The Graduate (18 page)

“Then you ... uou stopped her from getting into the car and said she was too drunk to drive home. Benjamin, I want to go now.”

“Then what.”

“You said ... you said you’d get her a room for the night. You took her up to it and ordered drinks until she passed out. Then in the morning you—” Elaine shook her head. “Let me out, Benjamin.”

“In the morning,” he said.

“In the morning you told her she was having an affair with you.”

“Elaine.”

“Now let me out.”

“Elaine, that makes me sick.”

“Let me go, please,” Elaine said. She cleared her throat and wiped one of her eyes.

“Elaine, that’s not what happened. What happened was there was this party.”

“I don’t want to hear this.”

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“My parents gave me this party when I came home from college. I drove your mother home from it.”

“I don’t want to hear this, I said.”

“Elaine, it’s the truth.”

“I don’t care,” she said. She took a step toward the door. “Please move,” she said.

Benjamin waited a moment but didn’t move away from the door. “I drove her home from the party, Elaine.”

“Please, may I go now.”

“Then we went upstairs to see your portrait. When we got up there—

when we got up in the room she started taking her clothes off.”

“Benjamin, this is my mother!”

“Then I went downstairs to get her purse. I took it back up. Then I put it on the bed and was walking out and she came walking in. Without any clothes on. She came—”

Suddenly Elaine screamed.

Benjamin stared at her till she was finished screaming and then continued to stare at her for a long time afterward while she lifted her hands up from her sides and put them over her face to cover it and then finally brought them slowly back down and held them in front of her. He stood a moment longer in front of the door, then looked quickly around at different parts of the room. He hurried to one corner for a wooden chair and brought it to the center of the room, where she was standing. Then he rushed out his door and down the hall to the bathroom. A boy at the end of the hall was standing in his doorway. “It’s all right,” Benjamin said. He went into the bathroom and filled a glass full of water, then carried it quickly back along the hall toward his room but before he could reach the door a man, his landlord, had come up the stairs and was standing in fornt of him.

“Who screamed,” he said.

“It’s all right,” Benjamin said.

“Who screamed up here.”

“Mr. Berry, it’s all right,” Benjamin said.

“Who was it.”

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“A visitor. But it’s all right now.”

“Whose visitor.”

“Mine.”

“What did you do to her.”

“Excuse me,” Benjamin said. He began moving around him but Mr.

Berry stepped in front of the door. “She’s all right!” Benjamin said.

“She was upset and she screamed! Now I’m taking her some water!”

“I’ve called the police,” Mr. Berry said.

“Oh my God.”

“What did you do to her.”

“Goddammit!” Benjamin said. “Now call the police and tell them not to come! Nothing’s wrong!”

“What did you do to her?”

“Get out of the way,”Benjamin said. He pushed past him and into the room, closing the door behind him. “Here,” he said. He gave her the glass.

“What’s happening.”

“Nothing.”

“Who’s out there.”

“My landlord,” Benjamin said. He turned around and went back out into the hall. Mr. Berry tried to look around him and in through the door as he came out but he closed it. Two students were standing together at the end of the hall and one was leaning down over the banister from upstairs. “It’s all right!” Benjamin said. “Now everybody go back to their room.” No one moved. Benjamin looked back at Mr. Berry. “Will you call the police back?”

“Tell me what happened.”

“She was upset and she screamed. Now call the police back and tell them not to come.”

“Why was she upset.”

“It’s not your business why she was upset.”

Suddenly the front door of the rooming house was thrown open and a policeman hurried in and up the stairs. “Who called,” he said.

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“I did, sir,” Mr. Berry said.

“Look,” Benjamin said. “It’s all right.”

“He has a girl in his room that was screaming.”

The policeman looked at Benjamin. “What happened,” he said.

“I have a friend visiting me,” he said, “and she became upset as we were talking and screamed. But everything’s fine now.”

“Why does she want to scream if everything’s fine.”

“Look. We were talking about something that upset her.”

“What was it.”

“What?”

“What were you talking about.”

“A private matter.”

“What was it.”

“I said it was a private matter.”

Elaine suddenly opened the door and looked out. The two students at the end of the hall took several steps forward and Mr. Berry craned his head up to look at her over Benjamin’s shoulder.

“Was it you screamed?” the policeman said.

“Yes.”

“What did he do to you.”

“Nothing,” she said. “I was upset about something.”

“What were you upset about.”

“It was a private matter!” Benjamin said. “Can you understand that?”

The policeman turned to frown at him. “What’s your name,” he said.

“What?”

“What’s your name.”

“What’s the charge.”

“Don’t worry about the charge. What’s your name.”

“His name’s Braddock,” Mr. Berry said. “His name’s Benjamin Braddock.”

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“Are you a student?”

“No.”

“What are you.”

“I’m a resident.”

“What’s your job. What’s your occupation.”

“I don’t have one.”

“What do you mean you don’t have one.”

“I mean I don’t have one.”

“You getting smart?”

“No.”

“Then what’s your occupation.”

“I don’t have one.”

“What do you do.”

“Look,” Benjamin said. “I don’t think this is too relevant.”

“Then what do you do.”

“Are you booking me or something?”

The policeman looked a moment at Mr. Berry, then at the two students standing halfway down the hall. “Get back to your rooms,” he said, waving them back. They walked back down the hall and into their rooms and closed their doors behind them.

“There won’t be any more trouble,” Benjamin said.

The officer looked at him a long time, then nodded. “Okay Ben,” he said. “I’ll take your word for it this time.” He turned around and walked back down the stairs and outside.

“Mr. Braddock?” the landlord said.

“What.”

“I want you out of here in a week.”

“What?”

Mr. Berry turned around and began climbing down the stairs.

“Mr. Berry?”

