was Kathleen, bit ofthe Iish a his hand, once even Wiley agreed, but he was a(fashing The man Kath eacmenntieannsace fY ands and pondered it Head his lass with both len at her back Then fe someties looked over at Kathy wanted to he looked at his oy keep ev ‘ass again, Wiley and stared at ren iPS friendly, so helleme afaw Soe Siges Gere v Petia fish. He abbed his a-\P AG st OF fatastar $6 (38) Boa Conptende The Lif of the Baty ger abiiley sna Gwin cnintelligi turned ahg took Rafi, Then theSoriendeh He was Giping his hands witha towel. bar and spoke to Kathleen and the short maw ina sof voice se sorvebe, Kathleen looked around at Wiley mouth shut” ‘The bartender nodded. “Please be quit,” he said, “Now just a minute,” Wiley said ‘The bartender ignored him. He went on talking in that soft voice of his. Wiley couldn't follow everything he said, but he did hear words tothe effect that he, Wiley, had been drinking hard all night and that they shouldn't take him. ‘and said, "You Keep your too seriously, ates | Whoa!” Wiley said. “Gt hold ona secon¥ I'm having and all ofa 8 quiet conversation with ™ Te Minty *) ‘sudden Napoleon declares war.@Why is that my faull)"w, tan “Sr aes yon an ou ought tot him of the short man sid. “Iwas about qtegeke Gye “Tdi heliewe this” Wiley si “For your informa: SpaveyarmenbalBobs” 4 \Xe “Mie Lundgren ent here tonight” Soe toees “Tcan see that. Ihave eyes. My pons here.” Wiley stopped. The three of sin were looking at him as if he was a complete as or he wasn't even mad any sounded like on the name of Chst’s facher “I have many friends in high places,” he sad, tying to make a joke of i but they just kept looking a him. They actually thought he ‘as serious. Oh, relax” he sad "i'm sure Mr, Lundgren wil be happy t take care of Wiley had to admit, he 139] fie litle guy so supe- Pa ® ny oySopess ouk stron The Life ofthe Body THE NIGHT 1 your tab,” the bartender said “If you want to make a com ren. The one Wiley had heard laugh sth sf af plaint he'll be in tomorrow Afternoon, tchandy ¥. G@heneve) anybody said anything she ¢facked Up. They , v ‘wergallin ther fifties, tourists by the look OF THEM the only ovat tess you GemgneeatS U The bartender, the questionThew he coid, Y. Gastomerdin the place. Wiley bought a whisky and carried '% Artoa table by the window where he could keep an eye: 4 pettcionen the bar he'd just been asked to leave. “You're free to leave under your own steam sir, andf'd 4°. "Nothing like this had ever happened to him. He was a much obliged i your dia * Reade 7 English teacher in a private high school He ive alone. He “But this is ridiculous.” "This is absolutely naib,” Wi } Wy inredibe,” Wiley said, more to his dia’t goto bars mach and almost never drank whisky. Hj olf han the bartender, in whose studied courtesy he aia? liked good wine, knew something about it, but was nogGt)as he possibilty of competent violence Buthe NC _of knowing too mich AX night fer hed prepared dan ada N38 going tobe hurried. He finished his ‘lasses, he drank wine and read nineteenth-century novels. ” Ms is. inclined He didn’t like modern fiction, its narcissism, its moral s Thanked her Pike timidity, its silence in the face of great wrongs, Wiley had Y fe OEE the room with perfec! S started teaching to support himself while he wrote his doc- y stepped outs, taking care thatthe door © toral thesis, and then lost interest in scholarship as he “a Dad PATO began to sense the power of his postion His students were Ege ate ig icy nl inde eS Syn emu tf be cptive tothe ies the worl " THE NIGHT IN QUESTION he walked. His head was clear, his Derant, even exultant, a if he'd thing. Light and easy: The feeling 0st of rive home, and then it broke; by the time Wiley He went straight to the bathroom and turned on the < z slower ip wa cata btn pupa nc ‘up like a sausage. He had another cut over the skin above it , dae could see a) benny on ‘houghtookig at meet Het es Person behind }hi on Ainwetfin Tae the BETO again, hoping to find some change Tor ered pee ace, then ewe a OTT coher at a book and nally When the arm gata reached his apartment he was wea Yim ea k and cold, GizegiOF eh » The Life ofthe Body “Must have been a whole shitload of them.” “Well, not that many,” Wiley said, and walked on. He ‘went straight to his classroom instead of stopping offin the teachers’ lounge, but he hadn't been at his desk five min- tutes before the principal came in. °Mr. Wiley,” he said, “let's have a look at you" He walked up close and peered at Wiley’s face. Students were filing in behind him, trying not to stare at Wiley as they took their seats. “What exactly happened?” the principal