WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.419 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.419 --> 00:00:05.203 align:middle line:90% [INDISTINCT CHATTER] 00:00:05.203 --> 00:00:07.948 align:middle line:90% 00:00:07.948 --> 00:00:09.490 align:middle line:84% I hope you can stay after the reading 00:00:09.490 --> 00:00:11.115 align:middle line:84% tonight and have some punch and cookies 00:00:11.115 --> 00:00:13.570 align:middle line:84% and tell Richard Elman how wonderful he is. 00:00:13.570 --> 00:00:16.275 align:middle line:90% 00:00:16.275 --> 00:00:17.650 align:middle line:84% Our next reading will be one week 00:00:17.650 --> 00:00:23.410 align:middle line:84% from tonight in this auditorium, with visiting poet Bill Knott. 00:00:23.410 --> 00:00:25.910 align:middle line:84% Are you having difficulty hearing me? 00:00:25.910 --> 00:00:26.410 align:middle line:90% No. 00:00:26.410 --> 00:00:26.950 align:middle line:90% No. 00:00:26.950 --> 00:00:27.450 align:middle line:90% No. 00:00:27.450 --> 00:00:31.680 align:middle line:90% 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:35.190 align:middle line:84% We've just put together the third issue of the newsletter. 00:00:35.190 --> 00:00:37.717 align:middle line:84% And we keep getting such wonderful news 00:00:37.717 --> 00:00:39.300 align:middle line:84% about people's accomplishments that we 00:00:39.300 --> 00:00:43.060 align:middle line:84% have to keep stopping and adding things to it. 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:45.210 align:middle line:84% And if you have any more wonderful news, 00:00:45.210 --> 00:00:48.105 align:middle line:84% give it to me tomorrow and I'll put it in the next issue. 00:00:48.105 --> 00:00:54.210 align:middle line:90% 00:00:54.210 --> 00:00:56.310 align:middle line:84% Richard has written too many books for me 00:00:56.310 --> 00:00:59.160 align:middle line:84% to give you the titles of all of them. 00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:02.730 align:middle line:84% I would like to give you the titles of some of the novels. 00:01:02.730 --> 00:01:10.470 align:middle line:84% As you know, he writes fiction, poetry, journalism, essays. 00:01:10.470 --> 00:01:15.660 align:middle line:84% Some of the novels are The Menu Cypher, The Breadfruit 00:01:15.660 --> 00:01:25.110 align:middle line:84% Lotteries, Little Lives, Fredi & Shirl & The Kids, 00:01:25.110 --> 00:01:26.898 align:middle line:90% and Lilo's Diary. 00:01:26.898 --> 00:01:29.323 align:middle line:90% 00:01:29.323 --> 00:01:31.240 align:middle line:84% One of the books he's very well known for is-- 00:01:31.240 --> 00:01:34.660 align:middle line:90% one of his non-fiction books-- 00:01:34.660 --> 00:01:38.680 align:middle line:84% is Cocktails at Somoza's: A Reporter's 00:01:38.680 --> 00:01:42.711 align:middle line:84% Sketchbook of Events in Revolutionary Nicaragua. 00:01:42.711 --> 00:01:45.300 align:middle line:90% 00:01:45.300 --> 00:01:46.800 align:middle line:84% In addition to his writings, he's 00:01:46.800 --> 00:01:50.340 align:middle line:84% also well known as a radio personality, 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:53.250 align:middle line:84% having been one of the regulars on NPR'S All Things Considered 00:01:53.250 --> 00:01:54.210 align:middle line:90% for a long time. 00:01:54.210 --> 00:01:57.840 align:middle line:90% 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:00.510 align:middle line:84% His honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment 00:02:00.510 --> 00:02:05.100 align:middle line:84% for the Arts, a New York State Creative Artist for Public 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:10.380 align:middle line:84% Service Award, the PEN/ NEA Short Fiction Prize. 00:02:10.380 --> 00:02:12.240 align:middle line:84% He's taught at several universities. 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:15.540 align:middle line:84% He's been a long-time teacher at the summer program 00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:17.265 align:middle line:90% at Bennington College. 00:02:17.265 --> 00:02:20.550 align:middle line:84% He's taught at Sarah Lawrence College, 00:02:20.550 --> 00:02:22.508 align:middle line:90% State University of New York. 00:02:22.508 --> 00:02:25.050 align:middle line:84% Last year, we were privileged to have him on the faculty here 00:02:25.050 --> 00:02:26.820 align:middle line:90% for one term. 00:02:26.820 --> 00:02:29.857 align:middle line:84% Those of us who heard him read last year 00:02:29.857 --> 00:02:31.440 align:middle line:84% know that you're in for a great treat. 00:02:31.440 --> 00:02:33.930 align:middle line:84% It's a pleasure to introduce Richard Elman. 00:02:33.930 --> 00:02:37.269 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:37.269 --> 00:02:46.260 align:middle line:90% 00:02:46.260 --> 00:02:48.760 align:middle line:84% This is the important ceremony, the pinning of the lavalier. 00:02:48.760 --> 00:02:49.880 align:middle line:90% I think that's going inside. 00:02:49.880 --> 00:02:50.380 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:02:50.380 --> 00:02:54.270 align:middle line:90% 00:02:54.270 --> 00:02:56.440 align:middle line:84% We don't do the kissing with this, doing just the-- 00:02:56.440 --> 00:02:57.148 align:middle line:90% Just the pinning. 00:02:57.148 --> 00:02:58.780 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:58.780 --> 00:02:59.280 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:02.130 align:middle line:90% Try that. 00:03:02.130 --> 00:03:03.480 align:middle line:90% Can you hear me? 00:03:03.480 --> 00:03:07.320 align:middle line:90% I project a little anyway, so. 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:09.522 align:middle line:90% Well, it's very nice to be here. 00:03:09.522 --> 00:03:13.110 align:middle line:84% It was snowing when I woke up this morning in Stony Brook, 00:03:13.110 --> 00:03:16.110 align:middle line:84% so I'm glad you all came out on a day like this. 00:03:16.110 --> 00:03:19.351 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:19.351 --> 00:03:21.210 align:middle line:90% 00:03:21.210 --> 00:03:23.280 align:middle line:90% I'm going to read a-- 00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:27.090 align:middle line:90% hey, hi-- a few short things. 00:03:27.090 --> 00:03:28.360 align:middle line:90% Some very short things. 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:30.360 align:middle line:84% Two very short things, and then one thing that's 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.795 align:middle line:90% a little longer. 00:03:32.795 --> 00:03:34.170 align:middle line:84% Two of them are works of fiction. 00:03:34.170 --> 00:03:36.630 align:middle line:84% One's a short short, as we used to say. 00:03:36.630 --> 00:03:38.190 align:middle line:90% One's a real story. 00:03:38.190 --> 00:03:43.020 align:middle line:84% But I'm going to start by reading 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:44.790 align:middle line:90% something I'm working on now. 00:03:44.790 --> 00:03:47.280 align:middle line:84% They were all things I've been working on recently. 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:49.093 align:middle line:84% I don't like to read published work. 00:03:49.093 --> 00:03:50.760 align:middle line:84% You can go to the library and find that. 00:03:50.760 --> 00:03:54.210 align:middle line:90% 00:03:54.210 --> 00:03:57.600 align:middle line:90% I've been writing my memoirs. 00:03:57.600 --> 00:04:00.480 align:middle line:84% I don't plan to die right away, but I do plan 00:04:00.480 --> 00:04:02.356 align:middle line:90% to write my memoirs. 00:04:02.356 --> 00:04:05.710 align:middle line:84% I've bumped into all kinds of people in my lifetime. 00:04:05.710 --> 00:04:07.800 align:middle line:84% So I thought I'd write a book of memoirs about it. 00:04:07.800 --> 00:04:12.030 align:middle line:84% The title of the book is Namedropping. 00:04:12.030 --> 00:04:13.422 align:middle line:90% Well, I'd be modest. 00:04:13.422 --> 00:04:15.270 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:15.270 --> 00:04:19.095 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to read the prologue, which is very short. 00:04:19.095 --> 00:04:22.920 align:middle line:90% 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:27.405 align:middle line:84% And it's called "Post Time" as I used to play the horses. 00:04:27.405 --> 00:04:29.530 align:middle line:84% There are a couple of little epigraphs to the book. 00:04:29.530 --> 00:04:30.405 align:middle line:90% I'll read those, too. 00:04:30.405 --> 00:04:32.130 align:middle line:84% Just briefly to get this thing underway. 00:04:32.130 --> 00:04:38.370 align:middle line:84% And I will get you out of here in a reasonable amount of time 00:04:38.370 --> 00:04:41.040 align:middle line:84% There are two little epigraphs to this little prologue, 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:43.110 align:middle line:90% to this memoir. 00:04:43.110 --> 00:04:46.050 align:middle line:84% One is from a poem that I wrote a long time ago called 00:04:46.050 --> 00:04:49.290 align:middle line:84% "Curriculum Vitae," which about people's resumes. 00:04:49.290 --> 00:04:52.020 align:middle line:84% And the epigraph is, "Our list of references 00:04:52.020 --> 00:04:56.010 align:middle line:84% usually depicts we were once capable of keeping friends." 00:04:56.010 --> 00:04:59.880 align:middle line:84% The other is from a conversation I overheard a few summers back 00:04:59.880 --> 00:05:02.730 align:middle line:84% on the beach in Amagansett, which is one of the Hamptons 00:05:02.730 --> 00:05:03.900 align:middle line:90% out near where I live. 00:05:03.900 --> 00:05:07.350 align:middle line:84% The conversation was-- it's a piece of a conversation, 00:05:07.350 --> 00:05:09.630 align:middle line:84% actually-- a woman or a man was saying-- 00:05:09.630 --> 00:05:11.070 align:middle line:90% I'm not even sure which-- 00:05:11.070 --> 00:05:14.040 align:middle line:84% quote, "It's Phil Lopate, not Phil Roth. 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:15.450 align:middle line:90% He's the other Phil. 00:05:15.450 --> 00:05:17.850 align:middle line:84% Or I don't know, maybe it's the other way around." 00:05:17.850 --> 00:05:22.230 align:middle line:90% 00:05:22.230 --> 00:05:27.180 align:middle line:84% This is called "Post Time" and it begins with a little poem. 00:05:27.180 --> 00:05:28.950 align:middle line:90% The turf softly raked-- 00:05:28.950 --> 00:05:31.260 align:middle line:90% and silences are numerous. 00:05:31.260 --> 00:05:33.390 align:middle line:84% There's the silence of the clock, 00:05:33.390 --> 00:05:36.870 align:middle line:84% of chance incandescent on the tote. 00:05:36.870 --> 00:05:40.530 align:middle line:84% Horses, calm and separate in their stalls, 00:05:40.530 --> 00:05:43.590 align:middle line:90% prepare for sound. 00:05:43.590 --> 00:05:45.960 align:middle line:84% In the course of the same old race, 00:05:45.960 --> 00:05:48.930 align:middle line:84% I find myself writing about some people. 