The Winter of Our Discontent Read online

  "Morning, Mr. Marullo. I guess it's afternoon."

  "Hi, kid. You shut up good and quick."

  "Whole town's shut. I thought you'd be at mass."

  "No mass today. Only day in the year with no mass."

  "That so? I didn't know that. Anything I can do for you?"

  The short fat arms stretched and rocked back and forth on the elbows. "My arms hurt, kid. Arthritis. . . . Gets worse."

  "Nothing you can do?"

  "I do everything--hot pads, shark oil, pills--still hurts. All nice and shut up. Maybe we can have a talk, eh, kid?" His teeth flashed.

  "Anything wrong?"

  "Wrong? What's wrong?"

  "Well, if you'll wait a minute, I'll just take these sandwiches to the bank. Mr. Morphy asked for them."

  "You're a smart kid. You give service. That's good."

  Ethan went through the storeroom, crossed the alley, and knocked on the back door of the bank. He passed the milk and sandwiches in to Joey.

  "Thanks. You didn't need to."

  "It's service. Marullo told me."

  "Keep a couple of Cokes cold, will you? I got dry zeros in my mouth."

  When Ethan returned, he found Marullo peering into a garbage can.

  "Where do you want to talk, Mr. Marullo?"

  "Start here, kid." He picked cauliflower leaves from the can. "You cutting off too much."

  "Just to make them neat."

  "Cauliflower is by weight. You throwing money in the garbage. I know a smart Greek fella owns maybe twenty restaurants. He says the big secret is watch the garbage cans. What you throw out, you don't sell. He's a smart fella."

  "Yes, Mr. Marullo." Ethan moved restlessly toward the front of the store with Marullo behind him bending his elbows back and forth.

  "You sprinkling good the vegetables like I said?"

  "Sure."

  The boss lifted a head of lettuce. "Feels dry."

  "Well, hell, Marullo, I don't want to waterlog them--they're one-third water now."

  "Makes them look crisp, nice and fresh. You think I don't know? I start with one pushcart--just one. I know. You got to learn the tricks, kid, or you go broke. Meat, now--you paying too much."

  "Well, we advertise Grade A beef."

  "A, B, C--who knows? It's on the card, ain't it? Now, we going to have a nice talk. We got dead wood on our bills. Anybody don't pay by the fifteenth--off the books."

  "We can't do that. Some of these people have been trading here for twenty years."

  "Listen, kid. Chain stores won't let John D. Rockefeller charge a nickel."

  "Yes, but these people are good for it, most of them."

  "What's 'good for it'? It ties up money. Chain stores buy car-loads. We can't do that. You got to learn, kid. Sure--nice people! Money is nice too. You got too much meat scraps in the box."

  "That was fat and crust."

  "Okay if you weigh before you trim. You got to look after number one. You don't look after number one, whose'll do it? You got to learn, kid." The gold teeth did not glitter now, for the lips were tight little traps.

  Anger splashed up in Ethan before he knew it and he was surprised. "I'm not a chiseler, Marullo."

  "Who's a chiseler? That's good business, and good business is the only kind of business that stays in business. You think Mr. Baker is giving away free samples, kid?"

  Ethan's top blew off with a bang. "You listen to me," he shouted. "Hawleys have been living here since the middle seventeen hundreds. You're a foreigner. You wouldn't know about that. We've been getting along with our neighbors and being decent all that time. If you think you can barge in from Sicily and change that, you're wrong. If you want my job, you can have it--right here, right now. And don't call me kid or I'll punch you in the nose--"

  All Marullo's teeth gleamed now. "Okay, okay. Don't get mad. I just try to do you a good turn."

  "Don't call me kid. My family's been here two hundred years." In his own ears it sounded childish, and his rage petered out.

  "I don't talk very good English. You think Marullo is guinea name, wop name, dago name. My genitori, my name, is maybe two, three thousand years old. Marullus is from Rome, Valerius Maximus tells about it. What's two hundred years?"

  "You don't come from here."

  "Two hundred years ago you don't neither."

