Appointment in Samarra - John O'Hara [71]
Hello, Julian. It was Lute Fliegler: Mary immediately ended her talk. She disliked Lute, because he had once called her the biggest little windbag this side of Akron, Ohio, and to her face, at that. Hello, Lute, said Julian, who was reading a letter from a dealer in another part of the state, planning a gay party for the week of the Auto Show. Want to go to this? he said, throwing the letter to Lute. Lute read it quickly. Not me, he said. He sat down and put his feet up on Julian s desk. Listen, we gotta make a squawk again about Mr. O Buick.
Is he at it again? said Julian. O Buick was their name for Larry O Dowd, one of the salesmen for the Gibbsville-Buick Company. Is he? said Lute. I tell you what happened this morning. I went out to see Pat Quilty the undertaker this morning. I had him out a couple times in the last month and he s ready to go, or he was. He wants a seven-passenger sedan that he can use for funerals and for his family use. Or he did. Anyhow, I honestly figured, I said to myself, this is the one day the old man won’t be expecting me to come around, so maybe I ll surprise him into signing today. And he’ll pay cash on the line, too, Julian. So I took a ride out to see him and I went in his office and started kidding around he likes that. Makes him feel young. So I noticed I wasn’t getting a tumble from him, so finally I broke down and asked him, I said what was the matter, and he said to me in that brogue, he said: Will now Oill till you, Meesturr Fliegler, the way I hear it the coompany you do be working for, I hear they don t like people of my faith. What? I said. Why the Cadillac car is named after a Catholic, I said. I said Old Duke Cadillac, he was a Catholic. I don t mean Ginrul Mawtors, Mr. Fliegler, he said. I mean Julian English, that s who I mean. Why, Mister Quilty, I said, you’re all wrong about that, I said. I told him about Reverend Creedon, what a good friend of yours he is, and how you did this and that and the other for the sisters and so on, but he wouldn’t hear any of it. He said he didn’t always see eye to eye with Reverend Creedon, as far as that goes, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, he said, he d been hearing some stuff about you and Harry Reilly having a fight. What the hell s he talking about?
I threw a highball in his face the other night, said Julian. Oh, that, said Lute. I heard about that. But you weren t having a fight over religion, were you?
No. Certainly not. I was cockeyed and I just let go with the drink. What else? What about O Buick?
Well, that s the trouble. I can t get anything on him, said Lute. Old Quilty, he wouldn’t tell me any more than what I told you, except to say he was going to take a little time to think it over before he bought anything off us. I m afraid we re not going to move that car unless you go out and talk to him yourself, Julian.
Do you think that would do any good?
To tell you the God s honest truth, I don t know. I m up a tree. When one of these Irish bastards gets the idea you’re against their church, you have your hands full bucking it. The only explanation for it in a case like this is young O Dowd, the son of a bitch, he heard about you and Reilly having this fight or whatever it was, and he went right out and gave old Quilty this story. That s my guess. I d like to punch him one in the nose.
So would I.
Well, don t you do it or we won’t be able to give the product away in 1931. I might as well tell you all the bad news while I m at it.
You mean more bad news? said Julian. That s what I mean nothing else but, said Lute. Julian, I don t want wait a minute. Miss Klein, would you mind going out on the floor a minute while I talk with Mr. English?
Not at all. The language you use. Mary Klein left the office. Listen, Julian, said Lute. Your private affairs are your own business, and you’re boss here and all that. But I m ten years older than you and you and I always hit it off pretty damn good, so do you mind if