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PARTISAN REVIEW
SEIZE THE DAY
(Continued from page 319)
Dr. Adler had refused to go along. He couldn't bear his son's
driving. Forgetfully, Wilhelm traveled for miles in second gear; he was
seldom in the right lane and he neither gave signals nor watched for
lights. The upholstery of his Pontiac was filthy with grease and ashes.
One cigarette burned in the ashtray, another in his hand, a third on
the floor with maps and other waste paper and Coca-Cola bottles. He
dreamed at the wheel or argued and gestured and therefore the old
doctor would not ride with him.
Then Wilhelm had come back from the cemetery angry because
the stone bench between his mother's and his grandmother's graves had
been overturned and broken by vandals. "Those damn teen-age hood–
lums get worse and worse," he said. "Why they must have used a sledge
hammer to break the seat smack in half like that.
If
I could catch one
of them!" He wanted the doctor to pay for a new seat, but he was
cool to the idea. He said he was going to have himself cremated.
Mr. Perls said, "I don't blame you if you get no sleep up where you
are." His voice was tuned somewhat sharp, as though he were slightly
deaf. "Don't you have Parigi the singing teacher there? God, they have
some queer elements in this hotel. On which floor is that Estonian
woman with all h er cats and dogs? They should have made her leave
long ago."
"They've moved her down to twelve," said Dr. Adler.
Wilhelm ordered a large Coca-Cola with his breakfast. Working
in secret at the small envelopes in his pocket he found two pills by
touch. Much fingering had worn and weakened the paper. Under cover
of a napkin he swallowed a Phenaphen sedative and a Unicap, but
the doctor was sharp-eyed and said, "Wilky, what are you taking now."
"Just my vitamin pills." He put his cigar butt in an ashtray on
the table behind him for his father did not like the odor. Then he
drank his Coca-Cola.
"That's what you drink for breakfast, and not orange juice?" said
Mr. PerIs. He seemed to sense that he would not lose Dr. Adler's favor
by taking this questionable tone with his son.
"The caffeine stimulates brain activity," said the old doctor.
"It
does all kinds of things to the respiratory center."
"It's just a habit of the road, that's all," Wilhelm said.
"If
you
drive around long enough it turns your brains, your stomach and
everything else."
His father explained, "Wilky used to be with the Rojax Corpora–
tion. He was their northeastern sales representative for a good many
years but recently ended the connection."
"Yes," said Wilhelm, " I was with them from the end of the war."
He sipped the Coca-Cola and chewed the ice, glancing at one and
