I wish I could, Leonard said.
Leonard took Charlotte back to the Beverly Wilshire but she continued crying so Leonard, because he was due in Miami the next day to assist in the sale of four French Mirages from one Caribbean independency to another, called the record executive and borrowed a company Lear to fly Charlotte home. $216,000 was raised that night to benefit some one of Leonards clients, Charlotte was unsure which until she saw the pictures in Vogue. She left the dress made entirely of colored ribbons on the floor of the suite at the Beverly Wilshire. I look at those pictures now and I see only Charlottes smile.
18
ITS CHARLOTTE, SHE SAID TO HER BROTHERS WIFE from a pay phone on the highway outside Hollister. I wondered if you and Dickie were going to be home.
Richard and I play tennis every Saturday. There was a pause. You want to use the pool, come on by, of course the heaters off.
I thought I might see the children.
Theyre at the gym.
There was a silence.
Why exactly would I drive to Hollister to use your pool, Linda? I mean I get off a plane from Los Angeles and I sit in the airport all night and I rent a car and Im out here on the highway and its raining?
Linda said nothing.
Listen, Charlotte said finally. Linda. Please ask me to dinner.
Before and during dinner Charlottes brother drank steadily and did not mention Marin or Leonard or Warren. Linda sat at the table but refused to eat. She said that she had eaten macaroni and cheese with the children, who seemed to have come home from and returned to the gym before Charlottes arrival.
Theyre just wonderful normal kids, Linda said after dinner. Arent they, Richard. No matter what Warren says.
Whats Warren got to do with it, Charlotte said.
How would I know whether theyre wonderful normal kids. Dickie opened another bottle of bourbon. Maybe Warrens right, maybe theyre boring, how would I know. Theyre always at the goddamn gym.
Most people would consider that a definite plus. I believe your sister needs an ashtray.
Whats Warren got to do with it, Charlotte repeated.
Or eating goddamn Kraft Dinners with you at four oclock.
Richard and I dont smoke, Linda said.
We dont fuck either, Dickie said.
Charlotte put out her cigarette in an empty nut dish.
Warren paid us a little visit, Linda said. Lasting eleven hours and a quart and a half of gin.
Charlottes not interested in that, Linda.
Tanqueray gin.
Linda. We enjoyed seeing him, Char.
He had this very interesting friend with him. Hed just run into this friend, they hadnt seen each other since the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans. Where
Im warning you, Linda.
Where this friend of Warrens tended bar. Which is what this friend still does, except at the Pacific Union Club.
I warned you, Linda. If Charlottes husband wants to bring a Negro to this house, this house is open. With bells on. All systems go.
Charlottes not married to Warren any more, Richard, you dont have to pretend you like him.
Goddamnit Linda, hes better than the Jew, isnt he?
Linda began plumping pillows.
Dickie avoided Charlottes eyes.
Actually Leonards not a Jew, Charlotte said. Actually it just amuses Warren to say that Leonards a Jew. A private joke. If you follow.
Warrens sense of humor is just a little bit twisted, Linda said. If you ask me.
I didnt mean that about Leonard, Char. Hey. Char. I think Leonard is
Not that anybody ever does ask me, Linda said.
A very fine lawyer, Dickie said.
Listen, Charlotte said finally. Linda was still plumping pillows with pointed energy. Dickie. Ive been remembering some things since Marin left.
Thats no good for you, Char, remembering. Remembering is shit. Forget her.
Im not talking about Marin, Im talking about
Forget goddamn Marin. Forget goddamn Warren. You did your best. Forget the other one too.
He doesnt want to talk about Marin, Charlotte. Linda turned off a lamp. He wants to believe your life is just pluperfect.
You turn off another plu-fucking-perfect light, Linda, Im walking out of here with Charlotte and dont wait up.
Lucky Charlotte.
Im not talking about Marin, Charlotte said. Im talking about when we lived on the ranch.
Dont sell the ranch, Char.
Im not. Im talking about do you remember how Nana would always burn the biscuits?
The ranch is the only home youve got, Char.
Oh fine, Linda said. Back to Tara. The Havemeyers are off to the races now. If youre looking for your car keys theyre on the coffee table. Next to the ring from Massa Richards glass.
Remember the biscuits, Dickie? Halfway through dinner wed smell them burning?
The only thing I remember your famous grandmother burning is every bed jacket I ever took her in the nursing home. Linda handed Charlotte her car keys. Smoking in bed. Little holes in every one.
You cant have forgotten the biscuits, Dickie.
No good remembering, Char.
Of course your sister wasnt here during that ordeal.
Dickie, Charlotte said. We used to laugh about it.
