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XVI
Judy and Richard
I mentioned earlier that Judy set herself apart from Richard right at the
beginning. After he asked her to fix dinners a couple of times and didn't
show up for them, and after he stayed at our house for the first few days
of his quarter-long residency, Judy knew that she wasn't going to be
nearly as cooperative as I was in taking care of the big goof. One day
while he was staying with us, he walked into the living room with a towel
around him, fresh from the bath and asked, "Where should I put these dirty
clothes." Judy said "Up in the washing machines at faculty housing" (where
the university had reserved a place for Richard). Right after that, he
moved up on campus. Other times when he would start tracking in our living
room into the wee hours, Judy would go in the bedroom, slam the door, and
put a pillow over her head. She got really upset with me when I would let
Richard use me for rides, booze money, a social straight man, etc. I would
get upset too, but not enough to put an end to it. Richard ultimately got
so apprehensive about Judy that when we came to our house, he would sit
out in the car so he didn't have a confrontation. Really, the only thing
that caused this was when he overheard Judy tell me, "Richard makes me
nervous." he tracked on that as he sat in the car and I went in to get
smoked fish, whisky, money or whatever.
Richard made me nervous too, but somehow I felt that his friendship was
worth all that. I remember when he came for the quarter residency, he was
so nervous himself about confronting a class of students that he followed
me around wherever I went: out to empty the trash, out to buy gas, grocery
shopping, etc. He reminded me of Harvey, the big invisible bunny in that
play.
Gorgo's Brautigan Stories Index |