Oliver's Story

'Barrett, you're a fucking lunatic!'

'Be quiet, Simpson!' I retorted as I motioned frantically for him to keep his voice down.

'What's the matter — will I wake the tennis balls?' he growled. He was disgusted and confused.

And with good reason. It was barely 6 a.m. I'd dragged him from his duties at the hospital to be my stooge at Gotham Tennis Club.

'Oh, Barrett,' Simpson whined, while changing from his doctor whites to tennis whites I had provided, 'tell me one more time why this is so important!'

'It's a favor, Steve,' I said. 'I need a partner I can trust.'

He didn't understand. I hadn't told him everything.

'Hey, look,' he said, 'we run whenever I can break away. I can't devote my life to furthering your masochism. Why at dawn, goddammit?'

'Please,' I said. So earnestly that Simpson sympathized. At least he shut his mouth.

We ambled very slowly from the locker room. He from his tiredness and I from calculation.

'We're number six,' said Steve. And yawned.

'I know,' I said. And as we headed there, I scrutinized the population of courts one through five.

But no familiar face.

We batted balls till 8 a.m., with Simpson barely staying on his feet. And begging me to let him quit. I wasn't too adroit myself.

'You played like cottage cheese,' he puffed. 'You must be overtired too.'

'Yeah, yeah,' I said. And wondered where she was. In Cleveland maybe?

'Steve, I gotta ask a giant favor.'

'What?' he asked, suspicion in his eyes.

'Another game. Tomorrow.'

From my tone and pleading Simpson felt my urgency.

'Okay. But not at six a.m.'

'That's just the point,' I said. 'It's gotta be at six again!'

'No, goddammit, there are limits!' Simpson snarled. And punched the locker in frustration.

'Please,' I said. And then confessed, 'Steve, there's a girl involved.'

His weary eyes now widened. 'Yeah?' he said.

I nodded yes. And told him that I met her at the club and knew no other way of finding her.

Simpson looked relieved that I was interested in someone. And agreed to play. Then he thought of something: 'What if she's not here tomorrow too?'

'We'll just have to keep on coming till she is.'

He merely shrugged. A friend in need, if an exhausted friend indeed.

At the office I kept badgering Anita. Even if I only left my desk to heed the call of nature, I'd come charging back demanding, 'Any calls?'

And when she went for lunch, I'd order in a sandwich. Thus I kept a constant watch upon the telephone (I didn't trust that new kid at the switchboard). I wouldn't miss when Marcie called.

Except she didn't.

Wednesday afternoon I had to go to court to argue a motion for a preliminary injunction. This took almost two whole hours. I got back around a quarter after five.

'Any calls, Anita?'

'Yeah.'

'Well … what?'

'Your doctor. He's at home this evening after eight.'

What could this be? Did London — whom I couldn't see that day — think I was cracking?

'What exactly was the message?'

'Jesus, Oliver, I told you! She just said— '

'What she?'

'Just let me finish, would you? She just said to tell you, "Dr Stein will be at home this evening!" '

'Dr Stein … ' I said, betraying disappointment. It had been Joanna.

'Who were you expecting — Dr Jonas Salk?' Anita asked.

I reflected for a minisecond. Maybe what I needed was a friendly conversation with a human being like Joanna. No, that would be unfair. She's too … together for a guy like me.

'And nothing else?' I snarled.

'I left some memos. Interoffice. Okay if I leave?'

'Yeah, yeah.'

I hurried to my desk. As might have been expected interoffice memos in a law firm all related to assorted cases that the firm was handling. Not a word from Marcie.

Two days later, old man Jonas asked me to his office for a meeting. Damn. I told Anita I would buy her lunch if she would stay on guard. The boss had brought me in — again with Mr Marsh — to talk about the case of Harold Baye, a wiretapper for the F.B.I, who had discovered he himself was being bugged by his own bureau. Insects of this sort were now a veritable plague. Harold had hairy tales to tell about surveillance of some White House staff. Naturally, he didn't have much dough. But Jonas thought the firm should take his case 'to tune the public in'.

