A Beautiful Truth (11 page)

They unloaded their gear from their truck and Looee watched
them from his bedroom. One was skinny and one was hairy. He wondered if these men were staying for dinner, and he wanted to show Walt and Judy how handsome he looked.

Judy had felt fulfilled that day, rooted happily in her life and enjoying the summer, eager to reach out and be accepted by Susan and her friends. They were supposed to talk about a novel called Trinity by Leon Uris. She was slightly nervous about discussing books because she hadn’t been to university, but she was curious about what the other women thought. Susan wasn’t much older than Judy, but had reached life’s milestones early. She had married and lost her husband. She raised a son to maturity on her own, and instead of coming to terms with the imperfection and unpredictability of life, she celebrated and embraced the opposite. She knew that things would be perfect, that they ought to be, and there was a positivity to that which Judy admired. Judy unconsciously adopted Susan’s elegance as she moved around the house and thought about her friend.

She heard the landscapers at work outside and thought she would bring some lemonade to them.

Looee had watched them from his window unloading machines he had never seen. A Bobcat and a gas-powered weed trimmer. He was impressed by their violence. He wanted to meet the men.

They were addressing a slope on the front lawn and the wiry one said there’ll be too much slip. Walt had asked them to add a low stone wall and steps to make the place look like it had been there longer, like it had grown from the earth.

They looked around at Walt’s property with their hands on their hips. Like all with a knowledge of craft, they imagined how they would have built and shaped things differently.

It was a short drive from the road to Walt’s house so there was no real mystery about the nature of the place. Big blue house
stretching through a few new additions. There were tires all over the front lawn and in one corner was a swing set with the seats missing. There was some sense of a thwarted childhood or an incomplete past which the wiry landscaper found familiar and discomforting. Dirty wet shed where his mother sent him. He felt pity for Judy’s children, however old they were.

I’ve got to do some work for my lady’s dad this weekend he said.

The hairy one was looking at Walt’s old pickup sitting on blocks. He was wondering whether Walt was rich or not.

Looee watched as Judy walked across the lawn with a tray and glasses of lemonade. Looee loved lemonade. The men heard a loud whoo from inside the house that sounded like a teenager admiring a hot rod.

Judy had tied up her hair to look smart and taller for the book ladies, and to the men it looked gigantic.

They heard another whoo from the house.

How old’s your son.

He’s around nine or ten said Judy. Which I think is more like fourteen.

She smiled as she said so.

The men were confused.

Looee assumed that these two were special—the way they shifted dirt and got lemonade from Judy.

His hair was erect and bursting out of his collar.

After Judy had taken his overalls, Looee’s eraser left him free to go through the door.

He walked down the corridor to the front of the house and stepped out into the sun.

Looee was usually best at disarming workmen or macho types; the coldest and toughest personalities often relaxed like they did for no one else. Walt and Judy had been careful to control most
meetings, though, because there was always some opportunity for surprise.

When Judy saw Looee walking proudly towards them, her accustomed caution was pushed to the back of her mind. She wasn’t surprised by his being outside so much as she was by his outfit. He was wearing something special and he looked so proud, and instead of thinking about the situation and encouraging him to go back in, she smiled and said oh my Looee, you look so handsome. She knew that was the reaction he wanted.

The landscapers saw a chimpanzee walking towards them. He was wearing a plaid jacket backwards with suspenders pulled over it, and a long pearl necklace which Judy had been missing for months.

He was smiling his genuine smile and bobbing his head to Judy’s lovely words.

The wiry one said what is that, and started laughing. Then his partner laughed and soon it was hands on chest and thighs and that is the weirdest fuckin thing I’ve ever seen.

It took Looee a moment to get over his excitement and realize they were laughing at him.

Judy watched his expression change and there was nothing she could do. Don’t make fun of him she said.

When Looee screamed, his lips pulled right back over his teeth. The men thought this was even funnier. When he pounded the ground and screamed and cried they had visions of everything ridiculous, of old women dressed as tarts, of children thinking they were strong and wise.

Looee ran at them and they pivoted out of the way and spilled their drinks. He kept running and picked up the weed trimmer and threw it at a tree. They registered his strength.

He ran back in their direction and his nails tore the grass as he sprinted.

He ran directly at Judy at first. She thought he was going to attack her.

The hairy one felt the ground hit the back of his head. He was winded and thought he had slept. He tasted blood when he was driving down the highway and asked his partner what the fuck just happened.

Walt had heard all the noise and ran out to tackle Looee, who was pounding and stomping on the man’s body. By chance he got his arm across Looee’s mouth before he could bite him between the legs.

When they couldn’t sleep that night, Walt said we’re just lucky they were workers. Rough-and-tumble. Anyone else and Looee wouldn’t be here.

Looee had bitten Walt’s arm, and Walt had hit him across the back, held his face down in the grass till Looee struggled out and ran up the tree.

Walt wrote a cheque for the landscapers, for two thousand dollars, for forgiveness, and none of the work was finished.

What kept Judy awake was the thought of Looee running towards her. Those men made fun of him, but he ran at her as well. She didn’t stand up for him.

There was no one she could explain that to except Walt.

I want to do the best for him she said.

She felt aware of other realities: that what she saw was not the whole truth, or what other people saw was simply not her truth. It was a lonely feeling.

Burke has taken to bothering the women.

He used to make them proud. He used to do their bidding.

Some days they don’t see him. He sits in the grove and licks his teeth.

Whenever watermelon is thrown down from the roof of the Hard, he runs over everyone to get to it first. He knows Mama loves it and he taunts her with it. He knows she likes to eat it in the shady grove so he walks there first with the watermelon between his arm and belly.

