Studs Lonigan (122 page)

“I'm all right,” he said, commencing to swoon.

Suddenly, he sat up, the handkerchief dropping to the sand. Still pallid, he looked at the greedy curiosity on so many of the faces in the crowd, many of them shoving to get a closer glimpse of him. A look of terror contorted his features, and the doctor gently eased him down.

“Darling!” Catherine exclaimed.

“I guess I fell asleep for a minute,” he said grimly.

“How do you feel now?” she asked.

“I'm all right. Don't worry.”

“Take it easy a minute now,” the doctor said.

From his reclining position, he watched Catherine and the doctor step off a few feet and talk. He began to fear that he might die any minute, and he sat up to fight off this fear and prove to himself that he wasn't dying. His dizziness forced him to lie back, and in his persisting weakness he watched the doctor writing on a slip of paper the policeman had given him. They came to him, and the doctor timed his pulse with a borrowed watch, and listened to his heart.

“All right, go slowly now and you better take a taxicab home. With that heart, you got to be very careful and take it easy. You never should have gone swimming. Do you have a doctor? You ought to see one regularly.”

“I do.”

“You shouldn't exert yourself like this, not with your heart.”

“I guess you're right, Doc,” he said with a forced smile.

“Guess? Well, I know it.”

He slowly sat up, then arose.

“How do you feel, Mr. Lonigan?”

“O. K., thanks.”

“Want a ride home?” the policeman asked.

“I think we can manage, but thanks just the same.”

“Well, you had a lucky escape and you better take it easy.”

“I'll get along all right,” Studs said, taking trial steps, uneasy because so many people were still watching him.

Catherine took his arm, and they turned back to the doctor.

“Thanks, Doc. Do I owe you anything on this?”

“Forget it, forget it. But do as I told you. Go easy, and see your doctor regularly. If you don't, the next time may be more serious.”

“I'll see to it that he does, and thank you very, very much, Doctor,” Catherine said.

“I better go and wash up a bit,” Studs said to Catherine as they walked to their bundle of clothing.

“No! no, you can't. These are old clothes you have anyway,” Catherine said, fiercely insistent.

He was just as pleased, because, anyway, he was afraid of even going back near the water. He caught the expression of worry knitted on her face, and he felt soft toward her, dependent. She was the one person on whom he could most surely rely. She was his woman, he told himself with mounting pride.

He lethargically pulled his clothes on over his swimming suit, and they trailed off the beach, glad to get away from people who kept staring and staring at them.

“Bill, you must promise me that you're going to take better care of yourself,” Catherine said, walking arm-and-arm with him toward South Shore Drive.

“I'm all right,” he said gruffly.

“I know, Bill. I was talking to the doctor. He said you have to take care of yourself, very good care, too.”

“I'm all right,” he repeated, glancing away to keep her from getting a clear view of his face.

“You're not. You look very bad now, too. He told me. He told me you had a very weak heart, a cardiac condition, and you can't, under any circumstances, overstimulate it,” she said, frowning at him when he pulled out a cigarette. “And the first thing you're going to do is to stop smoking,” she snapped, snatching the cigarette from his mouth.

“I guess you're right,” he said apologetically as they turned onto South Shore Drive.

“I know I'm right. And I am going to take care of you from this minute on.”

“What else did the doctor say?” Studs asked with a foolish grin.

“He wrote out a prescription for some digitalis, and you're to take ten drops of it after every meal. And he said you must see a doctor.”

“There's nothing really to worry about.”

“You're not seeing your doctor now and you should.”

“But I tell you forget it. It's not serious.”

“Forget it! Forget it! How can I? You dove into that water and didn't come up, and I screamed and thought you were dead. And then the doctor tells me that you've got to be extremely careful. And you tell me to forget it.”

“Doctors don't know everything.”

“And Bill, you know, you don't, either.”

“Well, I ought to know something about how I feel.”

“Yes, you most certainly should,” she said with kindly worry.

“It must have been caused by the sun or something I ate for dinner that didn't agree with me.”

They crossed over to Seventy-first Street, Catherine clinging to his arm.

“How do you feel now, dear?” she asked after a period of silence.

“All right.”

“Maybe we better take a taxi instead of walking.”

“No. The walk will be good for me. We'll just take it easy, as we have been doing.”

“But please, Bill, do what I ask you, because I'm only trying to think of what's good for you. So come on, take a taxicab the rest of the way.”

“And what about you?”

“I'll ride with you and I'll walk the rest of the way home, and after supper I'll come over and see you.”

“We'll go to a show tonight. I'll be all right.”

“No, you'll rest and go to bed early.”

“I'm better now, I tell you. It's all gone. It was just one of those heart attacks and it won't be serious if I watch myself.”

“Oh, look, Bill, here come Fran and Carroll,” she said, and Studs saw his oldest sister and brother-in-law strolling toward them. He was still pretty weak on his pins, but he didn't want them to know it.

“Hello, peoples,” Fran said.

“Why, how are you, Studs? Gee, I'm glad to see you, and you know, old man, you haven't dropped around to see us in a long while. And hello there, Catherine, how are you?” Carroll said, and Studs guessed Carroll was friendly and all right, but he didn't like his talk and his gestures, too high-hat.

“And why don't you tell other people your secrets?” Fran said, smiling.

Studs could see that Fran was still a damn hot and pretty girl, and she looked nice with her white dress and her dark eyes and dark curly hair. And Carroll, with his classy light gray suit, looked like a hot shot, too. But he was sure picking up weight.

“I know. Mother telephoned me. Congratulations. We were just walking down to the beach to see if we could find you, because she told us you were there.”

“And yes, Studs, my congratulations to both of you, and we both wish and know that you'll be happy,” Carroll said.