00:05:48.930 --> 00:05:52.380 align:middle line:84% How fame seems to set some people apart from us, 00:05:52.380 --> 00:05:56.580 align:middle line:84% known and considered otherwise in different ways. 00:05:56.580 --> 00:05:59.010 align:middle line:84% I was astonished by Ernest Hemingway's 00:05:59.010 --> 00:06:03.720 align:middle line:84% small, weak handshake and by the jolt of force with which Elie 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:06.840 align:middle line:90% Wiesel squeezed my hand once. 00:06:06.840 --> 00:06:09.810 align:middle line:84% Of qualities I have known in some, as difficult 00:06:09.810 --> 00:06:12.450 align:middle line:90% to assess as women's smiles. 00:06:12.450 --> 00:06:14.820 align:middle line:90% How long ago seems knowing, too. 00:06:14.820 --> 00:06:19.380 align:middle line:84% When I first met Isaac Singer, he asked me, 00:06:19.380 --> 00:06:23.040 align:middle line:90% who is this Saul Bellow? 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:26.190 align:middle line:84% Singer's great comic story of faith, "Gimpel the Fool," 00:06:26.190 --> 00:06:28.920 align:middle line:84% has only recently been published from Yiddish 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:32.790 align:middle line:84% to English in a translation by Mr. Saul Bellow. 00:06:32.790 --> 00:06:36.900 align:middle line:84% They're both still a long way from Oslo. 00:06:36.900 --> 00:06:39.360 align:middle line:84% His features of a medieval saint even 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:41.010 align:middle line:84% to the faint, white-haired tantra 00:06:41.010 --> 00:06:43.140 align:middle line:84% effect about the crown of his skull 00:06:43.140 --> 00:06:45.930 align:middle line:84% were backlit by the glowing monitor 00:06:45.930 --> 00:06:48.630 align:middle line:90% from his mischievous incubus. 00:06:48.630 --> 00:06:52.800 align:middle line:84% Not who I was, but who I have known. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:55.020 align:middle line:84% My oldest daughter goes to school 00:06:55.020 --> 00:06:58.110 align:middle line:90% for a while in Lake Placid. 00:06:58.110 --> 00:07:02.820 align:middle line:84% Another parent with children at the school is JD Salinger. 00:07:02.820 --> 00:07:05.700 align:middle line:84% Divorced and single part-time fatherhood 00:07:05.700 --> 00:07:08.790 align:middle line:84% have made us comrades at a distance. 00:07:08.790 --> 00:07:10.890 align:middle line:84% You know, when I first got into this business, 00:07:10.890 --> 00:07:11.963 align:middle line:90% I was in graduate school. 00:07:11.963 --> 00:07:13.380 align:middle line:84% I was learning how to be a writer. 00:07:13.380 --> 00:07:15.270 align:middle line:84% I really expected I'd hear wonderful literary 00:07:15.270 --> 00:07:16.895 align:middle line:84% conversations when I met other writers. 00:07:16.895 --> 00:07:21.930 align:middle line:84% Mostly, it was gossip, backbiting, and purchase money 00:07:21.930 --> 00:07:23.800 align:middle line:90% mortgages. 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:25.890 align:middle line:84% This is one conversation that isn't about gossip 00:07:25.890 --> 00:07:27.420 align:middle line:90% back bite and purchase money. 00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:28.230 align:middle line:90% Anyway. 00:07:28.230 --> 00:07:30.810 align:middle line:84% Once, Salinger and I took Thanksgiving together 00:07:30.810 --> 00:07:34.470 align:middle line:84% at the same long family table at this boarding school. 00:07:34.470 --> 00:07:36.780 align:middle line:84% He was quite a charming, sartorially elegant man 00:07:36.780 --> 00:07:38.430 align:middle line:90% in those days, 15 years ago. 00:07:38.430 --> 00:07:40.890 align:middle line:84% And he didn't seem to mind looking away from his children 00:07:40.890 --> 00:07:43.138 align:middle line:90% a moment to talk about writing. 00:07:43.138 --> 00:07:45.180 align:middle line:84% I asked him once, as we were driving from our inn 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:48.480 align:middle line:84% to the school in his Jaguar, if the world could expect 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:50.580 align:middle line:90% another Salinger book someday. 00:07:50.580 --> 00:07:51.600 align:middle line:90% "My book?" 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:54.540 align:middle line:84% His voice was low, confident, confidential 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:57.390 align:middle line:84% from the driver's seat where he sat behind the wheel. 00:07:57.390 --> 00:07:59.580 align:middle line:84% "Richard," he said, "it's really nice 00:07:59.580 --> 00:08:03.330 align:middle line:84% not to have to publish anything until the work is really 00:08:03.330 --> 00:08:06.510 align:middle line:84% completed and I'm happy with it." 00:08:06.510 --> 00:08:09.540 align:middle line:84% The last time I saw Salinger, he was hitting ground strokes 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:11.370 align:middle line:84% on the school courts with his son, 00:08:11.370 --> 00:08:13.920 align:middle line:90% who later became a movie actor. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:15.870 align:middle line:84% Did Salinger Sr. ever seemed troubled 00:08:15.870 --> 00:08:18.810 align:middle line:84% by his seeming lack of productivity? 00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:21.630 align:middle line:84% Not in my company, but maybe for TIME magazine. 00:08:21.630 --> 00:08:24.720 align:middle line:84% Nowadays, I'm forced to conclude other people's estimations 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:27.990 align:middle line:84% of his well-being were of much less consequence to him 00:08:27.990 --> 00:08:30.870 align:middle line:84% than getting proper topspin, showing that 00:08:30.870 --> 00:08:32.610 align:middle line:90% to a son at that moment. 00:08:32.610 --> 00:08:34.830 align:middle line:84% In long tennis whites, he looked a bit 00:08:34.830 --> 00:08:38.250 align:middle line:84% like one of the old champions or another, grayer version, 00:08:38.250 --> 00:08:41.490 align:middle line:84% perhaps, of the Central Park camp counselor who 00:08:41.490 --> 00:08:44.039 align:middle line:90% appears in his early stories. 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:47.370 align:middle line:84% Who I have sometimes listened to is also important. 00:08:47.370 --> 00:08:49.710 align:middle line:84% "Hey, kiddo," Henry Miller tells me, 00:08:49.710 --> 00:08:52.920 align:middle line:84% when we speak about my writing his life story, which 00:08:52.920 --> 00:08:54.707 align:middle line:90% I've been contracted to do. 00:08:54.707 --> 00:08:56.790 align:middle line:84% "Don't you think you have a hell of a lot of nerve 00:08:56.790 --> 00:08:58.577 align:middle line:90% thinking you could do that?" 00:08:58.577 --> 00:09:01.380 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:01.380 --> 00:09:05.220 align:middle line:84% Ralph Ellison tells me once that when he was a young writer, 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:09.840 align:middle line:84% he resented the writings of James Agee "because," he said, 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:12.450 align:middle line:84% "Agee wrote about the poverty of poor whites. 00:09:12.450 --> 00:09:14.580 align:middle line:84% And they were the people I thought 00:09:14.580 --> 00:09:17.880 align:middle line:90% who kept my people down." 00:09:17.880 --> 00:09:21.210 align:middle line:84% When Jean-Paul Sartre won the Nobel Prize, 00:09:21.210 --> 00:09:24.390 align:middle line:84% Isaac Singer told me, with all the innocence 00:09:24.390 --> 00:09:26.820 align:middle line:84% of a centerfold spread in Playboy, 00:09:26.820 --> 00:09:30.990 align:middle line:84% "this man, Sartre, he's not such a good writer, is he?" 00:09:30.990 --> 00:09:33.630 align:middle line:84% I say, "I think he probably is," though different, of course, 00:09:33.630 --> 00:09:34.950 align:middle line:90% than Singer. 00:09:34.950 --> 00:09:37.770 align:middle line:84% When I tell this story a few days later to Elie Wiesel, 00:09:37.770 --> 00:09:40.950 align:middle line:84% he says, "oh, that is just Isaac's chutzpah. 00:09:40.950 --> 00:09:42.930 align:middle line:84% He's too arrogant to read Sartre. 00:09:42.930 --> 00:09:45.510 align:middle line:84% And this way, he makes his insistence on not knowing 00:09:45.510 --> 00:09:47.190 align:middle line:84% seem like a reasonable position." 00:09:47.190 --> 00:09:49.170 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:09:49.170 --> 00:09:52.080 align:middle line:84% In those days, Wiesel and Singer were both still writing 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:55.680 align:middle line:84% for the Yiddish newspaper, The Jewish Daily Forward. 00:09:55.680 --> 00:09:58.950 align:middle line:84% The collegiality of these two future Nobel laureates 00:09:58.950 --> 00:10:02.250 align:middle line:84% was largely a matter of backbite. 00:10:02.250 --> 00:10:04.223 align:middle line:84% The poet John Ashbery and I met once 00:10:04.223 --> 00:10:05.640 align:middle line:84% in front of his apartment building 00:10:05.640 --> 00:10:08.610 align:middle line:90% in Chelsea on a hot summer day. 00:10:08.610 --> 00:10:11.250 align:middle line:84% I was just getting off my bike to run an errand. 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:14.370 align:middle line:84% He invited me up to his place for a cool drink. 00:10:14.370 --> 00:10:16.260 align:middle line:84% Some weeks later, we exchanged books. 00:10:16.260 --> 00:10:19.260 align:middle line:84% I gave him my autobiography, Fredi & Shirl & The Kids. 00:10:19.260 --> 00:10:21.900 align:middle line:84% He gave me A Nest of Ninnies, which he wrote 00:10:21.900 --> 00:10:23.910 align:middle line:90% with the poet James Schuyler. 00:10:23.910 --> 00:10:26.760 align:middle line:84% We sit together on couches in his comfortable though somewhat 00:10:26.760 --> 00:10:30.000 align:middle line:84% frumpy living room, as though divided by opposite sides 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:31.650 align:middle line:90% of a big white picket fence. 00:10:31.650 --> 00:10:33.840 align:middle line:84% I tell him I admire his poetry of time 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:35.970 align:middle line:90% as a sort of white noise a lot. 00:10:35.970 --> 00:10:38.970 align:middle line:84% He tells me that as an almost unknown in Paris, 00:10:38.970 --> 00:10:41.010 align:middle line:84% he also had to do a lot of hack work. 00:10:41.010 --> 00:10:43.920 align:middle line:84% Crime stories, art crit, some porn, 00:10:43.920 --> 00:10:47.070 align:middle line:84% I believe, sometimes under assumed names. 00:10:47.070 --> 00:10:49.770 align:middle line:84% Under assumed names, both poets have chosen at times 00:10:49.770 --> 00:10:51.720 align:middle line:90% to be fugitives. 