The Simulacra

The time was late evening, almost eleven o'clock, close to curfew. Never the less, Vince headed at once for an elevator and a moment later was ascending to the top floor of The Abraham Lincoln.

I'll kill him, he decided. Kill both of them, in fact.

And I'll probably get off, he conjectured, before a jury selected at random from among the residents of the building, because after all I'm official identification reader; everybody knows me and respects me. I have their confidence.

And what position does Chic hold, here? And also I work for a really huge cartel, Karp u. Sohnen, whereas Chic works for a flea-sized outfit on the verge of collapse. And everyone here knows that, too. Facts like that are important. You have to weigh them, take them into account. Whether you approve of it or not.

And in addition, the pure unadulterated fact that Vince Strikerock was a Ge and Chic was not would alone positively ensure his acquittal.

At the door of Chic's apartment he paused, not knocking but merely standing there in the hall, uncertainly. This is awful, he said to himself. He was actually very fond of his older brother, who had helped raise him. Didn't Chic really mean more to him than even Julie? No. Nothing and no one meant more to him than Julie.

Raising his hand he knocked.

The door opened. There stood Chic, in his blue dressing gown, a magazine in one hand. He looked a little older, more tired and bald and depressed, than usual.

‘Now I realize why you haven't dropped by and tried to cheer me up,' Vince said, ‘during these last couple of days. How could you, with Julie living up here?'

Chic said, ‘Come on in.' He held the door wide. Wearily, he led his brother into the small living room. ‘I suppose you're going to give me a hard time,' he said over his shoulder. ‘As if I didn't have enough already. My goddam firm's about to close down -- ‘

‘Who cares,' Vince said, panting. ‘It's what you deserve.'

He looked around for Julie but did not see her or any sign of her belongings. Could old Joe Purd have been wrong? Impossible. Purd knew everything that went on in the building; gossip was his whole life. He was an authority.

‘I heard something interesting on the news tonight,' Chic said as he seated himself on the couch facing his younger brother. ‘The government has decided to allow an exception in the application of the McPhearson Act. A psychoanalyst named Egon -- ‘

‘Listen,' Vince broke in. ‘Where is she?'

‘I've got troubles enough without you jumping on me.'

Chic eyed his younger brother. ‘I'll flip you for her.'

Vince Strikerock choked with rage.

‘A joke,' Chic murmured woodenly. ‘Sorry I said it; don't know why I said it. She's out somewhere buying clothes. She's expensive to keep, isn't she? You should have warned me. Put up a notice on the building's bulletin board. But I'll tell you seriously what I propose. I want you to get me into Karp und Sohnen Werke. Ever since Julie showed up here I've been thinking about this. Call it a deal.'

‘No deal.'

‘Then no Julie.'

Vince said, ‘What kind of job do you want with Karp?'

‘Anything. Well, anything in public relations, sales or promotion; not in the engineering or manufacturing end. The same type of work I've been doing for Maury Frauenzimmer. Clean hands type of work.'

His voice shaking, Vince said, ‘I'll get you in as assistant shipping clerk.'

Chic laughed sharply. ‘That's a good one. And I'll give you back Julie's left foot.'

‘Jesus.' Vince stared at him, unable to believe his ears. ‘You're depraved or something.'

‘Not at all. I'm in a very bad position, careerwise. All I have to bargain with is your ex-wife. What am I supposed to do? Sink obligingly into oblivion? The hell with that; I'm fighting to exist.' Chic seemed calm, fully rational.

‘Do you love her?' Vince said.

Now, for the first time, his brother's composure seemed to leave him. ‘What? Oh sure, I'm out of my mind with love for her -- can't you perceive that? How can you ask?' His tone was violently bitter. ‘That's why I'm going to trade her back to you for a job at Karp. Listen Vince, she's a cold, hostile cookie -- she's out for herself and no one else. As far as I can ascertain she came up here merely to hurt you. Ponder that. I tell you what. We've got a bad problem here, you and I, with Julie; it's ruining our lives. You agree? I think we should take it to an expert. Frankly it's too much for me. I can't solve it.'

‘What expert?'

‘Any expert. For instance the building marital guidance counsellor. Or let's take it to the last remaining psychoanalyst in the USEA, that Dr Egon Superb they told about on the TV. Let's go to him before they shut him down, too. What do you say? You know I'm right; you and I'll never manage to thrash this out.' He added. ‘And come out alive, anyhow the two of us.'

‘You go.'

‘Okay.' Chic nodded. ‘I'll go. But you agree to abide by his decision. Okay?'

‘Hell,' Vince said. ‘Then I'll go along, too. You think I'm going to depend on your verbal report of what he says?'

The door of the apartment opened. Vince turned. There in the doorway stood Julie, with a package under her arm.

‘Come back later,' Chic said to her. ‘Please.' He rose to his feet and walked towards her.

‘We're going to see a psychiatrist about you,' Vince said to Julie. ‘It's settled.' To his brother he said, ‘You and I'll split the fees. I'm not going to get stuck with the whole tab.'

‘Agreed,' Chic said, nodding. Awkwardly -- or so it seemed to Vince -- he kissed Julie on the cheek, patted her shoulder. To Vince he said, ‘And I still want that Job at Karp und Sohnen Werke, no matter how this comes out, no matter which of us gets her. You understand?'

Vince said, ‘I'll see what I can do.' He spoke grudgingly, with massive resentment. It seemed to him too much to ask.

But after all, Chic was his brother. There was such a thing as family.

Picking up the telephone, Chic said, ‘I'll call Dr Superb right now.'

‘At this time of night?' Julie said.

‘Tomorrow, then. Early.' With reluctance Chic set the phone down again. ‘I'm anxious to get started; this whole business weighs on my mind, and I've got other problems that are more important.' He glanced at Julie. ‘No offence meant.'

Stiffly, Julie said, ‘I haven't agreed to go to a psychiatrist or abide by anything he says. If I want to stay with you -- ‘

‘We'll do what Superb says,' Chic informed her. ‘And if he says for you to go back downstairs and you don't then I'll get a court order to bar you from my apartment. I mean it.' Vince had never heard his brother sound so hard; it surprised him. Probably it was due to Frauenzimmer Associates folding up. Chic's job was his whole life, after all.

‘A drink,' Chic said. And crossed to the liquor cabinet in the kitchen.

To her talent scout, Janet Raimer, Nicole said, ‘Where did you manage to dig up that?'

She gestured towards the folk singers twanging their electric guitars and nasally intoning away at the microphone in the centre of the Camellia Room of the White House. ‘They're really awful.' She felt thoroughly unhappy.

Businesslike and detached, Janet answered brightly, ‘From the conapt building Oak Farms in Cleveland, Ohio.'

‘Well, send them back,' Nicole said, and signalled Maxwell Jamison who sat, bulky and inert, on the far side of the large room. Jamison at once clambered to his feet, stretched, and made his way to the folk singers and their microphone.

They glanced at him. Apprehension showed on their faces and their droning song began to trail off.

‘I don't want to hurt your feelings,' Nicole said to them, ‘but I guess I've had enough of ethnic music for this evening. Sorry.' She gave them one of her radiant smiles; wanly they smiled back. They were finished. And they knew it.