ciphers of the discipline Losey had chosen for her. That's what they talked about. This was their dinner table conversation. Housing, the redevelopment of downtown, the drawbacks of solar.

"And her husband beaming, beaming, ready to bust his b.u.t.tons. Proud as a pop with a kid on the dean's list--on the arm at the ball park, management's, the home team's straight-A'd, honor-roll'd guest. (Listen, listen, I know how he'd feel! I don't blame him, I don't even apologize for him. This isn't sublimation, reflected glory, suspect, vicarious motive. I'm not talking about pride of owners.h.i.+p, I'm not even talking about pride. Love. I'm talking about love, all simple honor's good will and best wishes. So I know know how he'd feel!) how he'd feel!) "Losey may have been having second thoughts. He must have had them. Thinking-I don't know-thinking, Gee, maybe I made a mistake, maybe there's something harder than architecture, higher. (Not better paid, because, be fair, he didn't give a d.a.m.n whether his wife ever earned back from the profession even half what it had cost him to get her into it in the first place. What could he do with more money? Figure new ways to hide it? He was still busting his hump on the old ways, which, face it, be fair, were only his accountant's ideas anyway, only the tried and true evasive actions of sheltering dough. Because he's right. When he says 'You know me, Cornell, it isn't the money.' He's right, it isn't. It's just another way of having and doing what others in those brackets have and do.) Thinking: Gee, maybe I should have pushed her into astronomy, aeronautical engineering. Maybe I should have run her for governor.

"Till that d.a.m.ned letter came. It was addressed to Losey. It could have been an honest mistake. It could have been the chairman's joke; I hope it was Nora's. But it was actually very nice, very sympathetic and concerned. Like those letters company commanders write next of kin when the news is bad.

"It said that while Nora gave every indication she was trying, really really trying, and was extremely cooperative and obviously bright, and, oh yes, especially gifted as a draftsman and quite clearly imaginative, there was this problem with her math, this basic flaw on the scientific side. He was sorry, he said, but he was afraid that if she couldn't bring that part of it up, Dr. Losey, his daughter was in danger of going on academic probation. trying, and was extremely cooperative and obviously bright, and, oh yes, especially gifted as a draftsman and quite clearly imaginative, there was this problem with her math, this basic flaw on the scientific side. He was sorry, he said, but he was afraid that if she couldn't bring that part of it up, Dr. Losey, his daughter was in danger of going on academic probation.

"Losey was furious. 'Does that son of a b.i.t.c.h actually think I'm old enough to be your father?'

"But be fair, give him credit. He would get her a tutor. She could bring up her statics and dynamics, she could bring up her knowledge of mechanical systems. She was extremely cooperative and obviously bright. Even that pompous p.r.i.c.k of a chairman thought so. He'd get a licensed architect to help her, maybe a partner in one of the big firms downtown. He'd pay his fee, whatever those highway robbers charged when a house was commissioned. She wasn't to worry. All she had to concentrate on was bringing up her axonometrics and isometric projections.

" 'I had no idea,' he said. 'If you'd told me earlier maybe we wouldn't be in this mess.'

"I'm not her confidant. I'm not even his. I mean he won't talk about this stuff. I had no idea either. If I asked how Nora was doing in architecture school he'd mumble something vague and tell me all about some doctor's wife he'd screwed in the islands.

"She told Judy. Judy told the Meals-on-Wheelers. The Meals-on-Wheelers told me. I tell you.

" 'Well,' he said, 'spilled milk. I'll ask around. Don't worry, I'll be discreet. I'll speak to the head of the architectural firm that's doing our hospital annex.'

" 'Jenny Greener,' she said.

" 'Jenny Greener?'

" 'Only she's already working for you.'

" 'Working for me?'

" 'I pay her to explain the stuff. I pay her to eat supper with us.'

" 'Jenny Greener? The mutt?'

" 'She's the head of our cla.s.s. She's the one with the grade point average. She's the one you want.'

"She was right of course. But he didn't trust her now. How could he? She'd kept everything to herself. All he knew was what he'd heard at the dinner table, and now he thought all the bright chatter was just some scam.

