Read Online The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike - Free Book Online
Authors: John Updike
Tags: Fiction, Literary, Fiction - General, Fantasy, Fantasy - Contemporary, Contemporary, Witches, Large Type Books, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Women, Devil, Rhode Island, Women - Rhode Island
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had a certain sweet sourness, like the stale-milk aroma that arises from a baby's pate when you settle your cheek against its fuzzy bony warmth. Suddenly she was alone with Van Home again, and feared she would have to bear again upon her breast the imploring inchoate weight of his conversation; but Sukie, who feared nothing, all russet and crisp and glimmering in her reportorial role, edged through the crowd and conducted an interview.
"What brings you to this concert, Mr. Van Home?" she asked, after Alexandra had shyly performed introductions.
"My TV set's on the blink" was his sullen answer. Alexandra saw that he preferred to make the approaches himself; but there was no denying Sukie in her interrogating mood, her little pushy monkey-face bright as a new penny.
"And what has brought you to this part of the world?" was her next question.
"Seems time I got out of Gotham," he said. "Too much mugging, rent going sky-high. The price up here seemed right. This going into some paper?"
Sukie licked her lips and admitted, "1 might put a mention in a column I write for the Word called 'Eastwick Eyes and Ears.'"
"Jesus, don't do that," the big man said, in his baggy tweed coat. "I came up here to cool the publicity."
"What kind of publicity were you receiving, may I ask?"
"If I told you, that'd be more publicity, wouldn't it?"
"Could be."
Alexandra marvelled at her friend, so cheerfully bold. Sukie's brazen ochre aura merged with the sheen of her hair. She asked, as Van Home made as if to turn away, "People are saying you're an inventor. What sort of thing do you invent?"
"Toots, even if I took all night to explain it to ya , ya wouldn't understand. It mostly deals with chemicals."
"Try me," Sukie urged. "See if I understand."
"Put it in your 'Eyes and Ears' and I might as well write a circular letter to my competition."
"Nobody who doesn't live in Eastwick reads the Word, I promise. Even in Eastwick nobody reads it, they just look at the ads and for their own names."
"Listen, Miss—"
"Rougemont. Ms. I was married."
"What was he, a French Canuck?"
"Monty always said his ancestors were Swiss. He acted Swiss. Don't the Swiss have square heads, supposedly?"
"Beats me. I thought that was the Manchurians. They have skulls like cement blocks, that's how Genghis Khan could stack 'em up so neatly."
"Do you feel we've wandered rather far from the subject?"
"About the inventions, listen, I can't talk. I am watched."
"How exciting! For all of us," Sukie said, and she let her smile push her upper lip, creasing deliciously, up so far her nose wrinkled and a band of healthy gum showed. "How about for my eyes and ears only? And Lexa's here. Isn't she gorgeous?"
Van Home turned his big head stiffly as if to check; Alexandra saw herself through his bloodshot blinking eyes as if at the end of a reversed telescope, a figure frighteningly small, cleft here and there and with wisps of gray hair. He decided to answer Sukie's earlier question: "I've been doing a fair amount lately with protective coatings—a floor finish you can't scratch with even a steak knife after it hardens, a coating you can spray on the red-hot steel as it's cooling so it bonds with the carbon molecules; your car body'll get metal fatigue before oxidization sets in. Synthetic polymers—that's the name of your brave new world, honeybunch, and it's just getting rolling. Bakelitc was invented around 1907, synthetic rubber in 1910, nylon around 1930. Better check those dates if you use any of this. The point is, this century's just the infancy; synthetic polymers're going to be with us to the year one million or until we blow ourselves up, whichever comes sooner, and the beauty of it is, you can grow the raw materials, and when you run out of land you can grow 'em in the ocean. Move over, Mother Nature, we've got you beat. Also I'm working on the Big Interface."
"What interface is that?" Sukie was not ashamed to ask. Alexandra would just have nodded as if she
"What brings you to this concert, Mr. Van Home?" she asked, after Alexandra had shyly performed introductions.
"My TV set's on the blink" was his sullen answer. Alexandra saw that he preferred to make the approaches himself; but there was no denying Sukie in her interrogating mood, her little pushy monkey-face bright as a new penny.
"And what has brought you to this part of the world?" was her next question.
"Seems time I got out of Gotham," he said. "Too much mugging, rent going sky-high. The price up here seemed right. This going into some paper?"
Sukie licked her lips and admitted, "1 might put a mention in a column I write for the Word called 'Eastwick Eyes and Ears.'"
"Jesus, don't do that," the big man said, in his baggy tweed coat. "I came up here to cool the publicity."
"What kind of publicity were you receiving, may I ask?"
"If I told you, that'd be more publicity, wouldn't it?"
"Could be."
Alexandra marvelled at her friend, so cheerfully bold. Sukie's brazen ochre aura merged with the sheen of her hair. She asked, as Van Home made as if to turn away, "People are saying you're an inventor. What sort of thing do you invent?"
"Toots, even if I took all night to explain it to ya , ya wouldn't understand. It mostly deals with chemicals."
"Try me," Sukie urged. "See if I understand."
"Put it in your 'Eyes and Ears' and I might as well write a circular letter to my competition."
"Nobody who doesn't live in Eastwick reads the Word, I promise. Even in Eastwick nobody reads it, they just look at the ads and for their own names."
"Listen, Miss—"
"Rougemont. Ms. I was married."
"What was he, a French Canuck?"
"Monty always said his ancestors were Swiss. He acted Swiss. Don't the Swiss have square heads, supposedly?"
"Beats me. I thought that was the Manchurians. They have skulls like cement blocks, that's how Genghis Khan could stack 'em up so neatly."
"Do you feel we've wandered rather far from the subject?"
"About the inventions, listen, I can't talk. I am watched."
"How exciting! For all of us," Sukie said, and she let her smile push her upper lip, creasing deliciously, up so far her nose wrinkled and a band of healthy gum showed. "How about for my eyes and ears only? And Lexa's here. Isn't she gorgeous?"
Van Home turned his big head stiffly as if to check; Alexandra saw herself through his bloodshot blinking eyes as if at the end of a reversed telescope, a figure frighteningly small, cleft here and there and with wisps of gray hair. He decided to answer Sukie's earlier question: "I've been doing a fair amount lately with protective coatings—a floor finish you can't scratch with even a steak knife after it hardens, a coating you can spray on the red-hot steel as it's cooling so it bonds with the carbon molecules; your car body'll get metal fatigue before oxidization sets in. Synthetic polymers—that's the name of your brave new world, honeybunch, and it's just getting rolling. Bakelitc was invented around 1907, synthetic rubber in 1910, nylon around 1930. Better check those dates if you use any of this. The point is, this century's just the infancy; synthetic polymers're going to be with us to the year one million or until we blow ourselves up, whichever comes sooner, and the beauty of it is, you can grow the raw materials, and when you run out of land you can grow 'em in the ocean. Move over, Mother Nature, we've got you beat. Also I'm working on the Big Interface."
"What interface is that?" Sukie was not ashamed to ask. Alexandra would just have nodded as if she
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