But she was gone.
I mean absolutely gone, because I didn't even hear footsteps on the
stairs. Christ, she must have dashed out the instant I grabbed the phone.
Even her coat and scarf were still there. The pain of not knowing what to do
was exceeded only by that of knowing what I had done.
I searched everywhere.
In the Law School library, I prowled the rows of grinding students,
looking and looking. Up and back, at least half a dozen times. Though I
didn't utter a sound, I knew my glance was so intense, my face so fierce, I
was disturbing the whole fucking place. Who cares?
But Jenny wasn't there.
Then all through Harkness Commons, the lounge, the cafeteria. Then a
wild sprint to look around Agassiz Hall at Radcliffe. Not there, either. I
was running everywhere now, my legs trying to catch up with the pace of my
heart.
Paine Hall? (Ironic goddamn name!) Downstairs are piano practice rooms.
I know Jenny. When she's angry, she pounds the fucking keyboard. Right? But
how about when she's scared to death?
It's crazy walking down the corridor, practice rooms on either side.
The sounds of Mozart and Bartok, Bach and Brahms filter out from the doors
and blend into this weird infernal sound.
Jenny's got to be here!
Instinct made me stop at a door where I heard the pounding (angry?)
sound of a Chopin prelude. I paused for a second. The playing was
lousy-stops and starts and many mistakes. At one pause I heard a girl's
voice mutter, "Shit!" It had to be Jenny. I flung open the door.
A Radcliffe girl was at the piano. She looked up. An ugly,
big-shouldered hippie Radcliffe girl, annoyed at my invasion.
"What's the scene, man?" she asked.
"Bad, bad," I replied, and closed the door again.
Then I tried Harvard Square. The Cafe Pamplona, Tommy's Arcade, even
Hayes Bick-lots of artistic types go there. Nothing.
Where would Jenny have gone?
By now the subway was closed, but if she had gone straight to the
Square she could have caught a train to Boston. To the bus terminal.
It was almost i A.M. as I deposited a quarter and two dimes in the
slot. I was in one of the booths by the kiosk in Harvard Square.
"Hello, Phil?"
"Hey.. ." he said sleepily. "Who's this?"
"It's me-Oliver."
"Oliver!" He sounded scared. "Is Jenny hurt?" he asked quickly. If he
was asking me, did that mean she wasn't with him?
"Uh-no, Phil, no.
"Thank Christ. How are you, Oliver?"
Once assured of his daughter's safety, he was casual and friendly. As
if he had not been aroused from the depths of slumber.
"Fine, Phil, I'm great. Fine. Say, Phil, what do you hear from Jenny?"
"Not enough, goddammit," he answered in a strangely calm voice.
"What do you mean, Phil?"
"Christ, she should call more often, goddammit. I'm not a stranger, you
know."
If you can be relieved and panicked at the same time, that's what I
was.
"Is she there with you?" he asked me.
"Huh?"
"Put Jenny on; I'll yell at her myself."
"I can't, Phil."
"Oh, is she asleep? If she's asleep, don't disturb her."
"Yeah," I said.
"Listen, you bastard," he said.
"Yes, sir?"
"How goddamn far is Cranston that you can't come down on a Sunday
afternoon? Huh? Or I can come up, Oliver."
"Uh-no, Phil. We'll come down."
"'When?"
"Some Sunday."
"Don't give me that 'some' crap. A loyal child doesn't say 'some,' he
says 'this.' This Sunday, Oliver."
"Yes, sir. This Sunday."
"Four o'clock. But drive carefully. Right?"
"Right."
"And next time call collect, goddammit." He hung up.
I just stood there, lost on that island in the dark of Harvard Square,
not knowing where to go or what to do next. A colored guy approached me and
inquired if I was in need of a fix. I kind of absently replied, "No, thank
you, sir."
I wasn't running now. I mean, what was the rush to return to the empty
house? It was very late and I was numb-more with fright than with the cold
(although it wasn't warm, believe me). From several yards off, I thought I
saw someone sitting on the top of the steps. This had to be my eyes playing
tricks, because the figure was motionless.
But it was Jenny.
She was sitting on the top step.
I was too tired to panic, too relieved to speak. Inwardly I hoped she
had some blunt instrument with which to hit me.
"Ollie?"
We both spoke so quietly, it was impossible to take an emotional
reading.
"I forgot my key," Jenny said.
I stood there at the bottom of the steps, afraid to ask how long she
had been sitting, knowing only that I had wronged her terribly.
"Jenny, I'm sorry-"
"Stop!" She cut off my apology, then said very quietly, "Love means not
ever having to say you're sorry."
I climbed up the stairs to where she was sitting.
"I'd like to go to sleep. Okay?" she said.
"Okay."
We walked up to our apartment. As we undressed, she looked at me
reassuringly.
"I meant what I said, Oliver."
And that was all.
CHAPTER 14
It was July when the letter came.
It had been forwarded from Cambridge to Dennis Port, so I guess I got
the news a day or so late. I charged over to where Jenny was supervising her
children in a game of kickball (or something), and said in my best Bogart
tones:
"Let's go."
"Huh?"
"Let's go," I repeated, and with such obvious authority that she began
to follow me as I walked toward the water.
