Whistling For The Elephants Part 3

It was with something of a wrench that she finally fell out of the screen door, which banged against the wall and caused the flag to flutter above in the eagle's beak.

'Charlie, I am so sorry. It's Rocco. He's old and I cannot get him away from the front door.' Mrs Schlick leaned rather longer on Father than was necessary. She had very high-heeled shoes on. Maybe she needed the support. Her outfit was a little startling. It was a brocade jacket, very close-fitting, which finished somewhere on her upper thigh. After that there was nothing till you got to the shoes. It was a long way to the shoes. She smiled at Mother while pushing her mountain of hair a little more heavenward. I swear it creaked as she did it. I don't know who was more dumbfounded, Mother or Father. I knew Mother wouldn't think these were our sort of people. I just hoped she'd remember not to say so till we got home. Father was very tense. We'd had some bad times with Mother at c.o.c.ktail parties in Paris before we left. I don't think he had ever thought that Cherry Blossom Gardens would be a place where he had to deal with socializing. Slowly the front door closed behind our hostess.

'So, you must be Rosamund. Such a beautiful name. We hadn't seen you. I was beginning to think Charlie had given you a cement overcoat in the Amherst.' Mrs Schlick's body jiggled all over at the joke and then stopped as she spoke confidentially to my mother. 'It has happened, you know.' Mrs Schlick tutted for a moment, brushed an invisible piece of lint from her remarkably exposed cleavage and turned to me. 'Why, h.e.l.lo, Dorothy'

'h.e.l.lo, Mrs Schlick.'

'Dear G.o.d, listen to you. I told you, honey, Judith, everyone calls me Judith. Funny kid.' No one disagreed. 'Come on in, come on in.

Judith turned to push the door open again. It would not budge.

'Rocco, darling, you have to move, honey,' she called, but nothing shifted. Mrs Schlick shoved again and her Empire State heels began to slip on the front step. Father had no choice but to leave Mother to stand on her own for a moment and help push. The door became less and less helpful until Father and Judith were shoulder to shoulder against the wretched thing. With a small yelp from the ancient Rocco, it finally gave and they rather collapsed into the house. I helped Mother in. The dog had suffered something of a decline since I had first met it. Now bits of moisture dripped from every possible opening, not just the eyes. Fading fast from this world, Rocco had taken to lying across the mat by the front door. Bewildered by the onslaught of people, he swayed slowly to his feet and released a loud, dissatisfied explosion of gas as we stepped into the hall. It mingled with Judith's overwhelming perfume.

Judith sighed. 'Oh G.o.d, ain't it terrible. I cannot get him on his feet any more. Not even for a walk. A WALK.' She screamed the word at the dog but it was unmoved. It had, I suspect, determined to dedicate the remainder of its life to flatulence. 'He won't move from the door. I said to Harry we oughta just cut a piece off the bottom of the door and open it over his head. Don't stroke him,' she said to Mother, who could never have been further from such a thought in her life. 'You look so lovely but he doesn't expect it and it'll make your hand smell. I don't know what it is. I've had him cleaned. It stays with you for days. Judith sighed and then instantly brightened into a good hostess. So come in, come in. Welcome to Our Home.'

It sounded like a welcome but in fact Judith was pointing out a large needlepoint which said Welcome to Our Home in bright orange with a border of small pumpkins. 'I made it for Halloween, but everyone said it was so lovely I just kept it right there.'

The house was perfect. I mean in that nothing was out of place. It was also tapestried knick-knack heaven. Everything which could have been made out of canvas and thread had been. Everything which deserved an embroidered motto got one. The keyring holder by the hall window said You Don't Got to Look Far For the Keys to the Car with hooks shaped round pieces of an Oldsmobile in quilted fabric. The hat rack poked out from a major piece of sewing of cats wearing fedoras with the words Hang Your Hat on a Cat!

You're Purrfectly Welcome.

