Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler

Author:Mordecai Richler [Richler, Mordecai]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Humour, Fiction
ISBN: 9781551995601
Google: 80FaaaFgiKwC
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Seymour, ashen-faced, rose from the table.

“Are you all right, darling?”

“Don’t get excited. I have to go to the toilet, that’s all.”

Conversation continued fitfully – the children, vacation plans, Margaret Trudeau’s shenanigans – as the phone rang on the wall immediately to the right of the bar. The bartender took it, nodded, and then whispered something to the television actress, who favored Joshua with a small, meaningful smile before she set her Gauloise down in an ashtray and got up to take the call.

“We’re boring you,” Barbara said, appealing to Joshua.

“Oh, not at all,” and he pitched into the flagging conversation with simulated vigor, as he watched the girl on the phone smile, nod, burst into spontaneous giggles, frown, protest, nod again, and finally hang up. Her manner distressed, pensive, she paid for her glass of kir, left it unfinished on the bar, and drifted out of the room, failing to acknowledge Joshua as she passed. Relieved, he became more attentive to the ladies as Seymour bounded back to the table.

Barbara glanced at her watch and announced that she had to pick up Lenore at ballet.

“Did you bring the car?” Seymour asked Molly abruptly.

“Yes,” she said, immediately scooping up her handbag. The clasp was broken. The bulging velvet bag was bound together with an elastic. A Roberta. Set him back $450. God Almighty.

“I have a couple of things to discuss with my friend here. Why don’t you drive Barbara home? I won’t be long.”

Seymour, glowering, waited until the ladies had gathered their parcels together and left, and then he said, “I never would have suspected you of being so childish.”

“I’m sorry, Seymour.”

“I know that Max must be in on this, that impotent prick, and of course Bobby. But Bobby hates me.”

“What are you talking about? He’s been your friend for years.”

“Bobby loathes me.”

“Why?”

“Because I know certain things about him.”

“Like what?”

Seymour wouldn’t say.

“Come on.”

“He goes to Eaton’s basement shirt sales. He reads condensed books. Anyway, I’m not surprised at them. But I would have expected more from you.”

“Oh, come on. It was a joke.”

“Some joke,” Seymour said evenly. “Ha ha ha. You involved my innocent wife in this mindless prank, and that’s unforgivable.”

“She didn’t suspect a thing.”

“I admit to having certain weaknesses, human weaknesses, but I never involve my wife and children in my escapades. My utterly joyless escapades. My wife and children come first with me.” Leaning closer, he added, “Do you know how many times I have alienated old friends, defending you and the shit you write?”

“I have no interest in the views of your dim-witted friends.”

“You are a childish, inconsiderate, condescending, snobbish son of a bitch. May you live to suffer writer’s block.”

With that, Seymour shoved his chair back from the table and stomped out of the bar. Stunned, Joshua ordered a double Scotch, and it was only after he called for the waiter that he realized he had been left with the bill for the bottle of Mumm’s.

There were two bars in the Ritz-Carlton. The Maritime, in the

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