Brass Bed (13 page)

“Are you? I’m rather depressed myself, to tell the truth. I think I’ll go away and be depressed alone,” I said.

“Perhaps that is a good idea. Please come back when you are more cheerful and inclined to be cooperative.”

I got up and walked to the door through the deep white pile. I opened the door and turned to look back at her, and suddenly her small face seemed very taut, and in her eyes, I thought, were the shadows of a great despair and a greater need.

“I love you,” she said, “and I am determined to have you, and now you must never desert me for any reason on earth.”

I wanted to go back to her, and I almost went, but instead I left her alone in her significant brass bed and went downstairs. In the hall, I heard voices in the living room, which was rather surprising under the circumstances, and one of the voices was Sid’s, and the other one seemed to be the voice of Logan Pierce. I stopped and listened to the voices but could not understand what was said, and after listening for a few seconds I went over and looked into the room and saw Sid sitting comfortably in a chair and Pierce leaning against one end of the sofa. They had heard me cross the hall to the entrance and were staring in my direction and had suddenly stopped talking.

“Hello, Felix,” Sid said. “Where did you come from?”

“I’ve been upstairs talking to Jolly.”

“Is that so? I had no idea you were here. How is Jolly?”

“All right. She’s still in bed.”

“I should think so. It’s still quite early, and I’d have gone up myself, but I didn’t want to wake her. You remember Logan Pierce, of course. He has come to tell Jolly that Kirby’s body has been found.”

Logan Pierce was tired and glum and had a gray stubble of beard on his face. He nodded and pursed his lips as if there were a sour taste in his mouth.

“You’re around pretty early, aren’t you?” he said.

“Yes,” I said. “And so are you, for that matter.”

“Sure. That’s so. I been up all night, having come into town with the body after we found it, and now I’d like to see Mrs. Craig and get on home to bed.”

“When did you find it?”

“The body? About one o’clock this morning. It got hung up in the branches of a tree that had fallen over into the water downstream a way. We were lucky to find it so soon. Sometimes it takes a long while to find a body in a river.”

“You say you brought it into town?”

“That’s what I said. It’s in the morgue.”

He paused and blew his lips out and sucked them in and stared at me from under his brows in that way which made him appear to be looking up at a person even though he was actually taller and looking down.

“He’s got a place on his head,” he said. “Looks like he might have been hit pretty hard with something.”

I saw Jolly, as I had seen her last night, rising in the boat and swinging the oar, and it was something a man should not be required to see a second time, even in his mind and knowing it’s only imagination. I closed my eyes and opened them, and this time the trick worked, and she and the river and Kirby in the dark water were all gone in an instant.

“He was in the river a long time,” I said. “It’s a wonder he hasn’t got a lot of bad places on him.”

“True enough. All in all, considering everything, he was in better shape than we had any right to expect. Well, like I said, I want to see Mrs. Craig and get on home. I met Mr. Pollock here on the way in, and he said she was probably still asleep and shouldn’t be disturbed yet, but since you’ve been up talking to her, I guess she’s awake after all and can see me right away. I’m dog tired and don’t want to wait around if I don’t have to.”

“See here, Sheriff,” Sid said. “Why don’t you just tell me what you want Jolly to know, and I can tell her when she comes down. She’s had a pretty bad shock, as you know, and I don’t think it’s such a good idea to talk to her so soon about things like this.”

“No?” Logan Pierce shifted his gaze to Sid, the sour look becoming more pronounced around his mouth. “I’d think it would be a kind of relief to her to learn that her husband’s body is out of the river. Anyhow, I got a few more questions on my mind I’d like to ask, so I guess I’d better talk to her personally even if it might be considered an imposition.”

He was clearly unsatisfied and unhappy because there were things he couldn’t understand, and I think what bothered him most was the awareness that, as things stood and were likely to stand, there was little or no chance of his ever understanding them any better, no matter how hard he worked at it.

“All right, then,” Sid said. “I’ll go up and ask her to come down.”

“As for me,” I said, “I don’t think I’ll stay if I’m not needed.”

