on the basis of, say, sixteen or seventeen bucks a week -'
'Very funny, Dennis.' His voice was cold and hateful.
'Arnie, what - '
He hung up.
I stood there, looking at the phone, wondering what the hell it was about. Some new move from his parents? Or had he maybe gone back to Darnell's and found some new damage to his car? Or -
A sudden intuition - almost a certainty - struck me. I put the telephone back in its cradle and walked over to the concession stand and asked if they had today's paper. The candy-and-popcorn girl finally fished it out and then stood there snapping her gum while I thumbed to the back, where they print the obituaries. I guess she wanted to make sure I wasn't going to perform some weird perversion on it, or maybe eat it.
There was nothing at all - or so I thought at first. Then I turned the page and saw the headline. LIBERTYVILLE VETERAN DIES AT 71. There was a picture of Roland D. LeBay in his Army uniform, looking twenty years younger and considerably more bright-eyed than he had on the occasions Arnie and I had seen him. The obit was brief. LeBay had died suddenly on Saturday afternoon, He was survived by a brother, George, and a sister, Marcia. Funeral services were scheduled for Tuesday at two.
Suddenly.
In the obits ' it's always 'after a long illness', 'after a short illness', or 'suddenly'. Suddenly can mean anything from a brain embolism to electrocuting yourself in the bathtub. I remembered something I had done to Ellie when she was hardly more than a baby - three, maybe. I scared the bejesus out of her with a Jack-in-the-box. There was the little handle going around in big brother Dennis's hand, making music. Not bad. Kind of fun. And then - kaBONZO! Out comes this guy with grinning face and an ugly hooked nose, almost hitting her in the eye. Ellie went off bawling to find her mother and I sat there, looking glumly at Jack as he nodded back and forth, knowing I was probably going to get hollered at, knowing that I probably deserved to get hollered at - I had known it was going to scare her, coming out of the music like that, all at once, with an ugly bang.
Coming out so suddenly.
I gave the paper back and stood there, looking blankly at the posters advertising NEXT ATTRACTION and COMING SOON.
Saturday afternoon.
Suddenly.
Funny how things sometimes worked out. My brainstorm had been that maybe Arnie could take Christine back where she had come from; maybe he could pay LeBay for space. Now it turned out that LeBay was dead. He had died, as a matter of fact, on the same day that Arnie had gotten into it with Buddy Repperton - the same day Buddy had smashed Christine's headlights
All at once I had an irrational picture of Buddy Repperton swinging the jackhandle and at the exact same moment, LeBay's eye gushes blood, he keels over, and suddenly, very suddenly . . .
Cut the shit, Dennis, I lectured. Just cut the -
And then, somewhere deep in my mind, somewhere near the centre, a voice whispered Come on, big guy, let's cruise - and then fell still.
The girl behind the counter popped her gum and said, 'You're missing the end of the picture. Ending's the best part.'
'Yeah, thanks.'
I started back toward the door of the theatre and then detoured to the drinking fountain. My throat was very dry.
Before I'd finished getting my drink, the doors opened and people came streaming out. Beyond and above their bobbing heads, I could see the credit-roll. Then Roseanne came out, looking around for me. She caught many appreciative glances and fielded them cleanly in that dreamy, composed way of hers.
'Den-Den,' she said, taking my arm. Being called Den-Den isn't the worst thing in the world - having your eyes put out with a hot poker or having a leg amputated with a chainsaw is probably worse - but I've never really dug it all that much. 'Where were you? You missed the ending. Ending's - '
' - the best part,' I finished with her. 'Sorry. I just had this call of nature. It came on very suddenly.'
'I'll tell you all about it if you take me up to the Embankment for a while,' she said, pressing my arm against the soft sideswell of her breast. 'If you want to talk, that is.'