"What's going on, Oliver? Wouldja tell me, please, for God sake?"
I continued to stride powerfully onto the dock.
"Onto the boat, Jennifer," I ordered, pointing to it with the very hand
that held the letter, which she didn't even notice.
"Oliver, I have children to take care of," she protested, even while
stepping obediently on board.
"Goddammit, Oliver, will you explain what's going on?" We were now a
few hundred yards from shore. "I have something to tell you," I said.
"Couldn't you have told it on dry land?" she yelled. "No, goddammit," I
yelled back (we were neither of us angry, but there was lots of wind, and we
had to shout to be heard).
"I wanted to be alone with you. Look what I have." I waved the envelope
at her. She immediately recognized the letterhead.
"Hey-Harvard Law School! Have you been kicked out?"
"Guess again, you optimistic bitch," I yelled. "You were first in the
class!" she guessed. I was now almost ashamed to tell her. "Not quite.
Third."
"Oh," she said. "Only third?"
"Listen-that still means I make the goddamn Law Review," I shouted.
She just sat there with an absolute no-expression expression.
"Christ, Jenny," I kind of whined, "say something!"
"Not until I meet numbers one and two," she said.
I looked at her, hoping she would break into the smile I knew she was
suppressing.
"C'mon, Jenny!" I pleaded.
"I'm leaving. Good-bye," she said, and jumped immediately into the
water. I dove right in after her and the next thing I knew we were both
hanging on to the side of the boat and giggling.
"Hey," I said in one of my wittier observations, "you went overboard
for me."
"Don't be too cocky," she replied. "Third is still only third."
"Hey, listen, you bitch," I said.
"What, you bastard?" she replied.
"I owe you a helluva lot," I said sincerely.
"Not true, you bastard, not true," she answered.
"Not true?" I inquired, somewhat surprised.
"You owe me everything," she said.
That night we blew twenty-three bucks on a lobster dinner at a fancy
place in Yarmouth. Jenny was still reserving judgment until she could check
out the two gentlemen who had, as she put it, "defeated me."
Stupid as it sounds, I was so in love with her that the moment we got
back to Cambridge, I rushed to find out who the first two guys were. I was
relieved to discover that the top man, Erwin Blasband, City College '64, was
bookish, bespectacled, nonathletic and not her type, and the number-two man
was Bella Landau, Bryn Mawr '64, a girl. This was all to the good,
especially since Bella Landau was rather cool looking (as lady law students
go), and I could twit Jenny a bit with "details" of what went on in those
late-night hours at Gannett House, the Law Review building. And Jesus, there
were late nights. It was not unusual for me to come home at two or three in
the morning. I mean, six courses, plus editing the Law Review, plus the fact
that I actually authored an article in one of the issues ("Legal Assistance
for the Urban Poor: A Study of Boston's Roxbury District" by Oliver Barrett
IV, HLR, March, 1966, pp. 861-9o8).
"A good piece. A really good piece."
That's all Joel Fleishman, the senior editor, could repeat again and
again. Frankly, I had expected a more articulate compliment from the guy who
would next year clerk for Justice Douglas, but that's all he kept saying as
he checked over my final draft. Christ, Jenny had told me it was "incisive,
intelligent and really well written." Couldn't Fleishman match that?
"Fleishman called it a good piece, Jen."
"Jesus, did I wait up so late just to hear that?" she said. "Didn't he
comment on your research, or your style, or anything?"
"No, Jen. He just called it 'good.'"
"Then what took you all this long?"
I gave her a little wink.
"I had some stuff to go over with Bella Landau," I said.
"Oh?" she said.
I couldn't read the tone.
"Are you jealous?" I asked straight out.
"No; I've got much better legs," she said.
"Can you write a brief?"
"Can she make lasagna?"
"Yes,~~ I answered. "Matter of fact, she brought some over to Gannett
House tonight. Everybody said they were as good as your legs."
Jenny nodded, "I'll bet."
"What do you say to that?" I said.
"Does Bella Landau pay your rent?" she asked. "Damn," I replied, "why
can't I ever quit when I'm ahead?"
"Because, Preppie," said my loving wife, "you never are."
CHAPTER 15
We finished in that order.
I mean, Erwin, Bella and myself were the top three in the Law School
graduating class. The time for triumph was at hand. Job interviews. Offers.
Pleas. Snow jobs. Everywhere I turned somebody seemed to be waving a flag
that read: "Work for us, Barrett!"
But I followed only the green flags. I mean, I wasn't totally crass,
but I eliminated the prestige alternatives, like clerking for a judge, and
the public service alternatives, like Department of Justice, in favor of a
lucrative job that would get the dirty word "scrounge" out of our goddamn
vocabulary.
Third though I was, I enjoyed one inestimable ad-
vantage in competing for the best legal spots. I was the only guy in
the top ten who wasn't Jewish. (And anyone who says it doesn't matter is
full of it.) Christ, there are dozens of firms who will kiss the ass of a
WASP who can merely pass the bar. Consider the case of yours truly: Law
Review, All-Ivy, Harvard and you know what else. Hordes of people were
fighting to get my name and numeral onto their stationery. I felt like a
bonus baby-and I loved every minute of it.
There was one especially intriguing offer from a firm in Los Angeles.
