The Erection Set

“They won’t picket and they won’t run in any goons,” I said. “They’re a little too smart. They’ll let it go ahead. If it falls, then it falls. If it works, then they’ll wait until they have the power back again, then move in for a reorganization. By then all those old boys who are voting now will be smothered by the newer ones. The game never changes, Tod.”

“You said...‘if it falls.’ ”

“Something looks pretty damn spooky to me.”

“Maybe you ought to know, kid.” His tone didn’t sound friendly anymore.

“I’m sure going to find out, Tod. There’s always a winner in every game.”

“Who wins in this one?”

“Right now there’s a couple leading the field.”

“Old Alfred and Dennison Barrin?”

“How can they lose?”

“That’s what I figured. The rich get richer.”

“Not in this case,” I said. “I think they’re trying to hold on to what they’d like to have.”

Tod finished his beer, got a refill and looked at me with a direct, earnest glance. “Tell me somethin’, kid. Are any of those old guys gonna get busted?”

Something funny crawled up my back and I had to take the top off my drink so he didn’t see what I was thinking. I put the glass down and looked back up at him. “Not if I can help it.”

“Will they get hurt?”

Now I could see him back the way he was behind the bar in the old days, ready to pick somebody up by his neck with one big, beefy hand and toss him into the wall. He was watching my face and whatever he saw put the assurance back into his expression, and when I said, “No,” Tod nodded slowly.

“Just like your old man,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“Too bad you never met him.”

“I can look in the mirror, Tod.”

“Ah, that you can, that you can. You might even see your grandfather, the old bastard.”

“That’s my title, Tod.”

“It means something different the way I’m saying it. You know, he woulda liked it right now.”

“Hell, that’s the way he started.”

He put down the rest of his beer in a single big gulp. “And you’re going to finish it.”

I grinned at him.

“You haven’t changed either,” he said.

“Don’t fool yourself.”

“The only thing’s missing’s the pretty lady.”

“She’s working,” I told him. “Too much of me is no good.”

“Sheee-it.” One corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “The little lady is all yours, Kelly.” He ran the back of his arm across his mouth and let his eyes dance across the table. “I got to asking questions after you left.”

“So what’s new?”

“Fuck you, Kelly. Find out for yourself.”

“You’re a big help.”

“Sure I am.”

“Where’s your pay phone?”

“Outside in the hall.” He sat back and folded his hands across his stomach. “You gonna raise some more hell?”

“Just a little,” I said.

“Damn,” he told me, “you kids have all the fun.”

Nothing could perturb the butler. He was too coldly professional, too remote. In his own way he was a contract man too, ready to protect his own as long as the pay was right, but not quite ready to go beyond the bounds of his limitations when it came to Big Casino time. I said, “Hello, Harvey,” and Big Casino time was there and Harvey smiled with a facial expression that didn’t mean anything at all except to me and opened the door.

“Miss Pam and Miss Veda are inside, sir.”

“Where’s Lucella?”

“Drunk, sir. May I be so bold?”

“You may be so bold, Harvey. And my male cousins?”

“At a meeting, sir.”

“Great. I have arrived at the opportune time.”

“I would say so, sir.”

“And why would you say so, Harvey?”

There was no smile, no raising of the eyebrows, just the simple, unspoken acknowledgment of small dog to top dot and he said, “Because you have been the subject of countless discussions since your last visit, sir.”

“I hope they didn’t say anything good about me.”

“You can be sure of that, sir.”

“They’re afraid the plans of mice and men may get screwed up, I guess.”

Harvey almost smiled, but didn’t quite make it. “A rather awkward misquote, sir, but the inference is correct.”

I gave him my coat and hat. “You know, Harvey, I’m beginning to like you.”

“Thank you, sir. This way, please. Shall I announce you?”

“Don’t bother.”

I could hear the two of them before I ever got near the library. Age had touched everything except their voices and to me they were still pigtailed brats laughing at me behind the curtains when I was catching hell, and sniveling slobs when they got caught with their hands in the sugar bowl.

Right now they were hissing at each other like snakes and never heard me come into the room until I said, “Why don’t you flush all that shit, ladies?”

Veda spun around with all that acquired arrogance ready to lash out at me with that venomous tongue of hers, then stopped in midsentence with a startled expression that was almost matched by Pam’s.