58

 

       THE GRANDFATHER

 

    Clean shirt!  Like the other one was dirty!  I told her, and she just laughed and there I was, clean shirt or nothing.  And I didn't need a shave, and if I did, I coulda called Doug.  A woman! Don't ever let a woman shave you; Samson learned that one.  Blind as a bat and weak as a cat and all for a kiss and a hot towel.  From the Bible!  From the Bible and a good thing too.  If they was meant to do          There it is again.  Somebody's up on the mountain shooting.  Tell her that and I get one of those looks, and she don't even tell Art.  What's a man do to get a daughter that's deaf and stupid to boot?  Whatever it was, I wouldn'ta done it if I'd known.  The dog just stands there, stock-still, listening.  You can see the noise just building up in him like a belch or something.  And then he barks, jumping against the chain.  He hears it too.

    Out of the corner of my eye I see a car pull in the drive.  Car, I yell in the door, and she comes and looks.  Wiping her hands, she goes back in, and in a minute Art comes out, his hair fresh slicked and his shirt smelling like that damned stuff she puts in everything now.  You'd think we smelled like a bunch of apes, the smells she's got in everything.  Says it smells fresh.  Smells like a goddamned cathouse is what.  Can't hardly breathe as it is.  And who wants to smell April fresh  in September anyway?  He trots out the like the funny man in the old burlesque shows I used to go down to Baltimore with Scooey to see.  Plaid coat and a tie you'd sooner wipe your butt with than put around your neck.

    The dog paces around in his circle.

    It's Susan.  He's got an arm around her, and that boy she married is walking behind carrying something in tin foil.  She's smiling at me.  Like you'd smile at something that just might bite you.

    Look who's here, he says.

    I can see.  There's somebody up there shooting off a gun.

    Aren't you even going to say hello to Susan?

    She kisses me.  That's okay, she says.  He's worried about something up on the mountain land.  She smells warm.  Her grandmother should see her.

    Wes, I say.

    How are you?  He always asks the same thing and he always asks it loud enough to hear it down to the service station.  I just nod.

    I told her, I jerk my head at the kitchen.  And she said she's tell you.

    Well, she didn't.  What do you want me to do about it?

    She's your wife.

    I mean what do you want me to do about the shooting?  It's probably just some boys shooting cans with their twenty-twos.  And anyway, she was your daughter before she was my wife.  She smiles at Susan and they--the two of them--smirk.  The boy isn't even paying attention.  Art opens the door, and they start to go in.  Lorraine sounds all bubbly.

    Never mind, I say.  I'll just tell Doug.

    You do that, he says and shuts the door.

    He thinks I won't.  He thinks I won't tell Doug or he doesn't care one way or the other.  He don't know.  Thinks he's funny.  Well, she was that way when I got her, he picked her out.  Ha, that should tell you something.  Any man that          There!  There it is again, like the crack of hard wood in cold air. That's no twentytwo.  Faint and gone before you can tell which direction.  The dogs stops.  For a second I think he's going to start up again, but he just flops down and whines once.  You hear it, don't you?  Yeah, you hear it too.

    I'm tired.  Get up in the morning and tired before noon.  Just goes to show you.  Another day of this tongue wagging bunch and kids and all the noise.  I don't know why they ever invented picnics. Man's got a perfectly good house and first thing you know he calls up everybody he knows and they end up eating out in the yard.  Bugs and noise and birds crapping in everything.  You'd think he didn't have a roof over his head.  Even when I didn't have a pot to piss in I knew enough to eat in the house.  There was a lot of things you had to go outside to do, but eating wasn't one of them.  Paper plates.  Shit, I never heard of anything so stupid in all my life.  Three sets of dishes and a brand spanking new dishwasher and we're out here with paper plates and cups you can crush in your hand. Even me.  And why they all got to come here?  They all got homes, let 'em stay in 'em.  Man wants some peace.  Lord, I'm tired.  I could sleep right here and now if it wasn't for all that noise.

    The door opens, and Art comes out carrying the tablecloths under his arm.  Wes is following, his hands in his pockets.  They lift the old tables and bring them closer to the house.  There are no words between them; the boy just follows and does what Art does.  Like a show with no sound.  Art nods and they both lift, Art leading off and going too fast just to show he can still move with the best of them and Wes gritting his teeth and running to keep up.  And both of them breathing through the nose so's the other won't see the shortness of breath.  Art claps the dirt from his hands.  Wes wipes his palms on the rear of his trousers.

    Again the door opens, and Susan steps out, her arms full of jars.  Hi, Grandpa.

    Yeah, I say and lift my hand.

    And how have you been?  Hardly seems possible that summer's over, does it?

    Hot where you live?

    It's been pretty warm.  I hear you've had some really hot ones down here.  Seems like it'll be pretty nice today, not too hot.  There's a little breeze once in a while.  Don't they have those tables ready yet?

    Busy?

    Um?  Oh yeah, I suppose you could say we're busy.  Wes is up most nights working on a project for the city.  They have him doing revisions now.  You know how those things are.

    That's good, I nod.  You ought to keep busy.  Best all the way around

    She looks at me funny.  Why's that?  What do you mean?

    Well, that's what's wrong with your mother.  She doesn't have enough to keep her busy.  That's why she's like she is.

    Are you kidding?  She never stops.  If it's not one thing, it's the next.

    All because she doesn't have a damn thing worth doing.  She don't clean this house every damn day because it needs it.

    That's not why I work.  I work because I want to and because I like my job.

    All that same, it's good to keep busy.

    But you said that's what she does.

    There's a difference.

    Yeah, according to you, she keeps busy and I work.

    I shrug.  Whatever, I say.  I don't want to talk about it anymore.

    Is that what you mean?

    Where's Eric?

    I don't know.  I haven't seen him.

    I want him to ride down and get Doug.  Somebody's up there shooting, and I want him to check it out.  I heard them, and the dog heard them.

    I don't hear anything.         

    I just sit.  I ain't about to answer that.

    Well, I'd best put this stuff out; everybody'll be here soon.  Mother'll have a fit if I don't get back in there.

    She is gone then, and I watch her across the yard.  At least he cut the grass this time. People'd think I didn't know how to throw a picnic the way this place usually looks.

    There!  There it is again.  Somebody's up there shooting my deer.  I oughta call Jake Sprecker and have him take a look.  Two months before season too!  Jake'd take 'em in just like that, too.  I knew they was up there with them lights at night, but I never heard no shooting before.  No, I didn't.  A man's got to keep what's his or soon he ain't got nothing to keep.  And then what?

    Grandpa?  You want Wes to carry your chair out here?  There's a nice warm spot right near the tables.  The sun's real nice and warm here.  Aren't you getting chilly there in the shade like that?

    I shake my head.  She looks at me a minute like she's puzzled and then turns and walks back to her husband.  I do feel a little chill.  I cough.  Just a little one.  I swallow and it's gone.

    And then what?