asked "1 got mugged.” “Have you seen a doctor” Not yet” "You should. That's a prize set of bruises you've got there. Very nasty. Call the police” “No. I'm still in sort of a daze.” Wiley said this in a low voice go the students wouldn't hear him. Wiley’ friend Mac stuck his head in the doorway, nod- ding coolly atthe principal “You okay?” he said to Wiley I guess “Theard there were eight of them. Is that right, eight?” "No." Wiley tried to smile but his face wouldn't let him. “Just two," he said, He couldn't admit to one, not with all this damage. “Two's enough,” Mac said The principal said, “Just let me know if you want to 0 home. Seriously, now, Mr. Wiley—no heroics, I'm touched that you came in at al” He stopped at the door on his way out and turned to the students. “Be warned, ladies and gentlemen. What happened to Mr. Wiley is going to happen to your children It will be a common occurrence ‘That's the kind of world they're going to live in if you don't do something to change it.” He let his eyes pass slowly around the room the way he did at school assemblies. "The choice is yours," he said. las]THE NICHT IN QUESTION Nace sent tind bi Ma andthe pita Ie oo bo Tndttoduck each wihlceand opm cyng St 7 x" Hail One of them drove the other to the back of a aoe wh ech eth harap Af tathtsams an op wing thee ae jhommaeseren ee This was senior rads "a5 ser honors ls. The students had ben Taine “Benito Cero” one of Wiey’s favorite stores, the way thar ane Being a discussion stated because of ¥y they were looking at him, Finally he decided to le talked about Melville's exposure s dictions in human lan: wi X justice white m w, which claims to J eee Reeth and Soporte ¥ OMS RET he 8 change as hy $imee e, “£ Tinned need an eas of made 3 ea worked himself into ‘that rich . f lpn nee, w such momen rea or eG i is he forg rald denour x; ly cing hea oa Jonathan Site toorgeopaom 0? ting a crime 50 obsfene it took your The Life ofthe Body breath away, yet less obscene than the crimes ordinary peo- ple tolerated without a second thought. ‘And what happened to Bartleby, Wiley said, was only @ of things to come. “Look at the multinationals!” he ‘And then, not for the fir time, he described the evo- Iution of business-school theory to its logical conclusion, high-tech factories in the middle of foreign jungles where, behind urded by soldiers and dogs, tribesmen who had never seen a flush Ta eto assemble fax machines and laptop computers. A mil Bartlebys, a billion Batlebys! Wiley didn’t have the documentation on these jungle factories; it was something someone had told him, but it ‘made sense and was right in tune with the spirit of ate- twentieth-century capitalism. It sounded true enough to ‘make him furious whenever he talked about it. He finished his lecture with only a few minutes to go before the bell. He felt very professional. It was no mean feat, getting your 255, kicked at two in the morning and giving a dynamite lecture at nine, He asked his students if they had any questions. [None of them did, a first. Wiley heard whispers. Then a girl raised her hand, shyly, almost as if she hoped he wouldn't notice. When Wiley called on her she looked at the boy across the aisle, Robbins, and said, “What color were they?” Wiley did not understand the question. She looked over at Robbins again. Robbins said, “They were black, right?” Sa “hep np) learn something in here, to think better thoughts than his FBLagent father who griped to the principal about Wiley’s reading list. Wiley leaned against the blackboard. “I don’t know,” he said. la7l y i Y J 4THE NIGHT IN QUESTION “Yeah Robbins sai sc drt hk ley sa This sounded probably vague evento him, she aed roby wgue ven ohn. so headed na th bins ga 8a great shout of Inher, Some of the te sadn ph then one of ther tw fe hat sen everyone nto Kind of. "Quiet” Wey ‘butte ep aghing Thy were heyont i re Ae could do was sad there and wat a hem Sop ily had he black tudes in tila, lane oy They tae at heir os enact these Wa {7 agement Bough ty were sitng in ie cfs At the begining of te year they aay Later bul now thy die fom dk todeckite ey nee They eed fl at ome in hi cas at was wht he wanted fortis rom to be santa 4 st ofthe word hou tek. The ‘other reason for him to be here. “1 pth belgie down and ted ough soe Pepe as the tides, suddenly and stangay ul ke pst his desk. Then he went to the ates atoll the principal he was terble beer, 2 8608 home afterall. He was feeling ‘meeting. "Is it an e “Tm afraic zl Tel hen be ga ey said : “Its sort of an emergency: ba that Me Met “disor Wville’s cetacean has distem™ ‘Wiley spelled out cetacean fori 148) } The Life ofthe Body ‘And thena woman's voice was on the line. ‘Whois this, please?" It was her, But sharp, n0 fooling around. Wiley couldn't answer. He'd expected her to pick up his joke, and. now he didn’t know how to begin. “Hello? Hello? Damn,” she said, and hung up. Wiley tumed to the white pages. There was a Dr. K.P Newman on Filbert Street. He wrote down the number and address, Mac's wife, Alice, stopped by that afternoon with bread and salad. She had been a student of Wiley’s, and oneof his favorites, a pole, slow-moving, thoughtful girl he would reve have suspected ofcarying on with a teacher, which ‘showed how much he knew; she and Mac had been going strong ever since her junior year. They got macried right titer she graduated. There was a scandal, ofcourse, and cata ost is opis ccto tnve came that omehow it never came otha. Wiley found the whole thing very confusing. He disap: coved and was jealous; he felt as if Mac had somehow EiGle sooo him, But eight yeas ad passed since then, “ENT RoppAE side the door and ooked at Wley’s face, He saw that she was shocked tothe point of tears. “itl mend,” he told her “But why would anyone do that to you?” “These things happen,” he said ‘Well they shoulda.” She sent him back tothe livingroom. Wiley lay onthe couch and watched her through the kitchen doorway while ‘heset the able and made lunch He was happy having her to himself in his apartment; it was a wish of his. Alice dint know he felt that way. When they all went out to ars she sat beside him and leaned her head on his shoul dlr She took Gisrom his drinks. She liked to dance, and when she danced with Wiley she moved right up close, laaa § e TN years, the it p her ha ‘She called him tothe THE NIGHT IN QUESTION ting all he while about everyday things that Snehow made thei clonees reopcable Athen eight Ot when Mac and Alice drove Wey home and cage ede aallthisiter nd drink a gla of wine ap tnd Vile began to read te tem sone ea Sige fom whatever novel he was cogin seth aut on the conch and rest her ead in Wey ap wl Mac looked on beigly om the say cats Wey kr that he was suposed of ono by alts at tthe sented Fath had become an mpovon tse light of his capac for dae Si, he pa up with be tise dn tro what te ed Now Alice was slicing tomatoes at hisabeitdcoanter 4 faooted way of stancing, Jha was gh trot ina but one stands hanger ne oe io then saya she worked. Sh edn ight ove te i esh ander her chi se ca elas a a ge eS ae woe phi ee Finally she said, “Do you want some wine with this?” sec in eto at the empty bottles lined against the wall. “Did you drink all: those 7 “Oh, great. I'm glad you didn’t ‘drink them all at on “Tdon't know. don’t keep track of every dink looked at him she think it was beca 50) The Lif of he Boly eben’ he ie 7 Ee wp mary Mai sy en eee ead mc eee 1 He shook his | Cc “a ere ye toate . oe I gg escent eae sa aa) re ee at or eer or Se oe sa nee re Sone ee ata en a eee ages vals "at ya mt te sm sia area p eae ana tenets es Se a roma wnt arta ep ae ce I a a tee ts kAR € THE NIGHT IN QUESTION ‘began to tell her what had really happened to him the night befor Ale Intend without any disgust or pity that he saul sx Ste seemed purl intrested, Now and then he ghed, because in talking about it Wiley couldn't hel ut make his ite disaster into asory and teling tre, yee aout ln ne loneliness and uate natural Geena Hecould sesh rf good time listening to him, that this wasn’t Tt she'd expected wen Mac asked her to look in on thar the was hearing some straight alk She did't get ‘Rome, Mac was good-hearted, but he was also a ‘Alc what went on in his class that morning she grew “Twas speetes Pees,” sei ee he Me Tae he eal aay ot dn “Navies eh : “emacs ems ous : Bef sropes our “a ey sous” “Samed (21 The Life ofthe Body “Some of them would. And they'd be the right ones.” “Ttwould get all over school. 4 get fred.” Ag "Thats rae Alc sid. She sind her cs on er v By f hand. “But stil.” ‘Still what?” When she didn’t answer, he said, “All right, let's say Idon't care about getting fired. Ido, bu let's st hypothetically say 1 go in there tomorrow and tell hing, the works. You know what they'll think? the second story, not the ling-heart sentimentality, to make the black kids feel better. But what'll really happen, they'll end up feeling even worse. Condescended to. In sulted, They’ think I'm lying to protect them, as if they ‘were guilty of something. Everyone will think I'm lying,” Wiley could see her hesitate. Then she said, “But you ‘won't be lying. You'll be telling the truth.” “Yes, but no one will now it!” “You will. You'll know it” “Look. Alice.” Wiley was angry now, and impatient, He ‘waited, and