The second that our meeting broke, I sprinted back.

'Any calls, Anita?'

'Washington, D.C.,' she said, kind of impressed at having taken such a message. 'The director of the O.E.O.'

'Oh,' I said, not quite enthusiastic. 'Nothing else?'

'Were you expecting maybe Jacqueline Onassis?'

'Hey, look — don't kid around, Anita,' I retorted frostily. And stomped into my office.

I overheard Anita mutter, honestly confused, 'What's eating him?'

Naturally, I wasn't merely passive, waiting for a call. I played tennis every morning. When poor Simpson couldn't make it, I took 'lessons' from old Petie Clark, their antiquated pro.

'Let me tell you, sonny, Petie's taught 'em all. They go from me to Wimbledon.'

'Hey, did you ever teach a Marcie Nash?'

' You mean that pretty little gal — '

'Yeah, yeah.'

' — who won the doubles with that red-haired fella back in '48?'

'Never mind. Forget it, Petie.'

'Tell the truth, I don't remember if I taught that one or not.'

And every afternoon I ran. Against the traffic, so I'd get a better look at faces. Still no luck.

Whatever Marcie did, it sometimes took her out of town for many days. But I would persevere.

Though I had immediately joined the Gotham Tennis Club (the sole criterion for membership is money), they would not cooperate. I mean the office would vouchsafe no information whatsoever on my fellow clubbees.

'You mean you haven't got a list?'

'It's just for office use. I'm sorry, Mr Barrett.'

In a moment of frustration, I considered asking Harold Baye to bug their phone. But then I stopped myself. Still, that's an index of my desperate state of mind.

I even dreamed of how I might subpoena all the charge accounts at '21'. For when I asked Dmitri who it was I'd dined with, he evinced an inexplicable amnesia.

Obviously, I inquired at Binnendale's. With some fishy story of an aunt and an inheritance, I learned that they did, in fact, have three employees with the surname Nash. I checked them personally.

First, in Ladies' Shoes, I met Priscilla Nash. She was a friendly woman who had worked there over forty years. She'd never married. And her only living relative was Uncle Hank in Georgia and her only friend a cat named Agamemnon. To obtain this information cost me eighty-seven bucks. I had to purchase boots, 'a birthday present for my sister', as I chatted amiably with Miss Nash. (I got Anita's size; the gift just added to her schizophrenia.) Then to Mr. B., their with-it men's department. There to meet Miss Elvy Nash. 'Hello,' said Elvy, flashing lots of charm and chic. This Nash was black and very beautiful. ' What can I do you for today?' she smiled. Oh, what indeed!

Miss Elvy Nash persuaded me that guys were really into shirt-and-sweater combinations. Before I knew it I was holding six of them. And she was ringing up — would you believe? — three hundred dollars and some change. 'Now the chicks won't keep their hands off you. You'll look as fine as wine,' Miss Elvy said. And I departed looking good. But still, unfortunately, looking.

Happily for my finances, the third and final Nash was Rodney P., a buyer who had been in Europe for the last six weeks.

'Where does that leave you?' Steve asked, heroically continuing to join me for the early morning matches.

'Nowhere,' I replied.

Also I was plagued by a recurrent nightmare.

I kept reliving that excruciating fight I had with Jenny in the first year we were married. She had wanted me to see my father, or at least to make my peace by telephone. I'm still chagrined at how I yelled at her. I was a madman. Frightened, Jenny fled to god-knows-where. I sprinted madly, turning everything in Cambridge upside down. But couldn't find her. Then at last in panic I came home and found her waiting on the outside steps.

That was my dream exactly, save for one detail: Jenny didn't reappear.

I searched as frantically as ever. I returned in desperation as I had. But Jenny wasn't there at all.

What was that supposed to mean?

That I was scared of losing Jenny?

Or that I wanted (!) to lose Jenny?

Dr London offered a suggestion: Was I not of late involved in yet another quest for yet another lady after yet another fit of anger?

Yes. I was in search of Marcie Nash.

But what does Marcie have to do with Jenny?

Nothing, naturally.