Page 71 - The Myth and the Moment

Evening

me, Nathan? You need a trade to fall back on. Look at your father.
After his accident he would have been on the dole if he hadn’t
known how to lick stamps and address envelopes. Gak! What is
Kolpak up to in there? It must be evident to him that I’m not going
to give up. He’s been stalling, leading me on. To what? This carpet’s
so thick you can’t hear anyone walking on it. Just get a little closer to
the kitchen door. Say I got lost looking for the bathroom. Ha!
What’d she just say? Can’t get those dental fricatives over the general
noise level.
“—oh, hey, Lin, isn’t that too much? He’ll taste it.”
“—no—best thing—before—”
What? What are they doing!
“Yes, of course, I just thought—”
“—leave to me—I take care—”
“Okay. You know what to do.”
They’re going to poison me! In a TV dinner! Some Oriental
alkaloid, untraceable. Maybe throw me in the pool, pretend to find
me there in the morning. Maybe dump my body down by the tracks,
or in Elysian Park. Lot of good the note in my shoe will do me then!
No doubt they’ll search me and dispose of it before they dispose of
me. God, what am I going to do? Move it, that’s what. Move it! Right
out the screen door! Don’t bother closing it, just keep walking. Right.
Through the gate. Oops. No vehicle. Steal his? Station-wagon.
Locked. Just keep walking. It’s all downhill, don’t look back, you’ll
stumble. Worse than turning into a pillar of salt. It’s almost dark, no
moon; just street lights every few houses. I can hide if they try to
follow me. Corner. No need to think; just keep going downhill, down
to Sunset. Still pretty warm. Pavement radiating heat now. All day
absorbing, all night radiating. Opposite to humans. Or so they say.
View of city: thermal waves make the whole damned grid twinkle like
a box full of cheap Christmas-tree ornaments. Oh, my aching joints!
I’m out of shape for this kind of hike. Maybe slow down a little? Car
coming behind me. Got to duck down behind this hedge. Was it
them? No matter, keep going. Another two blocks, or three.
Distances are deceiving when you cross them in a speeding car.
Uphill, strain the engine; downhill, strain the brakes. Energy versus
gravity. Einstein identified gravity with acceleration; what a
breakthrough: the elevator thought-experiment. Like Galileo and the

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