Los Gatos that he lost his job tire recappingââBecause we were there last night?âââNo no something entirely different, heâs gotta lay off some men because his mortgage is bleeding him and all that and some girl is tryna sue him for forging a check and all that, so man Iâve got to find another job but I have to pay the rent and everythingâs all fucked up down here, Oh old buddy how about, cant you, I plead or I dont plead, or honestly, Jack, ah, lend me a hundred dollars willya?âââBy God Cody Iâll be right down and GIVE you a hundred dollarsâââYou mean youâll really do that, listen just to lend to me is enough but if you insist, hmâ (fluttering his eyelashes over the phone because he knows I mean it) âyou old loverboy you, how you gonna get down here there and give me that money there son and make my old heart gladâââIâll have Dave drive me downâââOkay Iâll pay the rent with it right away and because itâs now Friday, why, Thursday or whatever, thatâs right Thursday, why I dont have to be lookin for a new job till next Monday so you can stay here and weâll have a long weekend just goofin and talkin boy like we used to do, I can demolish you at chess or we can watch a baseball gameâ and in a whisper âand we can sneak into the City see and see my purty babyââSo I ask Dave Wain and yes heâs ready to go anytime, heâs just following me like I often follow people myself, and so off we go again.
And on the way we drop in on Monsanto at the bookstore and the idea suddenly comes to me for Dave and me and Cody to go to the cabin and spend a big quiet crazy weekend (how?) but when Monsanto hears this idea heâll come too, in fact heâll bring his little Chinese buddy Arthur Ma and weâll catch McLear at Santa Cruz and go visit Henry Miller and suddenly another big huge ball is begun.
So thereâs Willie waiting down on the street, I go to the store, buy the bottle, Dave wheels Willie around, Ron Blake and now Ben Fagan are on the back mattress, Iâm sitting in my front seat rocking chair as now in broad afternoon we go blattin again down that Bay Shore highway to see old Cody and Monsantoâs in back of us in his jeep with Arthur Ma, two jeeps now, and about to be two more as Iâll showâComing to Codyâs in mid afternoon, his own house already filled with visitors (local Los Gatos literaries and all kinds of people the phone there ringing continually too) and Cody says to Evelyn âIâll just spend a couple days with Jack and the gang like the old days and look for a job MondayâââOkayââSo we all go to a wonderful pizza restaurant in Los Gatos where the pizzas are piled an inch high with mushrooms and meat and anchovies or anything you want, I cash a travelers check at the supermarket, Cody takes the 100 in cash, gives it to Evelyn in the restaurant, and later that day the two jeeps resume down to Monterey and down that blasted road I walked on blistered feet back to the frightful bridge at Raton CanyonâAnd Iâd thought Iâd never see the place again. But now I was coming back loaded with observers. The sight of the canyon down there as we renegotiated the mountain road made me bite my lip with marvel and sadness.
18
I TâS AS FAMILIAR AS AN OLD FACE IN AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH as tho Iâm gone a million years from all that sun shaded brush on rocks and that heartless blue of the sea washing white on yellow sand, those rills of yellow arroyo running down mighty cliff shoulders, those distant blue meadows, that whole ponderous groaning upheaval so strange to see after the last several days of just looking at little faces and mouths of peopleâAs tho nature had a Gargantuan leprous face of its own with broad nostrils and huge bags under its eyes and a mouth big enough to swallow five
And on the way we drop in on Monsanto at the bookstore and the idea suddenly comes to me for Dave and me and Cody to go to the cabin and spend a big quiet crazy weekend (how?) but when Monsanto hears this idea heâll come too, in fact heâll bring his little Chinese buddy Arthur Ma and weâll catch McLear at Santa Cruz and go visit Henry Miller and suddenly another big huge ball is begun.
So thereâs Willie waiting down on the street, I go to the store, buy the bottle, Dave wheels Willie around, Ron Blake and now Ben Fagan are on the back mattress, Iâm sitting in my front seat rocking chair as now in broad afternoon we go blattin again down that Bay Shore highway to see old Cody and Monsantoâs in back of us in his jeep with Arthur Ma, two jeeps now, and about to be two more as Iâll showâComing to Codyâs in mid afternoon, his own house already filled with visitors (local Los Gatos literaries and all kinds of people the phone there ringing continually too) and Cody says to Evelyn âIâll just spend a couple days with Jack and the gang like the old days and look for a job MondayâââOkayââSo we all go to a wonderful pizza restaurant in Los Gatos where the pizzas are piled an inch high with mushrooms and meat and anchovies or anything you want, I cash a travelers check at the supermarket, Cody takes the 100 in cash, gives it to Evelyn in the restaurant, and later that day the two jeeps resume down to Monterey and down that blasted road I walked on blistered feet back to the frightful bridge at Raton CanyonâAnd Iâd thought Iâd never see the place again. But now I was coming back loaded with observers. The sight of the canyon down there as we renegotiated the mountain road made me bite my lip with marvel and sadness.
18
I TâS AS FAMILIAR AS AN OLD FACE IN AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH as tho Iâm gone a million years from all that sun shaded brush on rocks and that heartless blue of the sea washing white on yellow sand, those rills of yellow arroyo running down mighty cliff shoulders, those distant blue meadows, that whole ponderous groaning upheaval so strange to see after the last several days of just looking at little faces and mouths of peopleâAs tho nature had a Gargantuan leprous face of its own with broad nostrils and huge bags under its eyes and a mouth big enough to swallow five
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