The recruiter, Mr. (why risk a lawsuit?), kept telling me:
"Barrett baby, in our territory we get it all the time. Day and night.
I mean, we can even have it sent up to the office!"
Not that we were interested in California, but I'd still like to know
precisely what Mr. was discussing. Jenny and I came up with some pretty wild
possibilities, but for L.A. they probably weren't wild enough. (I finally
had to get Mr. off my back by telling him that I really didn't care for "it"
at all. He was crestfallen.)
Actually, we had made up our minds to stay on the East Coast. As it
turned out, we still had dozens of fantastic offers from Boston, New York
and Washington. Jenny at one time thought D.C. might be good ("You could
check out the White House, Ol"), but I leaned toward New York. And so, with
my wife's blessing, I finally said yes to the firm of Jonas and Marsh, a
prestigious office (Marsh was a former Attorney General) that was very
civil-liberties oriented ("You can do good and make good at once," said
Jenny). Also, they really snowed me. I mean, old man Jonas came up to
Boston, took us to dinner at Pier Four and sent Jenny flowers the next day.
Jenny went around for a week sort of singing a jingle that went "Jonas,
Marsh and Barrett." I told her not so fast and she told me to go screw
because I was probably singing the same tune in my head. I don't have to
tell you she was right.
Allow me to mention, however, that Jonas and Marsh paid Oliver Barrett
IV $11 ,8oo, the absolute highest salary received by any member of our
graduating class.
So you see I was only third academically.
CHAPTER 16
CHANGE OF ADDRESS
From July 1,1967
Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Barrett IV
263 East 63rd Street
New York, N.Y. 10021
"It's so nouveau riche," complained Jenny. "But we are nouveau riche,"
I insisted.
What was adding to my overall feeling of euphoric triumph was the fact
that the monthly rate for my car was damn near as much as we had paid for
our entire apartment in Cambridge! Jonas and Marsh was an easy ten-minute
walk (or strut-I preferred the latter gait), and so were the fancy shops
like Bonwit's and so forth where I insisted that my wife, the bitch,
immediately open accounts and start spending.
"Why, Oliver?"
"Because, goddammit, Jenny, I 'want to be taken advantage of!"
I joined the Harvard Club of New York, proposed by Raymond Stratton
'64, newly returned to civilian life after having actually shot at some
Vietcong ("I'm not positive it was VC, actually. I heard noises, so I opened
fire at the bushes"). Ray and I played squash at least three times a week,
and I made a mental note, giving myself three years to become Club champion.
Whether it was merely because I had resurfaced in Harvard territory, or
because word of my Law School successes had gotten around (I didn't brag
about the salary, honest), my "friends" discovered me once more. We had
moved in at the height of the summer (I had to take a cram course for the
New York bar exam), and the first invitations were for weekends.
"Fuck 'em, Oliver. I don't want to waste two days bullshitting with a
bunch of vapid preppies."
"Okay, Jen, but what should I tell them?" "Just say I'm pregnant,
Oliver."
"Are you?" I asked.
"No, but if we stay home this weekend I might be."
We had a name already picked out. I mean, I had, and I think I got
Jenny to agree finally.
"Hey-you won't laugh?" I said to her, when first broaching the subject.
She was in the kitchen at the time (a yellow color-keyed thing that even
included a dishwasher).
"What?" she asked, still slicing tomatoes.
"I've really grown fond of the name Bozo," I said.
"You mean seriously?" she asked.
"Yeah. I honestly dig it."
"You would name our child Bozo?" she asked again. "Yes. Really.
Honestly, Jen, it's the name of a super- jock."
"Bozo Barrett." She tried it on for size.
"Christ, he'll be an incredible bruiser," I continued, convincing
myself further with each word I spoke. "'Bozo Barrett, Harvard's huge
All-Ivy tackle.'"
"Yeah-but, Oliver," she asked, "suppose-just suppose-the kid's not
coordinated?"
"Impossible, Jen, the genes are too good. Truly." I meant it sincerely.
This whole Bozo business had gotten to be a frequent daydream of mine as I
strutted to work.
I pursued the matter at dinner. We had bought great Danish china.
"Bozo will be a very well-coordinated bruiser," I told Jenny. "In fact,
if he has your hands, we can put him in the backfield."
She was just smirking at me, searching no doubt for some sneaky
put-down to disrupt my idyllic vision. But lacking a truly devastating
remark, she merely cut the cake and gave me a piece. And she was still
hearing me out.
"Think of it, Jenny," I continued, even with my mouth full, "two
hundred and forty pounds of bruising finesse."
"Two hundred and forty pounds?" she said. "There's nothing in our genes
that says two hundred and forty pounds, Oliver."
"We'll feed him up, Jen. Hi-Proteen, Nutrament, the whole
diet-supplement bit."
"Oh, yeah? Suppose he won't eat, Oliver?"
"He'll eat, goddammit," I said, getting slightly pissed off already at
the kid who would soon be sitting at our table not cooperating with my plans
for his athletic triumphs. "He'll eat or I'll break his face."
At which point Jenny looked me straight in the eye and smiled.
"Not if he weighs two forty, you won't.~~
"Oh," I replied, momentarily set back, then quickly realized, "But he
won't be two-forty right away!"
