80
PARTISAN REVIEW
3
Was Ernst ever driving fast again ! -
I
had the feeling
I
was
being telegraphed. "95"; he said, equanimously. / A droll feeling,
really, sitting here in this thing: the two of us up front; the ladies
nonchalant and mondaine ("GRAIN OF THE GREAT SPIRIT," one ought
to have a bottle of it along) in the little metal parlor behind us; (on the
return trip
I
definitely must snoop around back there, too).
: "Left or right here ? Highway's coming up."
I
for one saw
nothing of said highway as yet; but drivers have their own private
criteria for telling when they're approaching intersections, or other
spots where witches hold their dances : "Turn left at the GREAT
CAIN." "Unusual name" he said disparagingly, (and to my joy had to
slow down considerably). 'Well afterall, not everyone can be named
'Ernst.'" "That's true," he admitted; and brightened up, making the
same remark
I
had heard frequently at this turn: "Judging by which,
not far to paradise, right? The scene of the well-known incident."
And
I,
with gravity
&
wit (likewise practiced several times over: one
cannot plagiarize oneself) : "Quite right. Where even nowadays
chauffeur Cain, having spotted his pedestrian brother Abel ... ,"
(and, allegorically, "socks it to him" with a few quick thrusts of my
hand). "Cain was far and away the more interesting fellow." he
PFonounced testily, (using, consciously one would hope, one of those
West-Germanisms: "far and away"; "to confess oneself to be"; "a
genuine predilection"; oh my yes). We were racing (not "tracing") our
way again now at such a tempo that the leaves along the edge of the
road did wobble and bob! : "Anything else? !" he inquired, not
without trenchancy; and: "You ought to ride with our local reporter;
that'd give you just cause for searching your soul." And after a while,
fully disdainful now: "Lord, are you folks here in the country ever
behind the times !" And at ever fuller tilt, onward we went,
Nobodaddy's children, with elan
&
fiery steps, "THE AUTOMOBILE'S
FATAL PROGRESS IN 1961" ! - ? : Oh hell, that too! Music had started
up behind us : Lovely-Ella explained how the new portable worked.
(All that was lacking was for them to play "Nearer my God to Thee."
So you could get in a real Titanic frame of mind.)
"And now bear right." he said, just to make sure, on the far side
of Sprackensehl : "By the way, that's by Robert Kraft, the
'ADVENTURES OF DETECTIVE NOBODY,' isn't it ?". While the last vil–
lage flowed by on both sides, with sensible slowness. The last house:
gray wooden swords set out around it, pointing upwards. "HEATH IcE" !
