he: A Novel(87)

Tonnage Martin leaves his service when Vera eventually departs California. Tonnage Martin later sues him for $2,700, and dies of a heart attack in Ohio. He is not invited to be a pallbearer, for which he is much relieved.





169


He and Babe make Saps at Sea.

At fifty-seven minutes, it is no streamliner, and closer to a feature. So, too, was A Chump at Oxford. Their contract stipulates four shorter pictures, but two longer pictures equals four shorter ones.

Their contract with Hal Roach has been fulfilled.

It is December 1939.

They are about to leave Hal Roach’s lot forever.





170


He feels sympathy for Viola Morse, because Babe is now in love with Lucille Jones. Theirs is a delicate courtship of glances and circling – so delicate, in fact, that Lucille Jones is largely unaware of its inception.

But Viola Morse is not.

Viola Morse is no ingénue. Viola Morse has one marriage behind her, and has raised a son alone. Viola Morse has been patient with Babe, and loving of him. Viola Morse observes the change in Babe, and soon discovers its cause, and understands that she is to be cast aside for a woman almost twenty years Babe’s junior.

What pains Viola Morse most is that she cannot even accuse Babe of having an affair. Babe has not slept with Lucille Jones. Babe is so smitten with Lucille Jones that Babe is unable to bring himself to profess his affection for her. Babe sends flowers and chocolates to Lucille Jones when she is ill. On the set of Saps at Sea, Babe makes sure to greet Lucille Jones every morning, and inquire after her health, and the health of her family, and perhaps even the health of the rabbits that scamper in her garden, and the bluebirds that sing from the branches beneath her window. Were Babe simply to have fucked Lucille Jones, Viola Morse could understand. Babe would then be just another middle-aged buffoon scenting his own mortality and scrambling in panic after the promise of youth. Babe would be sad, and idiotic, yet not beyond comprehension.

But Babe has not fucked Lucille Jones. Neither has Babe kissed Lucille Jones. Babe is a body in orbital decay, cycling more frequently from apastron to periastron, inexorably approaching a merging with the light.

And yes, there are those who might say that the actual nature of Babe’s pursuit of Lucille Jones is sadder and more idiotic still, predicated – as it appears to be – on pedestals and virginal innocence. But these people do not know Babe as Viola Morse does. Babe’s mind is virtually without corruption, and his heart is open. Babe’s touch is gentle. Babe is tender to a fault. Despite his great weight, Babe has never once hurt Viola Morse during lovemaking, not even inadvertently.

Viola Morse realizes that Babe genuinely loves Lucille Jones. And, slowly, Viola Morse learns that Lucille Jones loves Babe in return. It means that Viola Morse cannot help but lose this man who means so much to her.

For Viola Morse, the pain is unendurable.

Babe asks Lucille Jones to marry him, and she agrees.

They have not yet gone out on a date together.

They have never even had coffee.

He and Babe share a celebratory bottle of champagne. He should be concerned for Babe, he thinks. After all, Babe is marrying a younger woman, one whom Babe hardly knows. He, though, has some experience in the business of making a fool of oneself with an unsuitable mate, and Babe and Lucille Jones appear – well, he cannot find the appropriate word, and so settles for ‘right’. They are right for each other. He can discern no trace of duplicity in Lucille Jones, and knows there is little in Babe.

As the years go by, Babe and Lucille will celebrate their wedding anniversary not annually but weekly, and watch pictures together in their theater at home, and keep a menagerie in place of children. And Lucille will care for Babe as he lies dying, even as illness robs Babe of his tongue, so that Babe can signal his love for her only by hand and eye.

And it will be Lucille who tells him at last that Babe is gone.

But the interweaving of his life and Babe’s has begun again. Just as Vera, after an argument, once took to the streets in a car that she could not control, so Viola Morse does the same. Viola Morse’s only child, her beloved son, dies suddenly, just as Babe is to be married. Viola Morse has given the best part of her life to two men, and now both are gone. Viola Morse swallows sleeping tablets, climbs in her car, and on Wilshire Boulevard collides with three vehicles, one of which is a police cruiser. Viola Morse is taken to St Vincent’s Hospital, and recovers, but he finds the coincidences odd nonetheless:

This crashing of cars, this discarding of lovers.

Babe’s guilt over Viola Morse is disfiguring. It bends Babe into unfamiliar shapes.

Should Babe postpone the wedding?

No, not unless the postponement is to be indefinite, and followed by marriage to Viola Morse.

Does Viola Morse feel betrayed by Babe?

Yes, just as Alyce Ardell feels betrayed by him. There will be no marriage to Alyce Ardell, and questions once asked will remain unanswered. Alyce Ardell will slip away from pictures, slip away from him, and will be remembered only as a footnote to his life. The making of Saps at Sea marks the end of their dance.

Because he does not take Alyce Ardell to the preview of Saps at Sea.

Instead, he takes his ex-wife, Ruth.





171


At the Oceana Apartments, he recalls a sense of optimism.

He and Babe toured in a revue – twelve towns, ecstatic crowds. They opened in Omaha and were briefly presented with the key of the city before being asked to return it, because the Omaha city fathers discovered they possessed only one key, and Wendell Willkie, running for the presidency, was expecting to receive it. But the revue brought in money, and bought them time to rest. He raised the walls still higher around his property, and Babe built a new home on Magnolia Boulevard.