Saturday, December 21, 2013
known it and that it was entering a new and horrible stage of jails and
iron sorrows, such as Egyptian kings must know in the drowsy afternoon
when the fight is up in the reeds of the mires. But the cruiser was our
taxi and from that moment on we flew East and had to. At the Travel
Bureau there was a tremendous offer for someone to drive a ’47 Cadillac
limousine to Chicago. The owner had been driving up from Mexico with his
family and got tired and put them all on a train. All he wanted was
identification and for the car to get there. I showed the man- -a squat
Italian Chicago baron---my papers and assured him everything would come
off right. I told Neal “And don’t fuck up with this car.” Neal was
jumping up and down with excitement to see it. We had to wait an hour.
We lay on the grass near the church where in 1947 I had passed some time
with panhandling hobos after seeing Ruth G. home and there I fell
asleep from sheer horror and exhaustion with my face to the afternoon
birds. But Neal hustled right around town. He drew up a talking
acquaintance with a waitress in a luncheonette and as of yore, when he
had her alone outside, persuaded her the sun and moon and she innocently
accepted and must have been an impulsive girl. In any case Neal made a
date to take her driving in his Cadillac that afternoon, and came back
to wake me with the news. Now I felt better. I rose to the new
complications. When the Cadillac arrived Neal instantly drove off with
it “to get gas” and the Travel Bureau man looked at me and said “When’s
he coming back. The passengers are all ready to go and waiting.” He
showed me two Irish boys from an Eastern Jesuit school waiting with
their suitcases on the benches. “He just went for gas. He’ll be right
back.” I cut down to the corner and watched Neal as he waited for the
waitress, who had been changing in her room on the corner of 17th and
Grant, in fact I could see her from where I stood in front of her mirror
primping and fixing her silk stockings and I wished I could go along
with them. She came running out of the hotel and jumped in the Cadillac.
I wandered back to reassure the TB boss and the passengers. From where I
stood in the door I saw a faint flash of the Cadillac crossing
Cleveland Place with Neal, t-shirted and joyous, fluttering
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment