REMINISCENCES OF BABEL
40..1
"Oof!" he sighed, recognizing me. "I thought it was that kid.
1 can only work while the monster
is
asleep."
Babel was holding the indelible pencil he had been writing
with....
Then Lusya burst triumphantly into Babel's room. He im–
mediately went for the drawer, assuming that the most interesting
things
must be hidden there. But Babel skillfully managed to lock
the drawer and put the key in his pocket. Then Lusya began to
snatch things off the table, demanding to know what they were.
Finally he started clutching at the indelible pencil in Babel's hand,
and after a struggle, managed to seize it. . . .
We went to the beach. Lusya kept diving in close to the shore
and blowing bubbles. Babel was watching him very closely. At one
point he seized my arm and said in a conspiratorial tone:
"Do you know what I noticed, back in my room? He broke
off the point of the indelible pencil and stuck
it
in his ear."
"So what?" I asked. "Nothing will come of it," Babel agreed
gloomily. "The hell with him then, let him dive to his heart's con–
tent."
. . . We were all sitting around the breakfast table and Mrs.
Gronfein was working up to her daily performance about the
egg.... Suddenly Lusya slid from his chair, grabbed his ear and
started to roll around on the floor emitting heart-rending howls,
and kicking everything within range. We all jumped up. A dis–
gusting, purplish liquid was running from his ear.
He shrieked uninterruptedly, on one horrendous note, and
the women dashed around him in circles. The whole house was
panic-stricken. Babel sat rigid and looked at Lusya in dismay, while
he writhed on the floor and shouted,
"It
hurts, oh it hurts!"
I was about to announce that Lusya was shamming, that he
could not be in pain, that he had simply been diving with a piece
of indelible pencil in his ear. But Babel caught my arm under the
table and squeezed it hard.
"Not a word," he hissed, "Keep quiet about the indelible
pencil
or you'll spoil everything!"
The mother-in-law was sobbing. Mary, Babel's sister, was
wiping off the purplish fluid with a piece of absorbent cotton.
