Appointment in Samarra - John O'Hara [46]
Here s to good old Yale, said Dutch Snyder, who had been All-Scholastic guard on the Gibbsville High championship team back in 1914, the year Gibbsville beat both Reading and Allentown. Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you. Embrace me, my irreplaceable you, la la, la la, la la, la la, la dada da, um ha, um ha, um ha, um ha, lum dada da. Monica Smith was singing. Low-zee, said Emily. Our cat sings better than that.
Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you, Monica sang. Embrace me la la replaceable you. Don t be a naughty baby. Come to papa, come to papa do. My sweet embraceable you.
Everybody got their drink? Emily, said Lute, what you need is a drink.
Yeah, said Harvey Ziegenfuss. What she needs is a drink. Yeah.
Sure she does, said Lute. I didn’t say of what, did I?
Carbolic acid, I suggest, said Monica Smith. Oh, cut fighting, you two, said Helen Schaeffer, who up to this time had taken no part in the conversation. Another country heard from! said Emily. Who wants to dance? I got rhythm, I got rhythm! sang Dutch Snyder. Yeah. You got rhythm. You said it you got rhythm, said Emily. Well, come on, what s holding you? said Dutch. Frannie, said Emily. I am not, said Frannie. Go ahead and dance with him if you want to. In a slightly lower tone she added: You like it.
What you say? said Emily. I said you like it. Go ahead and dance with him, said Frannie. All right, said Emily. I will dance with him. Come on, Dutch.
Let s go, said Dutch. I got sweet dreams in green pastures.
The others, except Lute and Frannie, chose or were somehow maneuvered into taking partners. Lute got up and moved to a chair beside Frannie. That Emily Ziegenfuss, she said. What does she think she is? I know what I think she is.
Uh-huh. Don t say it, said Lute, don t say it. If there s one thing I don t like, I don t like to hear one woman call another a bitch.
Well, that s what she is, all right, said Frannie. It s partly your fault, too, Lute. You know she can t drink. Why do you keep on giving her drinks?
She d be just as bad on two as she is on four or five, he said. He dropped the levity for a moment. The only thing to do now is make her pass out. She will.
Well, she can t pass out any too soon for me, said Frannie. And that husband of hers, that Harvey. Trying to give me a feel under the table. Honestly! Can you imagine that? Just because she makes a fool out of him he thinks because Dutch is a sap, I guess he thinks that gives him the right to try to paw over me.
I don t blame him, said Lute. I d like a little of that myself.
Oh, you, said Frannie, but pleased. Gee, if they were all like you, married men I mean, it wouldn’t be so bad. Anyhow I burnt Mr. Ziegenfuss with a cigarette. He thought he was getting along fine and then I reached down and pushed the lighted end of the cigarette on the back of his hand.
Oh, swell. I saw him kind of jump there for a minute.
He jumped all right, said Frannie. She sipped her drink and she was looking around the room, over the rim of the glass. Say, look, she said. Isn’t that your boss there, just coming in?
My God! Yes, said Lute. Oh, and has he a nice package?
I ll say. That s his wife with him, isn’t it?
That s her, all right, said Lute. That s funny. They were supposed to go to the dance at the country club tonight. I know that for sure.
Oh, that s nothing, said Frannie. They often come here when they get tired of the club dances. I often hear them talking when I go to have my hair waved. They often leave the country club dances.
He s nice and drunk, all right, said Lute. He doesn’t look so drunk, said Frannie. I ve seen a lot worse.
Yes, but that boy can drink. When he s that way you can tell he had plenty. He can drink all night without showing it. When he shows it, boy, you can be pretty sure he has damn near a quart under his belt.
That s Carter Davis with him, said Frannie. I know. Carter Davis, and I can t see who the girl is.
I can t either, but wait a minute. Oh, it s Kitty Hofman. Yeah. Kitty Hofman, and there comes Whitney Hofman. I guess he was parking the car.
Yeah. I guess he was parking the car. I wonder if English drove, said Lute. Oh, I don t imagine so, said Frannie. not if Whitney Hofman had to park the car.