But the problem as he saw it was not a simple matter of saying yes or no. The problem was that they knew that he spent Mondays through Fridays writing whatever he was writing in an office on Fifth Avenue at Forty-ninth Street as if on an official schedule for which he was paid by the hour. So, as far as they were concerned, he could very well be an undercover agent of some kind on official payroll and yet as he explained it, it was not necessarily as simple as that either. Because in addition to having to be on the alert for counterrevolutionary agents they also had to be able to spot agents from their own internal security system.
I just called to fill you in, he said. That’s what I had in mind when I called about meeting to catch the show, and then there it was. So now I just want you to know that I don’t think it has anything to do with you personally. But if you notice anything like what happened today, let me know. I have my ways of dealing with invasions of my privacy. After all—or really first of all—I’m trying to write a goddamn novel, man, and, besides, I absolutely have no patience at all with any outfit that operates on the assumption that it has to enslave me in order to free me. Hell, I know something about military and also maritime discipline and these characters don’t allow furlows or shore leave.
Later, he was also to begin filling me in on what he had been thinking about such matters beginning all the way back during his senior year in high school, when what it amounted to was applied civics. But for now he just wanted me to be on the alert to what you could be getting yourself involved with if you showed any sign of inclination to become affiliated with or even curious about a certain kind of political ideology.
As for myself, he said before hanging up, Man one of the very first things that I began to realize when I checked in on that campus down there in central Alabama was that I have to learn how to be a good man on my own, because I was the one and the only one who had to decide what kind of person I wanted to be. Which was exactly the same as choosing what I wanted to do with my life. The profs were there and the books and so were the laboratories and practice facilities, but as soon as I got there and began finding my way around the campus, I began to realize that for all the legitimate pride that the administration faculty and trustees took in the achievements of their alumni, I had not come down there to be turned into another one of any kind of any of the graduates that I knew anything about. That’s when it hit me that you might think that you’re already on your own in senior high school, but for me being away from home made all the difference in the world. Anyway that was when I actually began to realize that the one I had to answer to from then on was myself. Hell, I didn’t even have to be down there in the first place if I didn’t want to be. I had felt that I had to come, but once I got down there I realized that I did not have to stay if I didn’t want to. Hell, I had forgotten all about truant officers after the ninth grade!
But look man, he said as if suddenly realizing again how late the phone call was, I know you’ve got school work to get back to. I just wanted to give you a quick follow-up on what happened today. Not because I’m worried about you but just to let you know that I’m not. Man, I’m pretty sure that you’re already as aware as I am that we’re already one up on anybody that thinks that because we come from down the way and are impressed with New York City we are also impressed with them!
Man, I said just before hanging up, Most of the uptown splibs I’ve met so far couldn’t care less about the New York I came up here to get next to.
XVIII
When I picked up the phone and heard Eric Threadcraft’s voice again, I said, What say, Mice? I said, So you’re in town. I said, So can you look out and see old Sherman heading south even as we speak? And he said, Howya, fella? How’d you know? I mean, not only that I’m here but also where I’m calling from? And I said, Gotcha. But it was a dead giveaway, man. Damn, you sounded like you’re already heading this way, very soon if not sooner, even as you hung up. And where else would a certified Hollywood maestro popping into New York be calling from if not the Plaza or the Sherry Netherland? Because we are talking about romance, aren’t we? And I don’t figure you for a Waldorf man. Anyway, if you hadn’t sounded so much like you had your fingers crossed when you said what you said and didn’t say what you didn’t say I would have guessed that you were popping into the Algonquin on film score business as the saying goes, if I remember correctly.
And he said, Touché, fellow, touché. It’s like our man Joe States clued me in on you at the outset. Bass fiddle time is your thing whatever the gig. Context, fellow. That’s the Joe States thing about you. But listen, I’m calling you because I’ve been looking forward to this trip ever since old Joe gave me your number and told me about what you’re into these days. But just a couple of days before I was to pull out, something came up that changed the whole
