The Keep by Jennifer Egan

Author:Jennifer Egan [Egan, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780307386618
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2007-07-09T21:00:00+00:00

The next time Danny woke up, his eyes stayed shut. But he heard voices and other sounds, too, like when someone speed-dials you accidentally and you get a crunchy sound of them walking and hear gurgly voices you might even recognize, and you yell out their name a few times before you get bored and hang up. But Danny couldn’t hang up. So he lay there hearing stuff like herballoo and shudding and scramshie, and then he felt a stab in his neck, right below his ear. His eyes popped open. Everything was blurry, but Danny caught a gray-bearded guy with a syringe moving away.

Then it got quiet. Danny thought he was alone, but when he turned his head there was Howard’s kid, Benjy, in the chair where Howard had been sitting. The kid wore long-sleeved pajamas covered with red fish. His dark hair was messed up, like he’d been sleeping.

Benjy: Did it hurt?

Danny looked at him, letting his eyes adjust. The kid’s pajamas confused him—was it big red fish eating little red fish, or were all the fish the same?

Danny: Did what hurt? Falling out a window?

Benjy: No. The shot.

Nah. That felt good.

Benjy frowned, like he couldn’t tell if Danny was kidding. Finally he said: Actually, I’m not allowed to climb on windowsills because it’s dangerous.

I’ll keep that in mind.

Benjy: Did your mommy ever tell you that?

Probably.

Do you have to go home now?

Why would I go home? I just got here.

Benjy: Is your home in an apartment?

Yeah. I mean normally it is, but right now I don’t have one. I’m in between places.

Why the hell was he explaining all this? Danny squirmed on the bed, looking for someone to rescue him from this kid. But as far as he could tell, they were alone in the room. Wind blew in through the window and shook the tapestries on the stone walls.

Benjy: Do you have a wife?

No.

My mommy is my daddy’s wife.

Yeah, I picked up on that.

Do you have a dog?

No.

Do you have a cat?

I have no pets, okay?

What about a guinea pig?

Jesus Christ! It came out loud, and Benjy looked startled. Danny hoped that would shut him up.

Benjy: Do you have any children?

Danny gritted his teeth and stared at the ceiling beams. No, I don’t have children. Thank God.

The kid went quiet for a long time. Finally he said: What do you have?

Danny opened his mouth to answer. What did he have?

Benjy: I said, what do you—

I heard, I heard.

What do you have?

I don’t have anything, okay? Nothing. Now I’d like to shut my eyes.

Benjy leaned closer. In his face Danny saw sympathy mixed in with a kind of cold curiosity you never saw in adults. They’d learned how to hide it.

Benjy: Are you sad to have nothing?

No, I’m not sad.

But he was. The sadness came on Danny suddenly and buried him. He saw himself: flat on his back in the middle of nowhere, with a smashed-up head. A guy who had nothing.

Benjy: Are you crying?

Danny: You’ve got to be kidding.

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