"Yeah, yeah," said Jenny, now shaking an admonitory spoon at me, "but
when he is, Preppie, start running!" And she laughed like hell.
It's really comic, but while she was laughing I had this vision of a
two-hundred-and-forty-pound kid in a diaper chasing after me in Central
Park, shouting, "You be nicer to my mother, Preppie!" Christ, hopefully
Jenny would keep Bozo from destroying me.
CHAPTER 17
It is not all that easy to make a baby.
I mean, there is a certain irony involved when guys who spend the first
years of their sex lives preoccupied with not getting girls pregnant (and
when I first started, condoms were still in) then reverse their thinking and
become obsessed with conception and not its contra.
Yes, it can become an obsession. And it can divest the most glorious
aspect of a happy married life of its naturalness and spontaneity. I mean,
to program your thinking (unfortunate verb, "program"; it suggests a
machine)-to program your thinking about the act of love in accordance with
rules, calendars, strategy
("Wouldn't it be better tomorrow morning, 01?") can be a source of
discomfort, disgust and ultimately terror.
For when you see that your layman's knowledge and (you assume) normal
healthy efforts are not succeeding in the matter of increase-and-multiply,
it can bring the most awful thoughts to your mind.
"I'm sure you understand, Oliver, that 'sterility' would have nothing
to do with 'virility.'" Thus Dr. Mortimer Sheppard to me during the first
conversation, when Jenny and I had finally decided we needed expert
consultation.
"He understands, doctor," said Jenny for me, knowing without my ever
having mentioned it that the notion of being sterile-of possibly being
sterile-was devastating to me. Didn't her voice even suggest that she hoped,
if an insufficiency were to be discovered, it would be her own?
But the doctor had merely been spelling it all out for us, telling us
the worst, before going on to say that there was still a great possibility
that both of us were okay, and that we might soon be proud parents. But of
course we would both undergo a battery of tests. Complete physicals. The
works. (I don't want to repeat the unpleasant specifics of this kind of
thorough investigation.)
We went through the tests on a Monday. Jenny during the day, I after
work (I was fantastically immersed in the legal world). Dr. Sheppard called
Jenny in again that Friday explaining that his nurse had screwed up and he
needed to check a few things again. When Jenny told me of the revisit, I
began to suspect that perhaps he had found the.., insufficiency with her. I
think she suspected the same. The nurse-screwing-up alibi is pretty trite.
When Dr. Sheppard called me at Jonas and Marsh, I was almost certain.
Would I please drop by his office on the way home? When I heard this was not
to be a three-way conversation ("I spoke to Mrs. Barrett earlier today"), my
suspicions were confirmed. Jenny could not have children. Although, let's
not phrase it in the absolute, Oliver; remember Sheppard mentioned there
were things like corrective surgery and so forth. But I couldn't concentrate
at all, and it was foolish to wait it out till five o'clock. I called
Sheppard back and asked if he could see me in the early afternoon. He said
okay.
"Do you know whose fault it is?" I asked, not mincing any words.
"I really wouldn't say 'fault,' Oliver," he replied.
"Well, okay, do you know which of us is malfunctioning?"
"Yes. Jenny."
I had been more or less prepared for this, but the finality with which
the doctor pronounced it still threw me. He wasn't saying anything more, so
I assumed he wanted a statement of some sort from me.
"Okay, so we'll adopt kids. I mean, the important thing is that we love
each other, right?"
And then he told me.
"Oliver, the problem is more serious than that. Jenny is very sick."
"Would you define 'very sick,' please?"
"She's dying."
"That's impossible," I said.
And I waited for the doctor to tell me that it was all a grim joke.
"She is, Oliver," he said. "I'm very sorry to have to tell you this."
I insisted that he had made some mistake-perhaps that idiot nurse of
his had screwed up again and given him the wrong X rays or something. He
replied with as much compassion as he could that Jenny's blood test had been
repeated three times. There was absolutely no question about the diagnosis.
He would of course have to refer us-me-Jenny to a hematologist. In fact, he
could suggest- I waved my hand to cut him off. I wanted silence for
a minute. Just silence to let it all sink in. Then a thought occurred
to me.
"What did you tell Jenny, doctor?"
"That you were both all right."
"She bought it?"
"I think so."
"When do we have to tell her?"
"At this point, it's up to you.
Up to me! Christ, at this point I didn't feel up to breathing.
The doctor explained that what therapy they had for Jenny's form of
leukemia was merely palliative-it could relieve, it might retard, but it
could not reverse. So at that point it was up to me. They could withhold
therapy for a while.
But at that moment all I really could think of was how obscene the
whole fucking thing was.
"She's only twenty-four!" I told the doctor, shouting, I think. He
nodded, very patiently, knowing full well Jenny's age, but also
understanding what agony this was for me. Finally I realized that I couldn't
just sit in this man's office forever. So I asked him what to do. I mean,
what I should do. He told me to act as normal as possible for as long as
possible. I thanked him and left.
Normal! Normal!
CHAPTER 18
I began to think about God.