Small wooden ducks rested on embroidered ponds, the banister of the main stairs had an embroidered cover of ivy leaves, every door had a cheery sign indicating its function in words with follow-up pictures in case you got confused. If I stood still long enough I was fairly sure I too would be committed to wool in surprising shades. Any remaining wall s.p.a.ce was filled in by G.o.d blessing the house in every possible manner, and at least ten different designs a.s.sured me that Jesus was my friend. I liked that. I had been thinking about having Jesus as my friend since I had seen the advice on a b.u.mper sticker. I thought Jesus being your friend would be a good deal because you wouldn't have to worry about getting cooties from drinking soda wrong. While I was having these revelations Father was staring at me. My hat. He wanted me to take my hat off. I removed it reluctantly and hung it on a cross-st.i.tched Siamese.

Through an arch in the hall we could see into the sitting room. Judith swept us in on a brief tour. It was obviously not where the party was happening. The furniture was not designed for sitting on. It all looked very nice but was entirely shrouded in clear plastic fitted covers. If you sat down you would either stick to it or slide off in a second. In one corner there was a huge tropical-fish tank, but the focus of the room was a fake fireplace surround above which hung a painting of a girl. The picture was lit so that you couldn't really look at anything else. In another country you might have guessed that it was some mystical shrine. Judith tottered toward it and leaned on the mantelpiece.

'That's our Pearl. The pearl of our heart. Her papa's pride and joy. Taken on her sixteenth birthday. The photograph, that is. This is a real painting. Milo, at the Toy Store? He does them from the photograph. He's doing one of Rocco too.' Judith sighed in wonder at the painting. 'So much talent in a storekeeper. She's twenty now. Be twenty-one before you know it.'

'She looks lovely,' murmured Father. Mother didn't say anything. She was just looking at the plastic on the sofa. 'Uh... I'm looking forward to meeting her.' Father marched the conversation on, his hands clenched behind his ramrod-stiff back.

Judith pulled a lace handkerchief from her sleeve and ran it along, the bottom of the picture frame.

'Oh, Charlie, she's not here. I miss her.' She choked suddenly, emotion welling under her mascara. I don't think we knew if this meant the daughter was dead or what, and no one dreamed of asking.

'Perhaps a drink?' suggested Father.

'Of course,' Judith replied, and the bright hostess returned.

She sparkled her way through the house to the backyard. As we left the hall I could just see Rocco in the corner under the hat rack. He was still swaying at the unexpected sensation of being on his feet. He took the scene in for a moment and then simply fell sideways. The tremor shook my captain's hat free from the rack and deposited it on his head. We moved on.

'We are so glad you moved to the neighbourhood. Harry and I have been here for ever but every time we think of moving something interesting happens and we just have to stay.' Judith giggled the sort of laugh I had spent a young life avoiding. I knew if such a girly sound ever came out of my mouth I would have to kill myself.

Father whispered something which Judith must have taken as a compliment. 'Oh, Charlie,' she giggled and whispered back, 'Don't mention Pearl to Harry, okay? He gets kind of funny. Fathers, huh? He's a good man, really.' Judith pushed open the back door.

In the garden, Harry was wearing a large chef's hat with a blue and white striped ap.r.o.n bearing the words I'm in Charge. Smoke poured from a barbecue which an ox might have found a little roomy. He was cooking steaks so big they had to have been st.i.tched together from several cows. A great dustbin of ice was filled with cans of beer and soda.

'Great, great, the Kanes, start the party.' It seemed unlikely. 'Charlie, grab a beer.' Harry twinkled at my mother. 'You have gotta be Rosamund. What do they call you? Rosie?' He lowered his voice confidentially and leaned too close to Mother. 'I tell you, Rose, we were beginning to think Charlie had given you a cement overcoat in the Amherst.' Harry roared at the joke and Judith did some more jiggling. The evening was going to be impossible. Father could never drink from a can. Mother could never cope with that much meat. I moved to put the picnic table and chairs between me and Harry I didn't really want to talk to him. I was feeling very exposed without my tie and didn't want him to say anything. I did the top b.u.t.ton of my shirt up and stood watching the grown-ups.

'It's a good job you arrived, Rosie,' confided Judith. 'Your Charlie is much too handsome to be left alone. We had such talks, didn't we, Charlie? And you know what we have been talking about?' I couldn't imagine. 'History. Ain't that nice? Who woulda thought we had somethin' in common? We just adore history Course, mine ain't as refined as Charlie's.' She sat down on a deck chair and gently patted the one next to her. I couldn't tell if it was for Mother to sit down or because the cover was slightly wrinkled. Anyway, I knew it wasn't for me so I didn't move. Judith waltzed on.

