Page 9 (1/2)

It wasn’t that long ago, not to er and Their Influence on Charles Dickens’"

"You reet," I said, "because he chose the topic, of course, and I’ve never been convinced that Blake’s lauess I was persuasive enough How’s your father doing?"

"He’s at Iowa State He’s tenured, and first in line to head the departreat"

"And I’ in his footsteps I’ve done all my course work for my doctorate at Columbia And I’ve done plenty of research forwritten"

"Like father," I said

"You said it And my dad told me how you’d helped him out, and said he didn’t know if you were even alive, let alone still, uh, in the business But he said youVan Sumner’s thesis topic was ethnocentris to have to read Roderick Randoain, and thank God for Evelyn Wood As he’d said, he’d done a good deal of reading and research himself, and taken abundant notes That wouldhelp to him when he had to defend his thesis at his orals I met him at an Ethiopian restaurant on 125th Street – all sorts of ethnic groups, scarcely discernible in New York twenty-five years ago, have moved in and opened restaurants – and I looked over his notes and quoted him a price and a delivery date He shook my hand and wrote out a check for half er than I expected," he offered "My dad looks good for his age, but you’re aenes and plenty of sleep"

So I was back in business I knocked off his thesis, putting in a few hours a day as a break from my own studies, and I beat the deadline I’d seton Minna’s computer, and I printed it out and adood, and the content was good, too I could be proud of it, I told myself, and so could David Van Sumner

I was in a mood to celebrate If Minna had been around I’d have taken her out soone out earlier with so that way, although they were e as well)

So I went out for a walk, and a couple of blocks down Broadway I felt myself drawn to a tavern called the Pit Stop There was nothing special about the place, but it was halfway between otten in the habit of stopping in once or twice a week for a beer

I hadn’t been in since the Great Defrosting, but I went in now, and the place looked exactly the saed Ah, the same bartender was behind the stick His nas he was still drinking the same drink It consisted of Drambuie, vodka, and prune juice, and he’d invented it for a contest sponsored by the cordial’s US importer He called it a Rusty Can Opener, and never could understand why it hadn’t won, and how come nobody in the place ever ordered one

"Charlie," I said

He looked at"You been out of town or so? Seems to me I ain’t seen you in a while"

"I ay"

"Yeah, I figured," he said, and took a swig of his Rusty Can Opener "Must be a feeeks since I seen you, reed

"Yeah, well," he said "I’ll tell you, you ain’t hts later Minna and I were having dinner I’d worked up a new version of beef stroganoff using Portobello enerally cook kasha as an accoestion I’d coroats with an equal arain only recently introduced to the US ht," I told her "They co tis I’ve cour, and that works, but I think I like this even better"

The phone rang She went to answer it – it was generally for her these days – and ca number," she said

"I hate when that happens"

"It was the third ti number each ti"

"We used to do that when I was a kid," I re ‘Is Joe there?’ Then your friend calls ‘Hi, this is Joe Were there any calls for "

"Not if you’re more than ten years old," I said "Did it sound like a kid?"

"It sounded like an adult," she said "Except…"

"Yes?"

"Well, whoever it was sounded Chinese"

"The two aren’t mutually exclusive," I said "There are loads of Chinese adults"

"I know, but-"

"Or adult Chinese," I said "Whatever you want to call them Whatever’s politically correct"

"I think it was a fake Chinese accent"

"Oh? What did they say?"

"They wanted to know if this was the Blue Star Hand Laundry"

"The Blue Star Hand Laundry"

"Except it ca like ‘Brue Stah Hand Raundly’ You knoith the l’s and r’s all switched around in a very unconvincing way"

"Brue Stah Hand Raundly," I said

"Yes, like that, in a sort of all-purpose fake Oriental accent"

"Asian, you mean"

"Whatever"