'Ican't have a drink, Dolph. Don't you understand anything at all? Ican't.'
He said it as though he was the recently paralyzed lead dancer in a made-for-TV movie and I had just commanded him to take the lead in tonight's production ofThe Nutcracker. I responded, acting along in what I considered an appropriate manner. 'Youcan do it,' I said. 'Iknow you can do it. But, oh, you'd rather sit there on that chair and be a quitter. Take the easy way out. That's right you're a loser, a cripple, but when the lights go up on that stage, when all the other dancers are in place, I want you to know the only thing keeping you in that wheelchair is yourself.'
Gill's face began to buckle. When he began to sob I realized he wasn't joking. People at the surrounding tables lowered their forks and looked over in our direction. I pointed to our plates and said in a loud whisper, 'Whatever you do, don't order the tandoori chicken.'
Ever since then things have been different between us. He quit calling me and whenever I called him I got his machine. His old message, the 'Broadway doesn't go for pills and booze' line fromValley of the Dolls, had been replaced. I know he is home, screening his calls but I always hang up at the point where the new Gill's voice encourages me to take life one day at a time. What has become of him?
I took a train home and talked it over with my mother, who, at the time, was spending a week in the hospital, recovering from surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes. The cancer was nothing compared to the punishment she endured from her roommate, a lupus patient named Mrs. Galls. The woman never said a word but watched television constantly and at top volume. Possessing no apparent standards she'd watch anything, expressing no more interest in a golf match than a nature program.
'You got any questions about the grazing habits of the adolescent North American bull moose?' my mother asked, fidgeting with the plastic bracelet on her wrist. 'I complained to the nurses about the volume but all they do is point to their ears and whisper that she's got a hearing problem. If she's got such a hearing problem then why are they whispering about her? She can hear the food cart from down the hail. I've seen it with my own eyes. She perks up and rubs her hands together and over what? That foraging moose of hers will sit down to a better meal than anything she's likely to get in this place. I want that woman dead.'
I talked for a brief while about my problems with Gill until my mother lost interest. 'Did I tell you that your sister Charity called me? I hardly recognized her voice because it's been, what, three years since she's phoned me. It seems she lost her job at the suicide hot line and is looking to borrow some money. I said, 'Hold on just a few seconds, darling. It's a bit difficult to reach my purse with this IV in my arm.'
I listened to her stories with the understanding that the moment my back was turned I would likely become the chief character in her next complaint. I fully expected her to turn to her radiologist and say something like, 'Isn't that sweet of my only son to travel all this way so he can whine about his pathetic little friend? Maybe if I weren't strapped to my deathbed I could muster up the strength to give a damn.'
That's the sort of thing that destroys my sisters but doesn't bother me in the least. I expect it in a person and am constantly amazed to hear someone refer to it wrongly as gossip and get all bent out of shape about it.
An example: until fairly recently I had the misfortune of holding down a job in the offices of Vincent and Skully Giftware, distributors of needlepoint beer cozies, coffee mugs in the shape of golf bags, and more insipid novelty items than you would ever want to know about.
I equate the decline of this nation with the number of citizens willing to spend money on T-shirts reading 'I'm with Stupid,' 'Retired Prostitute,' and 'I won't go down in history but I will go down on your little sister.' The Vincent and Skully employees were, with the exception of me, perfect reflections of the merchandise. The offices were like a national holding center for the trainably banal, occupied by people who decorated their cubicles with quilted, heart-shaped picture frames and those tiny plush bears with the fierce spring grip that cling to lamps and computer terminals, personalized to read 'Tern's bear' or 'I wuv you very beary much!'
I don't know how it is that people grow to be so stupid but there is an entire nation of them right outside my door. I lost my job a few months ago when Alisha Cottingham went off the deep end and cornered me in the mail room. Alisha is in the marketing division and she tends to use what she considers to be concise, formal speech. Listening to her speak I imagine she must type it up the night before and commit it all to memory, pacing back and forth in her godforsaken apartment and working to place the perfect emphasis on this or that word.