'Dorothy, you're a girl.' She looked round at me as if to check. 'You'll appreciate this.' Her tone turned confidential. 'I am writing the total history of fashion in cheerleading through the whole century. People didn't always wear saddleshoes, you know.' I nodded. I don't know why. I had no idea what a saddleshoe might be. 'And look at this. I just finished this. Isn't this keen?'

She picked up a large black bag from beside her chair. On the side in multicoloured diamante was a portrait of Rocco in what I could only imagine was a full cheerleading ensemble. The dog looked slightly demented wearing a short, pleated skirt and holding its paws aloft with two giant pompoms. Above the pompoms were the words Notre Dame 1952.

'It's Rocco. Ain't it the spit?' Mrs Schlick let out a shrieking yell. Everyone nodded.

Harry torpedoed in. 'Want to see my tanks? Come see my tanks.' I think Father thought it was some war thing but Harry opened the door to a large wooden building at the back of the yard and led us in. Inside was a crescent-shaped aquarium divided into several different compartments. The walls had a few shelves with fish food paraphernalia on them, but everywhere else there were photos. Black and white pictures of Harry with a baby Pearl on his lap. Harry and Pearl laughing in a rowing boat, Harry and Pearl playing baseball, Pearl blowing out birthday candles. Apart from the fish, she was everywhere. Harry stood proudly in front of his mini-ocean and put his arms out to take in the joy of it.

'Twelve thousand gallons. That's the cubic capacity of the underground reservoirs and that's just the salt water on this side. There's six thousand gallons of fresh water in those tanks over there. Of course the amount of water you see is only about a fifth of what's in circulation.' Harry tapped on the gla.s.s. 'The water is constantly on the move. The water flows out of the tanks through a series of very elaborate sand filters and then returns to underground reservoirs to feed the tanks again. Everything from salamanders to shrimp. Took me and Eddie a h.e.l.luva time.' Harry beamed with pride at his own creation. Above his head an old poster announced A College of Trained Animals and Cephalodian Monsters of the Deep.

'It's all here, you know: drama, sport, domestic idylls, monstrosities and horrors.' Harry leaned toward Mother. 'Did you know that prawns play football?'

She smiled uncertainly. 'Really? How absurd. I mean they're so small and...'

'Sure they do. If you drop tiny pieces of fish in the tank and they're not hungry then they dribble the food along with their forelegs to each other.'

Father chuckled. 'Perhaps you could have a Touring Prawn Football League.' Harry laughed and dropped some food into one of the tanks.

'Watch this.' He reached into another tank, pulled out a starfish and without a word tore a leg from it.

'I say!' said Father ineffectually.

'Don't worry.' He threw the starfish and its leg back in the water. 'You tear a leg off and it makes a new one. The old leg makes a new starfish.'

Mother looked faint at the whole operation and gave a slight moan. Harry reached for her arm and soothed her.

'It's all right, Rosie. It's natural.' He smiled at Mother and turned to me. 'So, you feeling better, Dorothy?' Harry asked. Father looked at me. 'Fainted right away at Boat Safety.' They didn't even know about Boat Safety. It was terrible. Father would think I was turning out like Mother.

'h.e.l.lo,' an elderly voice interrupted. It was my saviour. Everyone turned. Sweetheart was in her late sixties by then but she was what people in those days used to call spry. She had such a lovely soft face under her white hair. A face that had aged with nothing but laugh lines. I wanted her to adopt me straight away I thought about adoption a lot in those days. I stood stock still, holding on to myself so I didn't run at her for a hug. She had on a pink and white striped dress and white nurse's shoes. Harry smiled.

'Hey, Mom. Everyone, this is my mom, Sweetheart.'

Sweetheart smiled and nodded. 'Have you done the drinks, Harry?'

'Just coming, just coming.'

Harry ushered us outside again where Judith was looking in a small compact to apply yet another layer of lipstick.

