The Stories of Paul Bowles

  There was a wide unkempt lawn on this side, where a few clumps of high areca palms were being slowly strangled by the sheaths of philodendron roots and leaves that encased their trunks. Creepers had spread themselves unpleasantly over the tops of shrubs like the meshes of gigantic cobwebs. I knew that Hannah was thinking of snakes. She kept her eyes on the ground, stepping carefully from flagstone to flagstone as we followed the exterior of the house around to the stables, and thence out into the lane.

  The swift twilight had come down. No one seemed disposed to speak. When we reached the car Mr. Wickramasinghe stood beside it.

  Cheery-bye, then, and tell your friends to look for Sonny Gonzag when they are coming to Gintota. He offered his hand to Dodd first, then me, finally to Hannah, and turned away.

  They were both very quiet on the way back to Galle. The road was narrow and the blinding lights of oncoming cars made them nervous. During dinner we made no mention of the afternoon.

  At breakfast, on the verandah swept by the morning breeze, we felt sufficiently removed from the experience to discuss it. Hannah said: I kept waking up in the night and seeing that awful bed.

  Dodd groaned.

  I said it was like watching television without the sound. You saw everything, but you didn’t get what was going on.

  The kid was completely non compos mentis. You could see that a mile away, Dodd declared.

  Hannah was not listening. It must have been a maid’s room. But why would he take us there? I don’t know; there’s something terribly depressing about the whole thing. It makes me feel a little sick just to think about it. And that bed!

  Well, stop thinking about it, then! Dodd told her. I for one am going to put it right out of my mind. He waited. I feel better already. Isn’t that the way the Buddhists do it?

  The sunny holiday continued for a few weeks more, with longer trips now to the east, to Tissamaharana and the wild elephants in the Yala Preserve. We did not go to Colombo again until it was time for me to put them onto the plane.

  The black weather of the monsoons was blowing in from the southwest as we drove up the coast. There was a violent downpour when we arrived in mid-afternoon at Mount Lavinia and checked into our rooms. The crashing of the waves outside my room was so loud that Dodd had to shut the windows in order to hear what we were saying.

  I had taken advantage of the trip to Colombo to arrange a talk with my lawyer, a Telugu-speaking Indian. We were to meet in the bar at the Galleface, some miles up the coast. I’ll be back at six, I told Hannah. The rain had abated somewhat when I started out.

  Damp winds moved through the lobby of the Galleface, but the smoky air in the bar was stirred only by fans. As I entered, the first person I noticed was Weston of the Chartered Bank. The lawyer had not yet come in, so I stood at the bar with Weston and ordered a whiskey.

  Didn’t I see you in Gintota at the races last month? With an elderly couple?

  I was there with my parents. I didn’t notice you.

  I couldn’t tell. It was too far away. But I saw the same three people later with a local character. What did you think of Sonny Gonzag?

  I laughed. He dragged us off to his house.

  You know the story, I take it.

  I shook my head.

  The story, which he recounted with relish, began on the day after Gonzag’s wedding, when he stepped into a servant’s room and found his bride in bed with the friend who had been best man. How he happened to have a pistol with him was not explained, but he shot them both in the face, and later chopped their bodies into pieces. As Weston remarked: That sort of thing isn’t too uncommon, of course. But it was the trial that caused the scandal. Gonzag spent a few weeks in a mental hospital, and was discharged.

  You can imagine, said Weston. Political excitement. The poor go to jail for a handful of rice, but the rich can kill with impunity, and that sort of thing. You still see references to the case in the press now and then.

  I was thinking of the crimson blazer and the Botanical Gardens. No. I never heard about it, I said.

  He’s mad as a hatter, but there he is, free to do whatever he feels like. And all he wants now is to get people into that house and show them the room where the great event took place. The more the merrier as far as he’s concerned.

  I saw the Indian come into the bar. It’s unbelievable, but I believe it, I told Weston.

  Then I turned to greet the lawyer, who immediately complained of the stale air in the bar. We sat and talked in the lounge.

