Mastodonia

FIVE

The manhattan tasted good. I realized that it was the first civilized drink I had had in months; I’d almost forgotten how a decent drink could taste. I said as much to Rila. “At home, I guzzle beer or slop some Scotch over a couple of ice cubes.”

“You’ve been sticking close to the farm,” she said.

“Yes, and not regretting it. It’s the best money I ever spent, buying that place. It’s given me almost a year of interesting work and a sense of peace I’ve never had before. And Bowser has loved it.”

“You think a lot of Bowser.”

“He and I are pals. Both of us will hate going back.”

“I thought you said you weren’t going back. You said when the sabbatical was up, you would resign.”

“I know. I say that every now and then. It’s a fantasy, I guess. I have no desire to go back, but I haven’t much choice. When I think of it, I come up against the hard fact that while I’m not exactly destitute, I’m not in a financial situation to become a non-wage-earner for any length of time.”

“I know how you must hate the thought of leaving,” she said. “It’s not only the peace you speak of, but the chance to continue the dig.”

“That can wait. It will have to wait.”

“But, Asa, it’s a shame.”

“Yes, I suppose so. But if it’s waited for God knows how many centuries, it can wait a little longer. I’ll come back each summer.”

“It’s strange,” said Rila, “what long-range views archaeologists can take. I imagine that is a viewpoint that goes with the profession. They deal in long-time phenomena, so time has less importance to them.”

“You talk as if you never were an archaeologist.”

“Well, I never really was. That summer with you in Turkey and then, a couple of years later, a fuddy-duddy dig in Ohio, excavating an Indian campsite. A year or so at Chicago, mostly spent in cataloging. After that, it was easy to decide being an archaeologist was not what I wanted.”

“So you went into the fossil-artifact business.”

“Small at first,” she said. “A little shop in upstate New York. But apparently I came in at about the right time. Collectors were beginning to get interested and the business grew. There were more and more shops springing up each year and I could see that the real money was as a supplier, so I scraped together some money and floated a loan and again started out in a small way. I worked hard. I got a perverse satisfaction out of it. Here I was making a living out of something that was a rather despicable offshoot of a profession I had failed at — perhaps, rather, had been too impatient to try to succeed at.”

“You said last night you are considering selling out.”

“I took in a partner some years back. He wants to buy me out. He’s willing to pay more than the business is worth. He has become somewhat upset at some of my ideas and my methods. If he buys me out, I give him three years before he goes broke.”

“You’ll miss it. You like being in business.”

She shrugged. “Yes, I do. There’s a ruthlessness about it that appeals to me.”

“You don’t look the ruthless type to me.”

“Only in business,” she said. “It brings out the worst in me.”

We finished our drinks and the waiter brought the salads.

“Another round?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I limit myself. One drink at lunch. Long ago, I set that rule. At business lunches, and there were a lot of them, you were expected to lap it up, but finally I refused to do that. I’d seen what it could do to people. But have another if you wish.”

“I’ll go along with you,” I said. “After we finish here, if you’re willing, we’ll go see our old Daniel Boone.”

“I’d like to, but it may run us late. How about Bowser?”

“Hiram will take care of him. He’ll stay with Bowser until we get back. There’s a cold roast in the refrigerator and he will split it with Bowser. He’ll even go out and collect the eggs. He and Bowser will talk it over first. He’ll say to Bowser, it must be time to pick up the eggs, and Bowser will ask what time it is, and Hiram will tell him, and then Bowser will say, yes, let us go and get them.”

“This pretense about Bowser talking. Do you think Hiram really thinks he does or is the whole thing just make-believe?”

“I don’t honestly know,” I said. “Probably, Hiram thinks so, but what difference does it make? It’s funny with animals. They have personalities and you can set up routines with them. When Bowser is out digging at a woodchuck hole, I go out to get him and drag him out of the hole, caked with mud and dirt and about worn out. Even so, he doesn’t want to go home. He is committed to that woodchuck. But I grab him by the tail and say, ‘Git for home, Bowser,’ and he goes, trotting ahead of me. But I’ve got to grab him by the tail and I have to say the words. Otherwise, he’d never go home with me. I couldn’t coax him home and I couldn’t chase him home. But when I go through that silly business, he always heads for home.”

She laughed. “You and Bowser! Both of you are crazy.”

“Of course we are. You can’t live with a dog for years…”

“And chickens. I remember I did see some about.

Have you pigs and horses and..”

“No. Chickens are all. Eggs to eat and an occasional fryer. I considered buying a cow, but a cow is too much bother.”

“Asa, I want to talk business with you. You said you didn’t want the university horning in — I think is the way you put it — on this dig of yours. What would you think of me horning in?”

I had a forkful of salad halfway to my mouth and now I put it down. There was something in the way she said it that was almost a warning. I don’t know what it was, but all at once, I was a little scared.

“Horn in?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Let me share your work with you.”

“What a silly thing to ask,” I said. “Of course you can share it with me. Haven’t I already shared my discovery with you, telling you about it?”

“But that wasn’t what I was talking about. I wasn’t asking for the sharing as a gift. I meant a partnership.

You don’t want to go back to teaching. You want to keep on with the dig and I think you should. You are onto something important and it shouldn’t be interrupted. If I could help a little so you wouldn’t have to leave …”

“No,” I said harshly. “Don’t go any further. No, I wouldn’t have it. You’re offering to finance me and I won’t have it.”

“You make it sound so terrible,” she said. “As if I had proposed something horrible. I’m not trying to take you over, Asa. It isn’t that. I have faith in you, is all, and it’s a shame that you have to …”

“It’s big business offering to bail out the underprivileged,” I said angrily. “Damn it, Rila, I will not be patronized.”

“I’m sorry, then, that I mentioned it. I had hoped you’d understand.”

“Damn it, why did you have to mention it? You should know me better than that. It all was going so fine and now…”

“Asa, remember the last time. The horrible fight we had. It ruined twenty years for us. Let us not let that happen again.”

“Fight? I don’t remember any fight.”

“I was the one who was angry that time. You had gone off with a couple of the men and got plastered, neglecting me. You tried to explain, you tried to say you were sorry, but I wouldn’t listen. It was the last day at the dig or the next to the last day and I never had the time to get over being angry. We can’t let something like that happen now. At least, I don’t want it to, How about you?”

“No,” I said, “neither do I want that to happen. But I can’t take money from you. No matter how well off you are, how little you would miss it.”

“Not well off,” she said. “And, again, I’m sorry.

Can’t we just forget it? And can I stay around for another little while?”

“As long as you wish,” I told her. “Forever, if you want to.”

“How about your friends and neighbors — will they talk about us?”

“You’re damn right they’ll talk about us. A place like Willow Bend hasn’t much to talk about; they grab at any little thing.”

“You don’t seem concerned.”

“Why should I be? I’m that nutty Steele kid, who came back to the old hometown, and they’re suspicious of me and resentful of me and the most of them don’t like me. They’re friendly, certainly, but they talk about me behind my back. They don’t like anyone who isn’t bogged down in their particular brand of mediocrity.

It’s defensive, I suppose. In front of anyone who left the town and came back short of utter defeat, they feel naked and inferior. They are acutely aware of their provincialism. That is the way it is. So, unless you are concerned about yourself, don’t give it another thought.”

“I am not at all concerned,” she said, “and if you are thinking of making an honest woman of me …”

“The thought,” I told her, “has not crossed my mind.”