WILLIAM GASS
355
inch by milli-inch ; she covers her ears when the belly rumbles ; she
listens to my face flush and moistens her brow with a cloth; frequently
she sings along: she hears all this, each secret part and public parcel,
but she won ' t pay any mind to
me.
Father, Mr . Hess said seriously, I
have cause to believe she's committed adultery with a drainpipe . Well
she raised her fist that solitary time and said something overgrand and
stucco like a thirties theatre. It was really rather remarkable , come to
consider it , how she seemed to gather the pieces together , various
panels of her clothing , a collar , a pocket , a sleeve, each moving as
separately as ants yet together like clasp and tie , too, all soft and bony
at the same time , the way a scarecrow would grow if it grew, and her
mouth opening , wider than when a muffin entered or a triangle of
toast , and the muscles tensing along the length of her neck , the veins
enlarged , quite blue , and the cry coming slowly out atop her tongue,
in scraps, in flecks, the way she ' d risen from the floor-Ayeeeeee–
" shall " the only word which seemed to have a stop to it , curling up at
the end like a pair of skis-beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-monsters in the
movies wailed like that at the threat and showing of the Cross–
freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- ha-ha ha-I shall be free . Not
of me , he ' d answered automatically; not of me , he ' d said , with a
depth of seriousness no dipstick was notched sufficiently to measure ;
not of me , he'd said, shouting , and he fetched her a second and a
better one . What are you at the cards for , if you can hear so much?
horoscoping, number-nosing , syllable counting, peering at the leaves,
or skittering out to consult that bubble-reading Madame Betz, all gyp,
by god , no gypsy , just to show off to the competition? and didn ' t she
call you a copy-cunt right in the pleasure of my hearing? and then
didn ' t I have to rough her up? how well you get along , you mystical
ladies , pretending to concerns so delicate they can ' t be seen but only
seen through like a pair of seductive panties . Well, none of that's real ,
you hear me? I' ll tell you what's real. I am. I AM REAL. And she had
smiled at him from the floor , smiled a smile which spread like syrup, so
full of slow sweet pity for him he could have killed her-well- and he
did give her a stern toe on account of it and his foot felt as if it were
entering a basket of laundry. The idea that his missus had been chaf–
fing for something like the same thing that he, Hess-knicknacked the
penholder by his playmates- had , was .. . infuriating , it was . . .
humiliating, it was ... intolerable. Well , no , Father , truth to tell, it 's
