Then the eyes were bright again. "Of course. He's been expecting you. Take these stairs. The first door on the right."
She pointed toward a flight of stairs beyond the counter, and Dunlap smiled, nodding, walking toward them. She wore a silk blouse, her bra quite clear beneath it, the two top buttons of her blouse spread open. Dunlap thought about that all the time he climbed the stairs. After all the women he was used to seeing with no bra, their nipples almost poking through their tops, this was exotic. He stopped and took out a handkerchief and wiped his face. To the left he saw a corridor of offices, their doors open, people typing, talking on the phone. To the right, he noticed a wooden door, the first wood in here that he'd seen. mr. parsons. editor. Dunlap knocked and entered.
Another woman, older, sat at a desk and studied him. 'Yes, sir?" When Dunlap told her, she said, "Of course." She went out through another door, this one wooden like the first, although the desk and chair and cabinets were metal. He waited. Everything was just as clean and shiny as downstairs. Through the windows, he could see the stores across the street. The woman came back, smiling, saying he should go in. Dunlap nodded, walking through.
Everything was wood in there, bookshelves, desk and chairs and tables, even the walls. No, not everything. A thick rug occupied a large part of the floor, and two of the chairs were leather. The difference was the same. This was more a study than an office. More than that, a sanctum. People summoned here would be impressed. Whoever summoned them understood the principles of power.
Parsons. He was smiling, getting up from where he sat behind the desk, coming around to shake hands. "Hello there. We expected you the middle of the week."
"Yeah, well, something came up at the office. They wouldn't let me go till yesterday at noon." And then because he knew he'd sounded rude, "I hope I didn't inconvenience you."
"No, not at all." Smiling again, Parsons pointed toward one of the well-stuffed leather chairs before the desk. "Have a seat. Can I get you something?"
"Coffee would be nice."
Parsons pressed a button on the intercom and looked at him.
"Cream and sugar. Lots of it," Dunlap said.
And Parsons put the order through. Then still smiling, Parsons sat back, his hands upon his lap, and waited. He was maybe fifty-five, husky, almost fat, but not exactly. Mostly he was just big-boned: massive chest and shoulders, hands as big as a heavyweight boxer's. His head seemed extra large as well. Even with his bulging stomach, he seemed very much in shape, though, his skin as fresh and smooth as athletes in their twenties. When he'd come around to shake hands with Dunlap, he had moved as if he were a dancer or a man of half his size and weight. Dunlap was impressed. This man had a presence. More than that, he knew what he was doing. He had never once appeared to notice Dunlap's wrinkled coat and ravaged face and eyes. Clearly, though, he'd been aware of them from the start. He was not a man who did things without thinking. The way he'd fixed this office so it stood out from the others. The way he sat, his expensive suit conspicuous in a town where everyone wore cowboy clothes, his blue shirt crisp and clean, his striped tie meticulously knotted, his hands upon his lap, leaning back and smiling, as if he were at his leisure (but he wasn't). Dunlap knew he'd have to watch him.
"Yes, well, tell me," Parsons said, still leaning back and smiling. "I know you told me on the phone. But just to help me understand, why not tell me once again?"
Dunlap lit a cigarette. "Well, we're doing retrospectives."
Parsons leaned ahead abruptly, pointing. "No, not here."
Dunlap wondered what he meant. He looked around. He saw that there were no ashtrays and understood, standing up to crush the cigarette against the inside of a refuse can. "Sorry."
"Quite all right. You couldn't know."
"Sure." And now you're up on me, you bastard, Dunlap thought, sitting back and going on. "Like I said, we're doing retrospectives-"
"News-world magazine?"
"That's right."
And Parsons nodded. "Quite a thing. A man from News-world magazine to come here."
"Yes, well-"
"Must be quite a story."
Then the door opened, and the woman came in with the coffee.
"Thank you."
"Certainly." And she was gone.
Dunlap tried to continue his explanation. "We've been-"
"How's the coffee?" 'Just the way I like it." "Fine."
And Dunlap had lost count of how much Parsons was ahead of him. "The commune," he was saying.
Parsons looked at him. He evidently hadn't figured they would get so quickly to the point. His eyes narrowed. "That's right. I remember now. You're checking on the commune." "The commune twenty years after it was founded." "Twenty-three." "How's that?"
"Twenty-three years since it was founded." 'Yeah, we figured that might make a point." Parsons shook his head and frowned. "I don't quite understand."
"Well, the difference between then and now. Nineteen seventy. Dope and acid. Vietnam. Young people either going into politics or dropping out of society." "But what about the commune?" "Well, we figured we would check on how it went." "I still don't understand."
"It's a way to measure how the country changed. All those fine young good intentions."
Parsons made a face. "The new republic. That's the thing they called it. Free love, free food, and free spirit." Parsons made another face.
"Yes, but never mind the 'free love' business. That's the part that people always pick at. What we want to know is what came out of all that."
"You could have saved yourself a trip. I'll tell you what came out of all that. Nothing. That's what came of it." "Well, that's a statement in itself."
"Hey, wait a minute," Parsons said. "Do you have that tape recorder on?"
Dunlap nodded. "Turn if off." "But what's the matter?" "Turn the damned thing off, I said." Dunlap obeyed. "But what's the matter? Listen, radicals back then are running corporations now. Either that or writing books about how wrong they were. Entertainers who dropped out and went to China are out hoofing on the stage again. Everything has changed. It's a different world. What's so wrong to talk about that? All the communes are long gone as well. But then none of them was quite like this. None of them had so much money, so much talent and ambition, coming out here from the coast, buying all that land and setting up to start a brand new country: Brook Farm in our century."
"Yes, and Brook Farm went to bust, and so did this," Parsons said.
"But what's so wrong to talk about it?"
"Look, you didn't come here just to see the difference. You came here to start that trouble once again."
Dunlap didn't understand.
"It's common knowledge how the town put pressure on them," Parsons said. "How the freaks came through here in their long hair and their costumes, dressed as Superman and God knows what all, turning kids to dope, standing on the corner, howling, blowing kisses. How the town refused to tolerate them, wouldn't sell them food or clothing or supplies, wouldn't even let them in the city limits, tried to find a way to get them off that land. How one rancher had his boy run off and went up there to get him, went a little crazy, pulled a gun and shot a guy. There's a lot of memory yet in town about that. There's a lot of feeling. I don't want you going around and making people ugly once again. Either that or guilty. I don't want you writing so this town looks like the nation's asshole. We had lots of that before. Writers coming in and making trouble, sympathizing with those freaks. You tell me how things have changed. Well, one thing hasn't. Reporters like an underdog, and the way the town reacted to those freaks, there wasn't any question who the reporters sided with. My guess is you'll be doing just the same."
"But really I'm not here for that," Dunlap said. "I just want to see the difference."
"Will you mention what went on back then? How the town reacted?"