About Schmidt - Louis Begley [86]
Therefore he asked: Isn’t that illegal, taping a telephone conversation without asking for permission?
Jon doesn’t think so. You know she only did it because they realized she would be too upset to remember clearly what was said.
I’ll have that bastard disbarred! Thrown out of the firm!
Ha! Ha! You’re dreaming, pal, he said to himself as soon as the words left his mouth. Will Jack DeForrest and his team of bean counters take measures against a bankruptcy litigator, just as they are salivating over filing after filing in the bankruptcy court? Kill the goose about to lay golden eggs. And over what? Ungentlemanly conduct? Since when are bankruptcy lawyers supposed to be wimps? Too bad that Schmidt can’t keep peace with his own daughter. Always had been rigid, not good at adapting to new circumstances.
He observed that Renata was putting away her lipstick and was about to attack a second macaroon. He begged her pardon. She returned a kindly smile.
All right, he said. Do let’s get to the point. What do they want?
Dear Schmidtie. Could we have some more coffee? In one of these wonderful French café filtre machines? I haven’t seen one of those in years.
They have sort of disappeared.
He caught the attention of a waiter.
You see, Schmidtie, Charlotte is afraid of you and doesn’t want to hurt your feelings. Believe me, she doesn’t. I know. And Jon reveres you. Don’t interrupt. That’s true. There is, of course, always the Oedipal aspect in these situations. That’s what makes communication among you so difficult. The point is really quite simple. In the lives of young people there comes a moment when they enter into a new alliance—marriage! Suddenly, their allegiance is no longer the same. The change can be very startling. In the case of Charlotte, she really wants to become a part of our family, whatever that implies. It has a great deal to do with the death of Mary, there being no cousins, aunts, or uncles on your side, and the way we have welcomed her into our family. Do you see?
Yes, I do. You are Naomi and she is Ruth the Moabite.
Really, Schmidtie, how can you. Ruth’s husband was dead!
A minor detail. The point of that story is that Ruth was in love with her mother-in-law. Is that what’s happening here? Have you bewitched my daughter? Put her under hypnosis?
Schmidtie, please stop. Jon loves her, and Charlotte, as I have tried to tell you, is deeply drawn to our family. Nothing could be happier or more normal. The consequence is annoying for you: Charlotte has rethought certain things. She no longer thinks that having the wedding in Bridgehampton is a good idea. Apparently, you have both drifted away from people there, so that practically all the guests would be imported! That does seem odd.
And the house? Doesn’t she want to be married on the lawn of her parents’ house, the house where she spent all her summers, all her vacations?
Of course she loves the house. It’s so beautiful. But the house has become something of a problem for both of you. It’s also a problem financially for Jon—but it’s more a matter of lifestyle; he isn’t sure he sees himself and Charlotte living in that sort of place in the Hamptons. Your wanting to give the house to Charlotte has made it all much more pressing—perhaps even oppressive. Jon has a different idea. We hope you won’t be put off by it—you’ve been so amazingly generous!
Aha, thought Schmidt. In heavy fog, I am to drive my car off a cliff. They collect double-indemnity insurance money and everything else I have, and sell the house. That must be it.
I suppose I should hear about it. Am I to hear about it from you? They are too busy or too timid to speak to me, I suppose.
Schmidtie, they don’t want to fight with you. That’s all. The idea Jon had about the house is this—he says it has some tax benefits: Instead of giving the house to Charlotte and paying such a huge gift tax and then moving,