“You’re not,” Logan Pierce said.

So I went back into the hall and down to the front door, and Sid followed me to the door instead of going immediately upstairs. He still had that odd assurance about him that Harvey had noticed at the river after the drowning, and I wondered why the hell he was at Jolly’s so early, and I resented his presence a little, as a matter of fact, but not much. It seemed to be impossible to resent Sid very much at any time.

“It’s very difficult for Jolly,” he said.

“Yes, it is,” I said. “She will undoubtedly miss being hit in the eye occasionally.”

“Well, no one but a brute would do something like that to a woman, but just the same it’s a very traumatic experience for her, and she will certainly need a great deal of love and comfort to alleviate it.”

“Is that so? Are you prepared to minister the love and comfort as it is required?”

“I admit that I intend to make myself available,” he said. “Jolly and I have always been very close, and I think it is quite likely that she will turn to me at this time.”

That’s what he said, and the way he said it was pretty smug. I thought for a second that it would be fun to hit him in the mouth, but I knew at the same time that it wouldn’t be really, so I only laughed about it and said, “Sid, Jolly told me only recently that you are very noble, and I can see now that it’s true. You are truly a noble character, and you give me a great big noble pain in the neck.”

I went down the walk toward the naked boy, and the clear water ascended, sparkling, into the morning sunlight and fell with a musical splashing into the basin below.

T
HEY HAD
Kirby’s funeral, but I didn’t go. The morning of the day the funeral was held, Harvey came into my room at the college and asked if I was going, and I said that I wasn’t.

“You actually aren’t?” he said. “I’d have sworn that you’d feel compelled to go.”

“Why?”

“Well, because of Jolly, of course.”

“I can’t see that Jolly has a damn thing to do with it. It isn’t Jolly who’s being buried.”

“I know that, old boy. However, when you come right down to it, it’s more her show than Kirby’s because she’s chief mourner and all. Don’t you think she will be depending on you to come see it?”

“No, I don’t. And if I were there, she’d probably never see me.”

“With all the people and relatives around, that would probably be so. I see your point, Felix, and there is certainly little sense in your going. Moreover, even if Jolly learns that you didn’t attend, I doubt that it will distress her much. I’m convinced that her role of chief mourner is a routine part that she doesn’t really have her heart in.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Oh, well, we may as well be honest about it. With all due respect for the dead, you’ll have to agree that Kirby wasn’t exactly the type that anyone would be likely to mourn excessively.”

“How about you? Are you going to the funeral?”

“I? By no means, old boy. What I intend to do this afternoon, to tell the truth, is to go to a French movie which is supposed to be quite lively and funny. Would you care to come along?”

“I don’t believe I would.”

“No? I’m sorry to hear it because it would be a pleasure to have you. Well, perhaps another time, old boy. Goodbye, now.”

“Goodbye, Harvey.”

He went away, and I did some work on some papers, and the papers had been written by the students in my class and were mostly pretty bad. It took quite a long time to finish them, and it was about two in the afternoon when I left. I went outside and down the steps to the walk, and Fran was sitting there on a stone bench in the shade of a high hedge. I was surprised to see her and stopped in front of her.

“Hello, Fran,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“If you want to know,” she said, “I’ve come to see you.”

“I was certain you’d be going to Kirby’s funeral.”

“No. I’m not going. Why were you certain that I would?”

“I thought Jolly might want you to be with her or something.”

“Oh, nonsense, Felix. Jolly will manage perfectly well without me, and it is only a matter of going through the accepted formalities with Kirby and getting them over with.”

“I was talking with Harvey a couple of hours ago, and he seemed to have the same impression.”

“Well, it is surely apparent to you above all people, Felix, that Jolly did not consider Kirby essential to her happiness.”

“She considered his money essential.”

“That’s something else altogether. Jolly is a very sensible person and naturally recognizes that it is imperative to be comfortable. However, as I say, Kirby and his money were two entirely different matters and have now been separated.”

“Yes, they have. They certainly have.”

