"Mother isn't well. She's lying down."
"So? You had better start dinner." Hugh went into the women's bay, saw what sort of not-well his wife suffered. She was sleeping heavily, mouth open, snoring, and was fully dressed. He reached down, peeled back an eyelid; she did not stir. "Duke."
"Yes?"
"Come here. Everybody else outside."
Duke joined him. Hugh said, "After lunch, did you give Grace a drink?"
"Huh? You didn't say not to."
"I wasn't criticizing. How much?"
"Just a highball. An ounce and a half of Scotch, with water."
"Does that look like one highball? Try to rouse her."
Duke tried, then straightened up. "Dad, I know you think I'm a fool. But I gave her just one drink. Damn it, I'm more opposed to her drinking than you are!"
"Take it easy, Duke. I assume that she got at the bottle after you left."
"Well, maybe." Duke frowned. "As soon as I found an unbroken bottle I gave Mother that drink. Then I took inventory. I think I found it all, unless you have some hidden away-"
"No, the cases were together. Six cases."
"Right. I found thirteen unbroken bottles, twelve fifths and a quart of bourbon. I remember thinking that was two fifths each and the quart I would keep in reserve. I had opened one bottle of King's Ransom. I made a pencil mark on it. We'll know if she found it."
"You hid the liquor?"
"I stashed it in the upper bunk on the other side; I figured it would be hard for her to climb up there- I'm not a complete fool, Dad. She couldn't see me, she was in her bunk. But maybe she guessed."
"Let's check."
Thirteen bottles were between springs and mattress; twelve were unopened, the thirteenth was nearly full. Duke held it up. "See? Right to the line. But there was another bottle we had a snort from, after that second bombing. What happened to it?"
"Barbara and I had some after you went to sleep, Duke. There was some left. I never saw it again. It was in the tank room."
"Oh! I did, while we were bailing. Busted. I give up-where did she get it?"
"She didn't, Duke."
"What do you mean?"
"It wasn't liquor." Hugh went to the medicines drawer, got a bottle with a broken seal. "Count these Seconal capsules. You had two last night."
"Yeah."
"Karen had one at bedtime, one later; Joe had one. Neither Barbara nor I had any, nor Grace. Five."
"Hold it, I'm counting."
His father began to count as Duke pushed them aside.
"Ninety-one," Duke announced.
"Check." Hugh put the capsules back. "So she took four."
"What do we do, Dad? Stomach pump? Emetic?"
"Nothing."
"Why, you heartless- She tried to kill herself!"
"Slow down, Duke. She did nothing of the sort. Four capsules, six grains, simply produces stupor in a healthy person- and she's healthy as a horse; she had a physical a month ago. No, she snitched those pills to get drunk on." Hugh scowled. "An alcohol drunk is bad enough. But people kill themselves without meaning to with sleeping pills."
"Dad, what do you mean, 'she took them to get drunk on'?"
"You don't use them?"
"I never had one in my life until those two last night."
"Do you remember how you felt just before you went to sleep? Warm and happy and woozy?"
"No. I just lay down and konked out. Next thing I knew I was against the wall on my shoulders."
"You haven't developed tolerance for them. Grace knows what they can do. Drunk, a very happy drunk. I've never known her to take more than one but she's never been chopped off from liquor before. When a person eats sleeping pills because he can't get liquor, he's in a bad way."
"Dad, you should have kept liquor away from her long ago!"
"How, Duke? Tell her she couldn't have a drink? Take them away from her at parties? Quarrel with her in public? Fight with her in front of Joe? Not let her have cash, close out her bank account, see that she had no credit? Would that have stopped her from pawning furs?"
"Mother would never have done that."
"It's typical behavior in such cases. Duke, it is impossible to keep liquor away from any adult who is determined to have it. The United States Government wasn't that powerful. I'll go further. It is impossible for anyone to be responsible for another person's behavior. I spoke of myself as 'responsible' for this group; that was verbal shorthand. The most I can door you, or any leader-is to encourage each one to be responsible for himself."
Hugh chewed his thumb and looked anguished. "Perhaps my mistake was in letting her loaf. But she considered me stingy because I let her have only a houseboy and a cleaning woman. Duke, do you see anything I could have done short of beating her?"
"Uh... that's beside the point. What do we do now?"
"So it is, counselor. Well, we keep these pills away from her."
"And I'm damned well going to chop off the liquor completely!"
"Oh, I wouldn't."
"You wouldn't, eh? Did I hear correctly when you said I was liquor boss?"
"The decision is up to you. I simply said that I wouldn't. I think it's a mistake."
"Well, I don't. Dad, I won't go into the matter of whether you could, or should, have stopped Mother from getting the way she is. But I intend to stop it."
"Very well, Duke. Mmm, she's going to be cut off anyhow in a matter of days. It might be easier to taper her off. If you decide to, I'll contribute a bottle from my share. Hell, you can have both of mine. I like a snort as well as the next man. But Grace needs it."
"That won't be necessary," his son said crisply. "I'm not going to let her have any. Get it over with, she'll be well that much sooner."
"Your decision. May I offer a suggestion?"
"What?"
"In the morning, be up before she is. Move the liquor out and bury it, someplace known only to you. Then have open one bottle at a time and dispense it by the ounce. Tell the others to drink where she can't see it. You had better ditch the open bottle outdoors, too."
"Sounds reasonable."
"But that makes it all the more urgent to keep sleeping pills away from her."
"Bury them?"
"No. We need them inside, and it's not just sleeping pills. Demerol. Hypodermic needles. Several drugs, some poisonous and some addictive and all irreplaceable. If she can't find Seconal-five bottles of a hundred each, it's bulky-there's no telling what she might get into. We'll use the vault."
"A little safe let into concrete back of that cupboard. Nothing in it but birth certificates and such, and some reserve ammo, and two thousand silver dollars. Toss the money in with the hardware, we'll use it as metal. The combo is 'July 4th, 1776'-'74-17-76.' Better change it, Grace may know it."
"At once!"
"No rush, she won't wake up. 'Reserve ammo-' Duke, you were liquor and cigarette boss and now you are drugs boss. I'm going whole hog, you are rationing officer. Responsible for everything that can't be replaced: liquor, tobacco, ammunition, nails, toilet tissue, matches, dry cells, Kleenex, needles-"
"Good God! Got any more dirty jobs?"
"Lots of them. Duke, I'm trying to make it each according to his talents. Joe is too diffident-and he missed obvious economies today. Karen doesn't think ahead. Barbara feels like a freeloader even though she's not, she wouldn't crack down. I would, but I'm swamped. You are a natural for it; you don't hesitate to assert yourself. And you have foresight when you take the trouble to use it."
"Thank you too much. All right."
"The hardest thing to drill into them will be saving every scrap of metal and paper and cloth and lumber, things Americans have wasted for years. Fishhooks. Groceries aren't as important; we'll replace them, you by hunting, Barbara by gardening. Nevertheless, better note what can't be replaced. Salt. You must ration salt especially."