00:10:51.720 --> 00:10:54.240 align:middle line:84% I learned the limits of literary friendliness 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:59.400 align:middle line:84% one summer at Yaddo, a writer's sanctuary in Saratoga. 00:10:59.400 --> 00:11:01.500 align:middle line:84% I was sitting by the pool, sunbathing 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:06.060 align:middle line:84% after a morning of writing, when the critic Alfred Kazin dropped 00:11:06.060 --> 00:11:10.200 align:middle line:84% his big, heavy medicine ball right on my stomach. 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:12.150 align:middle line:90% I lost my breath. 00:11:12.150 --> 00:11:14.280 align:middle line:90% Surely, it was all an accident? 00:11:14.280 --> 00:11:16.410 align:middle line:84% To prove it was not, Mr. Kazin took 00:11:16.410 --> 00:11:20.080 align:middle line:84% a deep breath, picked up his ball again, tucked in his gut, 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.080 align:middle line:84% and then dropped 25 more pounds of leather 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:24.150 align:middle line:90% down on my stomach again. 00:11:24.150 --> 00:11:25.367 align:middle line:90% "Look, Alfred," I said. 00:11:25.367 --> 00:11:26.700 align:middle line:90% "What's the matter?" he replied. 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:27.780 align:middle line:90% "Can't you take it?" 00:11:27.780 --> 00:11:30.752 align:middle line:90% 00:11:30.752 --> 00:11:32.460 align:middle line:84% "What's the matter with Elman over there? 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:34.740 align:middle line:84% He's certainly not being very friendly, is he?" 00:11:34.740 --> 00:11:35.790 align:middle line:90% I heard Kaz-- 00:11:35.790 --> 00:11:39.180 align:middle line:84% Kazin's septum deviating over dinner that night 00:11:39.180 --> 00:11:41.340 align:middle line:90% from another table. 00:11:41.340 --> 00:11:43.950 align:middle line:84% The poet Jean Garrigue explained to me at dessert 00:11:43.950 --> 00:11:46.380 align:middle line:84% that Alfred had always been very shy. 00:11:46.380 --> 00:11:49.440 align:middle line:84% Dropping the ball was just his way of making friends. 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:52.350 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:11:52.350 --> 00:11:55.140 align:middle line:84% This is a book about some famous and accomplished people 00:11:55.140 --> 00:11:58.320 align:middle line:84% I have known over a long time, and some less well, 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:03.070 align:middle line:84% in the course of my career as a working writer. 00:12:03.070 --> 00:12:06.060 align:middle line:90% So that's the prologue. 00:12:06.060 --> 00:12:10.260 align:middle line:84% The next thing I'm going to read is a short story, very short. 00:12:10.260 --> 00:12:12.750 align:middle line:84% What we call a short short, I guess. 00:12:12.750 --> 00:12:13.488 align:middle line:90% Short, short. 00:12:13.488 --> 00:12:16.360 align:middle line:90% 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:19.590 align:middle line:84% This is the a story from a collection of stories 00:12:19.590 --> 00:12:25.500 align:middle line:84% I've been writing for some time called "Disco Frito," which 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:28.560 align:middle line:90% means fried discotheque. 00:12:28.560 --> 00:12:35.220 align:middle line:84% It's set in Nicaragua in 1978, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83. 00:12:35.220 --> 00:12:36.795 align:middle line:84% I was going there up until about '84. 00:12:36.795 --> 00:12:40.800 align:middle line:90% 00:12:40.800 --> 00:12:47.940 align:middle line:84% This story is something I witnessed myself. 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:50.580 align:middle line:84% But I've also had any number of Nicaraguans 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:52.440 align:middle line:90% tell me stories like this. 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:54.660 align:middle line:84% And it's because of that I decided finally 00:12:54.660 --> 00:13:00.510 align:middle line:84% to make a little scene, a little short story out of it. 00:13:00.510 --> 00:13:02.280 align:middle line:90% It's called "Loving Strangers." 00:13:02.280 --> 00:13:05.650 align:middle line:90% 00:13:05.650 --> 00:13:09.820 align:middle line:84% In the middle of the night, he heard a blabbering loud voice, 00:13:09.820 --> 00:13:13.000 align:middle line:84% crying out voice, which tore him from sleep. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:17.500 align:middle line:84% He went to the window and peered down into the darkened street. 00:13:17.500 --> 00:13:19.360 align:middle line:90% Footsteps slapped the pavement. 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:21.460 align:middle line:84% Metal jiggled as though someone were getting off, 00:13:21.460 --> 00:13:23.590 align:middle line:90% ready to fire off something. 00:13:23.590 --> 00:13:25.870 align:middle line:84% He looked directly below just as a dark figure 00:13:25.870 --> 00:13:27.400 align:middle line:90% ran across his vision. 00:13:27.400 --> 00:13:27.940 align:middle line:90% "Who is it? 00:13:27.940 --> 00:13:29.430 align:middle line:90% What are you doing?" 00:13:29.430 --> 00:13:32.380 align:middle line:84% Ismelda asked from her slumber next to him. 00:13:32.380 --> 00:13:35.950 align:middle line:84% "It must be the police again," Salvador said, "of the militia. 00:13:35.950 --> 00:13:38.590 align:middle line:90% They couldn't be so far south." 00:13:38.590 --> 00:13:39.940 align:middle line:90% "I don't understand you." 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:43.480 align:middle line:84% She was sitting up in the bed, draped inside the bed clothes. 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:45.310 align:middle line:84% "The insurgents," he pointed out. 00:13:45.310 --> 00:13:47.470 align:middle line:84% "I thought it could be one of them." 00:13:47.470 --> 00:13:49.150 align:middle line:90% "You mean the enemy?" 00:13:49.150 --> 00:13:51.190 align:middle line:84% Her voice carried with it a correction. 00:13:51.190 --> 00:13:53.910 align:middle line:84% "The enemy," he repeated her words. 00:13:53.910 --> 00:13:56.770 align:middle line:84% "Simeon," she added softly, calling him by a love name. 00:13:56.770 --> 00:13:58.840 align:middle line:90% "Come back to bed." 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:01.300 align:middle line:90% Gunfire blasted against a wall. 00:14:01.300 --> 00:14:03.400 align:middle line:90% "Simeon, back to bed," she said. 00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:05.620 align:middle line:84% He turned away from the window in a crouch. 00:14:05.620 --> 00:14:08.500 align:middle line:84% "It could be thieves," he shrugged at her softly. 00:14:08.500 --> 00:14:10.150 align:middle line:90% "Come back to bed." 00:14:10.150 --> 00:14:11.920 align:middle line:84% "He ran right in front of our door. 00:14:11.920 --> 00:14:14.080 align:middle line:90% He could be somebody we know." 00:14:14.080 --> 00:14:17.410 align:middle line:84% "We don't know anybody anymore, " she reminded him. 00:14:17.410 --> 00:14:18.160 align:middle line:90% "Come away. 00:14:18.160 --> 00:14:19.510 align:middle line:90% Come now." 00:14:19.510 --> 00:14:22.780 align:middle line:84% He climbed in beside her and reached for her body. 00:14:22.780 --> 00:14:25.300 align:middle line:84% She allowed him to draw her close. 00:14:25.300 --> 00:14:27.550 align:middle line:90% "Mano," she said, like a friend. 00:14:27.550 --> 00:14:30.100 align:middle line:84% "You have to watch yourself close all the time. 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:31.660 align:middle line:90% This isn't your fight." 00:14:31.660 --> 00:14:35.500 align:middle line:84% She stroked his hair and then his back with her hands. 00:14:35.500 --> 00:14:38.590 align:middle line:84% "People are dying all the time of strokes, too, you know," 00:14:38.590 --> 00:14:41.140 align:middle line:90% she laughed at him softly. 00:14:41.140 --> 00:14:43.060 align:middle line:84% When he kissed her dark warm shoulder, 00:14:43.060 --> 00:14:46.420 align:middle line:84% she sighed and pulled her gown below his avid mouth. 00:14:46.420 --> 00:14:49.510 align:middle line:84% He smelled beef when it's freshly slaughtered. 00:14:49.510 --> 00:14:53.110 align:middle line:84% She kissed his face and slid backwards against the pillows. 00:14:53.110 --> 00:14:55.630 align:middle line:84% All the time in the dark streets, a man 00:14:55.630 --> 00:14:58.340 align:middle line:84% was flushed from one hiding place to another. 00:14:58.340 --> 00:15:00.880 align:middle line:90% There were cries, more shots. 00:15:00.880 --> 00:15:02.980 align:middle line:84% When he entered her, she cried out 00:15:02.980 --> 00:15:07.210 align:middle line:84% just as automatic rifle fire exploded two blocks away 00:15:07.210 --> 00:15:08.800 align:middle line:90% in the Indian marketplace. 00:15:08.800 --> 00:15:13.000 align:middle line:90% 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.618 align:middle line:84% The main portion of this reading is this fairly-- 00:15:16.618 --> 00:15:17.660 align:middle line:90% well, it's not that long. 00:15:17.660 --> 00:15:20.320 align:middle line:84% It's a story, new story I've written, 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:23.080 align:middle line:84% which is nothing much I can tell you about it. 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:24.850 align:middle line:90% So I'll just read it. 00:15:24.850 --> 00:15:29.770 align:middle line:84% It's called "Almonds with the Children of Long Bay." 00:15:29.770 --> 00:15:32.900 align:middle line:84% Long Bay is a little town in the Caribbean. 00:15:32.900 --> 00:15:44.670 align:middle line:90% 00:15:44.670 --> 00:15:47.730 align:middle line:84% The water gleamed like burnt oil. 00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:49.800 align:middle line:90% Burnt without flames. 00:15:49.800 --> 00:15:53.130 align:middle line:84% It gave off its fumes to the still air, almost black, 00:15:53.130 --> 00:15:56.340 align:middle line:84% splotched dark blue, banded close to shore 00:15:56.340 --> 00:15:59.940 align:middle line:84% with the gray, purple shadows from palm and almond trees, 00:15:59.940 --> 00:16:04.350 align:middle line:84% surging gently inland from the surf's mile movements. 00:16:04.350 --> 00:16:06.930 align:middle line:84% The beach at Long Bay was like something thrown down 00:16:06.930 --> 00:16:10.080 align:middle line:84% suddenly against the water: behind a narrow violet 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:12.630 align:middle line:84% strip of sand, sparkling here and there, 00:16:12.630 --> 00:16:16.740 align:middle line:84% a number of pistachio, lemon, and stark white bungalows 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:20.130 align:middle line:84% blinked among the palms in one direction; a glance down 00:16:20.130 --> 00:16:22.350 align:middle line:84% the other end of the cove showed a wreckage 00:16:22.350 --> 00:16:25.350 align:middle line:84% of shacks, flotsam of chicken coops, 00:16:25.350 --> 00:16:28.590 align:middle line:90% battered old cars, beach dories. 