  Now Ethan, his rage all leaked away, saw something that makes a man doubtful of the constancy of the realities outside himself. He saw the immigrant, guinea, fruit-peddler change under his eyes, saw the dome of forehead, the strong beak nose, deep-set fierce and fearless eyes, saw the head supported on pillared muscles, saw pride so deep and sure that it could play at humility. It was the shocking discovery that makes a man wonder: If I've missed this, what else have I failed to see?

  "You don't have to talk dago talk," he said softly.

  "Good business. I teach you business. Sixty-eight years I got. Wife she's died. Arthritis! I hurt. I try to show you business. Maybe you don't learn. Most people they don't learn. Go broke."

  "You don't have to rub it in because I went broke."

  "No. You got wrong. I'm try to learn you good business so you don't go broke no more."

  "Fat chance. I haven't got a business."

  "You're still a kid."

  Ethan said, "You look here, Marullo. I practically run this store for you. I keep the books, bank the money, order the supplies. Keep customers. They come back. Isn't that good business?"

  "Sure--you learned something. You're not no kid no more. You get mad when I call you kid. What I'm going to call you? I call everybody kid."

  "Try using my name."

  "Don't sound friendly. Kid is friendly."

  "It's not dignified."

  "Dignified is not friendly."

  Ethan laughed. "If you're a clerk in a guinea store, you've got to have dignity--for your wife, for your kids. You understand?"

  "Is a fake."

  "Course it is. If I had any real dignity, I wouldn't think about it. I nearly forgot something my old father told me not long before he died. He said the threshold of insult is in direct relation to intelligence and security. He said the words 'son of a bitch' are only an insult to a man who isn't quite sure of his mother, but how would you go about insulting Albert Einstein? He was alive then. So you go right on calling me kid if you want to."

  "You see, kid? More friendly."

  "All right then. What were you going to tell me about business that I'm not doing?"

  "Business is money. Money is not friendly. Kid, maybe you too friendly--too nice. Money is not nice. Money got no friends but more money."

  "That's nonsense, Marullo. I know plenty of nice, friendly, honorable businessmen."

  "When not doing business, kid, yes. You going to find out. When you find out is too late. You keep store nice, kid, but if it's your store you maybe go friendly broke. I'm teaching true lesson like school. Goo-by, kid." Marullo flexed his arms and went quickly out the front door and snapped it after him, and Ethan felt darkness on the world.

  A sharp metallic rapping came on the front door. Ethan pushed aside the curtain and called, "We're closed till three."

  "Let me in. I want to talk to you."

  The stranger came in--a spare man, a perpetually young man who had never been young, a smart dresser, hair gleaming thinly against his scalp, eyes merry and restless.

  "Sorry to bother you. Got to blow town. Wanted to see you alone. Thought the old man'd never go."

  "Marullo?"

  "Yeah. I was across the street."

  Ethan glanced at the immaculate hands. On the third finger of the left hand he saw a big cat's eye set in a gold ring.

  The stranger saw the glance. "Not a stick-up," he said. "I met a friend of yours last night."

  "Yes?"

  "Mrs. Young-Hunt. Margie Young-Hunt."

  "Oh?"

  Ethan could feel the restless sniffing of the stranger's mind, searching for an opening, for a bond on which to build an association.


  "Nice kid. She gave you a big build-up. That's why I thought-- My name's Biggers. I cover this territory for B. B. D. and D."

  "We buy from Waylands."

  "I know you do. That's why I'm here. Thought you might like to spread it out a little. We're new in this district. Building up fast. Have to make some concessions to get a foot in the door. It would pay you to take advantage of that."

  "You'd have to see Mr. Marullo about that. He's always had a deal with Waylands."

  The voice didn't lower but its tone became confidential. "You do the ordering?"

  "Well, yes. You see Marullo has arthritis, and besides he has other interests."

  "We could shave prices a little."

  "I guess Marullo's got them shaved as close as they'll shave. You'd better see him."

  "That's what I didn't want to do. I want the man that does the ordering, and that's you."

  "I'm just a clerk."

  "You do the ordering, Mr. Hawley. I can cut you in for five per cent."

  "Marullo might go for a discount like that if the quality was the same."