I mean, the notion of a Supreme Being existing somewhere began to creep
into my private thoughts. Not because I wanted to strike Him on the face, to
punch Him out for what He was about to do to me-to Jenny, that is. No, the
kind of religious thoughts I had were just the opposite. Like when I woke up
in the morning and Jenny was there. Still there. I'm sorry, embarrassed
even, but I hoped there was a God I could say thank you to. Thank you for
letting me wake up and see Jennifer.
I was trying like hell to act normal, so of course I let her make
breakfast and so forth.
"Seeing Stratton today?" she asked, as I was having a second bowl of
Special K.
"Who?" I asked.
"Raymond Stratton '64," she said, "your best friend. Your roommate
before me."
"Yeah. We were supposed to play squash. I think I'll cancel it "
"Bullshit."
"What Jen?"
"Don't go canceling squash games, Preppie. I don't want a flabby
husband, dammit!"
"Okay," I said, "but let's have dinner downtown."
"Why?" she asked.
"What do you mean, 'why'?" I yelled, trying to work up my normal mock
anger. "Can't I take my goddamn wife to dinner if I want to?"
"Who is she, Barrett? What's her name?" Jenny asked.
"What?"
"Listen," she explained. "When you have to take your wife to dinner on
a weekday, you must be screwing someone!"
"Jennifer!" I bellowed, now honestly hurt. "I will not have that kind
of talk at my breakfast table!"
"Then get your ass home to my dinner table. Okay?" ''Okay."
And I told this God, whoever and wherever He might be, that I would
gladly settle for the status quo. I don't mind the agony, sir, I don't mind
knowing as long as Jenny doesn't know. Did you hear me, Lord, sir? You can
name the price.
"Oliver?"
"Yes, Mr. Jonas?"
He had called me into his office.
"Are you familiar with the Beck affair?" he asked.
Of course I was. Robert L. Beck, photographer for Life magazine, had
the shit kicked out of him by the Chicago police, while trying to photograph
a riot. Jonas considered this one of the key cases for the firm.
"I know the cops punched him out, sir," I told Jonas, lightheartedly
(hah!).
"I'd like you to handle it, Oliver," he said.
"Myself?" I asked.
"You can take along one of the younger men," he replied.
Younger men? I was the youngest guy in the office. But I read his
message: Oliver, despite your chronological age, you are already one of the
elders of this office. One of us, Oliver.
"Thank you, sir," I said.
"How soon can you leave for Chicago?" he asked. I had resolved to tell
nobody, to shoulder the entire burden myself. So I gave old man Jonas some
bullshit, I don't even remember exactly what, about how I didn't feel I
could leave New York at this time, sir. And I hoped he would understand. But
I know he was disappointed at my reaction to what was obviously a very
significant gesture. Oh, Christ, Mr. Jonas, when you find out the real
reason!
Paradox: Oliver Barrett IV leaving the office earlier, yet walking
homeward more slowly. How can you explain that?
I had gotten into the habit of window shopping on Fifth Avenue, looking
at the wonderful and silly extravagant things I would have bought Jennifer
had I not wanted to keep up that fiction of . . . normal.
Sure, I was afraid to go home. Because now, several weeks after I had
first learned the true facts, she was beginning to lose weight. I mean, just
a little and she herself probably didn't notice. But I, who knew, noticed.
I would window shop the airlines: Brazil, the Carribbean, Hawaii ("Get
away from it all-fly into the sunshine!") and so forth. On this particular
afternoon, TWA was pushing Europe in the off season: London for shoppers,
Paris for lovers .
"What about my scholarship? What about Paris, which i've never seen in
my whole goddamn life?"
"What about our marriage?"
"Who said anything about marriage?" "Me. I'm saying it now.
"You want to marry me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
I was such a fantastically good credit risk that I already owned a
Diners Club card. Zip! My signature on the dotted line and I was the proud
possessor of two tickets (first class, no less) to the City of Lovers.
Jenny looked kind of pale and gray when I got home, but I hoped my
fantastic idea would put some color in those cheeks.
"Guess what, Mrs. Barrett," I said.
"You got fired," guessed my optimistic wife.
"No. Fired up," I replied, and pulled out the tickets. "Up, up and
away," I said. "Tomorrow night to Paris."
"Bullshit, Oliver," she said. But quietly, with none of her usual
mock-aggression. As she spoke it then, it was a kind of endearment:
"Bullshit, Oliver."
"Hey, can you define 'bullshit' more specifically, please?"
"Hey, Ollie," she said softly, "that's not the way we're gonna do it."
"Do what?" I asked.
"I don't want Paris. I don't need Paris. I just want you- "That you've
got, baby!" I interrupted, sounding falsely merry.
"And I want time," she continued, "which you can't give me."
Now I looked into her eyes. They were ineffably sad. But sad in a way
only I understood. They were saying she was sorry. That is, sorry for me.
We stood there silently holding one another. Please, if one of us
cries, let both of us cry. But preferably neither of us.
And then Jenny explained how she had been feeling "absolutely shitty"
and gone back to Dr. Sheppard, not for consultation, but confrontation: Tell
me what's wrong with me, dammit. And he did.
I felt strangely guilty at not having been the one to break it to her.
She sensed this, and made a calculatedly stupid remark.
"He's a Yalie, Ol."
"Who is, Jen?"
"Ackerman. The hematologist. A total Yalie. College and Med School."
