Read Online Time and the Riddle: Thirty-One Zen Stories by Howard Fast - Free Book Online Page A

two. Just look at old Mother Bell.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œAmerican Telephone,” the devil said. “Look at it, Martin.”
    Martin looked. “Up four points,” he whispered. “That makes no sense at all. American Telephone hasn’t jumped four points in a day since Alexander Graham Bell invented it.”
    â€œOh, it has, Martin. Yes, indeed. You see, until two o’clock today, it will just dilly-dally along, the way it does every other day, and then at two precisely the management will announce a two-for-one split. Yes, indeed, Martin—two for one. Just read those prices again, and you will see that it touches a high of five dollars and seventy-five cents over the two o’clock price, even though it closes at a profit of only four points. So you see, Martin, if you sell at the high, you can clear five dollars and better, which is a very nice return for an in-and-out deal. No reason at all why you shouldn’t be a very rich man before today is over, Martin. No reason at all.”
    â€œMarty,” Doris shouted, “we’re going to do it. We’re going to make it, Marty. This is the big one, the big red apple—the one we’ve been waiting for. Oh, Marty, I love you, I love you, I love you.”
    The devil smiled with pleasure, put on his forty-dollar hat, and departed. They hardly noticed that he had gone, so eager were they to be properly dressed to make a million. Doris tied Martin’s tie—something she had not done for a long time. Martin admired the dress she changed into and quietly agreed when she snapped at him:
    â€œYou keep that newspaper in an inside pocket, Marty. Nobody sees it—and I mean nobody.”
    â€œRight you are, baby.”
    â€œMarty, what do we go for? Five dollars a share—is that it?”
    â€œThat’s it, baby. Suppose we pick up twenty thousand shares—that’s one hundred thousand dollars, baby. One hundred thousand bright, green dollars.”
    â€œMarty, have you lost your mind? This is it—the one and only—and you talk about one hundred thousand dollars. We pick up a hundred thousand shares, and then we got half a million. Half a million dollars, Marty. Beautiful, clean dollars.”
    â€œAll right, baby. But I’m not sure you can buy a hundred thousand shares of a stock like American Tel and Tel without influencing the price. If we drive the price up—”
    â€œWe can’t drive the price up, Marty.”
    â€œHow do you know? What makes you such a goddamn stock market genius?”
    â€œMarty, maybe I don’t know one thing about the market—but I know how it closes today. Honey, don’t you see—we have tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal . We know. No matter how many shares of that stock you buy, it is going to stay put until two o’clock and then it’s going to go up to five dollars and seventy-five cents. Isn’t that what he said?”
    Marty opened the paper and concentrated on it. “Right!” he cried triumphantly. “Says so right here—no movement until two o’clock—’ and then zoom.”
    â€œSo we could buy two hundred thousand shares and make a cool million.”
    â€œRight, baby—oh, you are so right!”
    â€œTwo hundred thousand shares then—right, Marty?”
    â€œI hear you, kid.”
    They took a cab downtown to the brokerage office of Smith, Haley and Penderson on Fifty-third Street. When you have it, you spend it. “Lunch today at the Four Seasons?” Doris asked him. “Right, baby. Right, baby.” Rich people are happy people. When he and Doris marched up to the desk of Frank Gibson, their poise and pleasure were contagious. Frank Gibson had gone to college with Martin and had supervised his few unhappy stock market transactions, and while he did not consider Martin one of his more valuable contacts, he found himself smiling back and telling them that it