'Mr. Heck,' she began, blocking me off at the Xerox machine. 'It has come to my attention here at VandS Giftware that you seem to have some problem with my chin. Now, let me tell you a little something, sir. I am not here to live up to your stringent physical qualifications. I am here to work, as are you. If my chin is, for any reason, keeping you from performing your job here at Vincent and Skully then I believe we have a problem.'
I was thinking, chin? What chin? I said something about her neck. Alisha's chins are another story.
She continued. 'I just want you to know that your deliberate cruelty cannot hurt me, Mr. Heck, because I will not allow it to. As a professional I am paid to rise above the thoughtless, petty remarks of an office boy who takes pleasure in remarking upon the physical characteristics of his coworkers, many of whom have fought valiantly against both personal and social hardships to make this a company we can all be proud of.' Eventually she began to sob and I might have felt sorry for her had she not reported me twice for smoking dope during the three o'clock break. So I made some little remark and it got around. So what? Did Alisha Cottingham honestly believe that by sitting beside me and sharing a bag of potato chips our bond would grow so strong I would fail to notice she has a neck like a stack of dimes?
There seemed to be no stopping her. She finished her speech and started it all over again from the top, each delivery louder until the manager arrived, suggesting I might be happier working somewhere else. Happier?
I called Gill that night to tell him about it. He must have been expecting a call because he answered it on the first ring. Rather than discuss our difficulties I just plowed into the story as if nothing had ever happened. I talked for maybe two minutes tops before he interrupted me to say, 'Dolph, I'm sorry but I really don't want to talk to you when you're drunk.'
Drunk? I had, you know, some drinks but I wasn't slobbering or anything. I wasn't singing or asking in a weary voice if I will ever find love. I probably couldn't have passed a Breathalyzer test but what does that matter if you're sitting in your own home? It really ticked me off. How comehe gets to make all the rules? 'I'll talk to you when you're sober.' So I said, 'Yeah, well maybe I'll talk to you when you have red hair and a beard down to your fucking knees.'
I had more to say but he hung up before I could complete my thoughts. It bothered the hell out of me, but eventually I came to my senses and realized that sooner or later he's bound to have a relapse. I've read the statistics, and if I know Gill it's just a matter of time before he throws in the towel and starts drinking again. In the meantime I'll just keep my distance.
I had just become comfortable with this prediction when I ran into Gill at a restaurant, and this time I was really drunk. I was at the takeout counter giving my order when I noticed him sitting over a finished meal with three people on the other side of the room. He was wearing a shirt printed with dice, possibly the ugliest shirt I had ever seen on a North American male but still, I was glad to see him. I approached the table and said in a loud voice, 'Jesus, Gill, where have you been? Your parole officer has been looking everywhere for you.'
Everyone in the restaurant looked up except for Gill, who shook his head and said nothing. Against my better judgment I pulled up a chair and joined their table, introducing myself as an old cellmate from Rikers Island. 'Those were the days, weren't they? I think of that bunk bed every day of my life. Remember T-Bone? Remember that guy we all called 'The Rectifier'? Oh, what a time!'
Nobody said anything. Gill rolled his eyes and adjusted the napkin in his lap, which, I assume, sent the 'secret coded' message that I was not to be taken seriously. These were the new friends he had met at his meetings, the same type we might have made fun of a few weeks ago. Suddenly, though, they were his people.
A very thin, spent-looking woman with shoulder-length hair gathered in a ponytail cleared her throat and said, 'Like I was saying earlier, I thought that Timothy person was very nice. I liked him an awful lot. He's a people person, I could see that right away.' This woman was missing one of her front teeth.
Another woman, younger, with heavily moussed blond hair fidgeted with her chopsticks and agreed, saying, 'Are you talk-ing about the Timothy with the olive-colored turtleneck and the denim jacket? Oh, I loved that guy. What a nice guy. Was he nice or what?'
'I'd say he's one of the absolute nicest guys I've met in a long time,' said the sullen Abe Lincoln look-alike sitting next to me. He paused, scratching at his beard, and small stiff hairs rained onto his empty plate. 'I liked
