Part 13 (1/2)
”Look,” Anapol said ”I won't stop you fro their Godda as it sells enough comic books You know that”
”I know”
”It's just it makes me nervous”
The entire phenomenon of comic books, as it had turned out, made Anapol a little nervous For fifteen years he'd broken his back traveling to the remote, humorless hinterlands of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts He had slept little, flirted with bankruptcy, driven six hundred lected his daughters, and worked his ass off trying to get novelty dealers to laugh Now, suddenly, having done nothing more than allow himself to be persuaded by so maniac to put up seven thousand dollars he could just barely afford, he was rich All of the tables and equations for calculating the nature of the world had been thrown into question He had broken off his affair with Maura Zell, h Holiday services for the first time in forty years
”I'm worried about you, you, Kavalier,” he went on ”I suppose it can only be healthy for you to get your killer instincts or what have you out of your systeuely toward the studio roooing to make youht He had been ru out various other souvenirs of his trip There was a conch shell with its lush pink lip There was a grinning monkey head raph of a house, the colors hand-tinted and garish The house in the picture stood on a patch of vibrant emerald lawn The sky behind it was lurid blue It was aas a carton of eggs Anapol stood the photograph on his desk, beside the pictures of his wife and daughters The fraest that the picture it contained was a docuovernment license Kavalier,” he went on ”I suppose it can only be healthy for you to get your killer instincts or what have you out of your systeuely toward the studio roooing to make youht He had been ru out various other souvenirs of his trip There was a conch shell with its lush pink lip There was a grinning monkey head raph of a house, the colors hand-tinted and garish The house in the picture stood on a patch of vibrant emerald lawn The sky behind it was lurid blue It was aas a carton of eggs Anapol stood the photograph on his desk, beside the pictures of his wife and daughters The fraest that the picture it contained was a docuovernment license
”What is that?” Joe said
Anapol blinked, looking at the picture ”That istentative
”I thought you went to a hotel”
Anapol nodded He looked queasy and happy and doubtful all at the saht a house house there?” there?”
”Apparently It seems crazy to me now” He pointed to the picture ”That isn't even my house There is no house There's just a piece oftied around it on little sticks In the middle of Palm River, Florida Only there is no Palht a house”
”Why don't I like the way you keep repeating it? Why do I feel like you're accusing ht to throw my money away on whatever I damn well feel like, Kavalier?”
”No, sir,” Joe said ”I would not drea yawn that made his entire body shudder He was exhausted, but the yawn that racked hiue The only people winning the war that Joe had been fighting in the pages of Empire Comics since January were Sheldon Anapol and Jack Ashkenazy Between the to Sauess, of six hundred thousand dollars ”Excuse ht,” Anapol said ”Go home Get some sleep You look like hell”
”I have an appoint his jacket over his shoulder ”Goodbye”
2
UNDER ORDINARY CIRcued Joe; today he found it difficult even to get himself on to the subway He felt obscurely furious with Sheldon Anapol He took a comic book out of the hip pocket of his jacket and tried to read He had beco the Fourth Avenue bookstalls, he had ed to acquire a copy of nearly every one that had been published in the past few years, acquiring also, while he was at it, stacks of old Sunday New York Mirrors New York Mirrors so that he could study Burne Hogarth's vehement, precise, and painterly work in so that he could study Burne Hogarth's vehement, precise, and painterly work in Tarzan Tarzan The same masturbatory intensity of concentration that Joe had once brought to the study of , bastard, wide-open art form into whose raffish e the influence of movies was on artists like Joe Shuster and The same masturbatory intensity of concentration that Joe had once brought to the study of , bastard, wide-open art form into whose raffish e the influence of movies was on artists like Joe Shuster and Batan to experiment with a cinematic vocabulary: an extreme close-up, say, on the face of a terrified child or soldier, or a zoo ever closer, over the course of four panels, on the battlearth he learned to trouble over the e carefully, a the infinitude of potential instants to arrest and depict, the one in which the characters' e the coreat Louis Fine, like the one in his hands right now, Joe learned to view the co costume, not as a pulp absurdity but as a celebration of the lyricism of the naked (albeit tinted) huan to experiment with a cinematic vocabulary: an extreme close-up, say, on the face of a terrified child or soldier, or a zoo ever closer, over the course of four panels, on the battlearth he learned to trouble over the e carefully, a the infinitude of potential instants to arrest and depict, the one in which the characters' e the coreat Louis Fine, like the one in his hands right now, Joe learned to view the co costume, not as a pulp absurdity but as a celebration of the lyricism of the naked (albeit tinted) human form in motion It was not all all violence and retribution in the early stories of Kavalier Clay; Joe's work also articulated the simple joy of unfettered moves not only of his crippled cousin but of an entire generation of weaklings, stuoats violence and retribution in the early stories of Kavalier Clay; Joe's work also articulated the simple joy of unfettered moves not only of his crippled cousin but of an entire generation of weaklings, stuoats
