The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace Read Free Book Online

anything about this.”
    “No, I said I had not contacted anyone else as of yet, is what I said. As a matter of fact, it was I who was contacted early this morning at home and informed of the state of affairs by a ... ,” sifting through papers on his desk, “... a Mr. Rummage, who apparently serves Stonecipheco in some legal capacity. How he knew of the ... situation is utterly beyond me.”
    “Karl Rummage. He’s with the law firm my father uses for personal business. ”
    “Yes.” He twisted some beard around a finger. “Well apparently it is ... not wished to have the situation of cognizance to those other than the owners at this moment by the owners.”
    “You want to run that by me again?”
    “They don’t want anyone to know just yet.”
    “Ah.”
    “....”
    “So then why did you call me? I mean thank you very much for doing so, obviously, but ...”
    Another sad smile. “Your thanks are without warrant, I’m afraid. I was instructed to do what 1 did.”
    “Oh.”
    “The obvious inference to draw here is that the fact that you are after all a Beadsman ... and enjoy some connection to the ownership of the facility through Stonecipheco ...”
    “That’s just not true.”
    “Oh really? In any event it’s clear that you can be relied on for a measure of discretion beyond that of the average relative-on-the-street.”
    “I see.”
    Bloemker took a deep breath and rubbed a gold eye with a white finger. In the air around him a whirlpool of dust motes was created. It whirled. “There is in addition the fact that the resident whose temporary unavailability is relevant to you, that is to say Lenore, enjoyed a status here—with the facility administration, the staff, and, through the force of her personality and her evident gifts, especially with the other residents—that leads one to believe that, were the mislocation a result of anything other than outright coercion on the part of some outside person or persons, which seems unlikely, it would not be improper to posit the location and retrieval of Lenore as near assurance of retrieving the other misplaced parties.”
    “I didn’t understand any of that.”
    “Your great-grandmother was more or less the ringleader around here.”
    “Oh.”
    “Surely you knew that.”
    “Not really, no.”
    “But you were here,” looking at a sheet on his desk, “often several times a week, sometimes for long periods. Of time.”
    “We talked about other stuff. We sure never talked about any rings being led. And usually there wasn’t anybody else around, what with the heat of the room.” Lenore looked at her sneaker. “And also you know my just plain grandmother’s a ... resident here, too, in area J. Lenore’s daughter-in-law.”
    “Concamadine.”
    “Yes. She ... uh, she is here, isn’t she?”
    “Oh yes,” said Bloemker. He looked at a sheet, then at Lenore. “As ... far as I am aware. Perhaps you’ll excuse me for a moment.” He went to his phone. Lenore watched him dial in-house. A three-digit relay means no crossbar. Bloemker was asking someone something in an administrative undertone Lenore couldn’t hear. “Thank you,” she heard him say. “Yes.”
    He smiled. “We’ll simply check to be sure.”
    Lenore had had a thought. “Maybe it would be good if I had a look at Lenore’s room, took a look around, maybe see if I could notice something.”
    “That’s just what I was going to suggest.”
    “Is your beard OK?”
    “I’m sorry? Oh, yes, nervous habit, I’m afraid, the state of affairs at the ...” Mr. Bloemker pulled both hands out of his beard.
    “So shall we go?”
    “Certainly.”
    “Or should I call my father from. here?”
    “I cannot get an outside line on this phone, I’m sorry.”
    “I didn’t think so.”
    “After you.”
    “Thank you.”

/e/
    The Home was broken into ten sections, areas they were called, each roughly pentagonal in shape, housing who knows how many patients, the ten areas arranged in a