Page 5 (1/2)

FADEOUT

The old man had succumbed Fro pink clouds they sang: A Mohts blinked on The voices stopped abruptly, the curtain was lowered, the theatre boo A Moht hundred thousand copies a s crossed, arms slackly folded He stared at the curtain Around hihed Owen sat there, staring Next to him, Carole rose and drew on her suede jacket Softly, she was singing with the record, "Your mind is the clock that ticks away a runted "Are you coed up his jacket and followed her as she edged toward the aisle, shoes crunching over pale popcorn buds and candy wrappers They reached the aisle and Carole took his arm

"Well?" she asked "What did you think?"

Owen had the burdening impression that she had asked him that question a million times; that their relationship consisted of an infinitude ofand scant more Was it only two years since they’d ement? It seemed, momentarily, like the dreariest of eons

"What’s there to think?" he said "It’s just anothera writer yourself"

He trudged across the lobby with her They were the last ones out The snack counter was darkened, the soda s The only sound was the whisper of their shoes across the carpeting, then the click of them as they hit the outer lobby

"What is it, Owen?" Carole asked when he’d gone a block without saying a word

"They make me mad," he said

"Who does?" Carole asked

"The damn stupid people who make those damn stupid movies," he said

"Why?" she asked

"Because of the way they gloss over everything"

"What do you mean?"

"This writer the picture was about," said Owen "He was a lot like I am; talented and with plenty of drive But it took hi Ten years So what does the stupid picture do? Glosses over the at his desk, looking broody, a couple of clock shots, a few trays of mashed-out butts, some empty coffee cups, a pile oftheir heads no at hi on the sidewalk; and that’s it Ten years of hard labour It makes me mad"

"But they have to do that, Owen," Carole said "That’s the only way they have of showing it"

"Then life should be like that too," he said

"Oh, you wouldn’t like that," she said

"You’re wrong I would," he said "Why should I struggle ten years or et it over with in a couple of minutes?"

"It wouldn’t be the same," she said

"That’s for sure," he said

An hour and forty minutes later, Owen sat on the cot in his furnished roo at the table on which sat his typewriter and the half-completed manuscript of his third novel And Now Gomorrah

Why not indeed? The idea had definite appeal He knew that, someday, he’d succeed It had to be that way Otherwise, as he working so hard for? But that transition, that was the thing That indefinite transition between struggle and success Hoonderful if that part could be condensed, abbreviated

Glossed over

"You knohat I wish?" he asked the intent young man in the mirror

"No, what?" asked the man

"I wish," said Owen Crowley, "that life could be as siery set aside in a few flashes of weary looks, disappointht oil, trays of butts, no’s and walking feet Why not?"

On the bureau, so clicked Owen looked down at his clock It was 2:43 aed and went to bed Toht’s work at the toy factory

A year and seven , Ooke up, went down to the mail box and there it was

We are happy to inform you that ant to publish your novel Dream Within a Dream

"Carole! Carole!" He pounded on her apart fro ascent of the stairs "Carole!"

She jerked open the door, face stricken "Ohat-?" she began, then cried out, startled, as he swept her froohipping silkenly "Ohat is it?" she gasped

"Look! Look!" He put her down on the couch and, kneeling, held out the cru to each other and she laughed, she cried He felt the unbound softness of her pressing at hiainst his cheek, her war:’

She cupped his face with tre hands and kissed him; then whispered, "And you orried"

"No more," he said "No al above the city; draped, panelled, still "If you’ll sign here, Mr Crowley," said the editor Owen took the pen

"Hurray! Hurroo!" He polkaed alasses, red-eyed olives, squashed hors d’oeuvres and guests Who clapped and stahbours’ hearts Who flowed and broke apart like noisy quicksilver through the rooiara’s of converted alcohol Who nuzzled in a fog of nicotine Who ga bedroorabbed the laughing Carole by her spilling hair "An Indian I am, I’ll scalp you! No, I won’t, I’ll kiss you!" He did to wild applause and whistles She clung to hi was like rapid fire "And for an encore!" he announced

Laughter Cheers Music pounding A graveyard of bottles on the sink Sound andBedlam A policeman at the door "Come in, co a little order here, there’s people want to sleep"

Silence in the sha dawn creep in across the sills, a night gowned Carole clinging to hi his lips to her war of her blood

"I love you," whispered Carole Her lips, on his, wanted, took The electric rustle of her gown made him shudder He brushed the straps and watched the of her shoulders "Carole, Carole" Her hands were cat claws on his back

The telephone rang, rang He opened an eye There was a heated pitchfork fastened to the lid As the lid ed the pitchfork into his brain "Ooh!" He winced his eyes shut and the roo; to the cleat shoed, square-dancing goblins in his head

Across the void, a door opened and the ringing stopped Owen sighed

"Hello?" said Carole "Oh Yes, he’s here"

He heard the crackle of her gown, the nudging of her fingers on his shoulder "Owen," she said "Wake up, darling"

The deep fall of pink-tipped flesh against transparent silk hat he saw He reached but she was gone Her hand closed over his and drew hiainst himself

"The phone"

"Can wait," he said His voice ca, the phone"

"Hello?" he said into the black receiver

"This is Arthur Means, Mr Crowley," said the voice

"Yes!" There was an explosion in his brain but he kept on sent he’d called the day before

"Can you make it for lunch?" asked Arthur Means

Owen ca From the kitchen came the sound of Carole’s slippers on linoleu coffee

Owen stopped He frowned at the couch where he’d been sleeping How had he ended there? He’d been in bed with Carole

The streets, by early ht was an island of intriguing silences, a vast acropolis of crouching steel and stone He walked between the silent citadels, his footsteps like the ticking of a bomb

"Which will explode!" he cried "Explode!" cried back the streets of shadoalls "Which will explode and throw h all the world!"