Today, however, he could not seem to focus on the copy of Wonder-world Cohts veered between irritation with the giddiness, the indecency, of Anapol's sudden prosperity and dread of his appointment with the Adjutant for Minority Relocation at the German consulate on Whitehall Street It was not the prosperity itself he resented, for that was a measure of his and Sammy's success, but rather the disproportionate share of it that was going to Anapol and Ashkenazy, when it was he and Sa all the work of bringing him to life No, it was not even that It was the impotence of the money, and of all the pent-up warlike fancies that had earned it, to do anything but elaborate the wardrobe and fatten the financial portfolios of the owners of Eed hiuaranteed to ehly than aspent with Adjutant Milde at the Ger than the ihts veered between irritation with the giddiness, the indecency, of Anapol's sudden prosperity and dread of his appointment with the Adjutant for Minority Relocation at the German consulate on Whitehall Street It was not the prosperity itself he resented, for that was a measure of his and Sammy's success, but rather the disproportionate share of it that was going to Anapol and Ashkenazy, when it was he and Sa all the work of bringing him to life No, it was not even that It was the impotence of the money, and of all the pent-up warlike fancies that had earned it, to do anything but elaborate the wardrobe and fatten the financial portfolios of the owners of Eed hiuaranteed to ehly than aspent with Adjutant Milde at the Ger than the ioose chase
Whenever he found hi or a week between issues, Joe would put on a good suit, a sober tie, a neatly blocked hat, and set out as he had thissatchel of documents, to try to ue He paid endless visits to the offices of HIAS, to the United Jewish Appeal for Refugees and Overseas Needs, to travel agents, to the New York office of the President's Action Committee, to the wonderfully polite Adjutant at the German consulate ho To a certain cross section of clerks in that city of rubber staure, a slender, tall twenty-year-old with nicein thepainfully cheerful He would doff his hat The clerk or secretary-a woman, more often than not-pinned to a hard chair by a thousand cubic feet of sht like batter in the blades of the ceiling fans, deafened by the thunder of file cabinets, dyspeptic, despairing, and bored, would look up and see that Joe's thick thatch of curls had been deforlossy black hat, and sain,” Joe would say, in his increasingly slang-deforlish, and then take from the breast pocket of his jacket a slim humidor filled with five fifteen-cent panatelas or, when the clerk was a wo paper fan patterned with pink flowers, or simply a pearly-cold bottle of Coca-Cola And she would take the fan or the soda pop, and listen to his pleas, and want to help him very much But there was little to be done Every ed to putto spend it on The bribes and bureaucratic lubrications of the first years of the protectorate were a thing of the past At the sa, had become nearly impossible By last month, when his own permanent residency had been approved, he had accumulated and sent to the State Departland doctors and psychiatrists attesting to the fact that the three senior members of his family would be unique and valuable additions to the populace of his adopted country With each passingtheir way to Arew darker and mentary There ord of relocations, resettleascar, to Terezin, to a vast autonomous reservation in Poland And Joe found hi letters froestion that he ard
His sense of entrap powerless to help or free his family, also found its way into the comented, the restraints required to contain him, either by his enemies or (as happened rew antic razor-jawed bear traps, tanks filled with electric sharks The Escapist was tied to is into which his captors needed only to toss a stray cigar butt to incinerate hi panzers pointed in the cardinal directions, chained to an iron cherry at the botto ”-loaded firing pin of an immense cannon aimed at the capital of ”Occupied Latvonia” so that if he freed himself, thousands of innocent citizens would die The Escapist was laid, lashed and ernauts, tidal waves, and swariant prehistoric bees revived by the evil science of the Iron Chain He was ies of fire
