Read Online The Alcoholics by Jim Thompson - Free Book Online Page B

but foremost in importance, was the fact that alcoholics can be even less choosy than beggars; they seem to be born with an abundance of tolerance for the defects of others, and they quickly acquire more. They have to.
    "Yes," murmured John Holcomb, absently, "it must be very trying, this dealing with drunks day in and out. Can't really blame a person for getting rough and tough."
    "I don't see why a really good man like Doc stays in the game," said Gerald.
    "Well"-Bernie Edmonds revolved the whiskey in his glass-"it's a kind of personal thing with Doc, sort of a crusade. You know-you didn't know his father died of the booze?"
    "No!" said the brothers.
    "That's right. Made quite an impression on Doc, and I can't say that I blame him. The father, he was a doctor, too, and a pretty good one, but he'd been going down hill a long time. Lost all his practice, friends, money, and his wife had given up the ghost and died. Well, so he got on this last big toot, got the whole town down on him but good, and wound up in jail. They didn't know anything about alcoholism in those days, of course. He was just a dammed ornery drunk, so into the jug he went until he snapped out of it. No treatment, no nothing. He'd been in four days when Doc, our boy, that is, fought and begged his way in, and he made such a fuss that they finally called in a doctor. Too late-if it hadn't been too late in the beginning. Doc says they gave him enough morphine to coldcock a cow, and it didn't have any more effect than baking powder. He went right on shaking. Shook himself to death."
    "Figuratively speaking, of course?"
    "Literally. Ruptured himself inside, according to Doc; even unjointed a number of his bones."
    "Well," said John, "if Doc says so it's so. He wouldn't waste time trying to scare an alcoholic."
    "It's true, all right. Doc was sore at me when he told me, but I know it wasn't a scare yarn. I've read of similar cases." John said it was almost enough to make a man swear off reading.
    Bernie remarked that it was strange how talking could dry the membranes of a man's throat.
    Gerald lowered his pajamas again, emptied the rest of the whiskey into their glasses and shoved the bottle under the bed. They toasted each other. As John lowered his drink, his eyes met his brother's in tentative inquiry. Gerald nodded and took another small sip.
    "By the way, Bernie…"
    "Yeah?"
    "How-uh-how are things going with you? How's the job?"
    "I don't," said Bernie, "think I have one. Can't say that I care, really. It was a pretty lousy job."
    "What-uh-" John Holcomb squirmed, and suddenly grimaced with pain. "Damn that woman, anyhow!… Uh-brother and I don't want to offend you, but if a small loan-"
    Bernie laughed shortly. "You haven't been very successful in offending me in that department. But-I guess not. I'd rather not. I'd rather you didn't tempt me."
    "Oh, come, now," said Gerald. "What's a few dollars between-"
    "What would I do with it?" said Bernie. "What would I do with a few thousand? The same thing I've always done."
    "Not always, Bernie."
    "It seems like always. No, thanks very much, Holcombs, but no thanks… Now, if you can give me a job-and I don't mean any old job; the kind that doesn't matter whether you screw up or not, and you know it doesn't matter, so… Jesus! "-he ploughed his fingers through his gray-white head-"how long it's been since there was anything to do I cared about doing! Since I could feel important. Since I was any place where I didn't feel watched, where even the janitor felt he had the right to smell my breath."
    He gulped the rest of his drink, shuddered and hastily lighted a cigarette. He inhaled deeply, exhaled, laughed. "Next week," he said, "East Lynne."
    "As I was about to say, Bernie," said John, "brother and I would like very much to have you with us, but it's the agency's policy-and no one regretted more than we the necessity to establish it-it's our policy never to employ alcoholics. Never, no matter who they