512
JONATHAN BAUMBACH
changed is brought in on the end of a long stick as evidence. The
odor, says the chief, does violence to the air. Everyone in turn has a
sniff before the diaper is sent to the lab for testing.
The husband and wife turn out to be undercover police, reveal–
ing themselves in a startlingly personal moment. Though we love him,
they say, he's been a handful.
The police ask the baby a number of difficult questions. "Where
do you live, baby?" "Where did the stuff come from?" "Who put you
up to it?" They give him a lollipop to loosen his tongue and take turns
saying kitchy koo which is routine procedure with babies.
Unable to understand his answers, they let him go with a warn–
mg to keep his nose clean.
"Nose?" he asks.
"It's just an expression," they tell him.
The baby is followed by a detective disguised as another baby,
a deception that fools no one. The detective's outfit is transparently
unauthentic, out of style, unlived in. The point of his gun in fact sticks
out from under his diaper. He drools to excess.
It
is no fun for him being followed. To lose his shadow the baby
slips into a movie theater and sees his first film. The enormous heads
of a man and woman are kissing when the baby comes in. It is the
only thing he can see in the dark, two enormous mouths. Thinking
the seat was empty, the baby crawls into someone's lap. "I don't allow
strangers in my lap," she says. The baby apologizes, is about to change
his seat when he notices the baby-disguised detective coming down the
aisle in his direction.
In
danger of being caught, his comprehension of
the law limited by his youthfulness, he asks his companion if he might
hide in her purse a few minutes. There is no time to wait for an
answer. He opens the snap - it is a soft leather bag, big enough for
him if he folds himself over - and crawls in. "Don't disturb anything
in there," she says. "I'll tell you what's happening so you won't miss
the picture."
The detective takes the seat next to the girl in whose purse the
baby is hiding. His suspicion is aroused when he sees her talking to her
purse. The smell of his cigar advertises him. While he is in the seat
next to them, the baby has to stay put in purse. Powder spills on him.
His image in her compact mirror is smaller and whiter than he re–
members. The air is thick with sweet powder.
With the detective close by, watching her lips, the girl neglects to
tell him what's happening in the movie.
T he baby closes his eyes and dreams his own \'ery different ver–
sion of the movie. Just wllf'n he is about to COme to an interesting part.
the girl snaps open her purse. She is crying, and the baby in sympathy
cries too. The woman on the screen, wearing a flimsy bathrobe, is also
