Free The Complete Roderick by John Sladek Page B

to explain his outlandish clothes, the showy ring, the stock villain’s sneer. What did he want, money?
    ‘But I guess if you wanted to back my play –’
    She put up a hand. ‘You’re wasting your time. I don’t contribute to – no thanks. “… I’m no angel …”, as the saying goes.’
    ‘Good enough.’ He seemed unruffled. ‘Good enough. Fact is, I get a lot of satisfaction out of workin’ alone, you know? Boy, when you see their faces – when they realize what’s comin’ off –’ He chuckled. ‘Makes it all worth while.’
    ‘I’ll bet. But do you usually see their faces? I thought –’
    Even when you don’t, you still know what they’re thinkin’. Boy howdy! It’s like real communication! I mean in everyday life you just
never
get that close to
nobody.
Real communication.’
    ‘I know just what you mean,’ she said. Nice to meet someone who liked his work, even if he did carry the offstage villainy too far. Just now he was casting a furtive glance over his shoulder, where the bearded boy was propped up by the girl in orange. Allbright, his chin sinking towards the table, told Dora, ‘Funny thing is, I met him just the other day. On the Mall.’
    ‘Met who?’
    ‘This kid I was just telling you about. Danny. The Bugleboy –’
    ‘But that was half an hour ago – are you all right?’
    ‘No but listen, listen, he’s still crazy he – I asked if he was still in computers and he sort of grinned and said, “Into, yes, yes, yes, you could say that, into computers, yes, yes …’”
    ‘I don’t know why you take that stuff and drink on top –’
    ‘Yes yes, nodding and grinning like a fucking guru computer got all the answers yes yes … only he’s dead inside, ghost in the machine you know even his kid he even his kid he …’
    He came to rest with his ear in the ashtray, while the man in the hunting cap looked over and turned away to his drink, muttering, ‘College boys! College boys!’
    A tiresome boy declared himself once more a Manichee to the girl in the leg-cast, who nodded, though listening to someone else explain how Lady Godiva invented the rosary. The juke box, now muffled by the wall of bodies, sang:
Funniest thing I ever seen
    Tomcat sittin’ on a sewin’ machine …
    Dr Hannah raised her glass to toast the departing O’Smith.
    ‘Break a leg,’ she said.
    He winked. ‘For you, anything.’ He pushed through the crowd and out into the night, which was nearly as dark and empty as the piano bar on the other side of town where two short-haired men waited to meet someone called O’Smith.
    Allbright slept on while Dora kept watch. Suddenly he sat up, rubbing at the ash on his cheek. ‘He looked burned out, coke or, I don’t know, burned out. What was I – oh yeah, he’s got a kid, Roderick, he even treats him like a damned machine.’
    ‘Is this still Bugleboy?’
    ‘Yeah listen, he was carrying this doll, I asked him if he had any kids, he said, Just Roderick. “Oh, this?” he says, holding up the doll. “It’s for testing Roderick. Testing his pattern-recognition threshold.” Might have been talking about a goddamned piece of equipment, you know? Cold, cold and – so when I asked how old the boy was, what do you think? He said,
“Doesn’t matter. I’m getting rid of him”.’
    ‘What did he mean, getting rid –’
    ‘Wants to ship him off to some foster home, even asked me for an address.’ He picked at his beard absent-mindedly, disentangling a cigarette butt. ‘Felt like telling him to ask his computer pals if he wants a favour, only – what’s that cop doing in here?’
    A campus patrolman stood by the door, looking around, while the crowd parted to let him through. Out of habit, one or two people dropped things on the floor. Finally the lawman saw Dr Hannah’s white hair and came over to her.
    ‘Mrs Hannah? Mrs Jane Hannah?’
    ‘Doctor Hannah, if you don’t mind.’
    Awkwardly he bent and whispered to her that her son was dead.