PAUL BRESLOW
95
hasps , ladders , safety pins , and scrimshaw tools. Then I heard the
telephone ring and Annette's voice. Philadelphia, she was saying, he
didn't tell me about Philadelphia, he told me about the earth and the
moon . She hung up .
No doubt , she said, they need you; and, no doubt , you'll go .
But love, I began to explain.
Can be bought and bought again , she said .
I've never really bought love, I said. It can't be done well.
She looked through me , to the white wall , and I learned how
much more fearful it can be to imagine oneself never born than to
contemplate death .
The problem in Philadelphia, I said, is that charlatans have
proclaimed false paradoxes , restrictive of buying. They've created
an image of multiple fogs within department stores; they're wild
linear fanatics; they revile the rounded and the jagged; and they pro–
pose a referendum to enact a law of excluded muddle .
I'm going with you , she said . Physically, she added.
On the way to the airport, Annette caught sight of a seller, a
tall man with a neatly trimmed beard, who was wearing a suit re–
sembling Flammarion's, a good gray suit of an outmoded style. The
seller's suit, however, was patched at the elbows ; and the seller wore
a black bowler hat, of the type worn by London stockbrokers and
Peruvian Indians . We stopped to inspect his offerings, which were
set out on an orange crate .
I have, said the seller, the proper licenses and the best selection
and an old , established business . I have, he said, a good name. The
momentary men think that names grow on trees , but we know bet–
ter. The momentary men succumb to setbacks like the ducks in shoot–
ing galleries: they just fall over. He stared at Annette with consider–
able interest. Do they , he asked, still have shooting galleries?
Yes, Annette said, but I don't know about the ducks.
Your wares , I said . Show them, please.
He pointed to several bags made of cloudy plastic . Their con–
tents could not be seen. At stage right, he said, we have comestibles
and sewing materials, including thread. In the center, I have given
pride of place, as it were, to the office supplies . Each bag contains, in
addition to assortments of clips and erasers, a rubber stamp with the
word RECEIVED . There is no charge for the stamp . The luxuries
rest at ease in their bags at the left, the range of my offerings in this
field being as broad as can be expected to obtain among five items . I