Mama can’t believe it at first. She brings her fists down on Burke’s back and he drops the fruit and runs. He doesn’t scream or show much fear, but he runs.

He used to play with Bootie and show Bootie how much better he was at everything. Bootie followed him and mimicked all he did. They wandered away and Bootie felt nervous being out of sight of the others, but Burke never seemed nervous. They made fun of poogly Mr. Ghoul. They copied Podo’s gait. They wandered the edge of the World like the men did before bed.

No one else was welcome here, no one could break this unity.

But now Burke stays apart.

The next time he steals Mama’s watermelon she shouts. Through her feet she borrows the authority of the ground and she shouts inarguable justice in his ear. He feels as if he has been bitten and this time he screams in fear.

The next time he holds the great green fruit in his hands and runs around Mama and Fifi and Magda. He smashes the fruit on a rock and kicks pieces through the filth. They scream and pound the dirt and make a cloud. Burke walks and sits on his own and frowns like Podo at nothing on the ground.

He has been strong.

Fifi doesn’t know what to do. Burke is the burst and fruit of her chest, like Bootie is Magda’s and the new one is Mama’s. Everyone is Fifi’s. She hugs Mama to console her. She gathers pieces of the broken fruit.

She walks to Burke and grooms his long bluffing hair and he is calmed. He doesn’t know where to go so he lies on the ground in front of her and sighs, and her hand is on his shoulder.

Burke tries to join a skrupulus of Podo, Jonathan and Mr. Ghoul, but his bows are short and perfunctory as if he were an equal. None of the men will look him in the eyes and he knows he is not welcome. He sits apart and does not appear to care as much as he cares.

Bootie walks to Burke and Burke pushes him away.

Later Burke changes, puts his fingers in Bootie’s armpits, and colours are kind again. Bootie wants to look for squirrels, but they sit and smell the day.

Jonathan is watching Burke these days. He feels that if Burke is ever attacked he will defend him, depending on who attacks him.

Podo sleeps, awakes, and feels old.

The Hard closed down when Podo arrived. They tried to teach the machine to Podo but he couldn’t use it, couldn’t use the pictures like Dave couldn’t use the guitar and Mama couldn’t use the lighter.

They were bored until new games arrived.

¡Pong!

¡Pac-Man!

They tried to keep Mr. Ghoul using the machine but he attacked the Fool. They made a keyboard, a piece of hard paper with all the pictures on it, and now they could leave the Hardest and wander and Dave and Mr. Ghoul would talk. In each new room Mr. Ghoul thought he might see Julie saying where’s my Mr. Ghoul.

Mr. Ghoul was taken on trips to the woods with Dave. They roasted marshmallows and Mr. Ghoul got sick in the van.

He learned to get used to the rinjy feeling of grass between his toes and that trees could be useful and fun. Those trips stopped long ago, but he was one of the few who had these early visions.

He did not see Dave at night anymore and there were no longer vodka and smokes.

Fences of plekter arose in the Hard after Podo attacked the Fool.

But the Hard also finally opened to grass and monkey bars.

They were no longer led from their bedrooms to the Hardest or the playroom. They walked on their own through tunnels and emerged in various places. Their bedrooms grew.

New Visitors arrived. One was a black-brown yek who looked like he could reach across the length of any room.

Dave, from the other side of the plekter, said

That Jonathan.

Mama liked him and wanted to look after him like her doll that had one ear.

He had tremendous balls.

He sat and pressed his balls against the plekter and Mama felt a strange flush of oa when she touched them through the grid.

Podo and Jonathan screamed at each other from either side of the plekter and Podo tried to hit him. They were all kept apart from him until one day Dave put Mama in the room with Jonathan while Mr. Ghoul and Podo watched from the other side.

Mama’s rosé was pink as a mouth and she let Jonathan clean her neck and pin her

¡Hoo!

And Podo and Mr. Ghoul were hanging from the plekter and screaming and mounting each other for comfort.

Dr. David watched through windows.

When Jonathan hung from his side of the plekter he looked like a wall of thorns and threats. Mostly he sat in the corner.

They soon emerged in the playroom together.

Jonathan and Podo groomed each other after bloning and bluffing, and it was grooming like a conversation between men is a test, not a connection; it was touching like you touch a suspect tree—not to sit in it but to see what it will take to push it down.

Jonathan was bigger than Podo.

He learned nothing in the Hard. Instead of learning how to dip the skinny stick into the honey, he begged for the honeyed stick. If the honeyed stick wasn’t passed to him he would pleen and pleep and make annoying faces, and Mama would always pity him.

This was not admirable.

But Mama seemed to want to please him no matter what he did. And Mr. Ghoul and Podo wanted to please Mama.

Mr. Ghoul would feel drawn as much as obligated to groom Jonathan because awful people are strangely compelling.

Strange smells are sniffed at not once, but thrice.

Podo was good at getting food.

Whenever they worked in the Hard, Mr. Ghoul would wait for Podo, defer to Podo, just as he did for Dave sometimes. Dave wanted Podo and Mr. Ghoul to identify faces on a screen, match a man in a hat with another man in a hat. Dave would try to get Mr. Ghoul to go first, but Mr. Ghoul wouldn’t go unless Podo went first. Podo sometimes wouldn’t go unless Mama went first, especially when she was pink.

Dave played Pac-Man and sometimes looked swollen and sadder.

Mama had a birthday.

Dave gave her a cat.

Mama loved the cat and said on the keyboard

That red.

Cats are quiet and soft and can twist around the room like a lie.

She learned how to hold it without the cat getting sharp, and soon it rode her back like a little one. She shared food with it.