SIMON is amazed by what he doesnt care about. Hes bought nothing but a couple of new shirts and a few books. Hes thought of no new projects. He reads Progressive Architecture and critiques what he sees there in a mood of amiable colleagueship. Hed done a building in 1981 that had pleased him, a Cath?olic chur a not-good area emple Uy, where the liquor stave you your bottle by request over a formidable ter, no browsing iacks. The parish was so poor that hed cut his fee to almost nothing; the other partners were not happy about it but had aodated him. The church was a bare-boeel building with is of glass block as its only de?sign flourish, these however stacked eightee high in twelve bays oher side of the sanctuary -- the glass block was the light-giving element, aed thiev?ery, too. It had been popular in the 30s, sidered a design cliche in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, and pre?seself again in the 80s, fresh as new dung. Some?thing to be said for being fifty-three, you could enjoy the turning of the wheel. He feels every additional day a great boon. He doesnt uand people who have futures, palpable futures. He takes an i in the obituary pages of the neers, the summations, tidy packages, So-and-so gets three inches whereas Tra-la-la got seven. He has a pain where his liver is presumed to be and is vomiting rather too much. Hes paid $35,107 in Federal taxes for last year and has before him a re?quest from the IRS for an additional $41.09. These people are wonderful, he thinks, they want the last forty-one bucks and nis. Youd think with the thirty-five thou theyd say lets have a beer and fet about it.
Dore is brusque upon awakening, Anne cheerful as a zinnia. Veronica frequently es to the breakfast table (hardly a table, a slab of butcher blo top of some ets with four stools around it) pale with de?spair, then is overtaken with great gusts of enthusiasm, for Lohengrin or oyster mushrooms or Pierre Trudeau. Theyre so lovely that his head whips around when one of them ehe room, exactly in the way oices a strange woman in a crowd and t avoid, t phys?ically avoid, loud and eous staring. My senses are being systematically dérégled, he thinks, five me, Rimbaud. Dore is relatively tall, A so tall (but they are all tall), Veronica again the middle term. Breasts waver and dip and sway from side to side u-shirts with messages so much of the moment that Simo uand a tenth of them: ALLY SHEEDY LIVES! Who is Ally Sheedy? In what sense does she live, and why is the fact worthy of ent? They know, he doesnt. Simon has actually met Pierre Tru?deau (at a three-day city-planning feren Ot?tawa) and found him a charming and thoughtful man. This earns him about a crayons worth of credit with his guests.
He attempts generalizations. Dore is crusty, Veron?ica is volatile, Anne is a worrier. The generalizations are banal but f, like others hes been faithful to over many years, architecture is frozen musid art is a source of life.
In the middle of the night he senses someoand?ing over his bed.
"Whos that?"
"Its me. Dore."
He switches on the bedside lamp.
"Whats up?"
"Do you have any money?"
"You mean cash? In the house?"
"I need a couple of hundred."
"Right now?"
Shes wearing a white lace peignoir with long filigree sleeves.
"Right now. Two hundred, if you have it."
"Let me look."
Simos out of bed and opens a book, On Adams House in Paradise. He takes out a stack of bills and ts