“But isn't this sudden?” Fran asked.

“Well,” Studs exclaimed while Catherine blushed.

“And as an old and experienced married man, Studs, let me give you one word of advice. Do what the lady tells you to the first time, and you'll save a lot of time,” Carroll said dryly, winking as he ended his remark.

“Yes, darling, only why don't you practice what you preach?” Fran said, smiling at her husband.

“Oh, Studs will be all right. He can be trained,” Catherine said, becoming more at ease.

“Gee, you kids must be busy as bees,” Fran said.

“Well, I suppose we're going to be,” Catherine said.

“Can I help you on anything, with your wedding dress, or something like that?” asked Fran.

“Why, no thanks, Fran dear. My mother will help me, and I think we'll get everything finished, all right.”

“Well, you must come over. I want to have a shower for you, and when can I plan on it?”

“Fran, you shouldn't put yourself to so much trouble,” Catherine said.

“Now, when?” Fran said authoritatively.

“If it must be, well, I suppose sometime next week,” Catherine said.

“How are things going with you, Studs?”

“Oh, pretty good, Carroll, can't exactly complain. How about yourself?”

“All right, Studs. You know, I think that most of this depression talk is greatly exaggerated. I don't think that times are near so hard as people say they are, and all this gloomy talk just makes everything so much the worse. Why, with a little more confidence on the part of everybody or at least of all the people who count, and there wouldn't be any more depression. That's the way I feel about it. In our law office now, for instance, we've got more work than we can handle.”

“Well, maybe there's something to what you say, Carroll, only some people have been hit pretty hard. I know I took a flyer in some Imbray stock, not a lot, just a little, and I got socked.”

“Jesus, Studs, I wish you'd asked my advice before you did that. You know what's happening? People on the inside told me this. Imbray is in a bad spot. He's been fighting with a Cleveland financier, and this fellow from Cleveland has old Solomon with his back to the wall. It looks bad, because this Cleveland financier, his name is Goddard, he's got Imbray where he wants him. Imbray has to plug up his own stock and buy them on the market so that Goddard can't get them and get control of Imbray's companies. And to do that Imbray has to keep getting more money by issuing new stock. In consequence, he's built up a shaky pyramid, and now his stock is too watered. Imbray stocks are one kind not to buy. Get out of it quick, and buy some good government bonds, or radio stock. The future of this country is in radio and aviation, and when I buy stocks that's what I buy.”

“Jesus, I think I will, and thanks for the tip. You say that Imbray is on the bust and his stocks won't go up?”

“They're so highly overvalued they can't go up much until the water is run out of them. There'll be a receivership. I think the story will break any one of these days. The old man is just going to be shoved out. I hope you didn't go in deep, Studs?”

“No. Just fifteen shares or so of a new issue.”

“That's too bad. But take what you can get out of it, and get out right away. I got friends on the inside, and I'm not just talking rumors.”

“I will, and thanks. It's not a great loss, but then a dollar is a dollar,” Studs said, becoming suddenly uneasy, because he noticed how Fran was carefully scrutinizing him.

“Studs, are you running around very much?” Fran asked, and Catherine flushed, her lips compressed in anger, and to mask it she forced a smile.

“Why, no. Why?” Studs asked.

“You're awfully pale. You ought to be taking better care of yourself.”

“That's just what I told him. And after all my nagging I've only just now, at last, got him to stop smoking,” Catherine said.

“Yes, he should,” Fran said without looking at Catherine. “Studs, you look ghastly, and you ought to be taking better care of yourself. You should see Doctor O'Donnell regularly, drink a lot of milk to build yourself up, and you should do some other kind of work besides painting. That's too hard for anyone in your condition.”

“I'm all right. I tired myself out a little swimming, but that's not serious,” Studs said.

“It is too serious. You're getting married now, and you must take care of yourself. If you don't, I'm telling you it can be very serious. You look simply terrible. Catherine, you better watch him closely and make him take care of himself. He never would pay any attention to what my mother or Fritzie or I would tell him.”

“Well, I tell you I'm all right,” Studs said, smiling sheepishly.

“These men!” Catherine smiled.

“Yes, Carroll is much the same,” Fran said.

“Studs, you and I better go crawl away and hide our heads somewhere,” Carroll said dryly, filling an expensive pipe from a calfskin tobacco pouch, and Studs shrugged his shoulders non-committally.

“And Catherine, dear, I do want to see you alone sometime where we can talk. I'm going to be downtown Wednesday. Could you meet Loretta and I for lunch?”

“Why, Fran, darling, I'd love to.”

“What time could you meet me in the Fern Room at Sheriff and Forest's?”

“Twelve o'clock.”

“All right, dear, I'll expect you.”

“And don't forget, Studs, we've got to see more of you,” Carroll said, puffing on his pipe.

“Sure,” Studs said.

“See any of the old boys much?”

“Not many.”

“I see Kelly in court now and then. He's become a regular politician, with an alderman and all the other accoutrements. But I guess he's getting along. And I heard that Dan Donoghue's uncle failed in that string of movies he had up in Wisconsin.”

“Gee, I'm sorry to hear that. Know what he's doing?”

“No.”

“I'd like to see him. Good old Dan,” Studs said.

“Dan's a fine fellow, and smart, too.”

“Seen Phil's place since he fixed it up?”

“Have I!” Carroll smiled. “It looks like a movie set in a penthouse picture. But it was smart. It cost Phil plenty, but he'll get it back in time. Phil has a smart head on his shoulders.”

“Well, people, I think we'd better be running along,” Catherine said.

“And Catherine, darling, make him watch himself. See you on Wednesday,” Fran said after the girls had kissed.

They parted. Studs felt very weak, and walked slowly, thinking of how healthy Carroll had looked.