"Oh,~~ I said, knowing that she was trying to inject some levity into
the grim proceedings.
"Can he at least read and write?" I asked.
"That remains to be seen," smiled Mrs. Oliver Barrett, Radcliffe '64,
"but I know he can talk. And I wanted to talk."
"Okay, then, for the Yalie doctor," I said.
"Okay," she said.
CHAPTER 19
Now at least I wasn't afraid to go home, I wasn't seared about "acting
normal." We were once again sharing everything, even if it was the awful
knowledge that our days together were every one of them numbered.
There were things we had to discuss, things not usually broached by
twenty-four-year-old couples.
"I'm counting on you to be strong, you hockey jock," she said.
"I will, I will," I answered, wondering if the always knowing Jennifer
could tell that the great hockey jock was frightened.
"I mean, for Phil," she continued. "It's gonna be hardest for him. You,
after all, you'll be the merry widower."
"I won't be merry," I interrupted.
"You'll be merry, goddammit. I want you to be merry. Okay?"
''Okay.
"Okay."
It was about a month later, right after dinner. She was still doing the
cooking; she insisted on it. I had finally persuaded her to allow me to
clean up (though she gave me heat about it not being "man's work"), and was
putting away the dishes while she played Chopin on the piano. I heard her
stop in mid-Prelude, and walked immediately into the living room. She was
just sitting there.
"Are you okay, Jen?" I asked, meaning it in a relative sense. She
answered with another question.
"Are you rich enough to pay for a taxi?" she asked.
"Sure," I replied. "Where do you want to go?"
"Like-the hospital," she said.
I was aware, in the swift flurry of motions that followed, that this
was it. Jenny was going to walk out of our apartment and never come back. As
she just sat there while I threw a few things together for her, I wondered
what was crossing her mind. About the apartment, I mean. What would she want
to look at to remember?
Nothing. She just sat still, focusing on nothing at all.
"Hey," I said, "anything special you want to take along?"
"Uh uh." She nodded no, then added as an afterthought, "You."
Downstairs it was tough to get a cab, it being theater hour and all.
The doorman was blowing his whistle and waving his arms like a wild-eyed
hockey referee. Jenny just leaned against me, and I secretly wished there
would be no taxi, that she would just keep leaning on me. But we finally got
one. And the cabbie was-just our luck-a jolly type. When he heard Mount
Sinai Hospital on the double, he launched into a whole routine.
"Don't worry, children, you are in experienced hands. The stork and I
have been doing business for years.
In the back seat, Jenny was cuddled up against me. I was kissing her
hair.
"Is this your first?" asked our jolly driver.
I guess Jenny could feel I was about to snap at the guy, and she
whispered to me:
"Be nice, Oliver. He's trying to be nice to us."
"Yes, sir," I told him. "It's the first, and my wife isn't feeling so
great, so could we jump a few lights, please?"
He got us to Mount Sinai in nothing flat. He was very nice, getting out
to open the door for us and everything. Before taking off again, he wished
us all sorts of good fortune and happiness. Jenny thanked him.
She seemed unsteady on her feet and I wanted to carry her in, but she
insisted, "Not this threshold, Preppie." So we walked in and suffered
through that painfully nit-picking process of checking in.
"Do you have Blue Shield or other medical plan?"
(Who could have thought of such trivia? We were too busy buying
dishes.)
Of course, Jenny's arrival was not unexpected. It had earlier been
foreseen and was now being supervised by Bernard Ackerman, M.D., who was, as
Jenny predicted, a good guy, albeit a total Yalie.
"She's getting white cells and platelets," Dr. Ackerman told me.
"That's what she needs most at the moment. She doesn't want antimetabolites
at all."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"It's a treatment that slows cell destruction," he explained, "but-as
Jenny knows-there can be unpleasant side effects."
"Listen, doctor"-I know I was lecturing him needlessly-"Jenny's the
boss. Whatever she says goes. Just you guys do everything you possibly can
to make it not hurt."
"You can be sure of that," he said.
"I don't care what it costs, doctor." I think I was raising my voice.
"It could be weeks or months," he said.
"Screw the cost," I said. He was very patient with me. I mean, I was
bullying him, really.
"I was simply saying," Ackerman explained, "that there's really no way
of knowing how long-or how short-she'll linger."
"Just remember, doctor," I commanded him, "just remember I want her to
have the very best. Private room. Special nurses. Everything. Please. I've
got the money.
CHAPTER 20
It is impossible to drive from East Sixty-third Street, Manhattan, to
Boston, Massachusetts, in less than three hours and twenty minutes. Believe
me, I have tested the outer limits on this track, and I am certain that no
automobile, foreign or domestic, even with some Graham Hill type at the
wheel, can make it faster. I had the MG at a hundred and five on the Mass
Turnpike.
I have this cordless electric razor and you can be sure I shaved
carefully, and changed my shirt in the car, before entering those hallowed
offices on State Street. Even at 8 A.M. there were several distinguished
looking Boston types waiting to see Oliver Barrett III. His secretary-who
knew me-didn't blink twice when she spoke my name into the intercom.
My father did not say, "Show him in."
Instead, his door opened and he appeared in person. He said, "Oliver."