  "You don't get it. I don't want Marullo. This five per cent would be in cash--no checks, no records, no trouble with the tax boys, just nice clean green cabbage from my hand to your hand and from your hand to your pocket."

  "Why can't Marullo get the discount?"

  "Price agreements."

  "All right. Suppose I took the five per cent and turned it over to Marullo?"

  "I guess you don't know them like I do. You turn it over to him, he'll wonder how much more you aren't turning over. That's perfectly natural."

  Ethan lowered his voice. "You want me to double-cross the man I work for?"

  "Who's double-crossed? He don't lose anything and you make a buck. Everybody's got a right to make a buck. Margie said you were a smart cooky."

  "It's a dark day," Ethan said.

  "No, it's not. You got the shades pulled down." The sniffing mind smelled danger--a mouse confused between the odor of trap wire and the aroma of cheese. "Tell you what," Biggers said, "you think about it. See if you can throw some business our way. I'll drop in to see you when I'm in the district. I make it every two weeks. Here's my card."

  Ethan's hand remained at his side. Biggers laid the card on top of the cold counter. "And here's a little memento we got out for new friends." From his side pocket he brought a billfold, a rich and beautiful affair of pin seal. He placed it beside the card on the white porcelain. "Nice little item. Place for your driver's license, lodge cards."

  Ethan did not reply.

  "I'll drop by in a couple of weeks," Biggers said. "You think about it. I'll sure be here. Got a date with Margie. There's quite a kid." With no reply, he said, "I'll let myself out. See you soon." Then suddenly he came close to Ethan. "Don't be a fool. Everybody does it," he said. "Everybody!" And he went rapidly out the door and closed it quietly after him.

  In the darkened silence Ethan could hear the low hum of the transformer for the neon light in the cold counter. He turned slowly to the piled and tiered audience on the shelves.

  "I thought you were my friends! You didn't raise a hand for me. Fair-weather oysters, fair-weather pickles, fair-weather cake-mix. No more unimus for you. Wonder what Saint Francis would say if a dog bit him, or a bird crapped on him. Would he say, 'Thank you, Mr. Dog, grazie tanto, Signora Bird'?" He turned his head toward a rattling and a knocking and a pounding on the alley door, went quickly through the storeroom, muttering, "More customers than if we were open."

  Joey Morphy staggered in, clutching his throat. "For God's sake," he groaned. "Succor--or at least Pepsi-Cola, for I dieth of dryth. Why is it so dark in here? Are mine eyes failething too?"

  "Shades pulled down. Trying to discourage thirsty bankers."

  He led the way to the cold counter and dug out a frosted bottle, uncapped it, and reached for another. "Guess I'll have one too."

  Joey-boy leaned against the lighted glass and poured down half the bottle before he lowered it. "Hey!" he said. "Somebody's lost Fort Knox." He picked up the billfold.

  "That's a little gift from the B. B. D. and D. drummer. He's trying to hustle some of our business."

  "Well, he ain't hustling peanuts. This here's quality, son. Got your initials on it, too, in gold."

  "It has?"

  "You mean you don't know?"

  "He just left a minute ago."

  Joey flipped open the folded leather and rustled the clear plastic identification envelopes. "You better start joining something," he said. He opened the back. "Now here's what I call real thoughtful." Between first and second fingers he extracted a new twenty-dollar bill. "I knew they were moving in but didn't know with tanks. That's a remembrance worth remembering."

  "Was that in there?"

  "You think I planted it?"

  "Joey, I want to talk to you. The guy offered me five per cent of any business I threw their way."

  "Well, bully-bully! Prosperity at last. And it wasn't no idle promise. You should set up the Cokes. This is your day."

  "You don't mean I should take it--"

  "Why not, if they don't add it on the cost? Who loses?"

  "He said I shouldn't tell Marullo or he'd think I was getting more."

  "He would. What's the matter with you, Hawley? You nuts? I guess it's that light. You look green. Do I look green? You weren't thinking of turning it down?"

  "I had trouble enough not kicking him in the ass."

  "Oh! It's like that--you and the dinosaurs."

  "He said everybody does it."

  "Not everybody can get it. You're just one of the lucky ones."

  "It's not honest."

  "How not? Who gets hurt? Is it against the law?"