'So, Sweetheart, these are the Kanes,' she said, pursing her lips to herself and then snapping the pocket mirror shut. 'I can't believe you haven't met yet. Sweetheart lives right next door to you.. Isn't that nice?' It clearly wasn't that nice. Her tone to Sweetheart was less jovial as she spoke to her out of the corner of her mouth. 'Sweetheart, didn't you want to change? You still have your uniform on and there's Rosie looking so...' Judith took in Mother's pristine suit, '... nice.

'I'm fine. Thank you.'

'Hey, Mom, look at the size of these steaks,' Harry called.

She smiled at her son. 'That's nothing, Harry.'

'I know,' he laughed. 'When you've eaten eland, steaks are nothing.'

Sweetheart worked as a volunteer at the local hospital so I guess she knew instinctively that Mother shouldn't stand long. She took Mother's arm and settled down with her on a bench. Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Eddie and the kids arrived in a great display of noise. Eddie Jr and Donna Marie bombed into the house as if they owned it and within a minute Aunt Bonnie was chucking a beer down her throat on the gra.s.s and Uncle Eddie was gutting fish over in a corner. It would be fair to say that Aunt Bonnie had made no effort for the party at all. She was at the other end of the sartorial spectrum to Mother. She wore jeans and a T-shirt before even folk singers thought it was a good idea. Father stood uncertainly in the middle of the patio. Now he didn't have Mother to hold up he wasn't sure where to go. Judith minced over to the barbecue and put her arms around Harry's waist. He patted her hand and prodded at his task with a huge fork as flames spat up from the grill.

'Honey,' wheedled Judith, kissing his back after each word. 'Do you think maybe you put the steaks on a little too soon? I mean the fire looks a little hot.'

It had all been going so sedately that Harry's speed surprised everyone. He turned Judith under his arm with one hand and grabbed her by the neck. She kept smiling but sagged slightly as he held her like his own personal Resussa-Annie.

'Darling!' he hissed, smiling. 'What does it say on here?' He held her face close to the words on his ap.r.o.n. Judith laughed as she tried to release herself.

'Oh I know it...'

Harry squeezed his hand closed on the back of her neck. He spat the words through his big teeth.

'In charge. It says I am in charge.'

No one said anything. We all saw, we all watched, and no one said anything. I like to think Father would have but I know he wouldn't. I should have but I didn't. I was too busy thinking about girls not rushing the plate.

'Harry.' Sweetheart spoke quietly to her son. He looked at her and I thought something was going to explode. Instead he stroked Judith's neck and pulled her to him for a hug like he was just kidding. Judith laughed and moved away to smooth her hair. Harry carried on as if nothing had happened. Happy couple banter.

'Hey, Dorothy, you're not wearing one of those antiwar bracelets, are you? Eddie, you know your Donna Marie has one?'

Eddie shrugged and pulled the liver from a trout. 'Kids.'

'It's not just kids. That G.o.dd.a.m.n Martin Luther King riling up the black people against our boys.'

'He's dead,' said Aunt Bonnie, opening another beer.

'That's not the point. It's un-American. Why, I never even questioned serving my country. When I signed up...

Sweetheart interrupted quietly. 'Don't upset yourself, son.'

'I am not upset, but if those G.o.dd.a.m.n Commie people had never...'

We didn't hear what the G.o.dd.a.m.n Commies should never, because the fire alarm went off on the other side of the harbour. As the siren started, Harry threw off his ap.r.o.n.

'I'll get the car,' yelled Uncle Eddie, divesting himself of fish scales on the run. The hooter carried on giving the signal as Aunt Bonnie counted.

'Three-two-four. Over on Palmer, Eddie,' she yelled after her husband. Harry nodded.

'Come on, Charlie. Sounds like a big one.' He gave Father no choice but grabbed his arm and in a second the men were gone.

Almost every guy in Sa.s.saspaneck was a member of the Volunteer Fire Brigade. It was partly to do with economic necessity in the town and partly to do with some kind of sperm-count display in the men. It was about as macho an organization as it was possible to find. Sa.s.saspaneck was not a rich town. There had been a boom in the twenties when the Burroughs Boot Factories were going full-throttle, but nothing had been the same after the Depression. Fifty miles upstate from the city, it was a little too far to be commuter belt and no industry had ever settled along its sh.o.r.es again. Now the town didn't have the money for a full-time fire brigade. The big horn over at the boatyard would suddenly start blasting and men from all over the town would close down stores, drop fishing rods and race to be first on the engine. They all wanted to drive the fire truck, or at least race through town clinging on in a yellow hat and big boots.