Preoccupied as I was with physical appearances, I noticed that he
seemed a bit pale, that his hair had grown grayish (and perhaps thinner) in
these three years.
''Come in, son,~~ he said. I couldn't read the tone. I just walked
toward his office.
I sat in the "client's chair."
We looked at one another, then let our gazes drift onto other objects
in the room. I let mine fall among the items on his desk: scissors in a
leather case, letter opener with a leather handle, a photo of Mother taken
years ago. A photo of me (Exeter graduation).
"How've you been, son?" he asked.
"'Well, sir," I answered.
"And how's Jennifer?" he asked.
Instead of lying to him, I evaded the issue-although it 'was the
issue-by blurting out the reason for my sudden reappearance.
"Father, I need to borrow five thousand dollars. For a good reason."
He looked at me. And sort of nodded, I think.
"Well?" he said.
"Sir?" I asked.
"May I know the reason?" he asked.
"I can't tell you, Father. Just lend me the dough. Please."
I had the feeling-if one can actually receive feelings from Oliver
Barrett 111-that he intended to give me the money. I also sensed that he
didn't want to give me any heat. But he did want to... talk.
"Don't they pay you at Jonas and Marsh?" he asked.
"Yes, sir.
I was tempted to tell him how much, merely to let him know it was a
class record, but then I thought if he knew where I worked, he probably knew
my salary as well.
"And doesn't she teach too?" he asked.
Well, he doesn't know everything.
"Don't call her 'she,'" I said.
"Doesn't Jennifer teach?" he asked politely.
"And please leave her out of this, Father. This is a personal matter. A
very important personal matter."
"Have you gotten some girl in trouble?" he asked, but without any
deprecation in his voice.
"Yeah," I said, "yes, sir. That's it. Give me the dough. Please."
I don't think for a moment he believed my reason. I don't think he
really wanted to know. He had questioned me merely, as I said before, so we
could talk.
He reached into his desk drawer and took out a checkbook bound in the
same cordovan leather as the handle of his letter opener and the case for
his scissors. He opened it slowly. Not to torture me, I don't think, but to
stall for time. To find things to say. Nonabrasive things.
He finished writing the check, tore it from the book and then held it
out toward me. I was maybe a split second slow in realizing I should reach
out my hand to meet his. So he got embarrassed (I think), withdrew his hand
and placed the check on the edge of his desk. He looked at me now and
nodded. His expression seemed to say, "There it is, son." But all he really
did was nod.
It's not that I wanted to leave, either. It's just that I myself
couldn't think of anything neutral to say. And we couldn't just sit there,
both of us willing to talk and yet unable even to look the other straight in
the face.
I leaned over and picked up the check. Yes, it said five thousand
dollars, signed Oliver Barrett III. It was already dry. I folded it
carefully and put it into my shirt pocket as I rose and shuffled to the
door. I should at least have said something to the effect that I knew that
on my account very important Boston dignitaries (maybe even Washington) were
cooling their heels in his outer office, and yet if we had more to say to
one another I could even hang around your office, Father, and you would
cancel your luncheon plans and so forth.
I stood there with the door half open, and summoned the courage to look
at him and say:
"Thank you, Father."
CHAPTER 21
The task of informing Phil Cavilleri fell to me. Who else? He did not
go to pieces as I feared he might, but calmly closed the house in Cranston
and came to live in our apartment. We all have our idiosyncratic ways of
coping with grief. Phil's was to clean the place. To wash, to scrub, to
polish. I don't really understand his thought processes, but Christ, let him
work.
Does he cherish the dream that Jenny will come home?
He does, doesn't he? The poor bastard. That's why he's cleaning up. He
just won't accept things for what they are. Of course, he won't admit this
to me, but I know it's on his mind.
Because it's on mine too.
Once she was in the hospital, I called old man Jonas and let him know
why I couldn't be coming to work. I pretended that I had to hurry off the
phone because I know he was pained and wanted to say things he couldn't
possibly express. From then on, the days were simply divided between
visiting hours and everything else. And of course everything else was
nothing. Eating without hunger, watching Phil clean the apartment (again!)
and not sleeping even with the prescription Ackerman gave me.
Once I overheard Phil mutter to himself, "I can't stand it much
longer." He was in the next room, washing our dinner dishes (by hand). I
didn't answer him, but I did think to myself, I can. Whoever's Up There
running the show, Mr. Supreme Being, sir, keep it up, I can take this ad
infinitum. Because Jenny is Jenny.
That evening, she kicked me out of the room. She wanted to speak to her
father "man to man.
"This meeting is restricted only to Americans of Italian descent," she
said, looking as white as her pillows, "so beat it, Barrett."
"Okay," I said.
"But not too far," she said when I reached the door. I went to sit in
the lounge. Presently Phil appeared. "She says to get your ass in there," he
whispered hoarsely, like the whole inside of him was hollow. "I'm gonna buy
some cigarettes."
"Close the goddamn door," she commanded as I entered the room. I
obeyed, shut the door quietly, and as I went back to sit by her bed, I
caught a fuller view of her. I mean, with the tubes going into her right
arm, which she would keep under the covers. I always liked to sit very close
and just look at her face, which, however pale, still had her eyes shining
in it.
