Page:Big Sur (1963).djvu/79

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BIG SUR71

and so ideal I only wish old Johnson be sitting in the kitchen now—(Help! I’m thinking).

The call comes from Cody in Los Gatos that he lost his job tire recapping—“Because we were there last night?”—“No no something entirely different, he’s 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 I've got to find another job but I have to pay the rent and everything’s 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?”—“By God Cody I’ll be right down and GIVE you a hundred dollars”—“You mean you’ll really do that, listen just to lend to me is enough but if you insist, hm” (fluttering his eyelashes over the phone because he knows I mean it) “you old loverboy you, how you gonna get down here there and give me that money there son and make my old heart glad”—“I’ll have Dave drive me down”—“Okay I’ll pay the rent with it right away and because it’s now Friday, why, Thursday or whatever, that’s right Thursday, why I dont have to be lookin for a new job till next Monday so you can stay here and we'll 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 game” and in a whisper “and we can sneak into the City see and see my purty baby”—So I ask Dave Wain and yes he’s ready to go anytime, he’s 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 he’ll come too, in fact he'll bring his little Chinese buddy Arthur Ma and well catch McLear at Santa Cruz and go visit Henry Miller and suddenly another big huge ball is begun.

So there's Willie waiting down on the street, I go to the store, buy the bottle, Dave wheels Willie around,