Now it seemed very war was motionless A bead of sweat splashed a panel in the story about the fire-spewing Flareat Lou Fine style, that Joe had been pretending to read He closed the coan to feel that he could not breathe He loosened his tie and walked down to the end of the car, where there was an open louver A faint black ripple of breeze blew fro At the Union Square station, a seat became available and Joe took it He sat back and closed his eyes He could not seem to rid his mind of the phrase superintend its population of Jews superintend its population of Jews All of his greatest fears for his family's safety seemed to lie folded within the bland envelope of that first word Over the past year, his family had had their bank accounts frozen They had been forced out of the public parks of Prague, out of the sleeping and dining cars of the state railways, out of the public schools and universities They could no longer even ride the streetcars Lately the regulations had grown e of a yarmulke, Jeere now forbidden to wear caps They were not allowed to carry knapsacks They were not per of apples, cheese, or carp All of his greatest fears for his family's safety seemed to lie folded within the bland envelope of that first word Over the past year, his family had had their bank accounts frozen They had been forced out of the public parks of Prague, out of the sleeping and dining cars of the state railways, out of the public schools and universities They could no longer even ride the streetcars Lately the regulations had grown e of a yarmulke, Jeere now forbidden to wear caps They were not allowed to carry knapsacks They were not per of apples, cheese, or carp
Joe reached into his pocket and took out the orange that Anapol had given hier than anything Joe had ever seen No doubt it would have seeue, monstrous and illicit He held it to his nose and inhaled, trying to find soht volatile oils of its skin But instead, he felt only panic His breath was shallow and labored The sour tunnel sh the open louver see else All at once, the shark of dread that never deserted its patrol of Joe's innards rose to the surface You cannot save them, You cannot save them, said a voice very close to his ear He turned around There was no one said a voice very close to his ear He turned around There was no one
He found hie of the newspaper, a Ti read by the hted on the shi+pping colu read by the hted on the shi+pping coluht aht am-twenty minutes from now
Joe had often entertained fantasies of the day he would go to greet his family as they disembarked from the Rotterdam Rotterdam or the or the Nieuw Amsterdam Nieuw Amsterdam He knew that the Holland America docks were across the river, in Hoboken You had to ride the ferry to get there When the train pulled into the Eighth Street station, Joe got off He knew that the Holland America docks were across the river, in Hoboken You had to ride the ferry to get there When the train pulled into the Eighth Street station, Joe got off
He walked along Eighth Street, over to Christopher, then to the river, threading his way like a pickpocket through the crowds just off the ferryboats from New Jersey: taut-jawed men in stiff hats and suits and obsidian shoes, newspapers pinned under their arms; brusque, brick-lipped, hard-heeled women in floral dresses They stampeded down the ramps and onto Christopher and then scattered like raindrops blown across aJostled, excusing hiainst thear sht with theave up and turned back
But then he arrived at the huge, peeling shed that served the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad ferries on the Manhattan side It was a grand old barn whose high central gable was i pedi here from New Jersey retained a faint air of wind and adventure, hats askew, neckties disarranged The s stirred memories of the Moldau The ferryboats the at either end like dented hats, trailing pompous billows of black s wheelhouses on either side of the boats sent Joe's i down the bear-haunted Mississippi to New Orleans
He stood on the foredeck, hat in hand, squinting into the haze as the terminus of the DLW and the low red roofline of Hoboken drew nearer He breathed in coal smoke and a whiff of salt, wide-awake and flush noith the optimism of transit The color of the water shi+fted in bands that ran froris to cold coffee The river was as crowded as the city itself: garbage scows piled high, swarulls; tankers pumped full of petroleuo shi+ps and, in the distance, at once thrilling and terrible, the nificent steamshi+p of the Holland Aboat escort, lofty, reular and randoe between the high suspending piers of midtown and Wall Street
At a certain point about halfway through the crossing, he was taunted by a hopeful apparition The raceful tower of the New Jersey Central ter to form a kind of crooked red crown It was, for a ht off the docks of Jersey City, in a shi+mmer of autumn haze, not even two miles away