00:16:28.590 --> 00:16:30.150 align:middle line:84% Seated in the center of the cove, 00:16:30.150 --> 00:16:33.990 align:middle line:84% on a piece of beach five foot from the water's edge, 00:16:33.990 --> 00:16:36.480 align:middle line:90% George Kendril felt protected. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:40.470 align:middle line:84% The sky was this perfect untroubled Caribbean azure, 00:16:40.470 --> 00:16:42.630 align:middle line:84% and the lowest inklings of the Blue Hills 00:16:42.630 --> 00:16:44.790 align:middle line:84% which began at the farthest end of the beach, 00:16:44.790 --> 00:16:47.310 align:middle line:84% though lush with cultivations, seemed 00:16:47.310 --> 00:16:50.940 align:middle line:84% like stage flats erected, if he ever glanced heavenward, 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:53.910 align:middle line:84% to ensure the privacy of his good moods. 00:16:53.910 --> 00:16:56.940 align:middle line:84% Kendril was dressed solely in white gym shorts. 00:16:56.940 --> 00:17:00.090 align:middle line:84% No longer red, he was brownish, orangey, peeling, 00:17:00.090 --> 00:17:02.490 align:middle line:84% with bare long legs and big feet that 00:17:02.490 --> 00:17:06.000 align:middle line:84% were resting only a little lower than his perfectly wide moonish 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:06.990 align:middle line:90% grin. 00:17:06.990 --> 00:17:09.060 align:middle line:90% He wore no sunglasses. 00:17:09.060 --> 00:17:11.250 align:middle line:84% For some minutes, he felt at peace with himself 00:17:11.250 --> 00:17:13.800 align:middle line:84% in the world, very calm and very still. 00:17:13.800 --> 00:17:16.619 align:middle line:84% But after surveying all the hairy trails and arroyos 00:17:16.619 --> 00:17:19.470 align:middle line:84% on his chest, his softly swelling belly, 00:17:19.470 --> 00:17:21.599 align:middle line:84% he cracked his face and neck slightly up 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:24.510 align:middle line:84% in a squint of that blinding hot sun 00:17:24.510 --> 00:17:28.050 align:middle line:84% to watch the five small Black children again climbing 00:17:28.050 --> 00:17:29.670 align:middle line:84% among the branches of the tallest 00:17:29.670 --> 00:17:33.990 align:middle line:84% almond tree and the patio of the nearly abandoned motel 00:17:33.990 --> 00:17:37.350 align:middle line:84% where he'd been staying for more than a week. 00:17:37.350 --> 00:17:40.740 align:middle line:84% The children were after nuts, just like yesterday. 00:17:40.740 --> 00:17:43.500 align:middle line:84% A scattering of shells and half rotted hulls 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:45.840 align:middle line:84% stained and pocked the flagstones 00:17:45.840 --> 00:17:48.630 align:middle line:84% beneath that one great broad-leafed tree 00:17:48.630 --> 00:17:52.620 align:middle line:84% which was still quite overladen, ready for harvesting. 00:17:52.620 --> 00:17:55.680 align:middle line:84% On the second day of their attack against the almond tree, 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:57.840 align:middle line:84% the children were clearly not playing. 00:17:57.840 --> 00:17:58.890 align:middle line:90% They wanted food. 00:17:58.890 --> 00:18:00.370 align:middle line:90% They were hungry. 00:18:00.370 --> 00:18:02.400 align:middle line:84% They worked over each limb and branch 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.670 align:middle line:84% with a desperate joyfulness, one climbing monkey-like 00:18:05.670 --> 00:18:09.060 align:middle line:84% along the boughs and shaking, and the four others harvesting. 00:18:09.060 --> 00:18:12.540 align:middle line:84% And they took turns up high, the others leaving small mounds 00:18:12.540 --> 00:18:14.100 align:middle line:90% at the foot of the tree. 00:18:14.100 --> 00:18:15.780 align:middle line:84% After a while, more than one child 00:18:15.780 --> 00:18:18.270 align:middle line:84% would be up among the branches, raining down nuts 00:18:18.270 --> 00:18:20.040 align:middle line:90% at the feet of the others. 00:18:20.040 --> 00:18:21.840 align:middle line:84% Kendril observed they did not often 00:18:21.840 --> 00:18:24.360 align:middle line:84% stop to eat any of their precious harvest. 00:18:24.360 --> 00:18:26.400 align:middle line:84% As soon as a new rain of nuts fell, 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:29.100 align:middle line:84% they were sorted and swept into those little mounds 00:18:29.100 --> 00:18:31.830 align:middle line:84% or else gathered among the faded upturned skirts of two 00:18:31.830 --> 00:18:36.030 align:middle line:84% little girls, about 8 and 10, who ran about beneath the tree 00:18:36.030 --> 00:18:38.910 align:middle line:84% with their brothers and their friends, their bellies bulging, 00:18:38.910 --> 00:18:41.580 align:middle line:84% their bare scrawny thighs agleam. 00:18:41.580 --> 00:18:44.460 align:middle line:84% Very little was said, though there was a lot of laughter. 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:46.890 align:middle line:84% And an occasional command given in Creole 00:18:46.890 --> 00:18:50.430 align:middle line:84% from an older sister of the gang, tall, loose, really quite 00:18:50.430 --> 00:18:54.030 align:middle line:84% handsome, a grown woman who stood some paces away, 00:18:54.030 --> 00:18:57.180 align:middle line:84% smoking at a thick hand-rolled cigarette. 00:18:57.180 --> 00:19:00.390 align:middle line:84% When she was not supervising the kids in the tree, 00:19:00.390 --> 00:19:02.490 align:middle line:84% she would glance shyly up at Kendril, 00:19:02.490 --> 00:19:04.620 align:middle line:84% and then look away again, as if not 00:19:04.620 --> 00:19:07.290 align:middle line:84% wishing him to know she was interested in him. 00:19:07.290 --> 00:19:09.300 align:middle line:84% He thought she was very attractive-- 00:19:09.300 --> 00:19:12.300 align:middle line:84% the high brow, the long sculptured face, 00:19:12.300 --> 00:19:15.780 align:middle line:84% those loose limbs, warm, dark skin, 00:19:15.780 --> 00:19:19.920 align:middle line:84% her full breasts beneath a thin sketchy black house dress. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:22.230 align:middle line:84% The thought that she was probably not wearing anything 00:19:22.230 --> 00:19:25.080 align:middle line:84% under her dress also excited him. 00:19:25.080 --> 00:19:26.850 align:middle line:84% He was more than just curious about her 00:19:26.850 --> 00:19:29.820 align:middle line:84% and the children, drawn to her handsome good looks, 00:19:29.820 --> 00:19:33.270 align:middle line:84% but unable to engage the young woman in an open flirtation, 00:19:33.270 --> 00:19:37.290 align:middle line:84% he turned back toward Janine, his traveling companion. 00:19:37.290 --> 00:19:39.930 align:middle line:84% "Nice," he sighed, and stretched out his legs. 00:19:39.930 --> 00:19:42.360 align:middle line:84% "Oh, fun and game," she smiled back. 00:19:42.360 --> 00:19:44.730 align:middle line:84% She wore a light blue silk bikini. 00:19:44.730 --> 00:19:48.210 align:middle line:84% She had boyishly cropped sandy hair, bright blue eyes, 00:19:48.210 --> 00:19:50.550 align:middle line:90% pretty bird-like aplomb. 00:19:50.550 --> 00:19:52.890 align:middle line:84% Seated in a beach chair identical to his own 00:19:52.890 --> 00:19:55.530 align:middle line:84% perhaps 10 paces apart, when she was not 00:19:55.530 --> 00:19:58.380 align:middle line:84% trying to attract him to be more than simply his companion, 00:19:58.380 --> 00:20:00.810 align:middle line:84% Janine could be quite custodial with Kendril. 00:20:00.810 --> 00:20:03.600 align:middle line:90% Now she asked, "Hungry?" 00:20:03.600 --> 00:20:05.370 align:middle line:84% He continued to stare at her, so pretty 00:20:05.370 --> 00:20:08.490 align:middle line:84% and clean without a hair out of place, well-groomed, trim. 00:20:08.490 --> 00:20:12.900 align:middle line:84% Good bones, slim ankles, fine, well bred, all knowing. 00:20:12.900 --> 00:20:15.390 align:middle line:84% She obviously enjoyed being pleasant toward him whenever 00:20:15.390 --> 00:20:17.550 align:middle line:84% he let it be, as though her question to him 00:20:17.550 --> 00:20:20.250 align:middle line:84% now was an irrelevance he could disregard, though 00:20:20.250 --> 00:20:21.820 align:middle line:90% not her smiling. 00:20:21.820 --> 00:20:23.580 align:middle line:84% "Are you hungry?" she asked again 00:20:23.580 --> 00:20:27.450 align:middle line:84% in the exact same tone of voice, raising a plastic glass 00:20:27.450 --> 00:20:30.930 align:middle line:84% of pink rum punch to her face, tilting up her chin, 00:20:30.930 --> 00:20:34.650 align:middle line:84% draining it all the way to the bottom, before smiling again. 00:20:34.650 --> 00:20:35.400 align:middle line:90% He shook his head. 00:20:35.400 --> 00:20:36.360 align:middle line:90% "Are you?" 00:20:36.360 --> 00:20:39.810 align:middle line:84% He felt he was being appeasing, slightly cowardly. 00:20:39.810 --> 00:20:42.690 align:middle line:84% Ever since he'd noticed the Black woman three days ago, 00:20:42.690 --> 00:20:45.200 align:middle line:84% he could barely bring himself to look at Janine openly 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:47.840 align:middle line:84% in daylight, her overseeing presence. 00:20:47.840 --> 00:20:50.330 align:middle line:84% He was also ashamed somewhat, aware 00:20:50.330 --> 00:20:52.760 align:middle line:84% she knew what was going on and would never say anything 00:20:52.760 --> 00:20:54.530 align:middle line:90% to him about it directly. 00:20:54.530 --> 00:20:58.430 align:middle line:84% But now, she spoke to him with just a little pout of the lips. 00:20:58.430 --> 00:21:00.650 align:middle line:84% "Those children aren't just playing, George. 00:21:00.650 --> 00:21:03.380 align:middle line:90% They're hungry, real hungry." 00:21:03.380 --> 00:21:06.860 align:middle line:84% Was she emphasizing that last phrase with the vernacular 00:21:06.860 --> 00:21:08.270 align:middle line:90% to warn him of something? 00:21:08.270 --> 00:21:10.370 align:middle line:90% Discourage him perhaps? 00:21:10.370 --> 00:21:13.250 align:middle line:84% Kendril didn't like being so closely supervised, 00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:16.460 align:middle line:84% but he knew talk would be less threatening to her than more 00:21:16.460 --> 00:21:18.386 align:middle line:90% silence at this point. 00:21:18.386 --> 00:21:20.180 align:middle line:84% "One would think so," he observed, 00:21:20.180 --> 00:21:23.120 align:middle line:84% as if a little too blithely, stuffy from exposure 00:21:23.120 --> 00:21:24.410 align:middle line:90% to the sun. 00:21:24.410 --> 00:21:27.860 align:middle line:84% "Do you suppose big sister said fetch me some nuts for supper 00:21:27.860 --> 00:21:29.720 align:middle line:90% or there'll be no supper?" 