  I managed to get back to Mount Lavinia in time to bathe before dinner. As I lay in the tepid water, I tried to imagine the reactions of Hannah and Dodd when I told them what I had heard. I myself felt a solid satisfaction at knowing the rest of the story. But being old, they might well brood over it, working it up into an episode so unpleasant in retrospect that it stained the memory of their holiday. I still had not decided whether to tell them or not, when I went to their room to take them down to dinner.

  We sat as far away from the music as we could get. Hannah had dressed a little more elaborately than usual, and they both were speaking with more than their accustomed animation. I realized that they were happy to be returning to New York. Halfway through the meal they began to review what they considered the highlights of their visit. They mentioned the Temple of the Tooth, the pair of Bengal tiger cubs in Dehiwala which they had petted but regretfully declined to purchase, the Indonesian dinner on Mr. Bultjens’s lawn, where the mynah bird had hopped over to Hannah and said: “Eat it up,” the cobra under the couch at Mrs. de Sylva’s tea-party.

  And that peculiar young man in the strange house, Hannah added meditatively.

  Which one was that? asked Dodd, frowning as he tried to remember. Then it came to him. Oh, God, he muttered. Your special friend. He turned to me. Your mother certainly can pick ‘em.

  Outside, the ocean roared. Hannah seemed lost in thought. I know what it was like! she exclaimed suddenly. It was like being shown around one of the temples by a bhikku. Isn’t that what they call them?

  Dodd sniffed. Some temple! he chuckled.

  No, I’m serious. That room had a particular meaning for him. It was like a sort of shrine.

  I looked at her. She had got to the core without needing the details.

  I felt that, too, I said. Of course, there’s no way of knowing.

  She smiled. Well, what you don’t know won’t hurt you.

  I had heard her use the expression a hundred times without ever being able to understand what she meant by it, because it seemed so patently untrue. But for once it was apt. I nodded my head and said: That’s right.

  (1983)