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“You heard me,” he said.

Benjamin hurried down the stairs after him. “You want me out of here?”

“That’s right.”

“What for.”

“You know what for.”

“I don’t know what for, Mr. Berry. Tell me what for.”

“Because I don’t want you here.”

“Why not.”

“Because I don’t like you,” he said.

Benjamin frowned at him as Mr. Berry walked past him and along the hall and into his room. He listened to the latch sliding into place on the other side of Mr. Berry’s door, then turned around and walked slowly back up toward his room. Elaine was still standing in the doorway.

Benjamin walked past her and to his bed. He seated himself on its edge and looked down at the rug.

“Benjamin?”

“What.”

“I’m sorry I screamed.”

He sat awhile longer on the bed, then stood and walked across the room for his suitcase. He carried it back and opened it on the bed.

Elaine closed the door. She walked to the chair in the center of the room and sat.

“Benjamin?”

“What.”

“Can I ask you something?”

He nodded and walked across the room to his bureau and opened its top drawer. From inside he lifted out a shirt and carried it to the bed to put it in the suitcase.

“What did you think would happen,” Elaine said.

“What?”

“When you came up here,” she said. “What did you think would happen between us.”

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“I don’t know.”

“Did you ever think of how I might feel about you?”

“Look,” he said, turning around from his bed. “I don’t want to talk right now. I’m sorry about everything but if you don’t mind I’d just as soon be alone right now.”

Elaine nodded.

“All right?”

“All right,” she said. “May I just sit here till you finish packing?”

“Do what you want,” he said.

“But can’t you just tell me what you were thinking about when you decided to come up here?”

“I don’t know what I was thinking about,” he said. He walked to his closet and took his suit out on its hanger.

“You just came up here?” she said.

He nodded and carried the suit to the bed.

“Just because I was here.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, were you afraid to come and see me?”

“What do you think.”

“Were you?”

“I was,” he said. He removed the coat from the hanger and began folding it.

“But what did you do.”

“What?”

“Did you just get in your car one day and drive up here?”

“What does it matter, Elaine.”

“I’m just curious.”

“That’s what I did.”

“And what happened when you got here.”

“What happened?”

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“I mean can’t you tell me a little bit about it?” she said.

He turned around to frown at her.

“Because I can’t understand any of this,” she said. “Didn’t you have any intention of coming to see me? Or were you just going to wait until we happened to meet.”

“I came to see you the first night.”

“You did?”

“I mean I drove up here,” he said. “I was in kind of a strange mood and I drove up here and got a hotel and got some reservations at a restaurant for us.”

“You were going to invite me to dinner?”

“That’s right.”

“Then what did you do.”

“I didn’t invite you.”

“I know.”

“Elaine, I just came up here,” he said. He set the coat into the suitcase on top of the shirt. “I just kind of wallowed around. I wrote you some letters.”

“Love letters?”

“I don’t remember.”

“And you sold your car.”

He nodded. “The first day I was here,” he said. “I got this room and I sold the car the first morning.”

“And then what.”

“Then I sat around,” he said, picking up the hanger and removing the pants from it.

“Well, did you go out?”

“What?”

“Did you go out with girls or anything?”

“No.”

“But how did you spend your time,” she said. “Did you read all day?”

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“No.” He glanced at the paperback book on the desk. “That’s the first book I’ve started since college.”

“Don’t you like to read?”

“I like newspapers.” He folded the pair of pants to his suit and laid them in the suitcase. Then he walked to his desk and opened one of its side drawers to remove a handful of socks.

“What’s the book you’re reading,” she said.

Benjamin picked it up from the desk and handed it to her.

“Are you interested in astronomy?” she said, looking at the cover.

“No.”

“Then why are you reading this.”

“I just picked it up,” he said, carrying the socks to his bed. “I just wanted to be reading something when you came.” He set the socks in the empty half of the suitcase.

“You wanted to be reading something when I came?” she said.

“That’s right.”

“Why.”

“What?”

“Why did you want to be reading something when I came.”

“Because,” he said, “I didn’t want to be just lying on the bed or sitting inthe chair. I wanted to be doing something worth while.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said. “Where’s my belt.”

He walked back to the bureau, looked in the top drawer, then the next one and then the bottom drawer. Then he walked to his desk and opened all the side drawers and finally the large drawer under the desk-top. He reached in for the bundle of money and stuffed it into his pocket.

“Is that the money from your car?”

“Yes.”

“How much was it.”

“It was twenty-nine hundred,” he said. “It’s about twenty-four hundred now. Twenty-three or-four.”

“And you just keep it lying around in that drawer?”

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“It’s safe enough.” He closed the drawer and walked across his room.

He opened the closet door wider to let in more light and frowned down at the closet floor. Then he got down on his hands and knees and looked under the bureau.

“What are you looking for.”

“My belt.”

“Don’t you have it on?”

“No,” he said, reaching under the bureau. “I have two.

I have one on, then I have another. What’s this.” He pulled out a marble covered with dust, looked at it a moment, then returned it under the bureau and stood. “It was from my grandmother,”

he said, brushing some dust off one of his hands and onto his pants.

“What?”

“The belt. It was from my grandmother.”

“Oh.”

He walked to his bed and pulled it away from the wall. “What’s this,”

he said. He bent down and pulled up a red plastic ruler from the floor beside the wall. He looked at it a moment, then knocked it against the metal frame of the bed to get some of the dust off and dropped it into his suitcase on top of his socks.

“Benjamin?”

“What.”

“What are you going to do now.”

He shook his head and moved the bed back against the wall.

“What are you going to do now.”

“Elaine, I don’t know,” he said. He walked back to the bureau and opened its top drawer again. Then he reached inside and moved his hand across the bottom of it.