Hear the Wind Sing

16

When I entered J’s Bar, the Rat had his shoulders on the bar and his face grimaced while reading a telephone book-sized, incredibly long Henry James novel.

“Is that a good read?”

The Rat looked up from his book and shook his head from side to side. “Still, I’ve been reading it very carefully, ever since our talk the other day. ‘I love splendid deception more than the drab reality,’ you know it?”

“Nope.”

“Roger Vadim. A French Director. And this one, too: ‘The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.’”

“Who said that one?”

“I forget. You think it’s true?”

“It’s a lie.”

“Why?”

“You wake up at 3am, you’re hungry. You open the fridge and it’s empty. What do you do?”

The Rat thought it over, then laughed in a loud voice. I called J over and ordered beer and French fries, then pulled out a wrapped record and handed it to the Rat.

“What’s all this?”

“It’s a birthday present.”

“But my birthday’s not ‘til next month.”

“I won’t be here next month, so I’m giving it to you now.”

With the record in his hand, he was still thinking.

“Yeah, well, I’ll be lonely once you’re gone,” he said as he opened the paper, pulled out the record and looked it over.

“Beethoven, Piano Concerto Number 3, Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein. Hmm…I’ve never heard this. Have you?”

“Never.”

“Anyway, thank you. I’ll just come right out and say it, I’m really happy.”