  Massachusetts 1932

  JUST APPLEJACK Little mint little lemon nothing better on a hot afternoon you want more ice it’s here I don’t like ice in my drink nor ice cream either funny when I was a little tyke they gave me some and I spit it out said it burned my mouth yep that’s thunder all right I figured we were about due for a shower we get some bad ones here they come rolling up the valley God you’d think it was bombs sit here wondering where it’s going to hit next got the barn out there twice once two years ago didn’t do any harm other time oh fifteen years ago more than half of it burned down got the horses out all right though had horses then that was one time when the family was lucky we get some corkers here generally come in August the worst ones my wife my first wife that is as soon as she’d hear thunder she’d go to pieces all white and start trembling couldn’t do anything with her lightning rods didn’t mean a thing to her I’d tell her Susan even if it hits the house it’s not going to hurt you when women get nervous no use trying to make ‘em listen to reason go right on with the same thing over and over yep this is the house I was born in always lived here didn’t use to look like this it was my second wife brought all this furniture here it doesn’t belong in an old place like this yes the house is pretty old seventeen ninety-six you can see the numbers chiselled on the doorstep out front all these old houses have little roo
ms there’s no space for big chairs and tables I told her the only room in this house big enough to hold that grand piano is the kitchen but there it is takes up half the room that was a loud one it’s coming this way all right look at the sky out there over the top of the hill black as sin yep live here alone since my last wife died haven’t even got a dog to keep me company I don’t mind it too much never could stand a lot of commotion around anyway can’t abide noise that radio there never turn it on except I want to hear the news how’s that drink coming here I’ll fix you another yes hits the spot but you know you can’t use peppermint got to use spearmint funny the peppermint won’t give it the flavor so you saw my ad came all the way here to see the place not much to see just the old house got a hundred and forty-five acres of woods down back there’s a pretty good brook runs through got some fruit trees out on that side that’s about all I keep busy got fifty-odd cord of wood stacked in the shed for cold weather too bad you didn’t get here an hour sooner we could have gone down to the woods presume you’d like to see the whole property well we can look around outside a little we’ll have to stick close to the house though you can smell the rain in the air bring your drink along that’s all right those four old maples were just as big when I was a boy I recall my grandfather told me he couldn’t remember a time when they weren’t there the two little windows upstairs well there’s two bedrooms and a garret up there here it comes it’s going to come down hard too bad well we didn’t get wet this room on the right is the parlor I keep it shut off never come in here got plenty of room without it it’s stuffy you can smell the dust come on in the other room and get a fresh drink the applejack glad you like it that’s right make it myself down cellar I’ve got a little still down there my father had it before me it’s real good stuff if you make it right Christ that was near must have been over by the Henderson farm hit something I’ve got to shut the windows the rain’s coming in I make it every year God no I don’t sell it that would be asking for trouble it’s just for household consumption except I’ve got no household no no more marriage for me I’ve tried it twice and both times it turned out bad tragic awful they were both of them very refined and sensitive the first one had a little money the second was as broke as I am a few shares of Tel and Tel but she did have all this furniture well it’s nigh on ten years since I married my first wife my old man died and the place was up to here in mortgages she wanted to get them cleared up first thing so I got that off my mind yes I did say tragic terrible I’m coming to that after about a year I begin to notice that Susan isn’t in such good shape she’s sort of going to pieces I don’t know nervous as a witch and can’t sleep and I have to put up with her nagging nag nag day and night night most of all wouldn’t let me sleep so finally I slept on a sofa we used to have in here I don’t know if you noticed this shotgun in the corner in the parlor I always keep it there ready for action so I can get at it fast maybe a woodchuck in the garden or a red squirrel can’t leave them around tear your house to pieces anyway Susan knew it was there only she never even touched it when she dusted she was afraid of it well she’d been going from bad to worse finally she just clammed up on me wouldn’t say a word that was all right with me I had this new Ford truck I used to drive into town every few days stock up on food it’s only eighteen miles if you go straight through by the back road some of it’s pretty rough didn’t bother me any in the truck though I generally went in the morning so I’d be back by noon but this day I didn’t start out till after lunch about two it took me longer than usual in town got home a little after sundown went into the house looked around for Susan no sign of her when I went in to the room across the hall there the parlor I found her dead yes she’d shot herself she sat down in a chair rested the