382
PARTISAN REVIEW
He said to Marian, who was impressed too, that it was a shame
to leave the thing behind on the beach, nobody else'd appreciate it.
Big kids would probably trample it down. "Well," Marian said, yawn–
ing a little, raising her arms to stretch, "- Paulie's like you, hon, he's
got a real imagination."
Next weekend, Saturday night, he treated his buddies like he'd
been saying he would, though the lottery money was all gone and in
fact he had to borrow a little back from his father, it was a secret be–
tween him and the old man and nobody else was going to know.
Marian especially who was acting worried about what she called the
"future."
They got a late start, 9
P.M.,
supper at the Lobster Shanty then
over to Gill's for a few beers, then down to the Windjammer where
there was a punk rock band none of the guys liked, then they drove
across the bay to Lenape Sound where there was a tavern run by
some guy they knew, and as soon as Harvey stepped inside he felt at
home, he felt great, it wasn't 'cause he'd been drinking all night, it
was just a feeling you had, the right kind of atmosphere, even the
noise the right level, some friendly place where things were lively too
and your interest would be kept up. It was Stan and Jacky and Fritz
and Pete. And Harvey. Who insisted upon treating. Round after
round. They had whiskey, they had draft beer, they had tequilas.
Marian said to telephone her around twelve, so she'd know he was
okay, and when was he coming home, but he kept putting it off, then
he couldn't find the telephone the bartender directed him to, then
when he found it it was out of order or something, his two dimes just
kept being returned. Fishing them out Harvey thought something
was weird, then he thought, he realized, he wasn't angry at the tele–
phone as he would have been most nights, some other night he might
have tried to rip it from the wall, no he just felt it was all some kind
of joke, he'd ride with the joke, he was feeling so good, riding so
high, he wasn't about to let some fucking out-of-order telephone get
him down. The point is, he thought, his twenty cents was returned
-little things like that were part of his new good luck.
He weaved a little coming back into the bar but he wasn't drunk,
he didn't have any trouble finding his buddies though the place was
crowded. There were Jacky and Pete in some kind of discussion with
a big heavy guy in a t-shirt,
Harley-Davidson Sarasota Florida
on the
back, nobody Harvey knew, he was maybe thirty-five years old wear-
