The Water-Method Man - Page 72

'There was a lot of electricity,' Colm told him.

In the taxi, Bogus bubbled about the number of cars. Had Colm ever seen so many? Had he ever smelled air this bad? Tulpen held the child's rucksack in her lap and bit her lip. She was about to cry; Bogus hadn't even introduced her to Colm.

That awkwardness took place at Tulpen's apartment. Colm was fascinated by the fish and turtles. What were their names? Who had found them? Then Bogus remembered Tulpen, and remembered, too, that she'd been just as nervous about Colm coming as he had. She wanted to know, What did five-year-olds eat, what did they like to do, how big were they, when did they go to sleep? Suddenly Bogus realized how important he was to her, and it chilled him. Almost as fiercely as he wanted Colm to like him she wanted Colm to like her.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' he whispered to her in the kitchen. She was preparing a snack for the turtles so that Colm could feed them.

'It's all right, it's all right,' she said. 'He's a beautiful child, Trumper. Isn't he beautiful?'

'Yes,' Bogus whispered, and went back to watch Colm with the turtles.

'These live in fresh water, right?' said Colm.

Trumper didn't know.

'Right,' said Tulpen. 'Do you ever see any turtles in the ocean?'

'Yes, I have one,' Colm said. 'Couth caught him, a big one.' He spread his arms - too wide, Trumper thought, for any turtle Couth could have caught around Georgetown, but a fair exaggeration for Colm. 'We have to change his water every day. Sea water; that's salt water. He'd die in here,' he said, peering into one of Tulpen's elaborate tanks. 'And these turtles,' he said, his voice bright with discovery, 'they'd die in my tank at home, right?'

'Right,' Tulpen said.

Colm turned his attention to the fish. 'I had some minnows, but they all died. I don't have any fish.' He watched their bright colors intently.

'Well,' Tulpen told him, 'you pick out your favorite one there, and when you go home you can take it with you. I've got a little bowl a fish can travel in.'

'Really?'

'Sure,' Tulpen said. 'They eat special food, and I'll give you some of that too, and when you get it home, you'll have to get a tank for it, with a little hose thing which puts air in the water--' She was showing him the fixture, on one of her aquariums, when he cut her off.

'Couth can make one,' Colm said. 'He made one like that for my turtle.'

'Well, good,' Tulpen said. She watched Trumper slip off to the bathroom. 'Then you'll have a fish to go with your turtle.'

'Right,' said Colm, nodding eagerly and smiling at her. 'But not in the same water, right? The fish has to have fresh water, not salt water, right?' He was a very exact little boy.

'Right,' Tulpen told him. She listened to Bogus, in the bathroom, flushing himself away.

They went to the Bronx Zoo: Colm and Bogus, Tulpen, Ralph Packer and Kent, along with about two thousand dollars' worth of movie equipment. Packer shot Bogus and Colm riding the subway out to the Bronx during that long ugly stretch when it is above ground.

Colm watched the laundry flapping from the grimy apartments, in the grimy buildings alongside the tracks. 'Boy, don't those clothes get dirty?' he asked.

'Yup,' Bogus said. He wanted to throw Ralph Packer, Kent and the two-thousand-dollar movie equipment off the subway, preferably at high speed. But Tulpen was being very nice, and Colm obviously liked her. She was trying hard, of course, but there was more than enough that was natural about her to make Colm feel at home with her.

Colm had never liked Ralph, though. Even when he'd been a baby and Ralph had come to their place in Iowa, Colm didn't like him. When the camera ran on and on, Colm would stare into the lens until Ralph stopped, put down the camera and stared back. Then Colm would pretend he was bored and look away.

'Colm?' Bogus whispered. 'Do you think Ralph would live in fresh water or sea water?' Colm giggled, then whispered to Tulpen and told her what Bogus had said. She smiled and told Colm something, which he passed back to Bogus. The camera was running again.

'Oil,' Colm whispered.

'What?' said Bogus.

'Oil!' Colm said. Ralph would live in oil.

'Right!' said Trumper, flashing a grateful look at Tulpen.

'Right!' Colm shouted. Aware that the camera was running again and aimed at him, he proceeded to stare Ralph Packer down.

'The kid keeps looking at the camera,' Kent told Ralph.

Tags: John Irving Fiction
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