“That remark had quite a nasty sound, Felix, and I would like to know what you mean by it.”

“Just what I said. Kirby and his money have been separated.”

“Oh, well, if you are determined to be sly and deceptive, I’m sure there is nothing I can do about it, and I didn’t come here to quarrel with you but to ask you to please do something at once about Jolly.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Must you be obtuse, as well as sly and deceptive? Of course you know what I mean. You know perfectly well that Jolly loves you; she would now like to resume her relationship with you without the handicap she previously had. I won’t go so far as to say she may have given old Kirby a push out of the boat, but regardless of that, I must say frankly that you have been a failure at taking advantage of the opportunity that has resulted.”

“Am I a disappointment to you?” I asked her.

“Yes, you are, and that is what I have come to talk with you about.”

“How did you know I wouldn’t be going to the funeral?”

Fran shrugged. “I thought it likely that Kirby wouldn’t be much of an attraction for you. I went around to your place and was told that you were here at the college so far as anyone knew, so I came here and waited outside your building on this bench, as you see, and now, in order that we may talk comfortably, I suggest that we go down to the Kernel on the Corner.”

“The Kernel on the Corner? What’s that?”

“Why it’s a place where you can buy beer and have all the popcorn you can eat given to you in a bowl. It’s right on a corner, as the name implies, and it’s quite a nice place if you like beer and popcorn. Hadn’t you ever heard of it?” she asked incredulously.

“No, I hadn’t. Never.”

“Perhaps, being a teacher and interested in things like poems by clerics, you don’t get around much. As for me, I go many places, and this is one of the places I’ve gone. Will you take me there and talk with me?”

“If you like. I’ll even buy you some beer and popcorn.”

“It isn’t necessary to buy the popcorn. It’s given to you in a bowl.”

“Is the place far from here?”

“About two miles, I think. Do you have your car here?”

“It’s down there at the curb.”

“Then there is no problem. We will drive down there and talk about what I have on my mind, and I will warn you in advance that I am rather angry with you for permitting Sid to become jeopardized.”

“Permitting Sid to become what? What the hell are you talking about?” I said.

“Never mind. I’ll explain it very carefully when we have reached the Kernel on the Corner.”

She stood up, and we went down to the Chevvie and got in. After a little coaxing, the Chevvie began to run, and I drove to the Kernel on the Corner according to directions supplied by Fran. It was a clean, plain place, and it was true about the popcorn. A man brought a bowl of it and put it on the table between us, and afterward brought cold draught beer in very large schooners.

“Do you approve of the beer?” Fran said.

“Yes. It seems to be excellent.”

“It seems so to me too. I have recently developed quite a taste for beer, as a matter of fact. I think it began developing when we had so much at the river.”

“We almost had a good time that day, didn’t we? It’s unfortunate that it was spoiled by what happened to Kirby.”

“Kirby was always spoiling something. It was part of his character.”

“Are you prepared now to tell me in what way I am permitting Sid to become jeopardized?”

“Certainly. You are permitting him to become jeopardized by doing absolutely nothing constructive about Jolly.”

“What am I supposed to do in your opinion?”

“Felix, I am positive that you are not so stupid as to need to ask that question seriously, and I consider it further evidence of your determination to be sly and unreasonable. It is clearly apparent that Jolly is not only end-over-elbows in love with you but also quite eager, now that the way is clear, to have you start doing something about it. The trouble is, you have done absolutely nothing and do not show any signs of beginning.”

“Even if I were inclined, it’s a little early, isn’t it? Unless they’ve pushed things pretty fast, Kirby hasn’t even been put away yet.”

“That’s very interesting, Felix. To hear you say that, I mean. It reveals a great deal about your character and explains why it is so seldom that you ever get anywhere with anything.”

“All right. I’m weak.”

“I’m sorry to say it, Felix, but that’s what you are, at least in this matter, and I would never have suspected it up to this time. On the other hand, Sid, of whom no one ever expected anything but foolishness, is behaving with a decision that is admirable, I have to admit, even though he is making a damn fool of himself in the process.”