— Or Father! if he bumps into Father he'll be…
— I think I'd better be going now is that my coat? He was up jamming papers, folders, pamphlets together — and let me thank you for…
— Lily walk the poor man out will you whoever he is, and Oscar for God's sake settle down.
— But where have you been. The last time you took my car like that you didn't even…
— It's my car Oscar, I left yours in, hello? She was already at the phone — yes, give me Mister Peyton please, God what a day look at it out there, an hour ago the sun was, hello? All right then listen, give him a message when he… This is Christina Lutz now listen to me. I've just sent him something very important please see that he gets it, it's got urgent and personal written all over it the minute he shows up, do you under… He'll know what it's in reference to! Tell him to call me in the country the minute he, what? What do you mean what country this country! He's got the number and… it's Lutz! Christina Lutz 1 u t z Lutz! Mrs Harry Lut… exactly. I'm glad you read the papers, my God! she slammed it down — of all the, she saw that nice picture of him in the paper, isn't that what I told you? Yesterday's news you wrap the fish in where's Lily, I got some lovely halibut after those ghastly fishcakes, you don't think it will snow do you? will you look at those clouds? The wind almost blew me off the road when I, oh Lily? Who in God's name was that.
— Him! He asked me can I slip off to some prayer breakfast with him to tell you to update your homeowner policy for the porch out there while he's getting around where he can look right down my front and…
— I'll take you right after lunch it's all arranged, I got some lovely chowder did I give it to you when I came in? I don't think you should eat a lot before they put you under, I used Bunker's name that old pickled friend of Trish's and they're squeezing you in they'd just had a cancellation, you can take that plaid robe of mine and a nightgown I mean I assume you don't own one I've never seen you in anything but your, what's that bottle doing there. Oscar? by your feet?
— No now listen Christina, before you start…
— Just get me a glass will you? What time is it. I'd love to see them try to squirm out of this one, I'll put Doctor Chichester right up there on the stand and send their precious white shoe image straight to the bottom.
— No but listen Christina, we don't even know who…
— Of course you don't, neither did I nobody did till his bill came this morning, Harry always said when you went to him his bill would be waiting in your mailbox before you got home thank God he sent a copy out here this time, he's a dentist Oscar he's been Harry's dentist for years thank you Lily, just fill it up will you? The day it happened, that tooth that had been driving us both crazy keeping us up at night you remember when he drove out of here? and I told him for God's sake to get it tended to and he said he'd try to squeeze it in? Would you go in and have a tooth scraped out and a temporary cap put on it if you knew you wouldn't be around tomorrow? Would you? She stood there drawn up against the windows her coat flung wide as though braving the winds shaking the pine boughs beyond her, sweeping two black crows across a grey sky sullen with the threat of snow that came on in a flurry and was gone by the time their lunch was and the car had retreated up the driveway leaving him standing there staring after it as though they might never return — but I could hardly just drop her on the doorstep like some sort of foundling, could I? she said when she did, — I mean you could have put a light on out there for me couldn't you? Have there been any calls? None, no. And what had he been doing? Nothing really, just, nothing. The sparkling surf broke down a dazzling beach where a cruise ship lay in the azure waters offshore and immaculate liveried blacks served exotic drinks to tawny blondes dancing the night away on the silent screen — I mean you can't spend day after day pacing up and down here muttering about that ridiculous award of yours, it's all over with isn't it? you came out with something didn't you? You can tell your friend Sam there you'll pay their disbursements they're all listed separately on that idiotic bill of his aren't they? Basic buying drinks for the house and a fortune in postage stamps and he can whistle for the rest, she told me you'd cleared up your medical bills with that idiot from the insurance company and even some new teeth I mean my God, I can't wait to see whether Bill Peyton will jam Harry's dentist's bill down their big time insurance company's throat and make them cough up the poor thing was so upset when the hospital demanded payment in advance, all fifteen hundred she thought it would be seven nobody'd mentioned the operating room and the anesthesiologist and the rest of those vultures with their free toothbrush and printed menu I wasn't even thinking when I picked up that lovely halibut, that she wouldn't be here to help with supper God knows what we'll have with it, I think there are some capers, I'll simply do it in butter, and a white sauce? and some of your white wine here, and boiled potatoes served up, after the last shot was heard round the world on the evening news, on white china plates in the sepulchral silence of the kitchen left there in the sink when she switched off the lights behind them leading back up the hall to interrupt a famous actress done up as a nun in the midst of her orisons with — you're not going to watch this thing are you? snapping it off as she passed for the stairs — because I'm simply exhausted, I'm going up and read something and Oscar? that heap of papers and those letters you wanted to keep when she tried to clean up in here you put them right back on the sideboard, will you do something with them? throw them out or put them back with that mess in the library where they belong? and where a reading lamp would stay lighted far into the night.
Toast, but no butter, tea but no milk in it both gone for the white sauce the night before, Oscar? but no response in her rush for the phone, for the hospital later than she'd thought when she came down only to be left stranded in a white corridor's passing parade of motley looking no worse off than what you'd dodge in the street till a familiar beige coat hurried toward her — just to get my ass out of here before they charge us for another day, they wake me up at five o'clock this morning I still didn't eat anything but some ow! as they swerved for a corner and again finally pitching up the cratered driveway — no I'm okay, they're just a little sore that's all, their heels clattering up the steps, down the bare hall echoing the emptiness pervading the house like a sudden chill, — Oscar? Where are you.
— Oscar? God only knows, there's some canned soup I brought in yesterday just sit down. Oscar? I mean he can't have gone out he's probably in the kitchen, French onion or tomato. Lily?
— He's in there, Christina.
— He's in where, ask him if he wants…
— In the library. He's just sitting in there. He looked right straight at me like he never saw me before he didn't even move, it's spooky.
— Don't be ridiculous, I mean he can't have been drinking this early can he? Oscar? as they reached the doorway together, — what is it. You look like you've been sitting there like that all night, what's the matter.
Will you answer me? beside him now shaking his shoulder, reaching down to catch the papers spilling from his lap when her wrist was seized so hard she almost came down on him — my God! breaking away as he leaned down slowly to pick them up letter by letter — what is going on! He was standing up heavily now, the papers crushed up in one hand reaching the other to turn off the reading lamp.
— It's a farce, Christina. It's just a farce.
— Well of course it is! What is! following him out — what is a farce.
He'd got all the way up the hall and as far as the windows, standing there looking out over the pond before he said quietly — I've been lied to all my life.
— But what… she broke off, sitting down slowly, both of them sitting down silently watching him framed there against the sky shattered with an exaggerated gesture turning upon them as though the footlights had just come up.