77: So there we were . . .
Little Follies, “The Static of the Spheres,” Chapter 7
7
SO THERE WE WERE, Gumma and Guppa and I, sitting in their living room after dinner on New Year’s Day. Guppa had a fire going, and he was sitting in his comfortable chair doing his pigeonholes. Gumma was curled up on the sofa, working with her slide rule. I was on the floor in front of the fire, with a stack of birth announcements from recent issues of the Babbington Reporter and a stack of clean white cards. The room was cozy and quiet, with just the crackle of the fire, the flutter of Guppa’s cards, the swish of the slide moving through the stock of Gumma’s slide rule.
“Is it okay if we listen to the radio?” I asked.
“Of course, Peter,” said Guppa. “I’ll tune it in for you.”
“Oh, don’t get up, Guppa,” I said. “I can tune it in by myself. Eliza showed me how to work it last night.”
I went over to the radio and turned it on.
“This is a wonderful radio,” I said. Neither Guppa nor Gumma said anything. “Gumma, you sure are lucky to have a wonderful radio like this,” I said.
“Mmmm,” said Gumma.
She bent over her slide rule and made some notations on a piece of paper. I switched to one of the international bands, and the room filled with a foreign howl. I twiddled the dial.
“Boy, it would be great to have a radio like this at home,” I said.
The flutter of Guppa’s cards.
“It wouldn’t have to be as fancy as this,” I said. “After all, I’ve already got a radio that gets the regular stations.”
“Mmm-hmm,” said Guppa. He knit his brows and bit his lower lip while he puzzled over one of the cards.
“What I need is a shortwave radio!” I said, as if the idea had just popped into my head from the ether. “If I had a shortwave radio, I’d be able to listen in on people’s conversations from all over the place. I’d hear the rabble speaking in tongues. I might even pick up a few useful phrases.”
“Yes, that’s true,” said Gumma, but I could tell that she was responding only to my tone of voice and that she hadn’t really heard anything I’d said.
“I’ll bet you could build a shortwave radio, couldn’t you, Guppa,” I said, loudly and proudly, very nearly shouting in his ear.
“What?” he asked, startled, looking up from his cards at last.
“You could build a shortwave radio, couldn’t you?” I repeated.
“Well—” he began, and Gumma responded to his tone of voice as surely as she had responded to mine. She caught in the way he said “Well—” what might be the first note in a crescendo of self-deception that would end with his being committed to something long and complicated.
To tell the truth, I caught it too, and my heart beat a little faster and a smile came onto my face. I threw my arms around Guppa. “Oh, thanks, Guppa,” I said. “This is going to be great fun!”
“Peter,” said Gumma. “I’m not sure that your grandfather has the time to build a radio for you.”
“Now Lorna,” said Guppa, tousling my hair.
“Oh, Herb,” said Gumma. She was smiling when she said it, and so was Guppa, and so was I.
[to be continued on Monday, August 30, 2021]
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In Topical Guide 77, Mark Dorset considers Salesmanship; Persuasion, the Art of: Appeal to Ego or Pride; and Love, the Things We Do for, from this episode.
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