The Human Stain Page #3

Yeah, he was the only Jewish

saloonkeeper in East Orange.

He only got as far as

the seventh grade.

But he insisted on

the precision of words.

And I have kept faith with him.

I have kept faith with him.

If you don't mind a suggestion

maybe you ought to write

this book yourself.

Yeah.

Maybe I ought to.

Yeah.

I guess I ought to go.

Let me ask you something

Why are you hiding out here,

in the middle of the woods?

- Hiding out?

- Yeah. Isn't that what you're doing?

What's the moment

called in Greek tragedy,

you know, the one where the hero

learns that everything he knows is wrong?

It's called peripeteio or peripetia.

Take your choice.

Yeah. That's me.

Hey. You by any chance

play gin rummy?

And this was how my friendship

with Coleman Silk began.

And how I came out from

my reclusive life,

living alone in

a cabin by a lake.

You're divorced, huh?

Does it show?

Yeah, you have the look about

you of a man at loose ends.

Takes one to know one.

Why did your wife leave you?

Which one?

The first or the second?

Several years ago,

I had been diagnosed

with prostate cancer.

Although the treatment

was successful,

I had nevertheless withdrawn

to my cabin in the woods,

away from the expectations and

entanglements of modern life.

In the year that

followed my meeting Coleman,

the time it took him

to write his book,

we had dinner together

several times a week.

Sometimes playing penny

a point gin rummy,

sometimes listening to music that came

from a small FM station in Springfield

that played big band hits from

the forties and fifties.

It was during that time

that Coleman dragged me back to life,

much as he had Athena College.

- What's with the book?

- The book has come and gone.

- Meaning?

- Meaning it's worthless.

Yeah.

You can't make a college

without breaking eggheads,

and, I couldn't write

a book called Spooks

that didn't sound like

the ravings of a lunatic.

So... all this is useless.

Unless you count the dubious thrill

of re-reading old love letters.

Who's the girl?

- That's Steena Paulsson.

- Very pretty.

- Yeah.

- This you?

Yeah, that's me.

I met her

when I was at N.Y.U.

And, it was in 1948 and I was on

the GI Bill with the Navy behind me.

At that time I used to live

in the Village in those days,

and I used to go into the library.

It was just like fishing. I'd go into

the stacks and come out with a girl.

Steena Paulsson.

Yeah, I almost married her.

Hi.

Hi.

This book will

change your life, I promise.

I can't stay long.

Come on in. Just take me

a minute to find it.

Oh, this is beautiful.

I have two roommates

and we live in this dungeon at the bottom

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