  "You mean you'd take it?"

  "Take it--I'd sit up and beg for it. In my business they got all the loopholes closed. Practically everything you can do in a bank is against the law--unless you're president. I don't get you. What are you hoggle-boggling about? If you were taking it away from Alfio lad, I'd say it wasn't quite straight--but you're not. You do them a favor, they do you a favor--a nice crisp green favor. Don't be crazy. You've got a wife and kids to think of. Raising kids ain't going to get any cheaper."

  "I wish you'd go away now."

  Joey Morphy put his unemptied bottle down hard on the counter. "Mr. Hawley--no, Mr. Ethan Allen Hawley," he said coldly, "if you think I would do anything dishonest or suggest that you do--why you can go and screw yourself."

  Joey stalked toward the storeroom.

  "I didn't mean that. I didn't mean it. Honest to God I didn't, Joey. I just had a couple of shocks today and besides--this is a dreadful holiday--dreadful."

  Morphy paused. "How do you mean? Oh! yes, I know. Yes, I do know. You believe I know?"

  "And every year, ever since I was a kid, only it gets worse because--maybe because I know more what it means, I hear those lonely 'lama sabach thani' words."

  "I do know, Ethan, I do. It's nearly over--nearly over now, Ethan. Just forget I stomped out, will you?"

  And the iron firebell clanged--one single stroke.

  "It's over now," said Joey-boy. "It's all over--for a year." He drifted quietly out through the storeroom and eased the alley door shut.

  Ethan raised the shades and opened the store again, but there wasn't much trade--a few bottle-of-milk and loaf-of-bread kids, a small lamb chop and can of peas for Miss Borcher for her hot-plate supper. People were just not moving about in the street. During the half-hour before six o'clock, while Ethan was getting things ready to close up, not a soul came in. And he locked up and started away before he remembered the groceries for home--had to go back and assemble them in two big bags and lock up over again. He had wanted to walk down to the bayside and watch the gray waves among the pilings of the dock and smell the sea water and speak to a seagull standing beak into the wind on a mooring float. He remembered a lady-poem written long ago by someone whipped to frenzy by the gliding spiral of a gull's flight
. The poem began: "Oh! happy fowl-- what thrills thee so?" And the lady poet had never found out, probably didn't want to know.

  The heavy bags of groceries for the holidays discouraged the walk. Ethan moved wearily across the High Street and took his way slowly along Elm toward the old Hawley house.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Mary came from the stove and took one of the big grocery bags from him.

  "I've got so much to tell you. Can't wait."

  He kissed her and she felt the texture of his lips. "What's the matter?" she asked.

  "Little tired."

  "But you were closed three hours."

  "Plenty to do."

  "I hope you aren't gloomy."

  "It's a gloomy day."

  "It's been a wonderful day. Wait till you hear."

  "Where are the kids?"

  "Upstairs with the radio. They've got something to tell you too."

  "Trouble?"

  "Now why do you say that?"

  "I don't know."

  "You don't feel well."

  "Damn it, I do too."

  "With all the lovely things--I'll wait till after dinner for our part. Are you going to be surprised."

  Allen and Mary Ellen boiled down the stairs and into the kitchen. "He's home," they said.

  "Pop, you got Peeks in the store?"

  "You mean that cereal, sure, Allen."

  "I wish you'd bring some. It's the one with a mouse mask on the box that you cut out."

  "Aren't you a little old for a mouse mask?"

  Ellen said, "You send the box top and ten cents and you get a ventriloquism thing and instructions. We just heard it on the radio."

  Mary said, "Tell your father what you want to do."

  "Well, we're going to enter the National I Love America Contest. First prize is go to Washington, meet the President-- with parents--lots of other prizes."

  "Fine," said Ethan. "What is it? What do you have to do?"

  "Hearst papers," Ellen cried. "All over the country. You just write an essay why you love America. All the winners get to go on television."

  "It's the grapes," said Allen. "How about going to Washington, hotel, shows, meet the President, the works. How's that for the grapes?"

  "How about your schoolwork?"

  "It's this summer. They announce the winners Fourth of July."

  "Well, that might be all right. Do you really love America or do you love prizes?"