Read Online Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis - Free Book Online
Authors: William Gaddis
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wait . . . she dug deeper, âhere. Itâs just what I . . .
âLook at Oscar with this damn movie, youâve got to explain to him Christina, these phone calls and the rest of the . . .
âI donât see why you canât explain it to him yourself, I mean itâs just what I said earlier isnât it? about being taken seriously? Simply explain to him that you look out! My God Harry, you shouldnât drive when youâre upset, that little green car anybody who drives a car like that donât you know heâs going to try to prove something?
âCuts me off because he wants me to take him seriously, exactly. Look, I canât explain things to Oscar because I canât get a word in. Because you want this great show of brotherly concern Iâm supposed to get as upset as he is over this monstrous injustice, the minute I mention money weâll end up just like your friend with her foetal endangerment. He probably doesnât have a case. If he does the chances are it canât be won. They get these nuisance suits all the time, people with grandiose ideas about suing Hollywood for millions even if heâs got one, even if Oscarâs really got a case with this play of his heâs got to know it will cost him money. Heâs got to know you can always lose a lawsuit and your money with it, thatâs the point, has he got it? the money? Because you donât start something like this on what they pay a college history teacher.
âWell I know that, no. He just does that, the teaching I mean, it just goes in to the bank every month I donât think he makes any connection between it and these students he detests no, thereâs a trust his mother set up for him before she died because Father married money that first time, just the way his father had, so what does Oscar show up with? Somebody whose idea of share the wealth is getting her purse stolen, but I mean all that was before Father married again, married my mother I mean so Iâve never known what it amounts to and Oscarâs always been awfully careful about whatâs his and whatâs mine. Why is that funny.
âCareful.
âWell why is that . . .
âFirst time I met him, first time I came out to the country to see you? That downstairs hall bathroom, I hadnât closed the door tight and I hear Oscarâs footsteps come creaking down the hall, suddenly as he passes his hand slips in and switches the light off and leaves me there sitting in the dark.
âI donât think thatâs odd at all, heâs just not used to having strangers in the house, I mean with half the place shut off to save heat thereâs nothing odd about being upset by sheer waste is there? Itâs the way we were brought up, you get letters from him with the address pasted over some political fund raiser or cripple benefit or God knows what because be canât bear to see the postage wasted, you donât waste you donât want and putting up with my mother my God, you couldnât blame him. I mean if youâre brought up like that youâre going to go one way or the other when the times comes, throw your money out the window or separate the clean bills from the dirty ones, right side up, the twenties and tens inside and then the fives, the ones think about it, I mean you couldnât blame him. That egg he wouldnât eat at breakfast when he was what, seven? and she puts it in front of him again at lunch? Roast chicken for dinner and heâs still sitting there gritting his teeth against that egg it went on for two days, he just wouldnât give in till that second night he finally went to pieces, threw the whole thing on the floor and shouted which came first! the chicken or the egg! and he was sent to bed, he went up the stairs singing it and he stayed there, he even managed to run a fever. God knows what went on between Father and my mother, he
âLook at Oscar with this damn movie, youâve got to explain to him Christina, these phone calls and the rest of the . . .
âI donât see why you canât explain it to him yourself, I mean itâs just what I said earlier isnât it? about being taken seriously? Simply explain to him that you look out! My God Harry, you shouldnât drive when youâre upset, that little green car anybody who drives a car like that donât you know heâs going to try to prove something?
âCuts me off because he wants me to take him seriously, exactly. Look, I canât explain things to Oscar because I canât get a word in. Because you want this great show of brotherly concern Iâm supposed to get as upset as he is over this monstrous injustice, the minute I mention money weâll end up just like your friend with her foetal endangerment. He probably doesnât have a case. If he does the chances are it canât be won. They get these nuisance suits all the time, people with grandiose ideas about suing Hollywood for millions even if heâs got one, even if Oscarâs really got a case with this play of his heâs got to know it will cost him money. Heâs got to know you can always lose a lawsuit and your money with it, thatâs the point, has he got it? the money? Because you donât start something like this on what they pay a college history teacher.
âWell I know that, no. He just does that, the teaching I mean, it just goes in to the bank every month I donât think he makes any connection between it and these students he detests no, thereâs a trust his mother set up for him before she died because Father married money that first time, just the way his father had, so what does Oscar show up with? Somebody whose idea of share the wealth is getting her purse stolen, but I mean all that was before Father married again, married my mother I mean so Iâve never known what it amounts to and Oscarâs always been awfully careful about whatâs his and whatâs mine. Why is that funny.
âCareful.
âWell why is that . . .
âFirst time I met him, first time I came out to the country to see you? That downstairs hall bathroom, I hadnât closed the door tight and I hear Oscarâs footsteps come creaking down the hall, suddenly as he passes his hand slips in and switches the light off and leaves me there sitting in the dark.
âI donât think thatâs odd at all, heâs just not used to having strangers in the house, I mean with half the place shut off to save heat thereâs nothing odd about being upset by sheer waste is there? Itâs the way we were brought up, you get letters from him with the address pasted over some political fund raiser or cripple benefit or God knows what because be canât bear to see the postage wasted, you donât waste you donât want and putting up with my mother my God, you couldnât blame him. I mean if youâre brought up like that youâre going to go one way or the other when the times comes, throw your money out the window or separate the clean bills from the dirty ones, right side up, the twenties and tens inside and then the fives, the ones think about it, I mean you couldnât blame him. That egg he wouldnât eat at breakfast when he was what, seven? and she puts it in front of him again at lunch? Roast chicken for dinner and heâs still sitting there gritting his teeth against that egg it went on for two days, he just wouldnât give in till that second night he finally went to pieces, threw the whole thing on the floor and shouted which came first! the chicken or the egg! and he was sent to bed, he went up the stairs singing it and he stayed there, he even managed to run a fever. God knows what went on between Father and my mother, he
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