U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [154]
They went to several bars, and Charley who wasn't used to drinking anything much except beer began to reel a little, but it was swel barging round with Hendriks
-388-from bar to bar. Hendriks sang My Mother Was a Lady in one place and The Bastard King of England in another where an old redfaced guy with a cigar set them up to some drinks. Then they tried to get into a dancehal but the guy at the door said they were too drunk and threw them out on their ear and that seemed funny as hel and they went to a back room of a place Hendriks knew and there were two girls there Hendriks knew and Hendriks fixed it up for ten dol ars each for al night, then they had one more drink before going to the girls' place and Hendriks sang:
Two drummers sat at dinner in a grand hotel one day While dining they were chatting in a jolly sort of way And when a pretty waitress brought them a tray of food They spoke to her familiarly in a manner rather rude
"He's a hot sketch," said one of the girls to the other. But the other was a little soused and began to get a cry-ing jag when Hendriks and Charley put their heads to-gether and sang: My mother was a lady like yours you will allow
And you may have a sister who needs protection now I've come to this great city to find a brother dear And you wouldn't dare insult me, sir, if Jack were only here. They cried and the other one kept shoving her and
saying, "Dry your eyes, deary, you're maudlin," and it was funny as hel . The next few weeks Charley was uneasy and miserable. The pil s made Emiscah feel awful sick but they final y brought her around. Charley didn't go there much, though they stil talked about "When we're married," and the Svensons treated Charley as a soninlaw. Emiscah nagged a little about Charley's drinking and running round with this fel ow Hendriks. Charley had dropped
-389-out of nightschool and was looking for a chance to get a job that would take him away somewhere, he didn't much care where. Then one day he busted a lathe and the foreman fired him. When he told Emiscah about it she got sore and said she thought it was about time he gave up boozing and running round and he paid little atten-tion to her and he said it was about time for him to butt out, and picked up his hat and coat and left. Afterwards when he was walking down the street he wished he'd
remembered to ask her to give him back his seal ring, but he didn't go back to ask for it. That Sunday he went to eat at old man Vogel's, but he didn't tel them he'd lost his job. It was a sudden hot spring day. He'd been walking round al morning, with a headache from getting tanked up with Hendriks the night before, looking at the crocuses and hyacinths in the parks and the swel ing buds in the dooryards. He didn't know what to do with himself. He was a week overdue on his rent and he wasn't getting any schooling and he hadn't any girl and he felt like saying to hel with every-thing and joining up in the militia to go down to the Mexican border. His head ached and he was tired of
dragging his feet over the pavements in the early heat. Wel dressed men and women went by in limousines and sedans. A boy flashed by on a red motorbike. He wished he had the jack to buy a motorbike himself and go on a trip somewhere. Last night he'd tried to argue Hendriks into going South with him, but Hendriks said he'd picked up with a skirt that was a warm baby and he was getting his nookie every night and going to stay right with it. To hel with al that, thought Charley; I want to see some country. He looked so down in the mouth that Jim said, "What's the trouble, Charley?" when he walked into the garage.
"Aw, nothing," said Charley, and started to help clean the parts of the carburetor of a Mack truck Jim was
-390-tinkering with. The truckdriver was a young fel er with closecropped black hair and a tanned face. Charley liked his looks. He said he was going to take a load of store-fittings down to Milwaukee next day and was looking for a guy to go with him. "Would you take me?" said Charley. The truckdriver looked puzzled. "He's my kid brother, Fred; he'l be al right . . . But what about your job?"