Free The Electrical Experience by Frank Moorhouse Page B

he was talking philosophy with the doctor. But most of all George did not want to show his youth, or to make slips.
    The maddening thing was that he was a philosopher. Damn it. How to get this across because he didn’t philosophise about the things the doctor postulated.
    â€˜And what about the good life, George?’
    â€˜What? How do you mean?’
    â€˜The good life—wine, food, women and song.’
    â€˜I don’t have much time,’ George mumbled, blushing for his inexperience in these areas. ‘What with getting started in life.’ He put wood on the fire.
    â€˜And what books, George, what books have influenced you?’
    George thought. He considered himself a Reader. But now he found he couldn’t recollect any books. Manuals about cordials and their manufacture. Herbert Casson’s business library. An I.C.S . course. Things like that. But they were not what the doctor meant.
    â€˜ The Message to Garcia ,’ he said, remembering. Of course.
    â€˜ The Message to Garcia ,’ the doctor repeated, with a tone George could not interpret.
    â€˜I was given a specially printed copy when inAmerica—by Edward J. Nowak, of St Louis, a cordial manufacturer there.’
    â€˜How has it influenced you, George?’
    Damn it. How had it influenced him?
    â€˜Well Rowan, he did the job. He got the job done. When asked by the President of the United States to take a message to General Garcia in the mountains of Cuba, Rowan didn’t ask who Garcia was, how much he’d be paid, where he could find him, what was his address, whether to take a boat or a horse. He just said, ‘Yes sir’, and took the message and went. He just took the message, and even though it took a long time against all obstacles, he delivered the message to Garcia. Rowan just did the job.’
    George stopped and thought, and then added, ‘It was initiative riding on tenacity.’
    The doctor didn’t say anything.
    â€˜That’s the highest stage of personal development, isn’t it, doctor?’
    â€˜What is, George?’
    Hadn’t he been listening? Or was it the rum?
    â€˜The difference between the Self-mover and those who need to be supervised and led.’
    â€˜Maybe, George, but maybe we don’t arrange things properly so that everyone can be a Self-mover.’
    The doctor didn’t elaborate.
    â€˜No.—’ on this George was firm—‘No, there are those who are individual and energised and those who simply follow. Everywhere I look in life, and everything I see, confirms this.’
    They sat in silence then. The doctor still sipped rum.
    George sipped tea.
    â€˜What if I asked you to go on a mission?’ the doctor asked, breaking across the bush and fire noises.
    â€˜I’d go.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜You’re the head of this … expedition.’
    Then George added, ‘To give orders, you have first to be able to take orders.’
    George saw that he would only take orders if it was a step towards giving them. So what.
    The doctor smiled. George bridled. Well, it was true.
    â€˜What if I …’ the doctor thought, ‘what if I asked you to find water … now … at this time of the night?’ Waving at the black bush.
    â€˜I’d do it.’
    The conversation was adrift. Was moving to a whirlpool.
    â€˜Yes, I would go,’ George repeated, to the President of the United States.
    â€˜Even if it was just an “exercise”.’
    George could see the distinction, but it didn’t seem to operate against doing it. He could not see that it changed the imperative, the bond, the binding nature of an order.
    â€˜Yes.’
    The doctor stopped looking at the fire or the rum bottle and looked across at George.
    â€˜Well, do it,’ the doctor said, making a gesture with his mug of rum.
    â€˜Are you serious then?’ George asked, firming his voice.
    â€˜Would