Queer by William S. Burroughs

Author:William S. Burroughs [Burroughs, William S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141975665
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2012-07-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Thursday Lee went to the races, on the recommendation of Tom Weston. Weston was an amateur astrologer, and he assured Lee the signs were right. Lee lost five races and took a taxi back to the Ship Ahoy.

Mary and Allerton were sitting at a table with the Peruvian chess player. Allerton asked Lee to come over and sit down at the table.

“Where’s that phony whore caster?” Lee said, looking around.

“Tom give you a bum steer?” asked Allerton.

“He did that.”

Mary left with the Peruvian. Lee finished his third drink and turned to Allerton. “I figure to go down to South America soon,” he said. “Why don’t you come along? Won’t cost you a cent.”

“Perhaps not in money.”

“I’m not a difficult man to get along with,” said Lee. “We could reach a satisfactory arrangement. What you got to lose?”

“Independence.”

“So who’s going to cut in on your independence? You can lay all the women in South America if you want to. All I ask is be nice to Papa, say twice a week. That isn’t excessive, is it? Besides, I will buy you a round-trip ticket so you can leave at your discretion.”

Allerton shrugged. “I’ll think it over,” he said. “This job runs ten days more. I’ll give you a definite answer when the job folds.”

“Your job ….” Lee was about to say, “I’ll give you ten days’ salary.” He said, “All right.”

Allerton’s newspaper job was temporary, and he was too lazy to hold a job in any case. Consequently his answer meant “No.” Lee figured to talk him over in ten days. “Better not force the issue now,” he thought.

Allerton planned a three-day trip to Morelia with his coworkers in the newspaper office. The night before Allerton left, Lee was in a state of manic excitement. He collected a noisy table full of people. Allerton was playing chess with Mary, and Lee made all the noise he could. He kept his table laughing, but they all looked vaguely uneasy, as if they would prefer to be someplace else. They thought Lee was a little crazy. But just when he seemed on the point of some scandalous excess of speech or behavior, he would check himself and say something completely banal.

Lee leaped up to embrace a new arrival. “Ricardo! Amigo mío!” he said. “Haven’t seen you in a dog’s age. Where you been? Having a baby? Sit down on your ass, or what’s left of it after four years in the navy …. What’s troubling you, Richard? Is it women? I’m glad you came to me instead of those quacks on the top floor.”

At this point Allerton and Mary left, after consulting for a moment in low tones. Lee looked after them in silence. “I’m playing to an empty house now,” he thought. He ordered another rum and swallowed four Benzedrine tablets. Then he went into the head and smoked a roach of tea. “Now I will ravish my public,” he thought.

The busboy had caught a mouse and was holding it up by the tail.

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