Nathanael West - The Day of the Locust [50]
Homer followed him out of the house and stood standing behind him, afraid to approach. He might have sneaked away without Tod’s knowing it, if he had not suddenly looked down and seen his shadow.
“Hello,” he said.
He motioned for Homer to join him on the curb. “You’ll catch cold,” Homer said.
Tod understood his protest. He made it because he wanted to be certain that his company was really welcome. Nevertheless, Tod refused to repeat the invitation. He didn’t even turn to look at him again. He was sure he was wearing his long-suffering smile and didn’t want to see it.
He wondered why all his sympathy had turned to malice. Because of Faye? It was impossible for him to admit it. Because he was unable to do anything to help him? This reason was a more comfortable one, but he dismissed it with even less consideration. He had never set himself up as a healer.
Homer was looking the other way, at the house, watching the parlor window. He cocked his head to one side when someone laughed. The four short sounds, ha-ha and again ha-ha, distinct musical notes, were made by the dwarf.
“You could learn from him,” Tod said.
“What?” Homer asked, turning to look at him.
“Let it go.”
His impatience both hurt and puzzled Homer. He saw that and motioned for him to sit down, this time emphatically.
Homer obeyed. He did a poor job of squatting and hurt himself. He sat nursing his knee.
“What is it?” Tod finally said, making an attempt to be kind.
“Nothing, Tod, nothing.”
He was grateful and increased his smile. Tod couldn’t help seeing all its annoying attributes, resignation, kindliness, and humility.
They sat quietly, Homer with his heavy shoulders hunched and the sweet grin on his face, Tod frowning, his back pressed hard against the palm tree. In the house the radio was playing and its blare filled the street.
They sat for a long time without speaking. Several times Homer started to tell Tod something but he didn’t seem able to get the words out. Tod refused to help him with a question.
His big hands left his lap, where they had been playing “here’s the church and here the steeple,” and hid in his armpits. They remained there for a moment, then slid under his thighs. A moment later they were back in his lap. The right hand cracked the joints of the left, one by one, then the left did the same service for the right. They seemed easier for a moment, but not for long. They started “here’s the church” again, going through the entire performance and ending with the joint manipulation as before. He started a third time, but catching Tod’s eyes, he stopped and trapped his hands between his knees.
It was the most complicated tic Tod had ever seen. What made it particularly horrible was its precision. It wasn’t pantomime, as he had first thought, but manual ballet.
When Tod saw the hands start to crawl out again, he exploded.
“For Christ’s sake!”
The hands struggled to get free, but Homer clamped his knees shut and held them.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Oh, all right.”
“But I can’t help it, Tod. I have to do it three times.”
“Okay with me.”
He turned his back on him.
Faye started to sing and her voice poured into the street
“Dreamed about a reefer five feet long Not too mild and not too strong, You’ll be high, but not for long, If you’re a viper—a vi-paah.”
Instead of her usual swing delivery, she was using a lugubrious one, wailing the tune as though it were a dirge. At the end of every stanza, she shifted to an added minor.
“I’m the queen of everything, Gotta be high before I can swing, Light a tea and let it be, If you’re a viper—a vi-paah.”
“She sings very pretty,” Homer said.
“She’s drunk.”
“I don’t know what to do, Tod,” Homer complained. “She’s drinking an awful lot lately. It’s that Earle. We used to have a lot of fun before be came, but now we don’t have any fun any more since he started to hang around.”
“Why don’t you get rid of him?”
“I was thinking about what you said about the license to keep chickens.”
Tod understood what he wanted.
“I’ll report them to the Board of Health tomorrow.”
Homer thanked him, then insisted on explaining in detail why he couldn