Total Immersion by Allegra Goodman

Author:Allegra Goodman [Goodman, Allegra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-78672-2
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

She leans over Jack as he phones the university, Office of the President. “Is it ringing?” she asks.

“They put me on hold.” He rattles the box of paper clips on his desk. The desk is at the back of the store, where they sell wallpapers. Jack used to do installation work as well, but now it’s too hard on his back. Anxiously Henny watches his face. He has a terrible temper. He’ll bawl out anyone on the phone; he doesn’t care two bits for their feelings on the other end. And she can see he’s in that kind of mood, pacing around with his fingers hooked under the body of the old black phone as if it were a bowling ball. A short man, but he never seems that way. He thrusts out his chin, and in arguments he rocks forward on the balls of his feet, hands clasped behind him.

“Did they answer it yet?” she asks.

“If they answered, wouldn’t I be talking to them?” he snaps. They wait a little longer, and then he slams down the phone and tries again.

The door jangles and Henny runs to the front to help a young couple, the Chongs. She generally does the customer side, matching colors and explaining about the pastes. The Chongs want to cover only one wall of their kitchen. They’re painting the rest, they tell her. And she sighs because she and Jacob haven’t had a whole house or a restaurant since the Clambaker, three months ago, and that was only a neutral grass-weave matting. She and Jack had three years when they made real money. The first was 1952, when they got the contract for the Royal Hawaiian. That was the house. The second was 1972, when the Japanese Kikaida Robot TV shows first came to Hawaii, and she and Jack were the first to bring in the Kikaida Action Wallpaper series. That was the new car. Then the other year was 1979, with the foil, mirror-inset, wallpaper. That was the refrigerator and the enclosed lanai, and that was the trip to Europe without Lillian. And even on that trip Henny would have taken her, except Jack said it was going to be their second honeymoon.

“The president is in conference,” Jack announces after the Chongs leave. “I left my number with the secretary, and in the meantime I spoke to the Art Department. We have an appointment tomorrow with Mohanty.”

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