“I do not deny it, although we are not married.”
“Nathan is, of course, a teenager, and teenage boys are notoriously immature. Although of course all men are. All men are at bottom children, don’t you think so?”
“I do not.”
“You must not know very many men, then. I assure you, I do know many men. Mind you, I’m not saying I’ve had sexual relations with all of them, although you are of course free to infer such a thing and, in fact, I’m not saying I haven’t. You will find it interesting, perhaps, to learn that my husband and I happen to be married to each other. And yet I will tell you that he, like the other men I know, is an overgrown boy. Well, then, in that sense, I suppose there’s no harm in allowing Nathan to accompany you on your journey.”
Dragnie nodded her head slightly, in acknowledgment of the woman’s consent and in full awareness that such a gesture meant “yes” to men. “I would like him to move in with me and Mr. Glatt in preparation for our trip, if you don’t mind,” she said.
Mrs. Banden laughed gaily with a sort of carefree cynicism, as though implicitly confessing the depravity of her values. “Oh, you’ll have to ask Nathan if he is willing. As for me, Miss Tagbord, it can hardly come as a shock to you to hear that I don’t mind a whit. Nathan’s absence will afford me increased opportunities to pursue my customary activities, such as shopping, attending luncheons and cocktail parties, participating in high-stakes auctions for cultural artifacts deemed important and valuable by noted experts, and arranging charity events featuring famous entertainers and attended by individuals whose great wealth has been obtained, not via the messy and arduous invention of a new process, material, or device, or, as indeed you yourself do, by attending to the affairs of an industry, but by intelligently manipulating the financial instruments that all corporations and individuals require to pursue their business in our modern economic system. I speak, of course, of investment bankers, currency speculators, financial planners and advisers, and the other experts in the vital field of finance. That is my social set, Miss Tagbord, and although it may seem somewhat pallid and bloodless to a woman whose daily labor concerns the movement of massive and filthy railroad cars and their cargo, I assure you it is as essential a service to society as that provided by you or, indeed, your renowned boyfriend. In that sense, I suppose it would be interesting to Nathan to spend some time with you, to observe how other people live—people who care about such things as railroad ties, and lengths of track, and roundhouses and switches and the sundry other equipment that plays so important a role in your life as a childless executive.”
“Thank you.”
“You will find Nathan in his room.”
Following his mother’s instructions, Dragnie discovered Nathan upstairs, reclining on his bed, reading. His room was the embodiment of order and precision, and Dragnie was unable to resist the thought that this clean tidiness, this exact and meticulous arrangement of his personal effects, was merely the outward manifestation of the clarity of his mind.
He did not look up from his book. “Hello, Miss Tagbord. Did you enjoy meeting Mother?”
Dragnie felt provoked by his rude insolence. A grown man would have had no business lounging in bed when an adult woman entered the room; far less did an eighteen-year-old teen. She felt compelled to correct him, yet she found herself speaking in defense of a person whom she found detestable, and a part of her consciousness wondered how this callow youth had the power to unsettle her. “Your mother is a remarkable woman,” she said.
“She? Remarkable?” he laughed bitterly. “Has she fooled you, too, then?”
She was suddenly aware of not knowing what he meant, and succumbed to an inner urge to question him accordingly. “What do you mean?” she asked.
He turned a page with casual ruthlessness. “Nothing. Only that she is a self-centered, hypocritical, loathsome harpy and I detest her with every fiber of my being.”
She found herself surprised at his precocious eloquence—surprised and, in some distant point of her awareness at the center of her being, strangely aroused. He spoke urgently, as though words mattered. He spoke concisely, as though opinions mattered. He spoke offhandedly, as though nothing mattered.
“Then you may be interested in why I’ve come here,” Dragnie said. She explained her purpose: the proposed inspection tour of the country to determine the effects of the Strike against the People’s States of the People, her need of an assistant, and her suggestion that he might find the position interesting. Banden listened impassively, his expression unreadable save for the mockery visible in his blue eyes and the contempt implicit in his hair.
Finally he smiled coolly. “It sounds rather tedious. When would we start?”
To her astonishment she reacted to his skepticism with something verging on panic. It suddenly seemed very important that he be persuaded to agree to her proposition. “In a month. But I would like you to move in with me and Mr. Glatt as soon as possible, to prepare for it.”
All trace of amusement vanished from his face. “I accept, Miss Tagbord.”
She smiled lightly and hoped her reaction did not make visible the flood of relief she felt within her emotions. “Please. Call me Dragnie.”
They began that afternoon. Nathan quickly packed several bags, bade his mother good-bye, and told her to explain everything to his father, who was out of town attending an important meeting with some of the nation’s top meeting-attenders. A moment later they were in Dragnie’s limousine, cruising toward the city. They did not speak. Nathan gazed out the window and affected an attitude of nonchalance, as though the entire event were of no consequence. Dragnie busied herself with documents pertaining to Tagbord Rail but, from time to time, cast glances his way, partly in casual curiosity about her young charge and his comfort during the trip, but partly for some more obscure reason. It was as though in order to see him she was compelled to look at him. She wondered what that meant and, whenever she did so, she quickly dismissed the matter from her mind after first asking herself, with ruthless introspection, what she was doing and why she was asking, and why.
By the time they reached the city, and the Johnsonwood Building, and Nathan had unpacked and settled in, it was early evening. New York stretched out across the vista visible from the dining room’s great windows like a model train diorama of a city, with distant lights twinkling in remote windows and cars creeping along serpentine expressways with astonishing realism. Glatt was late; Dragnie and Nathan were chatting over dinner when he arrived. Dragnie introduced him to the young man.
“It’s an honor, sir,” Nathan said.
“Hello,” Glatt said. He ate quickly, with the quiet ferocity and intense focus of a jungle animal, as if still responsive to instincts born ten million years earlier, when competition for food was fierce, and an individual’s chances of survival depended on making the most of an ability to take advantage of eating as many orders of eggplant rollatini as possible.
“I’m very excited about what Dragnie’s told me about our project.”
“Good.”
“Making the American way of life seem undesirable is the only way to show the world how desirable it is and how much it would miss us if we weren’t here.”
“Exactly.” Glatt, finished, placed his utensils on his plate with a deliberate gesture, as if obedient to an impulse requiring him to signal to the world: I have completed the eating of my meal. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”