A House for Mr. Biswas - V.S. Naipaul [32]
The proprietor looked at Mr Biswas. ‘How he so small?’
‘Young firm,’ Alec said. ‘Give youth a chance.’
‘He could paint humming birds?’
‘He want a lot of humming birds in the sign,’ Alec explained to Mr Biswas. ‘Hanging about and behind the lettering.’
‘Like the Keskidee Café,’ the proprietor said. ‘You see the sign he got?’ He pointed obliquely across the road to another refreshment shack, and Mr Biswas saw the sign. The letters were blocked in three colours and shadowed in three other colours. Keskidee birds stood on the K, perched on the D, hung from the C; on EE two keskidees billed.
Mr Biswas couldn’t draw.
Alec said, ‘ ’Course he could paint humming birds, if you really want them. The only thing is, it would look a little foliow-fashion.’
‘And too besides, it oldfashion,’ Mr Biswas said.
‘I glad you say that,’ Alec said. ‘Was what I been trying to tell him. The modern thing is to have lots of words. All the shops in Port of Spain have signs with nothing but words. Tell him.’
‘What sort of words?’ the proprietor said.
‘Sweet drinks, cakes and ice,’ Mr Biswas said.
The proprietor shook his head.
‘Beware of the dog,’ Alec said.
‘I ain’t got a dog.’
‘Fresh fruits daily,’ Alec went on. ‘Stick no bills by order.’
The proprietor shook his head.
‘Trespassers will be prosecuted. Overseas visitors welcomed. If you don’t see what you require please ask. Our assistants will be pleased to help you with your inquiries.’
The proprietor was thinking.
‘No hands wanted,’ Alec said. ‘Come in and look around.’ The proprietor became alert. ‘Is exactly what I have to fight in this place.’
‘Idlers keep out,’ Mr Biswas said. ‘By order,’ the proprietor said.
‘Idlers keep out by order. A good sign,’ Alec said. ‘This boy will do it for you in two twos.’
So Mr Biswas became a sign-writer and wondered why he had never thought of using this gift before. With Alec’s help he worked on the café sign and to his delight and amazement it came out well enough to satisfy the proprietor. He had been used to designing letters with pen and pencil and was afraid that he would not be able to control a brush with paint. But he found that the brush, though flattening out disconcertingly at first, could be made to respond to the gentlest pressure; strokes were cleaner, curves truer. ‘Just turn the brush slowly in your fingers when you come to the curve,’ Alec said; and curves held fewer problems after that. After IDLERS KEEP OUT BY ORDER he did more signs with Alec; his hand became surer, his strokes bolder, his feeling for letters finer. He thought R and S the most beautiful of Roman letters; no letter could express so many moods as R, without losing its beauty; and what could compare with the swing and rhythm of S? With a brush, large letters were easier than small, and he felt much satisfaction after he and Alec had covered long stretches of palings with signs for Pluko, which was good for the hair in various ways, and Anchor Cigarettes. There was some worry about the cigarette packet; they would have preferred to draw it closed, but the contractors wanted it open, condemning Mr Biswas and Alec to draw not only the packet, but the silver foil, crumpled, and eight cigarettes, all marked ANCHOR, pulled out to varying lengths.
After a time he started to go again to Tara’s. She bore him no ill-will but he was disappointed to find that Ajodha no longer required him to read That Body of Yours. One of Bhandat’s sons now did that. Two things had happened in the rumshop. Bhandat’s wife had died in childbirth, and Bhandat had left his sons and gone to live with his mistress in Port of Spain. The boys were taken in by Tara, who added Bhandat’s name to those never mentioned by her again. For years afterwards no one knew where or how Bhandat lived, though there were rumours that he lived in a slum in the city centre, surrounded by all sorts of quarrelling and disreputable people.
So Bhandat’s sons moved from the squalor of the rumshop to the comfort of Tara’s house. It was a passage that Mr Biswas had made often himself, and it was no