Part 47 (1/2)
”Yes,” he said ”I still have it”
”It's just”
”Sitting there,” Joe said ”In the East Side Stage Crafts Credit Union Sincewell, since the Ark of Miriam Ark of Miriam sank On December 6, 1941” sank On December 6, 1941”
”Twelve years and fourtiuess there really isn't any reason to leave it there,” he said The thought of working with Sa He had just spent five years drawing a co a break every now and then, just long enough to read a comic book or two He considered hireatest comic book artist in the history of the world He could dilate a crucial episode in the life of a character over ten pages, slicing his panels ever thinner until they stopped time completely and yet tumbled past with the irreversible le instant across two pages in a single giant panel crammed with dancers, laboratory equipment, horses, trees and shadows, soldiers, drunken revelers at a wedding When the mood called for it, he could do panels that werevisible and clear, the action unlish ear, he had reat comic artists always have, the power of written sound-effect words-of invented words like snik snik and and plish plish and and doit doit-appropriately lettered, for lending vividness to a jackknife, a rain puddle, a half-crown against the bottom of a blind s to draw His Golem Golem was finished, or nearly so, and for the first time in years he found hi what he was going to do next was finished, or nearly so, and for the first time in years he found hi what he was going to do next
”You'd think I would,” he began ”You would think I'd be able to”
More than anything else, he wanted to be able to do so for Sammy It shocked him to see just how beaten, how unhappy Sam had become What a feat it would be, to reach into the dark sleeve of his past and pull out so that saved him, freed him, returned him to life With a stroke of the pen, he would be able to hand Saolden key, to pass along the gift of liberation that he had received and that had, until now, gone unpaid
”I know that I should,” Joe continued His voice thickened as he spoke, and his cheeks burned He was crying; he had no idea why ”Oh, I should just get rid of it all”
”No, Joe” Noas Sammy's turn to put his arm around Joe ”I understand you don't want to touch that et that it well, that it represents soet”
”I forget every day,” Joe said He tried to set”
”You just keep your ently ”I don't need to own E I need”
”I I couldn't Saet it, Joe,” Sammy said ”You just hold on to your money”
15
The day after the Escapist, Master of Elusion, whom no chains could hold nor walls imprison, was ruled out of existence by the New York State Court of Appeals, a white delivery van of modest dimensions pulled up in front of 127 Lavoisier Drive On its panels, blue script like the writing on a beer bottle said bachelor button drayage inc new york , arched over a painted nosegay of petite blue flowers It was getting on toward five o'clock of a dull April afternoon, and though there was still plenty of daylight, the van's lights were turned on, as if for a funeral procession It had been raining in fits all day, and with the approach of dusk, the heavy sky itself seeray folds and plaits a hbors' lawns looked white, alray stuff of the afternoon
The driver cut his engine, switched off the lights, and climbed down from the cab He cranked the heavy latch at the back of the van, slid the bar to one side, and threw open the doors with a steely creak of hinges He was an ied, in a bright blue coverall As Rosa watched hih the front s of the house, she saw him stare in at his payload hat appeared to be a puzzled expression She supposed, given Sammy's description, that the hundred and two boxes of comic books and other junk that Joe had accu iuy was only trying to decide how in the hell he was going to get all those boxes into the house by hi?” To-roo, and he had a oing to fit all of that crap into this shoe box,” Rosa said ”I can't believe Joe contrived not to be here for this”
”You said 'crap' ”
”Sorry”
”Can I say 'crap'?”
”No” Rosa earing a sauce-spattered apron, and held a wooden spoon bloodied in the same red sauce ”I can't believe it all fits inside that one little truck”
”Ma, when is Joe co back?”
”I'm sure he'll be back any minute” This was probably the fourth time she had said this since To chile con carne and rice pudding He won't want to ”
”He always did”
”He said if he never sees another pork chop again, it will be too soon”
”I would never cook a pork chop”
”Bacon is pork, and we eat bacon”
”Bacon is not actually pork There are words in the Talmud to that effect”
They went out onto the front step
”Kavalier?” the nate
”As in Maurice,” Rosa said
”Got a package”
”That's kind of an understatement, isn't it?”
The man didn't reply He climbed up inside his truck and disappeared for a while First a wooden ra toward the neighbors' Buick, then lolling on the ground After that, there was a lot of banging and cla of beer Presently he eht of a large oblong wooden box
”What is that?” Rosa said
”I never saw that at Joe's,” Tommy said ”Wow, it osh-it's a packing crate escape! Oh,to teachto teachback ”I don't knohat he's going to do, honey,” she said
When Joe and Saht with news of the Escapist's passing, they both seemed pensive, and said little before they each went to bed Sa up so hi to fry some potatoes Joe was monosyllabic, almost curt, Rosa would have said; he went to lie down on the couch without having exchanged more than a few dozen words with either Rosa or Sa had passed between the twoabout it, she assumed it must have simply concerned the deed in recriminations over lost opportunities
The news had certainly coular reader since the days of Kavalier Clay-Sammy wouldn't have Empire books in the house-she still checked in with Radio Radio and and Escapist Adventures Escapist Adventures fro a half hour at a Grand Central newsstand, or while waiting for a prescription at Spiegel since slipped into cultural inconsequence, but the titles in which he starred had continued, as far as she knew, to sell She'd assumed, more or less unconsciously, that the heroic puss of the Escapist would always be there, on lunch boxes, beach towels, on cereal boxes and belt buckles and the faces of alarm clocks, even on the Mutual Television Network, fro a half hour at a Grand Central newsstand, or while waiting for a prescription at Spiegel since slipped into cultural inconsequence, but the titles in which he starred had continued, as far as she knew, to sell She'd assumed, more or less unconsciously, that the heroic puss of the Escapist would always be there, on lunch boxes, beach towels, on cereal boxes and belt buckles and the faces of alarm clocks, even on the Mutual Television Network,[19][19] taunting her with the wealth and the unih she knew better, she could never help feeling would have been Sammy's had he been able to reap the fruits of the one irrefutable moment of inspiration vouchsafed him in his scattershot career Rosa had stayed up very late trying to work, worrying about them both, and then slept in even later than usual By the tione All his clothes were in his valise, and there was no note Sa her with the wealth and the unih she knew better, she could never help feeling would have been Sammy's had he been able to reap the fruits of the one irrefutable moment of inspiration vouchsafed him in his scattershot career Rosa had stayed up very late trying to work, worrying about them both, and then slept in even later than usual By the tione All his clothes were in his valise, and there was no note Sans
”He would leave a note,” he said when she phoned hi to leave, I mean”
”There wasn't any note the last time,” Rosa said
”I really don't think he would steal our car”
Now here were all his things, and Joe was not It was as if he had pulled a substitution trick on theuess we'll have to just crae,” she said
The stout littleand gri off into the pansies When he reached Rosa and Tommy, he tipped the hand truck forward onto its bracket The crate tottered and see over before it settled, with a shi+ver, on its end
”Weighs a ton,” he said, flexing his fingers as if they were sore ”What's he got in there, bricks?”