stock on the floor leaned way over put the barrel into her mouth and pulled the trigger a terrible thing you don’t want to hear all this how did I start on it don’t see so many people these days somebody comes I open up I guess can I make you another no not even a small one you’re right it packs a wallop well you don’t mind if I help myself I don’t have to drive anywhere well this awful thing damn near broke me up after the funeral I went down to New York took in a few shows Christ I’d have gone crazy if I’d stayed here it was down there I first met Laura didn’t see much of her that year the next year I went to New York again and we saw a lot more of each other wasn’t till the year after that we got married she was wild about the house always wanted to live in one just like this we got rid of the old tables and chairs weren’t any great shakes anyhow and she shipped all her stuff here Laura she was very delicate high-strung used to having her own way she loved the country she’d walk for hours in the woods at least she did the first year or so she was artistic too set up her easel out in the orchard and paint the trees she didn’t do anything with the pictures she just liked to paint ‘em there’s a whole stack up in the garret she was a good sport we used to go berrying up on Hawk Mountain fix sandwiches stay there all day don’t know how many quarts we’d bring back could hardly carry it all between us it’s letting up a little going on down the valley still coming down all right though the trouble was my fault ought to have told her about Susan I mean how she died I ought to have told her right off might have known she’d hear about it somehow you know women’s gossip so she wants to know all about it and why I didn’t tell her in the first place instead of letting her find out she kept asking questions how Susan could have reached the trigger with such a long barrel figure it out for yourself I told her she thought there was something I was trying to hide she got so she wanted to talk about it all the time she’d say oh sometimes I get to thinking about Susan and it makes me feel so blue I wonder what she was feeling and how she could have done that to herself I’d tell her for Christ’s sake you never even met Susan how can you think about her that’s why I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d take it this way it wasn’t long before I see we were never going to get on together she didn’t exactly nag but she was sarcastic and she had her own ideas anyway too late now I thought just have to make the best of it well one way of making the best of it was to get out of the house whenever she started playing the piano it’s stopped going to open the windows no air in here sure you don’t want another I’m helping myself again hope you don’t mind don’t drink much when I’m alone don’t enjoy it no fun to drink if you’ve got nobody to talk to right and worse to drink with somebody who won’t drink and doesn’t want you to drink either Laura couldn’t drink claimed it gave her a headache so she took exception to it when I drank even wanted me to get rid of the still said it made her nervous knowing it was down there did my drinking out in the tool shed you know it’s a bad thing when a man can’t do as he’s a mind to in his own house we were getting on each other’s nerves something terrible and she was spending more and more time at the piano what kind of music God I don’t know but it was always loud I didn’t stay to listen I got out she’d be pounding there all afternoon long I put up with it till one day I told her look we’ve got to have an understanding about that piano right now it seems to me an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon’s enough for anybody and by God that’s all you’re going to play I’m going to time you and if you go on after your time’s up I’m going to come in and drag you out of here by force you hear well that didn’t go down with her after that she wouldn’t play at all said I’d ruined it for her you see this was just part of her nervous breakdown cutting off her nose to spite her face but she held it against me right up to the end I even tried once in a while to get her to play but she wouldn’t wouldn’t even come into this room any more sat in the kitchen by the big window mooning I didn’t know then but she must have had Susan on her mind the whole time I think even if I’d told her myself instead of her finding out from the neighbors the way she did I think it would have been the same anyway one morning I was out in the field hoeing and I heard a funny noise in the house by God I said she’s playing with that shotgun and I started to run well I found her in the parlor she’d done it the s
ame way as Susan both of them I couldn’t believe it couldn’t believe it things like that don’t happen I mean twice exactly the same way no well it was terrible I asked Doc Synder about it later if he thought it was my interfering with her piano but he said no she was melancholic and would have done the same thing anyway so I mustn’t feel to blame but I still did he told me Caleb when a woman like your wife gets an idea into her head you might as well give up you’re not going to get it out he didn’t help Laura any he’d joke with her but she just nodded her head Doc said he wasn’t much surprised at what she’d done he’d sort of been expecting something bad well it was a pleasure talking to you come back if you still want to see the place in good weather be glad to see you any time a pleasure take it easy on the road you won’t get back before dark anyway

