WILLIAM GASS
359
bottom, or perhaps beyond that, bottomlessly un
: der . . . no, he
didn'tth .
: ink so; he thought rather that they might have made it with
a little counseling-right-maybe that 's all it would have taken–
sure- just some authority figure to tell her to Vher legs and buck a bit,
to
come down out of the cumulus and clown around a little, a lot of
ladies like to go to the games, scream for the team, lap up a beer, some
bowl , and-my gosh-many will respond to a nibble or a twiddle
even , consequently square up , Missus Hess, therefore straighten
around, don't endeavor to be exceptional, to see camels in clouds or
become what we call cipher silly , what do you say? that's zero, the
cipher, zerrr-oh, the cold, the 0 in obliteration . I've known several like
you in my time and practice who sought clues to the future in the daily
crossword, games of that kind- the X in eccentric is a cancellation,
remember- how did they fare? well , they went up , then down , across ,
or desperately took diagonals like last-minute shoppers at Lazarus's, in
the Christmas rush at Macy 's or Marshall Field's, but black blocks cut
them off eventually, hemmed them in on every hand like smudges on a
diner's napkin-Ella, Ella-backed into byways , uneasy always, and
there to remain as cats are caught at the hairs' ends of alleys, illumined
by doglight- Ella, Ella, Missus , Madame-or compelled to live on a
letter like K-what a coffin-so content yourself, rna' am , run for calm
like a carrot , resign, accept .. . and Hess felt he could have been con–
tent , the conviction had grown on him-indeed was a callus-for what
had he asked for? honey in the comb? had it been much? . . . so much?
perhaps if he gave her a book of some kind, one which explained
marriage and contained diagrams and pictutes, anatomy and arrows,
though she never had much interest in words laid to rest like that: in so
many glassy-eyed rows like results of a gunning . What he wanted was
calm, calm was quiet, the stillness of a world which spoke about as
often as an onion. Chewing on a hard roll, for instance, the sweet work
of the teeth, he thought, sufficiently contained itself. Yes. He felt he
could have been content. Ella , however . . . She never joked , never
