Poorhouse Fair by John Updike Page B

another hour these rays would break forth again in the glory of their strength and from all the points of the compass people in the prime of their lives, carrying children in their arms, would come to this famous fair.
    Conner, who entered the room at the side, had in nearly three years become enough attuned to his wards to perceive in the silence and the one direction of the heads the ghost posturing on the dais; he took a tray up to the counter with his head slightly bowed, in the manner of a man, however insolent, who arrives late at the theatre.
    Conversation commenced. The live prefect displaced the dead. Buddy, entering in a crisp shirt and with his damp hair combed flat, blinked at the clatter; one vast bright beast seemed contained in an acoustic cage. The old people began to stand and leave; Buddy and Conner would be left to finish their meal in a nearly deserted room, while the kitchen help, youngsters and matrons from the town of Andrews, waited sarcastically for these last dirty plates to be handed in. Many reported to work at noon, so the kitchen smelled of raincoats.
     
    GREGG overtook Lucas at the spot where Conner and Buddy had met a half-hour before. An oblong of water still stained the crimson linoleum, worn brown where people walked. "Where the hell have you been all goddam morning?" Gregg asked. "Conner make you his Garbage Supervisor?"
    "I went in town." Lucas's lower lip, shaped like one of those rare berries that is in fact two grafted together, protruded defiantly. He liked Gregg less and less, Gregg who had never known family, who had never had a woman take the best half of the bed, who still lived in a boy's irresponsible world.
    A coward in the face of blunt hostility, Gregg modified his tone. "What did he say about the tags?"
    "He said it was for our good."
    "S. he did. When that pansy gives a thought to my good I'll be a bag of fertilizer."
    "It was interesting to see how his mind works. He said some of the women complained for their husbands who couldn't get a chair when they came in from the fields. So he thought he'd put these tags on and make every chair somebody in particular's."
    "God, what a birdbrain story. He's even a bigger nut than Mendelssohn with his singing hymns. Christ, we get the rock bottom here."
    "Then he made me go to the west wing, when I hadn't complained, and Angelo jabbed at my ear until I won't be surprised if I go deaf."
    "I hope you do. Then sue the s. out of them. You know what I thought? I fetched a cat into the yard this morning, and what we should do is take off the tags and make a collar for the cat--it's a hell of a sick cat, dead on its feet damn near--and sneak the cat up into Conner's office. He's scared s.less of the cat anyway; I was talking to him this morning."
    "You were talking to him?"
    "Why not? Hell, he came down nosepoking and I went up to him and said, Look out the cat don't eat you, Conner. Listen. I said, This place is full of wild beasts, Conner, bears and tigers as big as your swollen head. You should have seen him stare."
    Lucas smiled. "And he didn't say anything?"
    "Now what could he say? He's not my boss. Nobody's my f.ing boss here. You think I'm lying."
    "Oh, no. Lions and tigers, I believe you, Gregg."
    "Bears and tigers. What'd you go into town for?"
    "When?"
    "This morning, you said you went into town. Lucas, you're slippery. You look slippery and you are."
    Wanting to hit Gregg back, Lucas picked up the handiest weapon, the truth. "I went in to get a bottle of rye. Angelo gave me the idea."
    "Screw, you didn't."
    "Screw I did. I have money. I do a little work around here."
    "Being a pig's friend you do. So: Marty's little boy buys a bottle of rye."
    Lucas's brain, had not the dull earache been occupying the best part of it, would have ordered his body to walk away, because Gregg's jealousy was driving his tongue beyond all reasonable bounds.
    "So: the pig-feeder and the bird-keeper are going to set down in their nice little cozy room