then spoke so that his anger would not show. He said, “I fee terrible. can’teven count all the things I've done wrong today. But I did them, they/re done. Trying to ‘undo them will only make things worse, and not just for ime. For those kids.” This seemed logical to Wiley, well and reasonably said "Maybe so.” She was tuming one of herrings nervously. “Maybe I'm being simplistic, but I just don’t see where telling the truth can be wrong, [always thought that’s what you were there for.” Wiley had other arguments to make. That he was a teacher, and could not afford to gamble with his moral a thority. That when the truth did more harm than ali, you had to give the lie its due. That if other people had to suffer {ust s0 you could have a clean conscience you should ac cept your fallen condition and get on with it. They were (531 hodWS... 1...) ks THE NIGHT IN QUESTION {od arguments, the very oil of adult life, but he said noth- ing. He was no fool, he knew what her answers would be, Decause after all they were his answers too. He simply couldnt < “Ale "Fe aid. "rey hea BS She nodded _[lshouln’t have dropped all this stuff on you. I's too confusing” “tm not confused” He didnt answer “Thave to go,” she sid He walked her to the doo. “I won't say anything to Mac she told hi “Tinow that Test you." To do what? Keep secrets from my husband?” She ughed not pleasantly. "Dowt worry” he said" know Tan cometed essays the rest of the afternoon, He broke ‘ranean tet ot th Both al gy oy elt at god ch praia ‘One of his students, a girl, had compared the tee aeamage, with Bartleby as the wife and the fara eh" a uh a = ‘at women, as if Bartleby has ‘no other purpose on a fot to be of use to him” She bent the story around ‘argument, but Wiley didn’t mind. ‘The essay was ate. This pr * Wet ke sucha view at the ee rot ave Wiley was moved, and prow vn beginning of the year Fier Soe mana NS Bik nd he cle he ‘swered, he Newman. When she an- adie," “4 “KS me, Katheen From lastnight” Re The Life ofthe Body “You, she ssi Where did you get my number?” ‘Out ofthe phone Book. Ist wanted to set things sight” Mu called me before, did't you?” she sad. "You cal me at work" ns" new it You dit even say anything, You did ven have theblls to give your own name." "That was ape,” Wey sa “Youre rary. You cll ne again and have the poie cat, Kathlen. need to see you.” “don't need to se ou" "Wait Pee iste, nn ke at not ie Tsomed lat night Rely Kathleen Las right was avers of mi udentandings ust want op by frente or two raghten everything ot” Wht, you fave my ares “sin the book" Christ ean belive this! Dot ven thik about com- Inghere Mikes here” she sai, and this ine on top fim meant” "You aren't married to Mike” “ho said" ‘ou would've sid if you were” “Sot What dference docs take?” “makes a dference” route crazy? . “Al ned ia few mints to tak ting ove: “To banging wp “Justa few minutes, Kathleen, Thats all Fon asking ‘Then eve if you sl wat me 0." k's here” shea She wallet. The, st before she hangup she sid, "Don you ever cll me at work sean” Us51ol eee ee ee NICHT IN QUESTION ily thd he ou slg Me he ound of a meant she sumed Belr ing out he ook Out he hed hint en over in the mimo swat prety bt be cou sl alk. Reha do Sengthr ten Hed hep ayingher nae aon S2/ ina nony bog ay hd Sa hat almost ing he same had power over her he had scat Flyb aah the willing git blooming on the face of the Heys sired orlov. He would hit that ste nd Y friend Cla and I decided to build a jet plane. We spent weeks perfecting our design atthe drafts ‘man’s table in his bedroom, Sometimes Clark let me put on the green eyeshade and wield the compasses and caliper, but never for long, I drew lke a lip4eader reads; watching me was torture for him. When he couldn't take it anymore hed bump me aside, leaving me free to fool with his things—the samurai sword, the Webley pistol with the plugged barrel—and wander the house. ‘Clark's mom was usualy out somewhere, [formed the habit of making myself a sandwich and setlng back n the leather chair in the den, where I listened told records and studied the family photo albums. They were lucky people, Clark’ parents, lucky and unsurprsed by their luck. You could see inthe pictures that they took ital in stride, the big spreads behind them, the boats and cars, and their re Jaxed, handsome families who, it was clear, did nat get laid of, or come down with migraines, or lock each other out ofthe house. I pondered each picture as if it were a door might enter, until something tured in me and | grew imnitable. Then I put the albums away, and went back to Clarks room to inspect his work and demand revisions. 56) (571