Owen Crowley stopped He flung out his arms and held the universe "You’re mine!" he yelled

"Mine," the echo came

The room was silent as he shed his clothes He settled on the cot with a happy sigh, crossed his legs and undid lace knots What time was it? He looked over at the clock 2:58 arunted in amusement as he dropped his shoe Weird fancy, that Yes, it was exactly fifteen nore the one year, seven months and two days since he’d stood over there in his pyja back, those nineteen months seemed quickly past; but not that quickly If he wished to, he could tally up a reasonable itemization of every miserable day of them

Owen Crowley chuckled Weird fancy indeed Well, it was the etdazed

"What?" she asked

"Married!"

She stared at hihtly "Tryto hirinned

’This," she said, "is not so sudden"

It was a white house, lost in sue and cool and they stood together on the walnut floor, holding hands Outside, leaves were rustling

"Then by the authority vested in n state of Connecticut, I now pronounce you man and wife" He smiled "You may kiss the bride," he said

Their lips parted and he saw the tears glistening in her eyes

"How do, Miz Crowley," he whispered

The Buick huainst her husband while the radio played, A Mos "Remember that?" he asked

"Mmmm hmmm" She kissed his cheek

"Nohere," he wondered, "is that motel the old man recommended?"

"Isn’t that it up ahead?" she asked

The tires crackled on the gravel path, then stopped "Owen, look," she said He laughed Aldo Weaver, Manager, read the bottoe, hefolks round about," said Aldo Weaver as he led them to their cabin and unlocked the door Then Aldo crunched away and Carole leaned her back against the door until the lock clicked In the quiet room, dim from tree shade, Carole whispered, "Now you’rerooms of a little house in Northport "Oh, yes," said Carole happily They stood before the living roo out into the shadow-dark woods beyond Her hand slipped into his "Ho in and it was furnished A second novel sold, a third John was born inds whipped powdery snow across the sloping lawn; Linda on a sultry, cricket rasping su backdrop on which events were painted

He sat there in the stillness of his tiny den He’d stayed up late correcting the galleys on his forthco, he twisted together his fountain pen and set it down "My God,He was tired

Across the roo on the mantel of the tiny fireplace, the clock buzzed once Owen looked at it 3:15 a at the clock and, like a slow-tapped tympani, his heart was felt Seventeen ht persisted; thirty-two minutes in all

Owen Crowley shivered and rubbed his hands as if at soht; idiotic to dredge up this fantasy every year or so It was the sort of nonsense that could well becoaze and looked around the rooements made him smile This house, its disposition, that shelf of manuscripts at his left These were hteen

He clucked disgustedly at hi to hi his throat, he tidied up the surface of his desk with energetic movements There And there

He leaned back heavily in his chair Well, maybe it was awas proof enough it had a definite ainst could disorient the reason All men knew that

Well, then, face it, he decided Time was constant; that was the core What varied was a person’s outlook on it To so wings It just happened he was one of those to whom time seemed overly transient So transient that it fostered rather than dispelled the ht more than five years before

That was it, of course Months seemed a wink and years a breath because he viewed the open and Carole calass of warmed milk

"You should be in bed," he scolded

"So should you," she answered, "yet I see you sitting here Do you knohat time it is?"

"I know," he said

She settled on his lap as he sipped the milk "Galleys done?" she asked He nodded and slid an arm around her waist She kissed his tehed "It seems like only yesterday, doesn’t it?" she said

He drew in faint breath "I don’t think so," he said "Oh, you" She punched hient "Guess what?"

Owen gasped "No!"

He found her in the laundry roo bedclothes into the washer "Honey!" he yelled Sheets went flying

"It’s happened!" he cried

"What?"

"TheNobles and Heralds!"

"No!"

"Yes! And, get this now, sit down and get it, go ahead and sit or else you’ll fall! �C they’re paying twelve thousand, five hundred dollars for it!"

"Oh!"

"And that’s not all! They’re giving et this �C seven hundred and fifty dollars a week!"

She squeaked "We’re rich"

"Not quite," he said, floor-pacing, "but it’s only the beginning, folks, on-ly the beginning!"

October winds swept in like tides over the dark field Spotlight ribbons wiped across the sky

"I wish the kids were here," he said, his ar," Carole said

"Carole, don’t you think-"

"Owen, you know I’d come with you if I could; but we’d have to take Johnny out of school and, besides, it would cost soBefore you know it-"

"Flight twenty-seven for Chicago and Los Angeles," intoned the speaker, "now boarding at Gate Three"