He knew that the chances of his fa, unheralded and intact, at the top of the Rotterda River Street in Hoboken, past raw bars and cheap sailors' hotels, to the Eighth Street pier, with all of the other people co beloveds, he found he could not prevent a tiny fla in his chest When he reached the pier, there see and eht line of taxis, and there were black limousines Porters ru out ”Porter!” with opera-bouffe gusto The elegant black-and-white shi+p, all 24,170 tons of it, looere nil But as he walked along River Street in Hoboken, past raw bars and cheap sailors' hotels, to the Eighth Street pier, with all of the other people co beloveds, he found he could not prevent a tiny fla in his chest When he reached the pier, there see and eht line of taxis, and there were black limousines Porters ru out ”Porter!” with opera-bouffe gusto The elegant black-and-white shi+p, all 24,170 tons of it, loomed like a mountain in a dinner jacket
Joe watched as several families reunited Few of them seemed to have been separated by a mere whim to travel They ca German, French, Yiddish, Polish, Russian, even Czech Two ure out, but whom he finally decided must be brothers, went past hi to the other in Czech, with joyful solicitude, ”First thing we do is get you filthy stinking drunk, you poor bastard!” From time to time, Joe's attention would be diverted by the spectacle of a couple kissing or by so hands, but for the most part he watched the faht; he wondered that he had never thought of co over to meet the Rotterdam Rotterdam before He felt left out, and deeply envious of them, but what he felt most was the radiant ache of happiness that attended their reunions It was like a noseful of wine that he could not drink; yet it intoxicated him before He felt left out, and deeply envious of them, but what he felt most was the radiant ache of happiness that attended their reunions It was like a noseful of wine that he could not drink; yet it intoxicated hi froway, he was surprised to see Dr E between two old woh the htly backward, scanning the faces, looking for one in particular, it was Joe's, yes, he started this way, his face broke into a se blond woman and her timber-wolf coat It was not his father at all The s at him, and as he and his paramour moved past, he tipped his hat and nodded in a way that was once again eerily identical to the manner of Joe's dad The forlorn trill of a purser's whistle sent a shi+ver down Joe's spine
On his return to the city, although he was late for his , he walked fro, and his ears burned with cold, but the sunshi+ne felt warm He had shaken off his attack of panic froht on by the report froht a banana from a fruit stand, and then another several blocks farther down He had always been passionately fond of bananas; they were the sole indulgence of his own sudden affluence By the time he arrived at the German consulate on Whitehall Street, he was ten ht It was only a matter of paperwork, and no doubt the secretary would be able to handle the probleht not even need to see the Adjutant
The thought was appealing The Adjutant, Herr Milde, was a polite and genial man who see Joe's time While he would never make promises or predictions, and never seemed to be in possession of information that had any but the most remote pertinence to the situation of the Kavalier family, he steadfastly, even pedantically refused to rule out the possibility that Joe's faranted their exit visas and pers are always possible,” he would affirave any examples Milde's cruelty made it impossible for Joe finally to do that which his head counseled and his heart opposed: give up hope of his fa out until Hitler was defeated
”It's quite all right,” Fraulein Tulpe said when Joe walked into Milde's office It was in the farthest corner of the consulate, which occupied a middle story of a drab neoclassical office block near the Bowling Green, at the back, between the agricultural desk and thewolasses and straw-colored hair She, too, was unfailingly polite with Joe in a way that, in her case, seeentle distaste ”He isn't back from breakfast yet”
Joe nodded and sat down beside the watercooler It sent a derisive belch of co up into its reservoir
”A late breakfast,” he said, a little uncertainly Her gaze seeazed down at his wrinkled trousers, the semipermanent bend in his necktie, the ink blotches on his cuffs His hair felt lank and clammy No doubt he smelled For a moment he was acutely sorry that he had not stopped at Palooka Studios to shower on his way don, instead of wasting an hour on a foolish cruise to Hoboken Then he thought, the hell with her Let her sh Jewish s to her typewriter
”Who is leaving?”
At thathairline He had stern, handsome featuresyellow equine teeth
”I a, Herr Kavalier” a, Herr Kavalier”
”You are returning to Germany?” Joe said
”I have been transferred to Holland,” he said ”I sail Thursday on the Rotterdam” Rotterdam”
They went into his office Milde showed Joe to one of two steellegged chairs and offered a cigarette, which Joe declined He lit one of his own instead It was a petty gesture, but it gave Joe satisfaction If Milde remarked it, he did not let on He folded his hands on his desk blotter and hunched over theer to help Joe in any way It was part of his policy of cruelty
”I trust you are well?” he said