DONALD BARTHELME
507
-Ricchi.
-Never heard of him.
-Well.
-I'll take it. You may stack it with the others, against that
wall or that wall or that wall-
-Thank you. Where shall 1 send the bill?
-Send it anywhere you like. Anywhere your little heart
desires.
-Well I hate to be put in this position. Bending and
subservient.
-Heavens! I'd not noticed. Let me raise you up.
-Maybe in a few days. A few days or a few years.
-Lave you with bee jelly and bone oil.
-And if I have ever forgiven you your astonishing
successes–
-Mine.
-And if 1 have ever been able to stomach your serial
triumphs-
-The sky. A rectangle of gray in the foreground and behind
that, a rectangle of puce. And behind that, a square of silver-gilt.
-Got to get it together; get the big bucks.
- Yes I'm thinking hard, thinking hard.
-Frolic and detour.
-What's that mean?
-I don't know just a bit of legal language 1 picked up
somewhere.
-Now that 1 take a long look at you-
-In the evening by the fireside-
-I find you utterly delightful. Abide with me. We'll have
little cakes with smarm, yellow smarm on them-
- Yes 1 just feel so fresh and free here. One doesn't feel that
way every day, or every week.
-Last night at two the barking dog in the apartment above
stopped barking. Its owners had returned. I went into the
kitchen and barked through the roof for an hour. I believe I was
understood.
-Man down. Corner of Water and Eight Nine.
-Another wallow?
