Adam Haberberg Read Free Page B

bench with a tissue and sat down beside Adam. “I can still read everything, you know, I get slight headaches, there are times when I have to frown but I can read everything, and I have the feeling that as soon as I start wearing glasses it's going to get worse in no time at all. The optometrist says no, but everywhere you look there are people who startwearing glasses and within a year they can't even decipher
    a restaurant menu.”
    “Well, that's true… .”
    “But you're going to tell me, OK, we all come to it.”
    “Well, yes.”
    “And you, what about you?”
    “Well …”
    “Are you married? You have children?”
    “Two.”
    “And what do you do?”
    “I write.”
    “Books?”
    “Yes …”
    “Great.”
    “Yes …”
    “Are you making it?”
    “I'm making it,” he says, thinking, What vulgarity.
    “Great.”
    “And are you making it? What are you doing these days?” thinking, did I ever know what she was capable of doing, did I ever know she existed.
    “I sell merchandise.”
    On top of the thrombosis, the failure of the book, and the weekend on the Cotentin did he need Marie -Thérèse Lyoc? On top of the rain, the wind, and the wretched animal from the forests of Asia, afterconsiderable efforts to keep his head above water, did he need Marie-Thérèse Lyoc selling merchandise? Marie-Thérèse opens the larger of her two bags.
    “I work with zoos, amusement parks, and museums. We're in a zoo here, so it's all customized to relate to animals; I have mini fridge magnets, traditional fridge magnets, magnetic words, a pocket flashlight, look, an unbreakable ruler, there's a giraffe motif on this one but at Giverny there'd be a picture by Monet, a ballpoint, same thing, a different theme for each site, all kinds of pencils with heads, here you've got a parrot, a bear, they used to do little animals but they don't do them anymore, they get all this stuff from Asia.”
    Adam switches on the pocket flashlight, he bends the unbreakable ruler, he stares at the eraser, the little notebook, the key ring, and he seems interested in the box of mini magnets, she tells him I'll give it to you, she says how many children do you have, he says two, she says right I'll give you two of them and two bookmarks, the cat and the frog, she says you're a writer, would you like a ballpoint, here, Gustav Klimt, that should suit you, Adam tries the ballpoint in the air, he finds it unpleasant at the end of his fingers but he says terrific, that shop didn't exist, Marie-Thérèse says proudly, then one day I came to themenagerie, I met the person in charge of promotion but the menagerie had no structure for buying products. I pestered them for months and that's how the shop came into being, Adam says fantastic. She closes up her bag of samples, which is like a box of toys, in a few minutes, he thinks, the world has changed, the spectacles, the eraser, the parrot, he puts the mini magnets, the bookmarks, the ballpoint, the soothing world of Marie-Thérèse Lyoc into his pockets, he feels like a sick person who sees people on the sidewalk in the distance and envies the ordinary passerby.
    “And what were you doing here?”
    “Nothing. I was watching the ostriches.”
    “Oh my! I've been coming here for months and I never noticed the ostriches.”
    I see.
    Marie-Thérèse smiles into the void. She doesn't seem perturbed by this disjointed exchange. He turns toward her, finding really nothing to say to her, then smiles as well and she becomes radiant, and Adam Haberberg feels a mounting inner confusion. He says, I've become bald, haven't I? She says, just a touch. A great big touch. Just a touch but it suits you. I ought to get up and walk away, he thinks. I ought to get up and say good-bye and good luck, Marie-Thérèse. He says, I've put lotions on it, I've battled with it, but you can see how it is. She bursts out laughing, Oh my,what a fuss you make about it! He has a memory of her, he sees her again in a corridor at the