  (1983)

  Tangier 1975

  I FIRST MET HER just after she’d bought the big villa overlooking the valley Saudis have it now they’ve got most of the good properties I remember she asked Anton and me to tea we hadn’t been married very long then she seemed very much interested in him she’d seen him dance years ago in Paris before his accident and they talked about those days it was all very correct she had delicious petits fours strange how that impressed itself on my mind of course at that time you must remember we were frightfully poor living on the cheapest sort of food fortunately Anton was a fantastic cook or we should have starved he knew how to make a meal out of nothing at all I assure you well it wasn’t a fortnight later that she invited us to lunch terribly formal a large staff everything perfect and afterward I remember we were having coffee and liqueurs beside the fireplace and she suddenly offered us this little house she had on the property there were several extra cottages hidden around you know guest houses but most of them were up above nearer the big house this one was way down in the woods far from everything except a duck pond I was absolutely stunned it was the last thing I should have expected of her then she took us down to see it very simple but charming tastefully furnished and a rather primitive kitchen and bath but there were heaps of flowers growing outside and lovely views from the windows we were enchanted of course you understand there was nothing to pay we were simply given the use of the house for as long as we wished I admit it was a very kind gesture for her to make although at the time I suspected that she had her eye on Anton I was quite wrong as it happened in any case having the house made an enormous difference to us it was a gift from the gods there was as a matter of fact one drawback for me Anton didn’t seem to mind them but there were at least twenty peacocks in an enormous aviary in the woods not far away and some nights they’d scream you know how hair-raising the sound is especially in the middle of the night it took me weeks to get used to it lying there in the dark listening to those insane screams eventually I was able to sleep through it well once we’d moved in our hostess never came near us which was her privilege naturally but it did seem a bit peculiar at least she wasn’t after Anton the months went by and we never caught sight of her you see we had a key to the gate at the bottom of the estate so we always used the lower road to come and go it was much easier than climbing up past the big house so of course in order for us to see her she’d have had to come down to our part of the property but she never ventured near us time went on then all at once we began to hear from various directions a strange rumor that whenever she spoke of us she referred to us as her squatters I was all for going up and having it out with her on the spot is that why you invited us here so you could ridicule us wherever you go but Anton said I’d got no proof it could simply be the typical sort of malicious gossip that seems to be everywhere in this place he said to wait until I heard it with my own ears well clearly she wasn’t likely to say it in front of me then one morning I went to take a little walk in the woods and what should I see but several freshly painted signs that had been put up along the paths all saying DEFENSE DE TOUCHER AUX FLEURS obviously they’d been put there for us there was no one else isn’t it extraordinary the way people’s minds work we didn’t want her beastly flowers we’d never touched them I don’t like cut flowers I much prefer to see them growing Anton said best pay no attention if we have words she’ll put us out and he was right of course but it was very hard to take at all events you know she had lovers always natives of course what can one expect that’s all right I’m not so narrow-minded I’d begrudge her that dubious pleasure but there are ways and ways of doing things you’d expect a woman of her age and breeding to have a certain amount of discretion that is she’d make everything as unnoticeable as possible but no not at all in the first place she allowed them to live with her quite as if they were man and wife and that gave them command over the servants which is unthinkable but worse she positively flourished those wretched lovers of hers in the face of the entire town never went out without the current incumbent if people didn’t include him she didn’t accept the invitation she was the sort of woman one couldn’t imagine ever having felt embarrassment but she could have managed to live here without alienating half the Europeans you know in those days people felt strongly about such things natives couldn’t even enter the restaurants it wasn’t that she had lovers or even that her lovers were natives but that she appeared with them in public that was a slap in the face for the European colony and they didn’t forgive it but she couldn’t be bothered to care what anybody felt what I’m leading up to is the party we never caught a glimpse of her from one month to the next you understand and suddenly one day she came to call on us friendly as you please she said she had a favor to ask of us she was giving this enormous party she’d sent out two hundred invitations that had to be surrendered at the gate she said there were always too many gate-crashers at her parties the tourists would pay the guides to get them in and this time nobody was to get in excepting the ones she’d invited what she wanted us to do was to stand in a booth she’d built just outside the gate it had a little window and a counter Anton was to examine the invitations and give a sign to one of the policemen stationed outside to admit the holder I had a big ledger with all the names alphabetically listed and as Anton passed me the invitation I was to make a red check opposite the name she wanted to be sure later who had come and who hadn’t I’ve got ten servants she said and not one of them can read or write it’s discouraging then I thought of you and decided to ask this great favor of you is everything all right in your little house do you enjoy living here so of course we said oh yes everything is lovely we’d be glad to help you what fools we were it won’t take long she said two hours at most it’s a costume party drinks dinner and dancing by moonlight in the lower garden the musicians begin to play at half past seven after she’d gone I said to Anton two hundred invitations indeed she