Nathanael West - The Day of the Locust [52]
When Tod saw the hands start to crawl out again, he exploded.
“For Christ’s sake!”
The hands struggled to get free, but Homer clamped his knees shut and held them.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Oh, all right.”
“But I can’t help it, Tod. I have to do it three times.”
“Okay with me.”
He turned his back on him.
Faye started to sing and her voice poured into the street
“Dreamed about a reefer five feet long Not too mild and not too strong, You’ll be high, but not for long, If you’re a viper—a vi-paah.”
Instead of her usual swing delivery, she was using a lugubrious one, wailing the tune as though it were a dirge. At the end of every stanza, she shifted to an added minor.
“I’m the queen of everything, Gotta be high before I can swing, Light a tea and let it be, If you’re a viper—a vi-paah.”
“She sings very pretty,” Homer said.
“She’s drunk.”
“I don’t know what to do, Tod,” Homer complained. “She’s drinking an awful lot lately. It’s that Earle. We used to have a lot of fun before be came, but now we don’t have any fun any more since he started to hang around.”
“Why don’t you get rid of him?”
“I was thinking about what you said about the license to keep chickens.”
Tod understood what he wanted.
“I’ll report them to the Board of Health tomorrow.”
Homer thanked him, then insisted on explaining in detail why he couldn’t do it himself.391
“But that’ll only get rid of the Mexican,” Tod said. “You’ll have to throw Earle out yourself.”
“Maybe he’ll go with his friend?”
Tod knew that Homer was begging him to agree so that he could go on hoping, but he refused.
“Not a chance. You’ll have to throw him out”
Homer accepted this with his brave, sweet smile. “Maybe…”
“Tell Faye to do it,” Tod said.
“Oh, I can’t”
“Why the hell not? It’s your house.”
“Don’t be mad at me, Toddle.”
“All right, Homie, I’m not mad at you.”
Faye’s voice came through the open window.
“And when your throat gets dry, You know you’re high, If you’re a viper.”
The others harmonized on the last word, repeating it. “Vi-paah…”
“Toddle,” Homer began, “if…”
“Stop calling me Toddle, for Christ’s sake!”
Homer didn’t understand. He took Tod’s hand.
“I didn’t mean nothing. Back home we call…”
Tod couldn’t stand his trembling signals of affection. He tore free with a jerk.
“Oh, but, Toddle, I…”
“She’s a whore!”
He heard Homer grunt, then heard his knees creak as he struggled to his feet.
Faye’s voice came pouring through the window, a reedy wail that broke in the middle with a husky catch.
“High, high, high, high, when you’re high, Everything is dandy, Truck on down to the candy store, Bust your conk on peppermint candy! Then you know your body’s sent, Don’t care if you don’t pay rent, Sky is high and so am I, If you’re a viper—a vi-paah.”
23
When Tod went back into the house, he found Earle, Abe Kusich and Claude standing together in a tight group, watching Faye dance with Miguel. She and the Mexican were doing a slow tango to music from the phonograph. He held her very tight, one of his legs thrust between hers, and they swayed together in long spirals that broke rhythmically at the top of each curve into a dip. All the buttons on her lounging pajamas were open and the arm he had around her waist was inside her clothes.
Tod stood watching the dancers from the doorway for a moment, then went to a little table on which the whiskey bottle was. He poured himself a quarter of a tumblerful, tossed it off, then poured another drink. Carrying the glass, he went over to Claude and the others. They paid no attention to him; their heads moved only to follow the dancers, like the gallery at a tennis match.
“Did you see Homer?” Tod asked, touching Claude’s arm. Claude didn’t turn, but the dwarf did. He spoke as though hypnotized.
“What a quiff! What a quiff!”
Tod left them and went to look for Homer. He wasn’t in the kitchen, so he tried the bedrooms. One of them was locked. He knocked lightly, waited, then repeated the knock. There was no answer, but he thought he heard someone move. He looked