00:21:29.720 --> 00:21:32.300 align:middle line:84% "She might be their mother," Janine advised. 00:21:32.300 --> 00:21:33.960 align:middle line:90% "She's old enough." 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:35.360 align:middle line:90% "Oh, do you think so?" 00:21:35.360 --> 00:21:37.580 align:middle line:84% He was really angry with her, and hoped 00:21:37.580 --> 00:21:39.470 align:middle line:84% she was trying to convince herself as well 00:21:39.470 --> 00:21:41.690 align:middle line:90% as him by being so catty. 00:21:41.690 --> 00:21:43.430 align:middle line:84% Frowning back at him a little fearfully, 00:21:43.430 --> 00:21:46.280 align:middle line:84% Janine said, "I don't need to tell you they get pregnant 00:21:46.280 --> 00:21:47.810 align:middle line:90% very young down here." 00:21:47.810 --> 00:21:49.520 align:middle line:84% "I know that, but not that young. 00:21:49.520 --> 00:21:51.530 align:middle line:90% I mean, so many times," he said. 00:21:51.530 --> 00:21:52.610 align:middle line:90% "She couldn't be. 00:21:52.610 --> 00:21:56.090 align:middle line:84% She's just much too young, too slim and pretty." 00:21:56.090 --> 00:21:57.380 align:middle line:90% There. 00:21:57.380 --> 00:22:01.220 align:middle line:84% His attraction was published for both of them to hear and edit. 00:22:01.220 --> 00:22:02.750 align:middle line:90% "You do like her, don't you?" 00:22:02.750 --> 00:22:04.280 align:middle line:90% Janine said. 00:22:04.280 --> 00:22:06.740 align:middle line:84% Kendril didn't want to feel himself blush. 00:22:06.740 --> 00:22:10.220 align:middle line:84% He resisted the feeling without knowing 00:22:10.220 --> 00:22:12.020 align:middle line:90% what was happening to his face. 00:22:12.020 --> 00:22:14.270 align:middle line:84% "Well, don't defend her," Janine said, turning away, 00:22:14.270 --> 00:22:15.450 align:middle line:90% annoyed, after a while. 00:22:15.450 --> 00:22:18.080 align:middle line:84% "Because I really wasn't attacking her." 00:22:18.080 --> 00:22:20.360 align:middle line:84% She was staring down the beach toward the cabanas 00:22:20.360 --> 00:22:23.703 align:middle line:84% and he found himself counting hairs again on his chest. 00:22:23.703 --> 00:22:24.620 align:middle line:90% "Never mind," he said. 00:22:24.620 --> 00:22:26.090 align:middle line:90% "Just let's forget it." 00:22:26.090 --> 00:22:27.980 align:middle line:90% "That's fine with me." 00:22:27.980 --> 00:22:30.110 align:middle line:90% The surf sashayed. 00:22:30.110 --> 00:22:32.810 align:middle line:84% The cries of the children were feverish a moment. 00:22:32.810 --> 00:22:36.500 align:middle line:84% A shadow crossed his lap, as if his head had sunk on him a bit. 00:22:36.500 --> 00:22:38.360 align:middle line:84% The branches of the almond tree shook 00:22:38.360 --> 00:22:40.430 align:middle line:90% and swayed once more, wildly. 00:22:40.430 --> 00:22:43.280 align:middle line:84% Kendril saw two more of the children ascend the trunk 00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:45.080 align:middle line:84% and then the topmost part of the tree 00:22:45.080 --> 00:22:47.360 align:middle line:84% seemed to bend under all their pulling weight 00:22:47.360 --> 00:22:50.810 align:middle line:84% so that their guardian, and one little girl left on the ground, 00:22:50.810 --> 00:22:54.320 align:middle line:84% began to shout at them in Creole some words of caution. 00:22:54.320 --> 00:22:56.840 align:middle line:84% He thought it sounded like, see the waveys, 00:22:56.840 --> 00:22:58.880 align:middle line:84% couldn't make out their exact words. 00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:02.120 align:middle line:84% but the woman's voice came very loud and harsh and throaty, 00:23:02.120 --> 00:23:03.650 align:middle line:90% without any lilt to it. 00:23:03.650 --> 00:23:06.650 align:middle line:84% And that disabused him of some of his fantasy about her 00:23:06.650 --> 00:23:07.610 align:middle line:90% for the moment. 00:23:07.610 --> 00:23:09.470 align:middle line:84% The climber nearest the ground descended. 00:23:09.470 --> 00:23:10.970 align:middle line:90% A few nuts fell, too. 00:23:10.970 --> 00:23:13.400 align:middle line:84% And he again squinted off toward the ocean. 00:23:13.400 --> 00:23:15.110 align:middle line:90% Janine rose from her chair. 00:23:15.110 --> 00:23:17.150 align:middle line:84% She tugged at her panties and walked over 00:23:17.150 --> 00:23:18.800 align:middle line:84% to the ruffled water's edge, seeming 00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:21.830 align:middle line:84% very birdlike and necky when her toes touched the water 00:23:21.830 --> 00:23:22.880 align:middle line:90% and she wiggled them. 00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:23.600 align:middle line:90% "Lovely." 00:23:23.600 --> 00:23:27.470 align:middle line:84% She seemed to make song: bent herself low over the waves 00:23:27.470 --> 00:23:29.810 align:middle line:84% and adjusted her straps, with the cup of her right hand 00:23:29.810 --> 00:23:32.750 align:middle line:84% splashed at her shoulders here small round breasts. 00:23:32.750 --> 00:23:34.490 align:middle line:84% She splashed herself again and again 00:23:34.490 --> 00:23:36.350 align:middle line:84% and cooed and giggled and sighed. 00:23:36.350 --> 00:23:38.480 align:middle line:84% She was putting on such a good show. 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:39.770 align:middle line:90% She liked being watched. 00:23:39.770 --> 00:23:41.250 align:middle line:90% She was an actress. 00:23:41.250 --> 00:23:44.020 align:middle line:84% She wanted George to look at her and never look away. 00:23:44.020 --> 00:23:45.770 align:middle line:84% But really, that was not part of the rules 00:23:45.770 --> 00:23:48.103 align:middle line:84% they'd made in advance on coming to this island together 00:23:48.103 --> 00:23:50.240 align:middle line:84% and she knew it, and, in a little while, 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:51.950 align:middle line:84% stopped and held her head up high 00:23:51.950 --> 00:23:55.340 align:middle line:84% and was necky and pouted when she saw George gazing off 00:23:55.340 --> 00:23:56.780 align:middle line:90% into space again. 00:23:56.780 --> 00:23:57.920 align:middle line:90% "Really?" he wanted to say. 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:00.740 align:middle line:84% "You're being so childish, being such a little girl." 00:24:00.740 --> 00:24:03.410 align:middle line:84% But he followed the movements out of the corners of his eyes 00:24:03.410 --> 00:24:06.500 align:middle line:84% and said nothing because he knew the woman and those children 00:24:06.500 --> 00:24:09.320 align:middle line:84% were still hanging about and might overhear. 00:24:09.320 --> 00:24:11.540 align:middle line:84% Had it not been more or less mutually decided 00:24:11.540 --> 00:24:14.780 align:middle line:84% upon with Janine that they would travel together as friends, 00:24:14.780 --> 00:24:18.020 align:middle line:84% chums, eat together, of course sleep together, but just not 00:24:18.020 --> 00:24:19.568 align:middle line:90% get too involved. 00:24:19.568 --> 00:24:21.860 align:middle line:84% "Let's just try to have some fun together for a while," 00:24:21.860 --> 00:24:24.152 align:middle line:84% Kendril could remember hearing himself, more than once, 00:24:24.152 --> 00:24:25.130 align:middle line:90% "for a change. 00:24:25.130 --> 00:24:27.080 align:middle line:90% I think we can both use that." 00:24:27.080 --> 00:24:28.700 align:middle line:90% "Of course, some fun. 00:24:28.700 --> 00:24:30.510 align:middle line:90% That would be nice." 00:24:30.510 --> 00:24:33.020 align:middle line:84% He never agreed to notice her moods. 00:24:33.020 --> 00:24:35.660 align:middle line:84% The sex had been good together, the air of their company 00:24:35.660 --> 00:24:36.980 align:middle line:90% bright and easy. 00:24:36.980 --> 00:24:40.200 align:middle line:84% She seemed as content as he believed he was. 00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:42.140 align:middle line:84% But in the Capitol, their first night, 00:24:42.140 --> 00:24:45.020 align:middle line:84% she almost went off with a handsome Black hustler 00:24:45.020 --> 00:24:48.260 align:middle line:84% who promised to show her the best reggae and street dancing 00:24:48.260 --> 00:24:50.390 align:middle line:90% and some dynamite high green. 00:24:50.390 --> 00:24:51.290 align:middle line:90% "You know beauty. 00:24:51.290 --> 00:24:52.910 align:middle line:90% Real spliffs." 00:24:52.910 --> 00:24:55.520 align:middle line:84% George felt tight and abused by the invitation 00:24:55.520 --> 00:24:58.400 align:middle line:84% to turn on without him as he watched it transpire, 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:01.670 align:middle line:84% and Janine not resisting, that he became openly angry 00:25:01.670 --> 00:25:03.290 align:middle line:90% and ordered her not to go. 00:25:03.290 --> 00:25:06.140 align:middle line:84% "I just don't like feeling left out," he explained later. 00:25:06.140 --> 00:25:07.790 align:middle line:90% "Bump on a log." 00:25:07.790 --> 00:25:10.160 align:middle line:84% George meant he didn't want their holds to be quite that 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:13.670 align:middle line:84% loose, though he did not have to be possessive because he had 00:25:13.670 --> 00:25:16.940 align:middle line:84% a sort of unwritten title to Janine's attention, squatter's 00:25:16.940 --> 00:25:19.550 align:middle line:84% rights, for the duration of their trips. 00:25:19.550 --> 00:25:22.100 align:middle line:84% They'd rented a car to drive out to Long Bay 00:25:22.100 --> 00:25:24.440 align:middle line:84% and then the thing between them heated up. 00:25:24.440 --> 00:25:27.470 align:middle line:84% Among the coconut groves and sugar fields of Moro Bay, 00:25:27.470 --> 00:25:31.100 align:middle line:84% it was hard to resist being with such a pretty available woman. 00:25:31.100 --> 00:25:33.200 align:middle line:84% They made love on beaches, bathed naked 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:35.480 align:middle line:84% near deserted coconut plantations, 00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:38.030 align:middle line:84% were with each other. and honestly happy for a while, 00:25:38.030 --> 00:25:40.640 align:middle line:84% except as soon as they were back on the road, 00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:42.200 align:middle line:90% he retreated from her again. 00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:44.290 align:middle line:84% His excuse was his fear of getting 00:25:44.290 --> 00:25:46.270 align:middle line:84% lost in a strange part of the island. 