Part 4 (2/2)

by Charles Beaumont -----------------------------.

He got the notion shortly after five o'clock; at least, a part of him did, a small part hidden down beneath all the conscious cells--he didn't get the notion until some time later. At exactly five P.M., the bell rang. At two minutes after, the chairs began to empty. There was the vast slamming of drawers, the straightening of rulers, the sound of bones snapping and mouths yawning and feet shuffling tiredly.

Mr. Minch.e.l.l relaxed. He rubbed his hands together and relaxed and thought how nice it would be to get up and go home, like the others. But of course there was the tape, only three-quarters finished.He would have to stay.

He stretched and said good night to the people who filed past him. As usual, no one answered.

When they had gone, he set his fingers pecking again over the keyboard. The _click-clicking_ grew loud in the suddenly still office, but Mr. Minch.e.l.l did not notice. He was lost in the work. Soon, he knew, it would be time for the totaling, and his pulse quickened at the thought of this.

He lit a cigarette. Heart tapping, he drew in smoke and released it.

He extended his right hand and rested his index and middle fingers on the metal bar marked TOTAL. A mile-long ribbon of paper lay gathered on the desk, strangely festive. He glanced at it, then at the manifest sheet. The figure 18037448 was circled in red. He pulled breath into his lungs, locked it there; then he closed his eyes and pressed the TOTAL bar.

There was a smooth low metallic grinding, followed by absolute silence.

Mr. Minch.e.l.l opened one eye, dragged it from the ceiling on down to the adding machine.

He groaned, slightly.

The total read: 18037447.

”G.o.d.” He stared at the figure and thought of the fifty-three pages of manifest, the three thousand separate rows of figures that would have to be checked again. ”G.o.d.”

The day was lost, now. Irretrievably. It was too late to do anything. Madge would have supper waiting, and F.J. didn't approve of overtime; also . . .

He looked at the total again. At the last two digits.

He sighed. Forty-seven. And thought, startled: Today, for the Lord's sake, is my birthday! Today I am forty--what?--forty-seven. And that explains the mistake, I suppose. Subconscious kind of thing.

Slowly he got up and looked around the deserted office.

Then he went to the dressing room and got his hat and his coat and put them on, carefully.

”_Pus.h.i.+ng fifty now_ . . .”

The outside hail was dark. Mr. Minch.e.l.l walked softly to the elevator and punched the _Down_ b.u.t.ton. ”Forty-seven,” he said, aloud; then, almost immediately, the light turned red and the thick door slid back noisily. The elevator operator, a birdthin, tan-fleshed girl, swiveled her head, looking up and down the hall. ”Going down,” she said.

”Yes,” Mr. Minch.e.l.l said, stepping forward.

”Going down.” The girl clicked her tongue and muttered, ”d.a.m.n kids.” She gave the lattice gate a tired push and moved the smooth wooden-handled lever in its slot.

Odd, Mr. Minch.e.l.l decided, was the word for this particular girl. He wished now that he had taken the stairs. Being alone with only one other person in an elevator had always made him nervous: now it made him very nervous. He felt the tension growing. When it became unbearable, he cleared his throat and said, ”Long day.”

The girl said nothing. She had a surly look, and she seemed to be humming something deep in her throat.

Mr. Minch.e.l.l closed his eyes. In less than a minute--during which time he dreamed of the cables snarling, of the car being caught between floors, of himself trying to make small talk with the odd girl for six straight hours--he opened his eyes again and walked into the lobby, briskly.

The gate slammed.

He turned and started for the doorway. Then he paused, feeling a sharp increase in his heartbeat.

A large, red-faced, magnificently groomed man of middle years stood directly beyond the gla.s.s, talking with another man.

Mr. Minch.e.l.l pushed through the door, with effort. He's seen me now, he thought. If he asks any questions, though, or anything, I'll just say I didn't put it on the time card; that ought to make it all right .

He nodded and smiled at the large man. ”Good night, Mr. Diemel.”

The man looked up briefly, blinked, and returned to his conversation.

Mr. Mincheli felt a burning come into his face. He hurried on down the street. Now the notion--though it was not even that yet, strictly: it was more a vague feeling--swam up from the bottom of his brain. He remembered that he had not spoken directly to F.J. Diemel for over ten years, beyond a”Good morning” . . .

Ice-cold shadows fell off the tall buildings, staining the streets, now. Crowds of shoppers moved along the pavement like juggernauts, exhaustedly, but with great determination. Mr. Minch.e.l.l looked at them. They all had furtive appearances, it seemed to him suddenly, even the children, as if each was fleeing from some hideous crime. They hurried along, staring.

But not, Mr. Minch.e.l.l noticed, at him. Through him, yes. Past him. As the elevator operator had done, and now F.J. And had anyone said good night?

He pulled up his coat collar and walked toward the drugstore, thinking. He was forty-seven years old. At the current life-expectancy rate, he might have another seventeen or eighteen years left.

And then death.

_If you're not dead already_.

He paused and for some reason remembered a story he'd once read in a magazine. Something about a man who dies and whose ghost takes up his duties, or something; anyway, the man didn't know he was dead--that was it. And at the end of the story, he runs into his own corpse.

Which is pretty absurd: he glanced down at his body. Ghosts don't wear $36 suits, nor do they have trouble pus.h.i.+ng doors open, nor do their corns ache like blazes, and what the devil is wrong with me today?

He shook his head.

It was the tape, of course, and the fact that it was his birthday. That was why his mind was behaving so foolishly.

He went into the drugstore. It was an immense place, packed with people. He walked to the cigar counter, trying not to feel intimidated, and reached into his pocket. A small man elbowed in front of him and called loudly: ”Gimme coupla nickels, will you, Jack?” The clerk scowled and scooped the change out of his cash register. The small man scurried off. Others took his place. Mr. Minch.e.l.l thrust his arm forward. ”A pack of Luckies, please,” he said. The clerk whipped his fingers around a pile of cellophaned packages and, looking elsewhere, droned: ”Twenty-six.” Mr. Minch.e.l.l put his twenty-six-cents-exactly on the gla.s.s shelf. The clerk shoved the cigarettes toward the edge and picked up the money, deftly. Not once did he lift his eyes.

Mr. Minch.e.l.l pocketed the Luckies and went back out of the store. He was perspiring now, slightly, despite the chill wind. The word ”ridiculous” lodged in his mind and stayed there. Ridiculous, yes, for heaven's sake. Still, he thought--now just answer the question--isn't it true? Can you honestly say that that clerk saw you?

Or that anybody saw you today?

Swallowing dryly, he walked another two blocks, always in the direction of the subway, and went into a bar called the Chez When. One drink would not hurt, one small, stiff, steadying shot.

The bar was a gloomy place, and not very warm, but there was a good crowd. Mr. Minch.e.l.l sat down on a stool and folded his hands. The bartender was talking animatedly with an old woman, laughing with boisterous good humor from time to time. Mr. Minch.e.l.l waited. Minutes pa.s.sed. The bartender looked up several times, but never made a move to indicate that he had seen a customer.

Mr. Minch.e.l.l looked at his old gray overcoat, the humbly floraled tie, the cheap sharkskin suit-cloth, and became aware of the extent to which he detested this ensemble. He sat there and detested his clothes for a long time. Then he glanced around. The bartender was wiping a gla.s.s, slowly.

_All right, the h.e.l.l with you. I'll go somewhere else_.

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