From Red Doc

GOODLOOKING BOY wasn’t he / yes/ blond /

yes / I do vaguely

/ you never liked

him / bit of a

rebel / so you

said / he’s the

one wore lizard

pants and

pearls to graduation / which at the time you admired /

they were good pearls /

you said he reminded you

of

your friend Mildred / Mildred taught me everything I

know she taught me how

to entertain / you must

miss

her / I miss her martinis [stubs cigarette] so what’s he

up to now / just got out of

the army / wounded /

messed up / are they giving him care / a guy shows

up with a padded envelope

of drugs every night I

guess

it’s care / he staying with you / for a while / behaving

himself / some days he sits

around reading Christina

Rossetti some days he comes out of the bathroom

covered in camouflage

paint / keep him away

from

your herd / did I tell you I finished Proust / oh yes /

seven years / can you

reach me

those matches behind you / reading it every day /

thanks / was like having

an extra unconscious /

well I’m

not fond of those multivolume things / there’s the

part where he’s comparing

his Tante Léonie to a

waterlily /

she’s a swimmer / no she’s a neurasthenic / I don’t get

it / well she’s old nervous

lives in a single room

trapped in her little

train of habits the pills the pains the spying out the

window / hmmm / a

waterlily caught in a

current he

says / could be too late for me to appreciate Proust on

the other hand I’m at a loss

I’ve read all the Len

Deightons in the library / hundreds of people visit his

home every year some just

burst into tears / Len

Deighton / no Proust / say remember that time we

were driving and crashed /

what time / I forget where

it was I

was driving no you were driving I was looking out

the window all of a

sudden I thought I saw a

deer racing

out a driveway so I start to just then my brain flashes

on it being a wooden lawn

ornament not a real one

WATCH OUT FOR THAT WOODEN DEER I

yelled so loud you drove

off the road into a guy’s

hedge and

burst into tears [she laughs he laughs] / speaking of

tears / listen [gets out a

cigarette] to that wind /

storm coming / or is it the

traffic / wind I think /

from the north sounds like

/ so your surgery is

scheduled

for when / the 25th / you want me to come with you /

no dear / well if you

change your mind / I

won’t

change my mind / I can easily / thanks though / well

/ [glances down at her

crossword] I’ll be fine /

well so / time for you to

go / I’ll call on the

weekend / take some of

those apples they’re the

kind you like