Appointment in Samarra - John O'Hara [58]
Nothing serious, I hope, said Julian. Oh, I don t think so. Doctor Malloy said not, but those doctors, they don t always tell you the truth. I want her to go to Philadelphia to see a specialist, but we re afraid to tell Doctor Malloy. You know how he is. If we told him that he d say all right, get another doctor, and we owe him so much already. We do the best we can, but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of my brother getting a job yet, although it isn’t for the lack of trying. Dear knows he isn’t much of an expense and my mother, she has some money, but I have to keep up the building and loan and the insurance and food is so high again, my goodness.
One nice thing about Mary s morning recital of her woes was that usually you could stop her at any point and she would not be offended. I guess we all have our troubles, he said. He had said this at least three mornings a week since Mary had come to work for him, and always Mary responded as though it were a shining new idea. Yes, I guess so, she said. I was reading in the paper on the way to work about the man that used to write those comical articles in the Inquirer, Abe Martin, he died out west somewhere. I thought he was from Philadelphia but it said Indiana. Indianapolis, I think. Now there was a man
Hello, Julian. It was Lute Fliegler: Mary immediately ended her talk. She disliked Lute, because he had once called her the biggest little windbag this side of Akron, Ohio, and to her face, at that. Hello, Lute, said Julian, who was reading a letter from a dealer in another part of the state, planning a gay party for the week of the Auto Show. Want to go to this? he said, throwing the letter to Lute. Lute read it quickly. Not me, he said. He sat down and put his feet up on Julian s desk. Listen, we gotta make a squawk again about Mr. O Buick.
Is he at it again? said Julian. O Buick was their name for Larry O Dowd, one of the salesmen for the Gibbsville-Buick Company. Is he? said Lute. I tell you what happened this morning. I went out to see Pat Quilty the undertaker this morning. I had him out a couple times in the last month and he s ready to go, or he was. He wants a seven-passenger sedan that he can use for funerals and for his family use. Or he did. Anyhow, I honestly figured, I said to myself, this is the one day the old man won’t be expecting me to come around, so maybe I ll surprise him into signing today. And he’ll pay cash on the line, too, Julian. So I took a ride out to see him and I went in his office and started kidding around he likes that. Makes him feel young. So I noticed I wasn’t getting a tumble from him, so finally I broke down and asked him, I said what was the matter, and he said to me in that brogue, he said: Will now Oill till you, Meesturr Fliegler, the way I hear it the coompany you do be working for, I hear they don t like people of my faith. What? I said. Why the Cadillac car is named after a Catholic, I said. I said Old Duke Cadillac, he was a Catholic. I don t mean Ginrul Mawtors, Mr. Fliegler, he said. I mean Julian English, that s who I mean. Why, Mister Quilty, I said, you’re all wrong about that, I said. I told him about Reverend Creedon, what a good friend of yours he is, and how you did this and that and the other for the sisters and so on, but he wouldn’t hear any of it. He said he didn’t always see eye to eye with Reverend Creedon, as far as that goes, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, he said, he d been hearing some stuff about you and Harry Reilly having a fight. What the hell s he talking about?
I threw a highball in his face the other night, said Julian. Oh, that, said Lute. I heard about that. But you weren t having a fight over religion, were you?
No. Certainly not. I was cockeyed and I just let go with the drink. What else? What about O Buick?
Well, that s the trouble. I can t get anything on him, said Lute. Old Quilty, he wouldn’t tell me any more than what I told you, except to say he was going to take a little time to think it over before he bought anything off us. I m afraid we re not going to move that car unless you go out and talk to him yourself, Julian.