00:25:46.270 --> 00:25:48.340 align:middle line:84% He also wanted to draw back, he thought, 00:25:48.340 --> 00:25:50.980 align:middle line:84% with some self-loathing, having once again 00:25:50.980 --> 00:25:52.930 align:middle line:90% established his rights to her. 00:25:52.930 --> 00:25:55.450 align:middle line:84% Now he blinked at her coldly near the water's edge 00:25:55.450 --> 00:25:56.620 align:middle line:90% at Long Bay. 00:25:56.620 --> 00:25:58.570 align:middle line:84% "You'll be swimming again, I suppose." 00:25:58.570 --> 00:25:59.900 align:middle line:90% "If you will." 00:25:59.900 --> 00:26:01.780 align:middle line:90% She smiled toward him. 00:26:01.780 --> 00:26:04.930 align:middle line:84% Ever since Moro Bay, she'd been guarded with him like that. 00:26:04.930 --> 00:26:07.090 align:middle line:84% Her attentions toward him, a weak pulse, 00:26:07.090 --> 00:26:09.550 align:middle line:90% were constant, debilitating. 00:26:09.550 --> 00:26:12.520 align:middle line:84% Kendril found her come-ons more disagreeable than enticing. 00:26:12.520 --> 00:26:15.730 align:middle line:84% He said, "I'd like to sit here and watch those kids, you know. 00:26:15.730 --> 00:26:18.130 align:middle line:84% I may even sketch them after a while." 00:26:18.130 --> 00:26:19.870 align:middle line:84% "In that case," she said, as she gave 00:26:19.870 --> 00:26:22.000 align:middle line:84% an annoyed peck at all that pure bright air 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:23.680 align:middle line:84% with her pretty head, "I think I'll 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.320 align:middle line:84% take myself a little stroll down the beach." 00:26:26.320 --> 00:26:29.530 align:middle line:84% She went off through the sand, across the breakwater, 00:26:29.530 --> 00:26:31.180 align:middle line:90% toward the inn. 00:26:31.180 --> 00:26:34.400 align:middle line:84% "Be sure to be back by 5:00," he called after her. 00:26:34.400 --> 00:26:37.240 align:middle line:84% They were planning to drive to Port Antonio for dinner, 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:39.790 align:middle line:84% though he didn't explain, as if hoping she did not 00:26:39.790 --> 00:26:42.070 align:middle line:90% need to be reminded. 00:26:42.070 --> 00:26:43.810 align:middle line:84% Janine never turned around but waved 00:26:43.810 --> 00:26:45.910 align:middle line:84% through the air, a slim arm held high, 00:26:45.910 --> 00:26:48.700 align:middle line:84% sauntering on, very sidling, provocative, 00:26:48.700 --> 00:26:51.370 align:middle line:84% as if cooling herself down in the wind. 00:26:51.370 --> 00:26:53.590 align:middle line:84% Watching her diminishing form negotiate 00:26:53.590 --> 00:26:55.840 align:middle line:84% the rows of small private bungalows 00:26:55.840 --> 00:26:58.390 align:middle line:84% to enter the crowded public beach near the inn, 00:26:58.390 --> 00:27:00.370 align:middle line:84% he felt slightly peeved again by what 00:27:00.370 --> 00:27:02.890 align:middle line:84% seemed another reproach intended for him. 00:27:02.890 --> 00:27:04.300 align:middle line:90% Then the anger died. 00:27:04.300 --> 00:27:06.790 align:middle line:84% He was grateful just to be by himself. 00:27:06.790 --> 00:27:09.610 align:middle line:84% He could just be good to himself for a while. 00:27:09.610 --> 00:27:12.340 align:middle line:84% Gradually, he let his head rise from his shoulders, 00:27:12.340 --> 00:27:14.290 align:middle line:84% felt the tension leaving his neck, 00:27:14.290 --> 00:27:16.930 align:middle line:84% and then he heard the children rustling in their tree, 00:27:16.930 --> 00:27:19.300 align:middle line:84% and turned and saw that they and their guardian 00:27:19.300 --> 00:27:21.220 align:middle line:84% had also stopped what they were doing 00:27:21.220 --> 00:27:23.620 align:middle line:90% to watch Janine's departure. 00:27:23.620 --> 00:27:26.170 align:middle line:84% There was a sudden almost syrupy hot thickness 00:27:26.170 --> 00:27:27.940 align:middle line:90% to the air about his face. 00:27:27.940 --> 00:27:29.710 align:middle line:90% They were all smiling at George. 00:27:29.710 --> 00:27:31.930 align:middle line:84% One of the little girls was bouncing up and down 00:27:31.930 --> 00:27:34.600 align:middle line:84% on a bare heels, squealing joyfully. 00:27:34.600 --> 00:27:38.410 align:middle line:84% Then the others began to bounce and make happy sounds, 00:27:38.410 --> 00:27:41.620 align:middle line:90% teasing sounds. 00:27:41.620 --> 00:27:43.450 align:middle line:84% "Now shah," said their guardian, as if she 00:27:43.450 --> 00:27:44.980 align:middle line:90% knew that she was their target. 00:27:44.980 --> 00:27:47.380 align:middle line:84% But the children quieted only for a moment. 00:27:47.380 --> 00:27:50.530 align:middle line:84% They all seem so very pleased for Kendril and their relative, 00:27:50.530 --> 00:27:53.140 align:middle line:90% now that he was alone at last. 00:27:53.140 --> 00:27:55.180 align:middle line:84% Slowly, dropping their legs down under them 00:27:55.180 --> 00:27:57.610 align:middle line:84% like large spiders, the two eldest children 00:27:57.610 --> 00:27:59.740 align:middle line:84% descended from different branches of the tree 00:27:59.740 --> 00:28:02.260 align:middle line:84% and fell and rolled about and giggled. 00:28:02.260 --> 00:28:04.570 align:middle line:84% There was a little applause, and then a lot of panic. 00:28:04.570 --> 00:28:06.700 align:middle line:84% The smallest little girl had gotten her skirt 00:28:06.700 --> 00:28:09.490 align:middle line:84% snagged on a branch so that she was more or less hanging 00:28:09.490 --> 00:28:10.960 align:middle line:90% in peril. 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:12.400 align:middle line:90% Kendril got up from his chair. 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:15.070 align:middle line:84% He saw the woman gracefully extend her long arms 00:28:15.070 --> 00:28:17.890 align:middle line:84% and on tiptoes grabbed the little girl's bottom and yank 00:28:17.890 --> 00:28:19.120 align:middle line:90% her out of the tree. 00:28:19.120 --> 00:28:21.820 align:middle line:84% She bent over the child to ask if she'd been hurt. 00:28:21.820 --> 00:28:23.680 align:middle line:90% Wildly, the girl shook her head. 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:25.300 align:middle line:84% She whispered, pulled herself away 00:28:25.300 --> 00:28:27.100 align:middle line:84% from the woman, who was pointing around 00:28:27.100 --> 00:28:29.050 align:middle line:84% a corner of one of the old buildings. 00:28:29.050 --> 00:28:31.900 align:middle line:84% The child walked to a place near where the woman pointed 00:28:31.900 --> 00:28:35.020 align:middle line:84% and in full view of Kendril lifted her skirts and squatted, 00:28:35.020 --> 00:28:38.440 align:middle line:84% a stream of dirty colored water gushing from her bottom. 00:28:38.440 --> 00:28:39.880 align:middle line:84% When the child was done, the woman 00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:41.470 align:middle line:84% gathered all of her children near 00:28:41.470 --> 00:28:43.600 align:middle line:84% and they started to walk toward Kendril 00:28:43.600 --> 00:28:45.280 align:middle line:90% with some of their nuts. 00:28:45.280 --> 00:28:46.780 align:middle line:90% "Good day to you, sir." 00:28:46.780 --> 00:28:47.590 align:middle line:90% "Good day. 00:28:47.590 --> 00:28:49.510 align:middle line:84% Lovely, isn't it," he beamed back at them, 00:28:49.510 --> 00:28:51.280 align:middle line:84% though at first he was somewhat frightened 00:28:51.280 --> 00:28:55.060 align:middle line:84% by so many bright faces, happy faces. 00:28:55.060 --> 00:28:58.300 align:middle line:84% They seemed like a reproach to his customary sense of dread 00:28:58.300 --> 00:29:01.360 align:middle line:84% and they were so easy in their beauty toward him. 00:29:01.360 --> 00:29:03.820 align:middle line:84% When they offered some nuts out of their little pink palms 00:29:03.820 --> 00:29:05.560 align:middle line:84% for him to share with them, Kendril 00:29:05.560 --> 00:29:08.110 align:middle line:84% worried about taking food from hungry mouths. 00:29:08.110 --> 00:29:10.870 align:middle line:84% But the woman, who surely must be their mother, 00:29:10.870 --> 00:29:13.360 align:middle line:84% from the broad nosed family resemblance, he now 00:29:13.360 --> 00:29:16.690 align:middle line:84% observed up close, gave him such positive encouragement 00:29:16.690 --> 00:29:18.880 align:middle line:90% with a nodding warm smile. 00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:21.920 align:middle line:84% He was infatuated with all of them once again. 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:22.420 align:middle line:90% "Take. 00:29:22.420 --> 00:29:23.740 align:middle line:90% Please take," she was saying. 00:29:23.740 --> 00:29:25.540 align:middle line:84% "You'll make the children very happy. 00:29:25.540 --> 00:29:27.550 align:middle line:90% And you'll like, if you take." 00:29:27.550 --> 00:29:28.810 align:middle line:90% Her smile was broad. 00:29:28.810 --> 00:29:32.440 align:middle line:84% It broke against her high dun cheekbones, crinkled her eyes, 00:29:32.440 --> 00:29:36.130 align:middle line:84% showed her handsome pink mouth, almost toothless. 00:29:36.130 --> 00:29:38.860 align:middle line:84% She saw he was pleased with her, and she was pleased 00:29:38.860 --> 00:29:40.720 align:middle line:90% for being handsome to him. 00:29:40.720 --> 00:29:42.970 align:middle line:84% "I assure you, sir, you will like." 00:29:42.970 --> 00:29:44.560 align:middle line:90% "No sir," Kendril said. 00:29:44.560 --> 00:29:45.670 align:middle line:90% "George." 00:29:45.670 --> 00:29:46.540 align:middle line:90% "All right, sir. 00:29:46.540 --> 00:29:47.710 align:middle line:90% My name is Barbara. 00:29:47.710 --> 00:29:49.240 align:middle line:90% Take," she insisted. 00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:51.550 align:middle line:84% He took a nut, and the children cheered. 00:29:51.550 --> 00:29:55.690 align:middle line:84% "Patrick, Lally, Sheela, Marcus, this is Mr. George." 00:29:55.690 --> 00:29:58.690 align:middle line:84% She had rattled off her children's names 00:29:58.690 --> 00:30:00.520 align:middle line:84% with so much familiar insouciance 00:30:00.520 --> 00:30:03.940 align:middle line:84% that Kendril could not locate faces as they answered to them. 00:30:03.940 --> 00:30:05.680 align:middle line:84% Though each child seemed to be smiling 00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:07.480 align:middle line:84% when his or her name was called, he 00:30:07.480 --> 00:30:10.570 align:middle line:84% realized they'd all been smiling at him for quite a long while. 00:30:10.570 --> 00:30:12.730 align:middle line:84% Kendril heard himself mumbling at a collection 00:30:12.730 --> 00:30:14.145 align:middle line:90% of smiling yams. 00:30:14.145 --> 00:30:14.770 align:middle line:90% "How do you do? 00:30:14.770 --> 00:30:15.270 align:middle line:90% George. 