Each street had a different series of blasts and the council printed a list of them so everyone in the neighbourhood could tell exactly where the fire was. The signals didn't tell you where in the street, as it was generally reckoned if you couldn't see the fire by the time you got there the owners had no business calling out the brigade in the first place. Mr Angelletta from the pizza parlour (Tony's Pizzeria - a slice - Your Mother Should Make it so Good) was nearly always first on the engine as the firehouse stood between the pizza parlour and Torchinsky's (It's Your Funeral) Funeral Parlour. Mr Torchinsky always stayed behind.

'Please G.o.d there are no fatalities,' he would mutter outside his door as the engine pulled away. Then he would turn and polish the bra.s.s plate on his door. 'Still, if it should happen...'

The women sat quietly on the patio. Within a few minutes we could hear the sirens of the first engine pulling out toward Palmer. Judith went to get some sewing to do and Aunt Bonnie grabbed a fresh six-pack out of the garbage can. Sweetheart sat looking at Judith.

'He means well. He's not been himself since...' Judith interrupted with a stab of her needle.

Sweetheart shook her head and changed the subject.

'So, Rosie, isn't this nice? We have time to visit now the boys have gone off to play. What do you do with yourself all day?' she asked. My mother smiled uncertainly. I was curious to hear the answer.

'Oh, you know, the house, Dorothy... et cetera.' The others nodded. It was a full life. Sweetheart smiled. Judith settled down to her Christmas tapestry in the warm summer air.

'Sweetheart works as a candy-striper. You know, a volunteer at the hospital. Kind of fancy cleaner, isn't it, Sweetheart?'

'I work with the patients,' replied Sweetheart quietly. It was obviously an old exchange. Judith hardly took a breath.

'I mean, I think it is wonderful to give your hours but being married I just don't have the time.'

There was some problem here but I couldn't work out what it was. Judith was getting at Sweetheart but I didn't know how. Aunt Bonnie flipped open another beer. Judith stabbed at a festive reindeer and ploughed on.

'I don't know how you stand that hospital. The place is full of people who don't pay their bills. Harry was talking to Doc Martin today. Doc had a woman up there who had been admitted with terrible back pain. Turns out she only works as a furniture remover! She said to the doc, "What can I do?" He said, "You can start by behaving like a lady and stay home."'

Aunt Bonnie nodded. 'Doc Martin, he's a funny guy.'

Sweetheart fanned herself. 'Going to be a hot summer.' She shifted to get more comfortable and sighed.

Judith looked up. 'You still haven't been down to the store, have you, Sweetheart? I keep telling you. Do you have an eighteen-hour girdle yet, Rosie? They are fabulous. Harry can't get enough of them. They just sell the minute they come off the truck into the store. I keep telling Sweetheart. Your own son and you won't go.'

'I like my old girdle just fine,' said Sweetheart, fanning herself.

'A woman shouldn't have to suffer.' Judith pulled herself upright. 'You should try one, Bonnie, might give you a better shape.'

'Who gives a hang?' barked Bonnie into her beer.

Judith eyed Bonnie, who was slumped on the gra.s.s. 'Might give you a shape at all. I'm sure Eddie would like it.

'If Eddie don't like my shape he knows what he can do.'

I looked at the four women, Bonnie, Judith, Sweetheart and my mother, and I knew I didn't want to be any one of them. I wanted to be driving the fire truck.

Chapter Five.

Inside Harry and Judith's house Donna Marie and Eddie were watching TV in the den. I was shunted away from the women's talk 'to make friends'. I stood in the doorway of the small room where the black and white TV blared. Eddie Jr looked at me.

'Hey, English, where's the tie?'

'I took it off,' I answered, trying to make my vowels sound right. He turned back to the TV.

'Made you look like a freak.'

'They got freaks out at the zoo.' Donna Marie never looked up as she spoke. 'Maybe you oughta go out there.'