You and me, Char. Dickie touched Charlottes hair uncertainly and turned away. Forget goddamn Marin. I say give her a Kraft Dinner and I say the hell with her.
Charlotte stayed that night in a motel off 101.
She tried to think about the biscuits but they kept fading out. She tried to think about the gold pin with the broken clasp but she kept seeing it on the bomb.
Charlotte stayed that night in a motel off 101.
She tried to think about the biscuits but they kept fading out. She tried to think about the gold pin with the broken clasp but she kept seeing it on the bomb.
Her grandmother was dead and Marin was gone.
She had never gone shopping with her mother, she had never seen her father on Demerol, the ranch had eight telephones on three lines and Marin was gone.
It was Pete Wright who had told her that her father needed Demerol before he died.
The night she got drunk at the Palm.
She tried to think about Pete Wright in her bed that night but could not. She tried to think about Leonard in the bed of the house on California Street but she could see that bed only as it had been the day she picked up the scissors against Warren. She could see Warren sitting on that bed and she could also see Warren standing in front of her bed in New York the Easter morning after she got drunk at the Palm.
Look at the slut on Easter morning.
She had screamed.
Marin had screamed.
She had picked up Marin and when Warren hit her again his hand glanced off Marins temple.
She had picked up the kitchen knife.
She had thrown up.
She and Warren had taken Marin to the Carlyle and she had not had enough money to pay the bill. The beautiful principessa, the headwaiter had crooned over Marin. The beautiful principessa, the beautiful family. King of Crazy, Queen of Wrong. The headwaiter did not know that. The headwaiter would see to it that the bill was mailed. Charlotte lay on the motel bed and she thought about the beautiful principessa and about the beautiful family and about all the bills that had been mailed and never paid. She thought about all the unpaid bills and she thought about all the days and nights when she had promised Warren she would never leave.
There was another unpaid bill.
You cant drink, Warren had said that Easter morning and held her shoulders as she threw up. You cant drink at all, you never could. And then he washed her face and he took her to the Carlyle and she did not have enough money to pay the bill. Look at the slut on Easter morning. Marin had a straw hat one Easter, and a flowered lawn dress. Warren gave her his coat.
19
WHEN WARREN CAME THAT DAY TO THE DOOR OF THE house on California Street Charlotte did not answer.
When Warren telephoned Charlotte hung up.
When Warren stood on the sidewalk outside the house on California Street at two A.M. and threw stones at the windows Charlotte closed the shutters.
When Warren left the note reading THIS IS THE WORST BEHAVIOR YET in the mailbox of the house on California Street Charlotte tore the note in half and avoided those rooms which fronted on the street.
When the two FBI men came to tell Charlotte that the boy with the harelip scar had been apprehended on an unrelated charge in Nogales, Arizona, and had hanged himself in his cell Charlotte left the room without speaking. That was on the second day of the sixth week after the release of Marins tape.
On the morning of the third day of the sixth week after the release of Marins tape Dickie called from Hollister to say that Warren was at the ranch.
Acting crazy. Irrational. He told Linda that he talked to Leonard in Miami and Leonard said he could stay.
Charlotte said nothing.
He yelled at Linda.
Charlotte said nothing.
Obscenities.
Charlotte replaced the receiver and lay down on Marins bed.
Youre aware Mark Schrader killed himself in Mexico, the reporter said on the telephone.
Arizona, Charlotte said. She was still lying on Marins bed. The sound of the mans voice hurt her ear and she held the receiver several inches away.
About Mark and Marin
Arizona. Not Mexico. He killed himself in Nogales, Arizona.
Absolutely. My slip. Would you say that Marin was romantically involved with Mark?
Romantically involved, Charlotte repeated.
Involved in a romantic way, yes.
The harelips the fresh meat theyll throw on the trail, they cant afford him, Marins not stupid.
I wouldnt rely on that.
You see youre thinking of Nogales, Sonora, Charlotte said.
Absolutely, the reporter said. Very good. About Mark and
You dont have to congratulate me. For knowing the difference between Arizona and Mexico.
About Marin and
This is the worst behavior yet.
Fuck Marin, Charlotte said.
Because he was married to you, Leonard said when she called him in Miami. Thats why I told him he could stay at your fucking ranch. Because you kissed him goodbye at Idlewild and told him youd be back in a week. Because he was Marins father. And because I dont happen to believe its Porter who is dying.
Is Marins father, Is.
You didnt hear what I said. I said I dont happen to believe hes talking about anybody but himself.
There was a silence.
I heard what you said, Charlotte said finally. Tell me
Tell you what.
Tell me
Tell you if youre not there when I get back Ill shoot myself?