I Gave at the Office by Westlake Donald E

Author:Westlake, Donald E
Language: eng
Format: epub

It was then about twenty past four in the afternoon. Joe and I looked at Rudy with astonishment—a cameraman isn’t expected to be an organizer, particularly not when the producer is along— and then Joe began to ask searching questions about the arrangements Rudy had made, details of price and how much time the cabdrivers would be available for us, all trying to find imperfections in Rudy’s work, but there were none, and it’s from that moment that Joe knew Rudy and I were in a combine against him.

I don’t want to overstate that, by the way. For the most part, Joe continued to get along with both Rudy and me for quite some time after the episodes I’m recounting here, but these days, when he talks about the people who are trying to stab him in the back, he dates Rudy’s and my betrayals from our first day at Carefree Beach Hotel.

Anyway, we discussed our present situation and immediate plans, the three of us, until about quarter to five, when Rudy was sent to relate the details to Hank and Irv. It was felt that Rudy, being a technician himself, would have a better chance of getting along with those two than a pair of white-collar workers like Joe and me.

While Rudy was off with Hank and Irv, I went to see the desk clerk and find out whether we could borrow or rent raincoats from somewhere. As it turned out, borrow, no; rent, yes. Five heavy black rubber raincoats with hoods were found for us, each one weighing about as much as a portable camera. At ten past five, when the Simcas rearrived at the hotel entrance, we all put on these raincoats, gathered up the equipment, and staggered out into the rain to bundle ourselves with a great deal of difficulty and discomfort into the two cars.

Nothing on earth is as hot and uncomfortable as a black rubber raincoat in the tropics, in June, inside a Simca. I felt like a baked potato in aluminum foil. We drove for fifteen minutes, and at the end of that time I was wetter inside the raincoat inside the car than if I’d been naked outside running along beside the car in the rain, the only difference being that I’d manufactured all this moisture myself.

Rudy summed it up for us, while tearing the raincoat off the instant he got out of the car: “Christ!”

Exactly. All five of us stripped the raincoats off, and we left them in the beige Simca, and somebody stole them while we were gone, and the Network paid an outrageous price for them later on.

The boat was what I’d expected the plane to be, only larger. It was a big, ungainly thing that looked as though the builder had been inspired by photographs of the dodo. It was all wood, it was of local manufacture, and at some time in the dim past it had been painted most of the colors available from Sherwin-Williams. A lot

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.