00:30:15.270 --> 00:30:16.300 align:middle line:90% George Kendril. 00:30:16.300 --> 00:30:17.440 align:middle line:90% George." 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:18.730 align:middle line:90% "Three cheers for George! 00:30:18.730 --> 00:30:20.620 align:middle line:84% We're all just fine," she told him then. 00:30:20.620 --> 00:30:22.208 align:middle line:90% "But please, you must take more. 00:30:22.208 --> 00:30:22.750 align:middle line:90% Take another. 00:30:22.750 --> 00:30:24.490 align:middle line:90% We picked for you." 00:30:24.490 --> 00:30:26.620 align:middle line:84% Kendril accepted a second nut and crushed 00:30:26.620 --> 00:30:28.720 align:middle line:84% the two between his fingers easily, 00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:31.420 align:middle line:84% their hard scaly rinds yielding so readily 00:30:31.420 --> 00:30:34.990 align:middle line:84% to the pressure of his thumbs that two shiny white pips, 00:30:34.990 --> 00:30:38.710 align:middle line:84% about the size of his cuticles, almost slipped from his palms 00:30:38.710 --> 00:30:41.170 align:middle line:84% before he was able to push them up toward his mouth 00:30:41.170 --> 00:30:43.890 align:middle line:90% and chew on them, studiously. 00:30:43.890 --> 00:30:46.230 align:middle line:84% The fruit was salty, and then sweet, 00:30:46.230 --> 00:30:48.450 align:middle line:84% a slightly bitter greenish taste. 00:30:48.450 --> 00:30:49.050 align:middle line:90% "Good?" 00:30:49.050 --> 00:30:51.750 align:middle line:84% All the children were screaming at him at once. 00:30:51.750 --> 00:30:52.740 align:middle line:90% "Good?" 00:30:52.740 --> 00:30:54.360 align:middle line:84% "Good as a gennip," he blinked back. 00:30:54.360 --> 00:30:57.330 align:middle line:84% They giggled and bounced up and down again, delighted he knew 00:30:57.330 --> 00:30:59.880 align:middle line:84% the names of one of their favorite local fruits. 00:30:59.880 --> 00:31:02.940 align:middle line:84% Then he heard the woman's voice, and it was rather soft and deep 00:31:02.940 --> 00:31:06.150 align:middle line:84% and thrilling to him, but just a little more schooled 00:31:06.150 --> 00:31:07.800 align:middle line:90% and English in its accent. 00:31:07.800 --> 00:31:10.770 align:middle line:84% "Really," Barbara was saying, "they are delighted for you." 00:31:10.770 --> 00:31:13.740 align:middle line:84% He felt as if she was counting herself out. 00:31:13.740 --> 00:31:14.730 align:middle line:90% "For what?" 00:31:14.730 --> 00:31:15.930 align:middle line:90% "We all are," she said. 00:31:15.930 --> 00:31:16.980 align:middle line:90% "That you like." 00:31:16.980 --> 00:31:19.230 align:middle line:84% Smiling so warmly toward him again, that he felt 00:31:19.230 --> 00:31:20.280 align:middle line:90% drawn to touch her. 00:31:20.280 --> 00:31:22.320 align:middle line:84% He wanted to reach for her, felt he already 00:31:22.320 --> 00:31:26.010 align:middle line:84% knew her in ways he had never known or trusted Janine. 00:31:26.010 --> 00:31:28.050 align:middle line:84% "Well, I certainly must return the favor," 00:31:28.050 --> 00:31:29.460 align:middle line:90% Kendril said suddenly. 00:31:29.460 --> 00:31:32.520 align:middle line:84% He got up out of his chair so that the soles of his bare feet 00:31:32.520 --> 00:31:34.860 align:middle line:84% were burning against the new sand. 00:31:34.860 --> 00:31:36.960 align:middle line:84% "Come with me," he announced, and started up 00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:39.390 align:middle line:84% the beach toward the porch of his bungalow. 00:31:39.390 --> 00:31:42.210 align:middle line:84% Once, as he led this small procession of children 00:31:42.210 --> 00:31:44.400 align:middle line:84% and their handsome guardian, Kendril 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:47.160 align:middle line:84% couldn't resist glancing off to the direction in which Janine 00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:48.360 align:middle line:90% had gone away. 00:31:48.360 --> 00:31:50.940 align:middle line:84% But he did not see her figure among the bathers 00:31:50.940 --> 00:31:53.340 align:middle line:84% nor was she off somewhere beyond the public beach 00:31:53.340 --> 00:31:56.820 align:middle line:84% that he could perceive, where the cove bent in upon itself 00:31:56.820 --> 00:32:00.750 align:middle line:84% under low hills of banana, papaya, and coconut 00:32:00.750 --> 00:32:02.130 align:middle line:90% cultivations. 00:32:02.130 --> 00:32:03.960 align:middle line:84% When he reached the wooden porch steps, 00:32:03.960 --> 00:32:06.030 align:middle line:84% he turned and said to Barbara and her children, 00:32:06.030 --> 00:32:07.680 align:middle line:90% "Make yourself comfortable here. 00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:10.320 align:middle line:84% Just wait, and I'll be right back." 00:32:10.320 --> 00:32:13.020 align:middle line:84% He went inside to find the big fruit bowl. 00:32:13.020 --> 00:32:15.720 align:middle line:84% He had Gros Michel bananas for them 00:32:15.720 --> 00:32:19.800 align:middle line:84% and soursops, green and yellow mangoes, star apples, 00:32:19.800 --> 00:32:22.710 align:middle line:84% and heavy sprays of the lime green gennip. 00:32:22.710 --> 00:32:26.010 align:middle line:84% When he came outside with that big flowered bowl heaped high 00:32:26.010 --> 00:32:29.130 align:middle line:84% with fruits, proffered between his outreaching arms, 00:32:29.130 --> 00:32:31.950 align:middle line:90% he felt himself also brimming. 00:32:31.950 --> 00:32:34.260 align:middle line:84% In the bright glare, the faces of all the children 00:32:34.260 --> 00:32:36.990 align:middle line:84% dulled on him then, as though they really 00:32:36.990 --> 00:32:38.880 align:middle line:84% did not expect immediate reimbursement 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:43.080 align:middle line:84% for their gift of a few nuts to this nice friendly person. 00:32:43.080 --> 00:32:44.880 align:middle line:84% But he thought he was being generous. 00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:47.370 align:middle line:84% They could have all they wanted and there would surely 00:32:47.370 --> 00:32:51.720 align:middle line:84% be plenty leftover for Janine with whom he bought the fruits. 00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:53.310 align:middle line:84% "Take," Kendril echoed their words. 00:32:53.310 --> 00:32:54.270 align:middle line:90% "Do take." 00:32:54.270 --> 00:32:56.190 align:middle line:84% Then Barbara said, "It's all right to take." 00:32:56.190 --> 00:32:57.840 align:middle line:90% All their faces brightened. 00:32:57.840 --> 00:33:00.930 align:middle line:84% An octopus reached for his bowl of ripe fruit. 00:33:00.930 --> 00:33:02.730 align:middle line:84% Now all of them sat about on the porch, 00:33:02.730 --> 00:33:04.470 align:middle line:84% eating the fruits and nuts noisily, 00:33:04.470 --> 00:33:07.650 align:middle line:84% wetly, making large sucking noises. 00:33:07.650 --> 00:33:09.810 align:middle line:84% Only Kendril lacked much appetite. 00:33:09.810 --> 00:33:12.090 align:middle line:84% He worried there wouldn't be enough for everybody. 00:33:12.090 --> 00:33:14.340 align:middle line:84% The children and their mother seemed ravenous. 00:33:14.340 --> 00:33:18.300 align:middle line:84% They gladly reached for seconds and thirds. 00:33:18.300 --> 00:33:20.970 align:middle line:84% The piled-up fruit in his bowl dwindled. 00:33:20.970 --> 00:33:22.530 align:middle line:84% He believed he was happy in the sun 00:33:22.530 --> 00:33:24.900 align:middle line:84% to be giving these people so much enjoyment. 00:33:24.900 --> 00:33:27.630 align:middle line:84% When there was only just one mango and a couple of gennips 00:33:27.630 --> 00:33:30.450 align:middle line:84% left in the bowl, Barbara noticed a paperback copy 00:33:30.450 --> 00:33:32.580 align:middle line:84% of a novel on the porch and picked it up 00:33:32.580 --> 00:33:34.470 align:middle line:84% and started rippling through its pages, 00:33:34.470 --> 00:33:37.440 align:middle line:84% almost blindly, with her sticky fingers. 00:33:37.440 --> 00:33:38.730 align:middle line:90% Her face was gleaming. 00:33:38.730 --> 00:33:40.770 align:middle line:90% "You are a professor?" 00:33:40.770 --> 00:33:42.030 align:middle line:90% "Artist," he explained. 00:33:42.030 --> 00:33:43.620 align:middle line:90% "I sometimes paint." 00:33:43.620 --> 00:33:45.120 align:middle line:84% He brushed at the air between them 00:33:45.120 --> 00:33:47.490 align:middle line:84% with his right hand, a rather grand flourish 00:33:47.490 --> 00:33:49.170 align:middle line:90% of brushes and strokes. 00:33:49.170 --> 00:33:52.260 align:middle line:84% "Oh," she giggled, showing her bare pink gums to him 00:33:52.260 --> 00:33:54.540 align:middle line:84% again as her face broke into another smile. 00:33:54.540 --> 00:33:56.070 align:middle line:90% "You're famous?" 00:33:56.070 --> 00:33:57.960 align:middle line:84% "Not at all, not really," he blushed. 00:33:57.960 --> 00:33:59.610 align:middle line:84% "Yes, sir, I believe you are," she 00:33:59.610 --> 00:34:02.730 align:middle line:84% insisted, and went ooh again before jabbering a few words 00:34:02.730 --> 00:34:05.040 align:middle line:84% at the children, which also made them go ooh, 00:34:05.040 --> 00:34:06.990 align:middle line:90% as if delighted with him. 00:34:06.990 --> 00:34:09.300 align:middle line:84% Kendril, for lack of any more appropriate response, 00:34:09.300 --> 00:34:10.860 align:middle line:90% brushed at the air again. 00:34:10.860 --> 00:34:14.730 align:middle line:84% Barbara oohed at him a third time, and now she too darkened. 00:34:14.730 --> 00:34:17.880 align:middle line:84% He could see the crimson rush against her brown skin, 00:34:17.880 --> 00:34:20.010 align:middle line:84% stretched tight across those cheekbones, 00:34:20.010 --> 00:34:21.900 align:middle line:84% so that it seemed to him, momentarily, 00:34:21.900 --> 00:34:24.570 align:middle line:84% his own feeling for her was being reflected back 00:34:24.570 --> 00:34:25.710 align:middle line:90% against his face. 00:34:25.710 --> 00:34:27.030 align:middle line:90% His ears burned. 00:34:27.030 --> 00:34:31.860 align:middle line:84% Bashful, he cast his glance down at his feet once more. 00:34:31.860 --> 00:34:33.840 align:middle line:84% "I came here to have a vacation," he declared, 00:34:33.840 --> 00:34:35.010 align:middle line:90% "and it's been lovely. 00:34:35.010 --> 00:34:37.920 align:middle line:84% But someday, soon, I may want to draw all of you 00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:41.429 align:middle line:84% because I think you're all so very nice and very pretty." 00:34:41.429 --> 00:34:43.920 align:middle line:84% "Thank you so much," said the littlest of the girls. 00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:45.480 align:middle line:90% The others were giggling again. 