hasn’t got twenty friends in this entire city well the night of the party came and we were up there in our little sentry box working like coolies the sweat was pouring down my back sometimes a dozen people came all together half of them already drunk and they didn’t at all like having to wait and be admitted one at a time they kept arriving on and on I thought they’d never stop coming at midnight we were still there finally I told Anton this is too much I don’t care who comes I’m not going to stand here another minute and Anton said you’re right and he spoke to the guard and said that’s it no more people are coming don’t let anybody else in and good night and so on and we went down to where the party was the costumes were very elaborate we stood for a few minutes at the end of the garden watching them dancing suddenly a tall man in robes with a false beard and a big turban came up to us I had no idea who he was but Anton claimed he recognized him at once anyway it was her lover if you please she’d sent him to tell us that if we were going to come to the party would we please go and put on our costumes as if we had any costumes to put on I was staggered after getting us to stand for almost five hours in a suffocating little box she has the infernal gall to ask us to leave yes and not even the common courtesy to come and speak to us herself no she sends her native lover to do it I was starved there was plenty of food on th
e buffet but it was a hundred feet away from us at the other end of the garden when we got back down to our house I told Anton I hate that woman I know it’s wrong but I really hate her to make things worse the next day she came down to see us again not as you might think to thank us far from that on the contrary she’d come to complain that we’d let in people who had no invitations what do you mean I cried look at the cards and look at the book they tally what are you talking about and she said the Duchesse de Saint Somethingorother was missing her evening bag where she’d put her emerald earrings and I said just what has that got to do with us will you please tell me well she said we’d left our post our post she called it as though we were in the army and after we’d gone some other people had arrived and the police let them in Anton asked if they’d presented their invitations well she said she hadn’t been able to get hold of that particular policeman so she didn’t know but if we’d been there it wouldn’t have happened my dear lady I said do you realize we were in that booth for five hours you told us it wouldn’t take more than two I hope you’re aware of that well it’s most unfortunate she said I’ve had to call in the police that made me laugh eh bien madame I said since according to you it was the police who let the thief in it ought to be very simple I don’t see that we have anything to do with it then she raised her voice all I can say is I’m sorry I was foolish enough to count on you I shall know better another time and she went out it was then that I said to Anton look we can’t go on living in this woman’s house we’ve got to find somewhere else he was earning a little at that time working in an export-import office practically nothing but enough to pay rent on a small cottage he thought we should hang on there and hope that things would return to normal but I began to go out by myself nearly every day to look for somewhere we could move to this turned out later to have been very useful at least I’d seen a good many houses and knew which ones were possible you see the party was only the prelude to the ghastly thing that happened less than a month afterward one night some teenage hoodlums got into the big house the lover had gone to Marrakech for the weekend so she was alone yes she made the servants sleep in cabins in the upper garden she was alone in the house and you know these people they’re always convinced that Europeans must have vast sums of money hidden about the premises so they tortured her all night long trying to make her tell where it was she was beaten and burned and choked and cut and both her arms were broken she must have screamed I should think but maybe they covered her face with pillows at all events no one heard a thing the maids found her in the morning she was alive but she died in hospital that afternoon we knew nothing about it until the police suddenly arrived two days later and said the property was being padlocked and everybody had to leave immediately meaning the servants and gardeners and us so out we went with all our things it was terrible but as Anton said at least we lived for more than a year without paying rent he always insisted on seeing the positive side of things in a way that was helpful later when I heard the details I was frightfully upset because you see the police traced the hooligans through a gold cigarette case and some other things they’d taken the night they tortured her and then it was discovered that they also had the Duchess’s evening bag one of the criminals had arrived late the night of the party and slipped in along with a group of Spaniards after Anton and I had left the gate and of course that gave him the opportunity of examining the house and grounds for the break-in later so I felt terribly guilty of course I knew it wasn’t my fault but I couldn’t keep myself from thinking that if we’d only stayed on a little longer she’d still have been alive I was certain at first that the lover had had some part in it you see he never left her side she wouldn’t hear of it and all at once he goes off to Marrakech for a weekend no it seemed too pat it fitted too well but apparently he had nothing to do with it besides he’d had every chance to make off with whatever he wanted and never had touched a thing so he must have been fairly intelligent at least he knew better than to bite the hand that was feeding him except that in the end he got nothing for his good behavior poor wretch I’ve tried to think back to that night and sometimes it seems to me that in my sleep maybe I did hear screams but I’d heard those blasted peacocks so many times that I paid no attention and now it makes my blood run cold to think that perhaps I actually did hear her calling for help and thought it was the birds except that the big house was so far away she’d have had to be screaming from a window that looked over the valley so I keep telling myself I couldn’t possibly have heard her they wouldn’t have let her get near a window but it’s upsetting all the same