U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [441]
Out in Jamaica Bil Cermak and his wife and their
elderly inlaws and friends were al tickled and a little bit fussed by Charley's turning up. It was a smal frame house with a green papertile roof in a block of identical little houses with every other roof red and every other roof green. Mrs. Cermak was a stout blonde a little fuddled from the big dinner and the wine that had brought bright-red spots to her cheeks. She made Charley eat some of the turkey and the plumpudding they'd just taken off the table. Then they made hot wine with cloves in it and Bil
-228-played tunes on the pianoaccordion while everybody danced and the kids yel ed and beat on drums and got underfoot.
When Charley said he had to go Bil walked to the sta-tion with him. "Say, boss, we sure do appreciate your comin' out," began Bil . "Hel , I ain't no boss," said Char-ley. "I belong with the mechanics . . . don't I, Bil ? You and me, Bil , the mechanics against the world . . . and when I get married you're comin' to play that damned accordeen of yours at the weddin' . . . get me, Bil . . . it may not be so long." Bil screwed up his face and rubbed his long crooked nose. "Women is fine once you got 'em pinned down, boss, but when they ain't pinned down
they're hel .""I got her pinned down, I got her pinned down al right so she's got to marry me to make an honest man of me.""Thataboy," said Bil Cermak. They stood laughing and shaking hands on the drafty station platform til the Manhattan train came in. During the automobile show Nat cal ed up one day to say Farrel who ran the Tern outfit was in town and wanted to see Charley and Charley told Nat to bring him around for a cocktail in the afternoon. This time he got Taki to stay.
James Yardly Farrel was a roundfaced man with sandy-gray hair and a round bald head. When he came in the door he began shouting, "Where is he? Where is he?"
"Here he is," said Nat Benton, laughing. Farrel pumped Charley's hand. "So this is the guy with the knowhow, is it? I've been trying to get hold of you for months . . . ask Nat if I haven't made his life miserable. . . . Look here, how about coming out to Detroit . . . Long Island City's no place for a guy like you. We need your knowhow out there . . . and what we need we're ready to pay for." Charley turned red. "I'm pretty wel off where I am, Mr. Farrel ."
-229-"How much do you make?"
"Oh, enough for a young fel er."
"We'l talk about that . . . but don't forget that in a new industry like ours the setup changes fast. . . . We got to keep our eyes open or we'l get left. . . . Wel , we'l let it drop for the time being. . . . But I can tel you one thing, Anderson, I'm not going to stand by and see this industry ruined by being broken up in a lot of little onehorse units al cutting each other's throats. Don't you think it's better for us to sit around the table and cut the cake in a spirit of friendship and mutual service, and I tel you, young man, it's going to be a whale of a big cake." He let his voice drop to a whisper.
Taki, with his yel ow face drawn into a thin diplomatic smile, came around with a tray of bacardi cocktails. "No, thanks, I don't drink," said Farrel . "Are you a bachelor, Mr. Anderson?"
"Wel , something like that. . . . I don't guess I'l stay that way long."
"You'd like it out in Detroit, honestly. Benton tel s me you're from Minnesota."
"Wel , I was born in North Dakota." Charley talked over his shoulder to the Jap. " Taki, Mr. Benton wants another drink."
"We got a nice sociable crowd out there," said Farrel . After they'd gone Charley cal ed up Doris and asked her right out if she'd like to live in Detroit after they were married. She gave a thin shriek at the other end of the line. "What a dreadful idea . . . and who said anything about that dreadful . . . you know, state . . . I don't like even to mention the horrid word. . . . Don't you think we've had fun in New York this winter?""Sure,"