LEONARD MICHAELS
33
grabbed my shoe and went to the window. A guy like him makes life
meaningless .
Jack I said it was a shoe . You should throw Goethe out the
window. Maybe you're in the Mongolian mood to throw my other shoe
out the window? I slapped it on his bed .
He threw it out the window.
How about this lamp I said .
Out the window.
These blankets you want to keep?
Out the window .
I said this is too big don ' t even look at it.
For a Chinese Jew the mattress was no trouble.
A nurse came in when I was pulling Jack 's bed toward the win–
dow. She started hitting and scratching me. Jack knocked her down
with a punch . I jumped on her face. Jack put his tongue in her wallet,
then me , then we pushed the bed out the window.
We were singing ya ya ya when nurses and doctors from all over
the hospital came in . Why not? How often do schmucks see a friend–
ship?
I walked home without a shoe. Not one shoe . I begged myself to
take a taxi. It's cold. It's snowing . Take a taxi. But I refused . No taxi.
For proof I yelled taxi taxi . It stopped . Drive into a wall I said .
The driver looked at me . I made a Jack face . He picked up a
wrench . I could see he was a maniac. I was standing without shoes and a
maniac was coming with a wrench. He could hit me in the foot. When
he pushed open the door another taxi knocked it off.
It
figures I yelled . But he was hitting the other driver with the
wrench . In the snow I ran away. You 'll get pneumonia I said .
I said I hope it's a virus.
Then I saw a phone booth and called Jack's wife .
She said hello .
I recognized her voice because it was so little and quiet. That's
how she always talked . Like a one year old .
I said hello Jack's wife?
She said yeah Jack ' s wife.
I said Jack is dead .
She said what who?
I said you ' re no good believe me. Eastside hospital.
