The Complete Roderick Read Online Free PDF Page B

on his birth chart. ‘I might as well give up,’ he said. ‘I even thought of playing Russian roulette …’
    ‘Uh-huh’ Wasn’t that Allbright by the bulletin board?
    ‘… dead now if I wasn’t waiting for my grades in Contemp Humanities, it’s like my last chance …’
    She felt like saying something reassuring, a spontaneous Kind Word to buck him up, even for a moment. ‘You probably did all right in that, I wouldn’t worry. I had it last year, nobody failed. How do you think you did in the final?’
    The zero actually grinned. ‘Hey, you know I got lucky there on that one question, the one on Tolkien. I didn’t even know he was on the syllabus, you know? Only it just so happened I was reading
Lord of the Rings
the week before and –’
    Allbright seemed to be alone as he’d been alone at that awful party where she’d caught him stealing books from the host. Of course poets who wore railroad work clothes had a different morality, she realized that now. ‘Tolkien? Tolkien was never on the syllab – Look, I’ve got to go.’
    ‘Wait, sure he was. I remember the question: discuss humour in
Lord of the Rings
comparing Mark Twain and contrasting –’
    ‘Just seen a friend, gotta go.
Auvoir,
uh, Bill.’ She took a step towards Allbright and turned back. ‘You musta misread that question, you know? It was Ring Lardner.’
    And she was gone, her orange coat moving off to become one spot in the jiggling kaleidoscope of coats and caps and mufflers crowding their colours towards the bulletin board. Bill Hannah lost sight of her before he could even ask who wrote
Ring Lardner,
Jeez.
    Ben Franklin lit another cigarette and settled back in one of Fong’s creaky Morris chairs. ‘Looks like a Daddy Longlegs to me. Sort of. Must have been quite a scrap.’
    ‘Scrap? No, he wasn’t even – look, I just lost my temper, that’s all. Just got sick and tired of Rogers and his significant questions, that’s all. His, always hanging around like some kind of – science groupie.’
    ‘Wish I’d been here, though. Kind of an historic moment. Like Luther flinging his inkpot at the devil, a performance not to be missed.’ Ben smoothed his perfectly even moustache and performed a smile. ‘Know how you feel, though. Felt like heaving a handball at him yesterday myself, he started all that crap with me.
Hubris,
Christ he can’t even pronounce it … I lent him a book instead,
Learning Systems.
Figured if he could read a little, sort of slip sideways into some kind of understanding of what we’re doing here – not that he’ll open it. Doubt if he’s read anything since his own dissertation, probably had to look up half the words in that.’
    Fong’s red-rimmed eyes gleamed behind the gleam of his glasses. ‘You loaned him that? But I was, I –’
    ‘Your copy, as a matter of fact. I borrowed it last week.’
    ‘But I, if I’d known – this whole scene was pointless, I –’
    ‘Sure.’ Ben was studying the door again, readying another perfect, even smile. ‘Could be a study for an action painting, too. Probably how the whole thing started, exorcism: take that, Daddy Longlegs! Yes sir, when an irresistible force such as you, meets an old immovable Rogers – but hell, Fong, we needed his vote.’
    ‘We never had it. He’s a waste of time. I know the type.’
    ‘Yeah?’ Ben murmured something about immovable type getting the ink it deserves, then: ‘A bad enemy, though. You know what he’ll do, he’ll start sneaking around to the rest of the committee, putting in a bad word for us. “Sounding them out”, he’ll call it, but by the time he gets through –’
    ‘I know, I know. We’re done for, aren’t we? And there’s not a damn thing we can do –’
    ‘Wait, hold on. We’ve got till next Tuesday, maybe I can talk to a few members. Of course the damn committee’s packed with geeks and freaks, but you never can tell … Look, I’ve got a list here, let’s check ’em off.’
    He