Thursday, December 26, 2013
Thus attired they yelled at each other all week. I never saw so many
snarls in all my born days. But on Saturday night, smiling graciously at
one another, they took off like a pair of successful Hollywood
characters and went on the town. Henri wanted to get Diane into the
movies; he wanted to make a Hollywood writer out of me; he was nothing
but plans. He woke up and saw me come in the window. His great laugh,
one of the greatest laughs in the world, dinned in my ear. “Aaaaah
Kerouac, he comes in through the window; he follows instructions to a T.
Where have you been, you’re two weeks late!” He slapped me on the back,
he punched Diane in the ribs, he leaned on the wall and laughed and
cried; he pounded the table so you could hear it everywhere in Marin
city and that great long “Aaaaah” laugh resounding around Marin city.
“Kerouac!” he screamed. “The one and only indispensable Kerouac.” I had
just come through the little fishing village of Sausalito and the first
thing I said was “There must be a lot of Italians in Sausalito.” “There
must be a lot of Italians in Sausalito!” he shouted at the top of his
lungs… “Aaaaah!” he pounded himself, he fell on the bed, he almost
rolled on the floor. “Did you hear what Kerouac said? There must be a
lot of Italians in Sausalito? Aaaaah-haaa! Hoo! Wow! Whee!” He got red
like a beet laughing. “Oh you slay me, Kerouac, You’re the funniest man
in the world, and here you are, you finally got here; you came in
through the window; you saw him Diane; he followed instructions and came
in through the window…Aaah! Hooo!” The strange thing was that next door
to Henri lived a Negro man called Mr. Snow whose laugh, I swear here on
the Bible, was positively and finally the one greatest laugh in all
this world. I can’t describe it now…I will in a moment when the time
comes. But this Mr. Snow began his laugh from the supper table when his
old wife said something casual; he apparently got up choking, leaned on
the wall, looked up to heaven, and started; he ended staggering through the
door, leaning on the neighbor’s walls; he was drunk with it; he
staggered throughout Marin City in the shadows raising his whooping
triumphant call to the demon god that must have prodded his ass to do
it…I don’t know if he ever finished supper. There’s a possibility that
Henri
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment