Moise and the World of Reason Read Online Free PDF Page B

metal chain, preparing to lash at me with it, but while the chain was stiff above me I scuttled across the street to an area of brilliant light which was cast upon the pavement and the curb by the lighted marquee of a far off-Broadway theater called the Truck and Warehouse.
    In this protectively lighted area I looked across the street and saw that the large cadaverous dog was chained again and trotting desperately alongside his owner-beater, around the next corner where I’d been headed.
    In a hazy way I thought, “Well, that’s how it seems to be,” meaning between two desperate living creatures. I stood there and hazily pondered this subject for a while and then dismissed it as self-pity and negativism since in my heart I knew that two desperate living creatures are more often inclined, if they share a life together, to care for protectively than to abuse each other.
    (An often beautiful thing in a frightful world.)
    I began to be aware that a public rehearsal or performance was in progress inside the oddly named show-place where, I remembered, an unexplained explosion and fire had terminated the run of a previous attraction.
    I was obstructed on the pavement beneath the brilliantly lighted marquee by the figure of a bum sprawled horizontally across the full width of the walk as if he were planted there as a prophecy of doom for the theater’s present attraction, but he was not too unconscious to raise his head slightly and ask, “Can you share some shange?”
    â€œSorry, but not after taxes,” which sounds like a cruel response but was intended as humor.
    Then there was the crash of a door thrown violently open and a short, stocky little man burst out of the show-place, exclaiming to himself, “Awful, just too awful!”
    He was in a fur coat of some kind which made him resemble a stunted bear or an overgrown muskrat.
    Both this fur-coated man and the lying-down bum were now on the pavement before me so that I was compelled to hesitate there for a moment, during which the short man continued to cry out to the night air and himself, saying, “I swear it’s just too awful to believe.”
    Then his look encompassed my presence which he admitted by saying directly to me, “Do you know what I mean?”
    I said “Yes” without interest but he continued to stand in my way and was now catching hold of my arm:
    â€œI certainly had no desire to take over direction, but I felt obliged to since all the stage movements seemed to be arbitrary. I mean that the actors were crossing back and forth, I suppose with the intent of providing the play with an air of animation, it’s a very talky play, and I liked the director but I couldn’t accept this manner of trying to animate it, and someone has just told me that when I took over the direction the leading lady said to the stage manager, ‘Why should I take direction from this old derelict?’”
    He seemed to be an aging man with poor eyesight. He thrust his face forward and changed glasses.
    â€œHaven’t I met you somewhere sometime before?”
    I returned his closer inspection and said, “Yes, at Moise’s several years ago. You seemed to be in a stupor.”
    â€œAnd didn’t I?”
    â€œYes and no. I mean you”
    â€œTried?”
    â€œYou offended my friend by placing your hand on what was his terrain.”
    â€œOh, I”
    â€œI explained to my lover that it was just one of those automatic gestures that come from habit.”
    His attention blurred and I started to extricate my arm from his grasp but he tightened it on me and said, “Did you say Moise?”
    â€œYes, I was there tonight and”
    â€œHow’s Moise?”
    â€œAre you interested or just asking?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI think she’s not very well.”
    â€œI think I had the same impression of her.”
    â€œOh, were you there?”
    â€œYes, that’s where we