reach her, to talk to her. “Kris…please…” She turned her head away, and with the hand that had been stroking the rabbit she slapped at him awkwardly, missing him.
For an instant, Rudy could have sworn he heard the sound of someone counting heavy gold pieces, somewhere off to his right, down a passageway of the third floor. But when he half-turned, and looked out through the closet door, and tried to focus his hearing on it, there was no sound to home in on.
Kris was trying to crawl back farther into the closet. She was trying to smile.
He turned back, on hands and knees and he moved into the closet after her.
“The rabbit,” she said, languorously. “You’re crushing the rabbit.” He looked down, his right knee was lying on the soft matted-fur head of the pink rabbit. He pulled it out from under his knee and threw it into a corner of the closet. She looked at him with disgust. “You haven’t changed, Rudy. Go away.”
“I’m outta the army, Kris,” Rudy said gently. “They let me out on a medical. I want you to come back, Kris, please.”
She would not listen, but pulled herself away from him, deep into the closet, and closed her eyes. He moved his lips several times, as though trying to recall words he had already spoken, but there was no sound, and he lit a cigarette, and sat in the open doorway of the closet, smoking and waiting for her to come back to him. He had waited eight months for her to come back to him, since he had been inducted and she had written him telling him,
There was the sound of something very tiny, lurking in the infinitely black shadow where the top step of the stairs from the second floor met the landing. I t giggled in a glass harpsichord trilling. Rudy knew it was giggling at
Kris opened her eyes and stared at him with distaste. “Why did you come here?”
“Because we’re gonna be married.”
“Get out of here.”
“I love you, Kris. Please.” She kicked out at him. It didn’t hurt, but it was meant to. He backed out of the closet slowly.
Jonah was down in the living room. The blonde girl who had answered the door was trying to get his pants off him. He kept shaking his head no, and trying to fend her off with a weak-wristed hand. The record player under the brick-and-board bookshelves was playing Simon & Garfunkel, “The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine.”
“Melting,” Jonah said gently. “Melting,” and he pointed toward the big, foggy mirror over the fireplace mantel. The fireplace was crammed with unburned wax milk cartons, candy bar wrappers, newspapers from the underground press, and kitty litter. The mirror was dim and chill.
“Oh shit!” the blonde girl said, and threw him down, giving up at last. She came toward Rudy.
“What’s wrong with him?” Rudy asked.
“He’s freaking out again. Christ, what a drag he can be.”
“Yeah, but what’s
She shrugged. “He sees his face melting, that’s what he says.”
“Is he on marijuana?”
The blonde girl looked at him with sudden distrust. “Mari—? Hey, who
“I’m a friend of Kris’s.”
The blonde girl assayed him for a moment more, then by the way her shoulders dropped and her posture relaxed, she accepted him. “I thought you might’ve just walked in, you know, maybe the Laws. You know?”
There was a Middle Earth poster on the wall behind her, with its brightness faded in a long straight swath where the sun caught it every morning. He looked around uneasily. He didn’t know what to do.
“I was supposed to marry Kris. Eight months ago,” he said.
“You want to fuck?” asked the blonde girl. “When Jonah trips he turns off. I been drinking Coca-Cola all morning and all day, and I’m really horny.”
Another record dropped onto the turntable and Stevie Wonder blew hard into his harmonica and started singing, “I Was Born to Love Her.”
“I was engaged to Kris,” Rudy said, feeling sad. “We was going to be married when I got out of basic. But she decided to come over here with Jonah, and I didn’t want to push her. So I waited eight months, but I’m out of the army now. “
“Well,
Under the dining room table. She put a satin pillow under her. It said:
When he went back into the living room, Jonah was sitting up on the sofa, reading Hesse’s
“Jonah?” Rudy said. Jonah looked up. It took him a while to recognize Rudy.
When he did, he patted the sofa beside him, and Rudy came and sat down.
“Hey, Rudy, where y’been?”
“I’ve been in the army.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, it was awful.”
“You out now? I mean for good?”
Rudy nodded. “Uh-huh. Medical.”
“Hey, that’s good.”
They sat quietly for a while. Jonah started to nod, and then said to himself, “You’re not very tired.”
Rudy said, “Jonah, hey listen, what’s the story with Kris? You know, we were supposed to get married about eight months ago.”
“She’s around someplace,” Jonah answered.
Out of the kitchen, through the dining room where the blonde girl lay sleeping under the table, came the sound of something wild, tearing at meat. It went on for a long time, but Rudy was looking out the front window, the big bay window. There was a man in a dark gray suit standing talking to two policemen on the sidewalk at the edge of the front walk leading up to the front door. He was pointing at the big, old house.
“Jonah, can Kris come away now?”
Jonah looked angry. “Hey, listen, man, nobody’s keeping her here. She’s been grooving with all of us and she likes it. Go ask her. Christ, don’t bug me!”
The two cops were walking up to the front door.
Rudy got up and went to answer the doorbell.
They smiled at him when they saw his uniform.
“May I help you?” Rudy asked them.
The first cop said, “Do you live here?”
“Yes,” said Rudy. “My name is Rudolph Boekel. May I help you?”
“We’d like to come inside and talk to you.”
“Do you have a search warrant?”
“We don’t want to search, we only want to talk to you. Are you in the army?”
“Just discharged. I came home to see my family.”
“Can we come in?”
“No, sir.”
The second cop looked troubled, “Is this the place they call ‘The Hill’?”
“Who?” Rudy asked, looking perplexed.
“Well, the neighbors said this was ‘The Hill’ and there were some pretty wild parties going on here. “
“Do you hear any partying?”
The cops looked at each other. Rudy added, “It’s always very quiet here. My mother is dying of cancer of the stomach.”
They let Rudy move in, because he was able to talk to people who came to the door from the outside. Aside from Rudy, who went out to get food, and the weekly trips to the unemployment line, no one left The Hill. It was