"So he checked up on her. On Jenny Greener. He called the chairman and told him he was Dr. Losey.

" 'Who's top of that cla.s.s?'

" 'Our students' records are confidential, Dr. Losey. I'm sure you can understand that.'

" 'Sure,' he said. 'It's just that I'm so concerned about Nora. I thought maybe if I talked to him he could give her some tips. Maybe not. I guess you're right. Maybe women just don't have it in the thinking department, maybe they're just not cut out to be architects. I guess you have to accept them. Some affirmative action thing.'

" 'We don't have to accept anyone,' the chairman said. 'Women do quite as well as men.'

" 'Sure,' Losey said. 'I guess you were only kidding when you wrote that letter about Nora. I'll tell her you said she's a shoe-in. That you don't put girls on academic probation.'

" 'As a matter of fact, Doctor,' the chairman said, steamed, 'it's a "girl," as you put it, who's head of that cla.s.s.'

"But he wouldn't say which girl so Losey still didn't know.

"He got the names of her teachers and saw them during their office hours. He'd mention Jenny Greener and their eyes would light up. 'Jenny Greener,' one prof said, 'Jenny Greener's a genius.'

" 'A genius? Really? A genius?'

"And another told him she was the most promising student he'd ever had. And one showed him sketches. They were plans for the hospital annex. Even Losey could see how beautiful they were.

" 'Beautiful?' the man said. 'This is an actual project you know. Many of the problems we set for our students are. This is being built. Oh, I don't mean this, this, I don't mean I don't mean Jenny's, Jenny's, but the building, the building's already under construction.' The professor laughed softly. 'Though they would have done better to use Jenny's plans. I told McTelligent.' McTelligent was the name of the head of the firm of architects, the one Losey was going to speak to. 'Not only more beautiful but more cost-effective too. Do you know anything about materials?' but the building, the building's already under construction.' The professor laughed softly. 'Though they would have done better to use Jenny's plans. I told McTelligent.' McTelligent was the name of the head of the firm of architects, the one Losey was going to speak to. 'Not only more beautiful but more cost-effective too. Do you know anything about materials?'

" 'I'm a surgeon,' Losey said.

" 'Then perhaps you'd be interested in these,' and showed him sketches of the new operating theaters. 'What's your professional opinion?

" 'I'm sorry,' the professor of architecture said, 'I didn't quite hear you.'

"Because he was swallowing so hard. Because his pulses were pounding. Because his heart rate had taken away his voice.

" 'I said they're revolutionary,' he said.

"He showed Jenny the chairman's letter. And even made his proposal in front of Nora. Because he knew they were friends, and because he certainly certainly knew a thing or two about the strategy of seduction and that's what he was up to now. So he asked in front of Nora. knew a thing or two about the strategy of seduction and that's what he was up to now. So he asked in front of Nora.

" 'You can see how it is,' he told her. 'My wife's flunking out.'

" 'I understand, Mr. Losey. Some of these things are awfully difficult. I guess I didn't pay enough attention to the basics. I should never have agreed to be her tutor. I'd like to return the money.'

" 'Are you saying Nora's too stupid to learn? I thought you were friends.'

" 'We are are friends,' Jenny said. 'We friends,' Jenny said. 'We are are friends. Nora knows that. She's my best friend,' she said. 'I love Nora. I feel terrible about this.' friends. Nora knows that. She's my best friend,' she said. 'I love Nora. I feel terrible about this.'

"Which was what he'd counted on of course.

"And slapped the side of his head. 'Do you think I showed you that letter because we want to fire fire you? On the contrary, Miss Greener. What you say makes perfect sense. She you? On the contrary, Miss Greener. What you say makes perfect sense. She does does need more preparation in the basics. That's what the fellow says in his letter. That's what we're asking of you. We don't want to fire you. We want to hire you full time. It was silly of Nora to think you could do the job on an hourly basis.' need more preparation in the basics. That's what the fellow says in his letter. That's what we're asking of you. We don't want to fire you. We want to hire you full time. It was silly of Nora to think you could do the job on an hourly basis.'