00:34:45.480 --> 00:34:48.489 align:middle line:84% Barbara said, "Yes, you must come to visit with us. 00:34:48.489 --> 00:34:50.100 align:middle line:90% Then you can draw us." 00:34:50.100 --> 00:34:51.462 align:middle line:90% "Another time maybe." 00:34:51.462 --> 00:34:52.920 align:middle line:84% "Oh, we live very close," she said. 00:34:52.920 --> 00:34:53.760 align:middle line:90% "You come with us. 00:34:53.760 --> 00:34:54.540 align:middle line:90% Now. 00:34:54.540 --> 00:34:55.800 align:middle line:90% The children will like that. 00:34:55.800 --> 00:34:57.090 align:middle line:90% Won't you, children?" 00:34:57.090 --> 00:34:58.680 align:middle line:90% "Not today." 00:34:58.680 --> 00:35:00.480 align:middle line:90% He felt tight all over again. 00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:01.620 align:middle line:90% "Oh yes, you must." 00:35:01.620 --> 00:35:02.250 align:middle line:90% "He should. 00:35:02.250 --> 00:35:03.720 align:middle line:90% He must," the children said. 00:35:03.720 --> 00:35:04.920 align:middle line:90% "But I can't today. 00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:06.720 align:middle line:90% I'm waiting for my friend." 00:35:06.720 --> 00:35:09.060 align:middle line:84% "You come," Barbara seemed a little gruff. 00:35:09.060 --> 00:35:09.900 align:middle line:90% "You'll like it. 00:35:09.900 --> 00:35:11.280 align:middle line:90% Come." 00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:13.530 align:middle line:84% He glanced across his shoulder down the beach 00:35:13.530 --> 00:35:16.240 align:middle line:84% and felt a warm hand grasp his wrist. 00:35:16.240 --> 00:35:18.150 align:middle line:90% He shrugged her off. 00:35:18.150 --> 00:35:19.440 align:middle line:90% "I'm very sorry." 00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:20.970 align:middle line:90% She drew back her hand. 00:35:20.970 --> 00:35:23.040 align:middle line:84% There was a sort of hurt in her eyes. 00:35:23.040 --> 00:35:26.730 align:middle line:84% Now he knew he'd been drawn to her by something in her, too. 00:35:26.730 --> 00:35:29.760 align:middle line:84% An eternity of mutual melancholy he might have ended here 00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:32.400 align:middle line:84% at last, if only he had not hurt himself 00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:35.820 align:middle line:90% so much now by rejecting her. 00:35:35.820 --> 00:35:38.740 align:middle line:84% "My friend, she would notice I'd gone away, wasn't here," 00:35:38.740 --> 00:35:41.130 align:middle line:84% Kendril explained, "and she would miss me." 00:35:41.130 --> 00:35:42.780 align:middle line:90% "You mean the lady?" 00:35:42.780 --> 00:35:44.880 align:middle line:84% All the children gasped and jawed at him. 00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:46.150 align:middle line:90% "Yes, I came with her. 00:35:46.150 --> 00:35:47.760 align:middle line:90% She's my friend." 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:50.160 align:middle line:84% "But we were friends," Barbara nodded glumly, 00:35:50.160 --> 00:35:51.870 align:middle line:84% and the children all gathered around her. 00:35:51.870 --> 00:35:53.850 align:middle line:90% They were all looking very sad. 00:35:53.850 --> 00:35:55.600 align:middle line:84% "The man don't wish to come, for sure," 00:35:55.600 --> 00:35:58.020 align:middle line:84% Barbara shouted crossly down the beach. 00:35:58.020 --> 00:35:59.370 align:middle line:90% "Don't you hear the man?" 00:35:59.370 --> 00:36:01.230 align:middle line:84% "Some other time," Kendril was saying. 00:36:01.230 --> 00:36:01.980 align:middle line:90% "Perhaps tomorrow. 00:36:01.980 --> 00:36:04.290 align:middle line:84% If you tell me where you live, I could come." 00:36:04.290 --> 00:36:06.220 align:middle line:90% He knew the effort was futile. 00:36:06.220 --> 00:36:08.820 align:middle line:84% They all started to walk away in a single file. 00:36:08.820 --> 00:36:09.570 align:middle line:90% "Goodbye, sir. 00:36:09.570 --> 00:36:14.670 align:middle line:84% Bye," waving at him as if he were a moth or a bug a fly, 00:36:14.670 --> 00:36:16.950 align:middle line:84% their heads cast dejectedly against their shoulders. 00:36:16.950 --> 00:36:18.120 align:middle line:90% "Goodbye." 00:36:18.120 --> 00:36:20.430 align:middle line:84% Kendril watched their procession along the beach 00:36:20.430 --> 00:36:24.540 align:middle line:84% the opposite way Janine had gone. 00:36:24.540 --> 00:36:26.610 align:middle line:84% When they disappeared behind the row of shanties 00:36:26.610 --> 00:36:29.220 align:middle line:84% near Mama Kelty's store, he felt relieved, 00:36:29.220 --> 00:36:31.470 align:middle line:90% he'd no more fruits to offer. 00:36:31.470 --> 00:36:33.720 align:middle line:84% He went to the icebox and got himself 00:36:33.720 --> 00:36:36.960 align:middle line:84% a bottle of Dragon Stout, cold and very bitter 00:36:36.960 --> 00:36:38.370 align:middle line:90% against his teeth. 00:36:38.370 --> 00:36:41.310 align:middle line:84% His face felt like a big hot stone. 00:36:41.310 --> 00:36:42.810 align:middle line:84% Kendril stayed alone on his porch 00:36:42.810 --> 00:36:45.030 align:middle line:84% all that afternoon, feeling himself 00:36:45.030 --> 00:36:48.990 align:middle line:84% as heavy, unalterable and heavy and leaden, sad. 00:36:48.990 --> 00:36:51.660 align:middle line:84% Light glinted dully on the lavender beach. 00:36:51.660 --> 00:36:54.240 align:middle line:84% Another improbably bright day was leaving him. 00:36:54.240 --> 00:36:55.800 align:middle line:90% The tide came in. 00:36:55.800 --> 00:36:58.320 align:middle line:84% He felt abandoned, or that he had missed out 00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:02.190 align:middle line:84% on a chance to defy death by becoming involved with such 00:37:02.190 --> 00:37:04.890 align:middle line:84% a band of strangers, that his body was not 00:37:04.890 --> 00:37:07.270 align:middle line:90% a grievance against his mind. 00:37:07.270 --> 00:37:11.760 align:middle line:84% And when the warm winds blew, he felt just bleary misery. 00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:16.260 align:middle line:84% Janine reappeared at dusk, a rather thin smudge at first. 00:37:16.260 --> 00:37:18.150 align:middle line:84% Her figure enlarged as it alternated 00:37:18.150 --> 00:37:22.140 align:middle line:84% with the palms along some nearby nearly deserted stretches 00:37:22.140 --> 00:37:23.400 align:middle line:90% of beach. 00:37:23.400 --> 00:37:26.040 align:middle line:84% "Hello there," she said cheerily, at last, 00:37:26.040 --> 00:37:27.960 align:middle line:84% three feet from the lowest porch step. 00:37:27.960 --> 00:37:30.210 align:middle line:90% "Been having yourself a party?" 00:37:30.210 --> 00:37:33.000 align:middle line:84% Her eyes took in shreds of mango and papaya pits, 00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:36.840 align:middle line:84% stems, skins, a bottle around the desolated fruit bowl. 00:37:36.840 --> 00:37:39.840 align:middle line:84% Her face seemed very burned and crisp and sere, 00:37:39.840 --> 00:37:41.160 align:middle line:90% her nose much to red. 00:37:41.160 --> 00:37:42.780 align:middle line:84% And there were reddish smudge marks 00:37:42.780 --> 00:37:44.790 align:middle line:84% all along her shoulders and rib cage. 00:37:44.790 --> 00:37:46.320 align:middle line:90% She was sweating. 00:37:46.320 --> 00:37:47.940 align:middle line:84% "Well," Janine said a moment later, 00:37:47.940 --> 00:37:49.890 align:middle line:84% "I'm glad you saved something for me. 00:37:49.890 --> 00:37:51.600 align:middle line:90% I guess I'll go and shower." 00:37:51.600 --> 00:37:52.950 align:middle line:90% "Janine." 00:37:52.950 --> 00:37:54.600 align:middle line:84% He was trying to stop her because she 00:37:54.600 --> 00:37:56.520 align:middle line:90% was being much too mean. 00:37:56.520 --> 00:37:58.920 align:middle line:84% This simply couldn't be another reproach. 00:37:58.920 --> 00:38:00.780 align:middle line:84% The woman wiped a hand across her face 00:38:00.780 --> 00:38:02.850 align:middle line:90% and left herself with a smile. 00:38:02.850 --> 00:38:05.850 align:middle line:84% "I see you didn't get to sketch you after all." 00:38:05.850 --> 00:38:07.080 align:middle line:90% "Have you been with someone?" 00:38:07.080 --> 00:38:08.760 align:middle line:90% Kendril demanded. 00:38:08.760 --> 00:38:10.080 align:middle line:90% She smiled on. 00:38:10.080 --> 00:38:11.130 align:middle line:90% "Of course." 00:38:11.130 --> 00:38:14.580 align:middle line:84% She started up the porch through the sliding glass doors 00:38:14.580 --> 00:38:15.690 align:middle line:90% into their bungalow. 00:38:15.690 --> 00:38:16.830 align:middle line:90% He followed her. 00:38:16.830 --> 00:38:18.870 align:middle line:90% He watched her undoing herself. 00:38:18.870 --> 00:38:21.210 align:middle line:84% He thought he could detect more red marks. 00:38:21.210 --> 00:38:23.130 align:middle line:90% He said, "Janine." 00:38:23.130 --> 00:38:23.850 align:middle line:90% "Now, George." 00:38:23.850 --> 00:38:26.040 align:middle line:84% She spun about so that she seemed scrawny, 00:38:26.040 --> 00:38:30.090 align:middle line:84% though resilient, her look determined, her mood bolstered 00:38:30.090 --> 00:38:32.730 align:middle line:90% by her afternoon away from him. 00:38:32.730 --> 00:38:34.530 align:middle line:84% "Don't you start anything," she warned. 00:38:34.530 --> 00:38:35.490 align:middle line:90% "I mean it. 00:38:35.490 --> 00:38:37.890 align:middle line:90% I really won't stand for it." 00:38:37.890 --> 00:38:40.290 align:middle line:84% The fist of anger in him unclenched. 00:38:40.290 --> 00:38:42.600 align:middle line:84% He felt warm again, despite himself. 00:38:42.600 --> 00:38:43.860 align:middle line:90% He smiled. 00:38:43.860 --> 00:38:48.240 align:middle line:84% He felt evil and very sexy, and felt quite good, and then 00:38:48.240 --> 00:38:50.880 align:middle line:90% guilty as hell about all that. 00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:53.370 align:middle line:84% "I'm not going to split hairs with you, Janine." 00:38:53.370 --> 00:38:56.010 align:middle line:90% His voice was a slur, a leer. 00:38:56.010 --> 00:38:59.940 align:middle line:84% "Hurry, because I'm feeling real lonely." 00:38:59.940 --> 00:39:03.270 align:middle line:90% Her face was an almost blank. 00:39:03.270 --> 00:39:06.570 align:middle line:84% "I'll just pop under the shower, George." 00:39:06.570 --> 00:39:07.935 align:middle line:90% Thank you very much. 00:39:07.935 --> 00:39:11.400 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:39:11.400 --> 00:39:27.735 align:middle line:90% 00:39:27.735 --> 00:39:29.642 align:middle line:90% Are there any questions? 00:39:29.642 --> 00:39:30.850 align:middle line:90% Or I guess we can talk later. 00:39:30.850 --> 00:39:39.250 align:middle line:90% 00:39:39.250 --> 00:39:42.600 align:middle line:90% [CHATTER] 00:39:42.600 --> 00:40:21.081 align:middle line:90%