The Laughing Matter by William Saroyan Read Free Book Online Page B

Paterson, as a boy, Dade had worked at a variety of jobs, anything that came along, but once he’d got his pay at the end of the week he was another man. He put on expensive clothes and went out to look around. He found things that Evan might not have found in a lifetime. At seventeen he knew a side of the Jersey towns that neither Evan nor the old man knew. He began to take trips, after which he would visit Evan and the old man for a week or two, sometimes a month. Then he would be gone for another four or five months.
    â€œHe is gambler,” the old man told Evan. “He go to gamble. I want my boy to work for money. Gamble is bad. When I was young man I was gambler. I know my Dade.”
    The years went by. Dade and the old man talked quietly by the hour when Dade came home. The old man was not angry with Dade, but Evan knew he wanted Dade to take a job, like everybody else.
    When Dade was twenty-five and Evan was at Princeton, the old man telephoned early one morning and told Evan in their own language to come home right away.
    When he got home he saw Dade in bed, the old man trying to do something about Dade’s left arm and shoulder.
    â€œI’ll call a doctor,” Evan said.
    â€œNo,” Dade said. “I don’t want anybody to know about this. Dig in there and see if you can get the slug out.”
    â€œI can’t do that,” Evan said. “A surgeon’s got to do it, Dade.”
    â€œIn the top drawer there I’ve got some instruments in a box,” Dade said. “Put them in boiling water. Then dig in there and get the slug out. Get it out and let me sleep. I’ve been driving all night.”
    Evan did as he was told. At last his brother slept. He’d lost a lot of blood. He was in bed two weeks. Then, still weak and unrestored, he got up and drove off. He came back a couple of days later by train, and stayed three months. He left three thousand dollars with the old man, and a thousand with Evan, for school.
    â€œFor God’s sake,” Evan said, “at least let him know where you are once in a while. He knows
I’m
all right, but he worries about you. He’s too proud to ask you himself. Phone or wire or write once in a while.”
    â€œI can’t,” Dade said. “This one last time, then I’ll come home, and we’ll figure something out. California maybe. A lot of his friends from the old country are out there. Tell him so, if you want to. I don’t want to, in case it doesn’t work out. I think it will. It may take a little time. Can’t you come home over the weekends?”
    â€œI come as often as I can.”
    â€œWe’ll figure something out when I get back. You doing all right at school?”
    â€œI’m doing all right.”
    â€œWe’ll go to California,” the older brother said. “Buy a vineyard. All his people have vineyards out there. We’ll put a house on it. It’ll be
his
house. We’ll buy a car. We’ll drive him around to his people. Whatever it is that you’re going to be doing, you can do out there. Tell him these things. I don’t know how.”
    â€œI’ll try, Dade.”
    â€œThanks. What
are
you going to be doing?”
    â€œI’m going to try to write.”
    â€œBooks?”
    â€œYes, Dade.”
    â€œYou know how to do that?”
    â€œWell, no, but it’s what I want to do. I guess I’ll have to teach for a living, though.”
    â€œWhat’ll you teach?”
    â€œLiterature, I guess.”
    â€œThat’s pretty good,” Dade said. “You tell me some books to read sometime.”
    â€œTake this one with you,” Evan said.
    He handed his brother a small book that Dade slipped into his coat pocket without first finding out what the book was.
    â€œThanks,” Dade said. “I’ll read it. I’ll read every word of it. I promise. Just look after the old man until I get