Free Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon Page B

s that Ida Lupino, every time her name comes up, so does this. Please don ’ t take it personally. ”
    “ How curious. I can ’ t recall ever feeling that way about John Garfield ... but as I have a meditation appointment at one, we might find time for drinks, if we guzzle them down fast enough, and perhaps you can even tell me what you ’ re doing here. Luz! ”
    The young lady who ’ d let him in appeared from the artfully sculpted shadows. “ Senora? ”
    “ The midday refrescos now, if you wouldn ’ t mind, Luz. I do hope, Mr. Sportello, that margaritas will be satisfactory—though given your film preferences, perhaps some sort of beer and whiskey arrangement would be more appropriate? ”
    “ Thank you, Mrs. Wolfmann, tequila ’ s just fine—and what a welcome relief not to be offered any pot ’ ! I ’ ll never understand what these hippies see in the stuff! Do you mind if I smoke a normal cigarette, by the way? ”
    She nodded graciously, and Doc fished out a pack of Benson & Hedges menthol he ’ d remembered to bring instead of Kools, given the expected class level here and so forth, and offered her one, and they both lit up. Sounds reached them, from a pool whose dimensions he could only imagine, of policemen at play.
    “I’ll try to keep this brief, and you can return to your guests. Your husband was planning to endow a new wing for us, as part of our expan sion program, and shortly before his puzzling disappearance he actually had tendered us a sum in advance. But somehow it just didn ’ t seem right to keep the money while so little is known of his whereabouts. So, we ’ d like to refund you the sum, preferably before the end of the quarter, and if and as we all pray when Mr. Wolfmann is next heard from, why then, perhaps the process can resume. ”
    She was squinting, however, and shaking her head a little. “ I ’ m not sure ... We recently endowed another facility, in Ojai, I believe.. .. Are you somehow a subsidiary or ... ”
    “ Perhaps it ’ s one of our Sister Sanatoria, there ’ s been a program for some years ... ”
    She had stepped over to a small antique desk in the corner, bent so as to present to Doc ’ s gaze an unquestionably alluring ass, and took some time rummaging through different pigeonholes before coming up with another publicity shot of herself. This was a photo of a groundbreaking ceremony, with Sloane sitting at the controls of a front-end loader and backhoe rig, in whose bucket could be seen one of those oversize checks that also get handed to winners of bowling tournaments. A personage in a doctor outfit was smiling and pretending to look at the amount, which ran to a lot of zeros, but he was really gaz ing up Sloane ’ s skirt, which was fashionably short. She was also wearing shades, almost as if she didn ’ t want to be recognized, and an expression conveying how much she didn ’ t want to be there. A banner behind her carried a date and the name of the institution, though both were just out of focus enough that Doc couldn ’ t get much more than an impression of a long, foreign-looking word. He was wondering how suspicious it would make Sloane if he asked the name, when Luz came back in with a tray holding a gigantic pitcherful of margaritas and some chilled glasses of an exotic shape whose only purpose was to make it impossible for the servants to wash them without the help of some high-ticket custom dishmop.
    “ Thank you, Luz. Shall I be Mother? ” taking the pitcher and pouring. Doc noticed there was an extra glass on the tray, so it wasn ’ t too much of a surprise when presently he saw reflected in the screen of a mammoth TV in the corner a large, muscular blond person coming silently down the stairs and moving toward them across the carpeting like an assassin in a kung fu movie.
    Doc got up to have a look and say howdy, quickly noting that any prolonged eye contact here would mean a visit to the chiropractor for neck work, this party having