So I quickly sat very close.
"It doesn't hurt, Ollie, really," she said. "It's like falling off a
cliff in slow motion, you know?"
Something stirred deep in my gut. Some shapeless thing that was going
to fly into my throat and make me cry. But I wasn't going to. I never have.
I'm a tough bastard, see? I am not gonna cry.
But if I'm not gonna cry, then I can't open my mouth. I'll simply have
to nod yes. So I nodded yes.
"Bullshit," she said.
"Huh?" It was more of a grunt than a word.
"You don't know about falling off cliffs, Preppie," she said. "You
never fell off one in your goddamn life."
"Yeah," I said, recovering the power of speech. "When I met you."
"Yeah," she said, and a smile crossed her face. " 'Oh, what a falling
off was there.' Who said that?"
"I don't know," I replied. "Shakespeare."
"Yeah, but who?" she said kind of plaintively. "I can't remember which
play, even. I went to Radcliffe, I should remember things. I once knew all
the Mozart Kochel listings."
"Big deal," I said.
"You bet it was," she said, and then screwed up her forehead, asking,
"What number is the C Minor Piano Concerto?"
"I'll look it up," I said.
I knew just where. Back in the apartment, on a shelf by the piano. I
would look it up and tell her first thing tomorrow.
"I used to know," Jenny said, "I did. I used to know."
"Listen," I said, Bogart style, "do you want to talk music?"
"Would you prefer talking funerals?" she asked.
"No," I said, sorry for having interrupted her. "I discussed it with
Phil. Are you listening, Ollie?" I had turned my face away.
"Yeah, I'm listening, Jenny."
"I told him he could have a Catholic service, you'd say okay. Okay?"
"Okay," I said.
"Okay," she replied.
And then I felt slightly relieved, because after all, whatever we
talked of now would have to be an improvement.
I was wrong.
"Listen, Oliver," said Jenny, and it was in her angry voice, albeit
soft. "Oliver, you've got to stop being sick!"
"Me?"
"That guilty look on your face, Oliver, it's sick." Honestly, I tried
to change my expression, but my facial muscles were frozen.
"It's nobody's fault, you preppie bastard," she was saying. "Would you
please stop blaming yourself!"
I wanted to keep looking at her because I wanted to never take my eyes
from her, but still I had to lower my eyes. I was so ashamed that even now
Jenny was reading my mind so perfectly.
"Listen, that's the only goddamn thing I'm asking, Ollie. Otherwise, I
know you'll be okay."
That thing in my gut was stirring again, so I was afraid to even speak
the word "okay." I just looked mutely at Jenny.
"Screw Paris," she said suddenly.
"Huh?"
"Screw Paris and music and all the crap you think you stole from me. I
don't care, you sonovabitch. Can't you believe that?"
"No," I answered truthfully.
"Then get the hell out of here," she said. "I don't want you at my
goddamn deathbed."
She meant it. I could tell when Jenny really meant something. So I
bought permission to stay by telling a lie:
"I believe you," I said.
"That's better," she said. "Now would you do me a favor?" From
somewhere inside me came this devastating assault to make me cry. But I
withstood. I would not cry. I would merely indicate to Jennifer-by the
affirmative nodding of my head-that I would be happy to do her any favor
whatsoever.
"Would you please hold me very tight?" she asked. I put my hand on her
forearm-Christ, so thin-and gave it a little squeeze.
"No, Oliver," she said, "really hold me. Next to I was very, very
careful-of the tubes and things- as I got onto the bed with her and put my
arms around her.
"Thanks, Ollie."
Those were her last words.
CHAPTER 22
Phil Cavilleri was in the solarium, smoking his nth cigarette, when I
appeared.
"Phil?" I said softly.
"Yeah?" He looked up and I think he already knew. He obviously needed
some kind of physical comforting. I walked over and placed my hand on his
shoulder. I was afraid he might cry. I was pretty sure I wouldn't. Couldn't.
I mean, I was past all that.
He put his hand on mine.
"I wish," he muttered, "I wished I hadn't He paused there, and I
waited. What was the hurry, after all?
"I wish I hadn't promised Jenny to be strong for you. And, to honor his
pledge, he patted my hand very gently.
But I had to be alone. To breathe air. To take a walk, maybe.
Downstairs, the hospital lobby was absolutely still. All I could hear
was the click of my own heels on the linoleum.
''Oliver.
I stopped.
It was my father. Except for the woman at the reception desk we were
all by ourselves there. In fact, we were among the few people in New York
awake at that hour.
I couldn't face him. I went straight for the revolving door. But in an
instant he was out there standing next to me.
"Oliver," he said, "you should have told me."
It was very cold, which in a way was good because I was numb and wanted
to feel something. My father continued to address me, and I continued to
stand still and let the cold wind slap my face.
"As soon as I found out, I jumped into the car."
I had forgotten my coat; the chill was starting to make me ache. Good.
Good.
"Oliver," said my father urgently, "I want to help."
"Jenny's dead," I told him.
"I'm sorry," he said in a stunned whisper.
Not knowing why, I repeated what I had long ago learned from the
beautiful girl now dead.
"Love means not ever having to say you're sorry.
And then I did what I had never done in his presence, much less in his
arms. I cried.