" 'Full time?' she said. 'I'm going to school myself.'

"She was a scholars.h.i.+p student, from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He'd learned that at the university. But all he really had to do was look at her. Her frumpy clothes and hick hairdo. Her country girl's astonishment in his gorgeous house.

" 'Of course you are,' he said. 'I'm gone much of the time. Nora gets lonely. She doesn't complain much, but she does.'

" 'I know,' Jenny said.

" 'Then you know she'd like you to move in with us. You're the architect. You can see for yourself we've plenty of room. We'd still pay you, of course. I couldn't think of it otherwise.' He'd been prepared to name an outrageous sum, almost as much as the fee he said he'd pay that now not-so-hypothetical architect to design a house, but something in Jenny's face told him she'd turn that down flat and walk out. So he actually lowered the hourly rate she'd already been getting. 'And your own work comes first. That goes without saying. But if you could see Nora through ...'

"Nora didn't speak out because she figured it was her only chance. Thinking-I don't know-thinking, The b.a.s.t.a.r.d, b.a.s.t.a.r.d, the the b.a.s.t.a.r.d! b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Maybe he could make me a hairdresser, a hostess in restaurants, a girl at the checkout, a clerk in a store. Thinking, Maybe she Maybe he could make me a hairdresser, a hostess in restaurants, a girl at the checkout, a clerk in a store. Thinking, Maybe she can can see me through. Maybe she's the only one who will. see me through. Maybe she's the only one who will.

"He never so much as kissed her. (The family, the family comes first.) He never said anything out of the way. If he ever tried to get fresh I don't think she knew it. At the time knew it.

"One night, after dinner, Nora was in the kitchen. Jenny was clearing the dessert dishes. She had leaned down to take Losey's and he put his hand on her arm. Not even his hand. Some fingers. 'I've seen your sketches of the operating rooms,' he said in a low voice so his wife wouldn't hear. 'I think you may have some respect for my judgment as a surgeon. They're wonderful. The best I've ever seen,' he told her pa.s.sionately.

"So that's where it stands.

"She's still on probation but her grades have improved. She'll never make Dean's List but she's still hanging on. But she isn't a dummy. She can read the handwriting on the wall. Both of them can. All three of them. She may even get her degree, but that's not what it says.

"He's in greater demand than ever but he doesn't travel so much as he used to. He turns down invitations. He stays home more. He's writing, publis.h.i.+ng papers. He likes to sit in his study while the women are off in theirs. (He's converted one of their six bedrooms into a study for Jenny.) He likes to sit there, thinking about the future, thinking about the time she graduates next spring and the divorce has gone through.

"Thinking, They can do wonders with hair. With exercise and cosmetics. With diet, haute couture. haute couture. Under their tans, behind their high fas.h.i.+ons and starved, high-relief cheekbones, those broads in Barbados I went down on and vice versa might have been frumpy as Jenny once. As inexperienced as she probably is in bed. Under their tans, behind their high fas.h.i.+ons and starved, high-relief cheekbones, those broads in Barbados I went down on and vice versa might have been frumpy as Jenny once. As inexperienced as she probably is in bed.

"Because he really is is a surgeon. Anything can be excised. Anything put back. He can sew on your fingerprints, he can take out your germs. Everything is remediable. It better be. Everything is remediable or your patient dies. She'll just need some coaching. a surgeon. Anything can be excised. Anything put back. He can sew on your fingerprints, he can take out your germs. Everything is remediable. It better be. Everything is remediable or your patient dies. She'll just need some coaching.

"It's a griefhouse, George. It's a G.o.dd.a.m.n griefhouse. I can almost hear them, make out the tripled, separated weepings of the house's tripart.i.te griefs. Grieving for status, grieving for lifestyle. Grieving for b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, for fops of collusion, for paste a.s.sholes. Mourning best friends and all fall guys."

Messenger paused. Then said what George expected him to say. "The horror, the horror, hey Mills?"