he: A Novel(73)

I just wanted to be left alone, Babe says.

– I know.

He thinks it may be harder for Babe, who is somehow closer than he is to his adopted persona. There is a greater capacity for hurt in Babe.

I’m about to have a second ex-wife, says Babe. How the hell did that happen?

– Maybe you want to start a collection. You could store them in your basement, and run tours.

– I can’t figure out if I keep marrying the wrong women, or they keep marrying the wrong man.

And perhaps, he thinks, it will get worse as it goes on, although he does not say this to Babe, because it will not help. Madelyn and Myrtle knew Babe before his mask became fixed, just as Lois knew him. But those who come after, what of them? They will know Babe and him from the screen, perhaps even love Babe and him from the screen, but they cannot marry those men, and would not want to; sleep with them, possibly, even mother them along the way, but not marry. What they marry must inevitably disappoint because it will be those screen creatures made flesh, with all the flaws of the flesh; men without innocence, like Adam after the fall.

I believe, he tells Babe, I may also be in trouble. With Ruth, I mean.

He feels that this is a familiar refrain. Only the names appear to change.

– This isn’t a competition.

– Where you go, so go I.

Yes, says Babe. I guess that must be true.





142


What patterns are these? What paths are they following, he and Babe? It is as though they have worn twin grooves in the world, like the ruts created by the wheels of wagons, but deeper and more profound, so that as one travels, so must the other. They are yoked together by forces beyond contracts, beyond friendship. Their lives have become reflections, each of the other, an infinity of echoes.

Babe seeks comfort from Myrtle with other women.

He seeks comfort from Ruth with other women.

When the marriage of one is troubled, so, too, is the marriage of the other.

They rhyme. They are partners in the dance.

Or it could, of course, be only coincidence. It must surely be.

And yet it is not. The strangeness of this year will prove otherwise.

An overlapping, a shaded Venn.

Babe.

Ah, Babe.





143


At the Oceana Apartments, he sits and watches the play of light on the sea. Ida is sleeping. She has collected the broken crockery, and soaked up the spilled tea. But now he is unable to rest. He is in pain.

He has been in pain for such a long, long time.

That year, that extraordinary year: so much misery, but from out of it he and Babe created something beautiful.

Babe, he whispers. Babe.

I hear you singing.





144


You’d Be Surprised.

Tonight’s The Night.

In The Money.

They Done It Wrong.

This picture, says Jimmy Finlayson, has so many names, it ought to be on the run.

They settle for Way Out West.

The movements of the new dance, much the same as the old dance but with some unwelcome variations, go like this: Babe steps in.

Babe is estranged from Myrtle. A court date has been set. Ben Shipman tells Babe to expect to take the stand.

It will be a foul experience, Ben Shipman says, but then it will be over.

Ruth steps in.

At the same time, he and Ruth separate. Ruth sues for maintenance. His finances are made public, even down to the cost of the apartment in which he sometimes fucks Alyce Ardell.

Hal Roach steps in.

To add to his humiliation, Hal Roach insists upon a lengthy morals clause in his new contract. He must in future conduct himself with due regard to public conventions. He must not commit any act that might prejudice Hal Roach or the studio.

He reads over the contract and the clause in Ben Shipman’s office.

Hal is already prejudiced, he tells Ben Shipman.

– Hal could be more prejudiced.

Ben Shipman knows Hal Roach well, having acted for him in the past before devoting himself almost entirely to Babe and this man seated before him. These two, with all their predicaments, take up so much of Ben Shipman’s days that Ben Shipman barely has time for a piss.

What if I don’t sign it? he asks Ben Shipman.

– Then you’ll have another reason to be in the newspapers. Is that what you want?

That is not what he wants.

– This is demeaning.

– It may be demeaning, but you’re not the first to have to sign one, you won’t be the last, and you’re certainly not the worst. There are men in this town who can’t trip over a crack in the sidewalk without landing with their cock inside another human being. If I weren’t a lawyer, I’d be a clap doctor.

Listen to me: if you sign the contract, you get four more pictures, and the money that comes with them. If you don’t sign it, Hal will fire you, and you can’t afford to be fired because, unless I’m mistaken, you’re about to invest in more alimony bonds.

He stares at Ben Shipman, then reads the morals clause again.

– I don’t even know what all this means.

– It means that if you fuck someone, it should be your wife. If it isn’t your wife, then make sure it isn’t someone else’s wife. If it is someone else’s wife, lock the door.

– Well, that certainly makes things clearer.