42
PARTISAN REVIEW
"I know why you did it, " I said, ducking as best 1 could from the
impact of my own blows. "You had to, right, orman? It's what you
always say. Hey! Ouch! Don't!"
The harder I struck, the greater the force he directed against my
cheek, my chin. I tried to finish what I wanted to say. "You know, about
the mirror? About shaving? Ow! That hurt! You always have to look at
yourself in the morning."
For another half minute he redirected my punches, so that I struck
myself hard on my nose and on my eye. Then he dropped his hands and
pulled me forward in what I thought was a boxer's clinch, but which I
soon realized was an embrace.
"Sorry, Rich," he was saying. "Sorry, Richie, sorry, sorry, sorry."
I hugged him back. I remembered what he smelled like. I felt the day's
growth of his whiskers against my scalp and against my skin.
Then the battle was rejoined. But it wasn't I who was striking at Nor–
man and it wasn't Norman fighting back. I realized that it was Bartie
who had set upon him. He was leaping forward, windmilling his arms.
His face was red, both from emotion and from the lipstick kisses with
which Lotte had covered him. All during the attack he was screaming
like a banshee:
"You're a traitor! A Communist! A Benedict Arnold!"
1 1
kr
THE PARKING GARAGE
we said goodbye to Stanley, who was going to
drive Betty home in his new Mercury coupe. "Is Norman going to be
blacklisted?" I asked him
sotte voce,
while formally shaking hands.
"Not to worry," he answered, though his skin was still ashen . "We're
going to sue Jack's ass off."
Betty came over, bearing her usual gifts. Mine was a pair of cufflinks,
clearly gold. "Don't thank me," she protested. " I am going to make
oodles out of your drawings. Don't tell your mother, but I'm planning
on opening the show early next year."
That's when Arthur came round in the Buick. We locked our suitcases
in the trunk; Norman got into the front, and Barton and Lotte and I slid
into the rear.
"Where's Sampson?" my father asked, as if he had just realized that
our littl e spaniel was not there to greet him. Then the greater realization
struck him: "Hey, why are you guys not in Emerson? I hope you're not
skipping classes ."
"Didn't have no time
to
fetch that dog, Mister Norman. I thought to
myself these boys going to find only unhappiness in that school."
