The Hotel New Hampshire Part 26

Frank, oafishly, bent down to the bear, tugging its fur again. 'Do you shake hands, Susie?' Frank asked, bending down, but the bear turned to face him; the bear stood up.

'She's not being rude, is she?' Freud cried. 'Susie, be nice! Don't be rude.' Standing up, the bear wasn't as tall as any of us - except she was taller than Lilly, and she was taller than Freud. The bear's snout came to Frank's chin. They stood face to face, for a moment, the bear s.h.i.+fting its weight on its hind legs, shuffling like a boxer.

'I'm Frank,' Frank said nervously to the bear, holding out his hand; then, with both hands, he tried to grasp the bear's right paw and shake it.

'Keep your hands to yourself, kid,' the bear said to Frank, cuffing Frank's arms apart with a swift, short blow. Frank, reeling backwards, stumbled on the reception bell - which made a quick ping ping.'

'How'd you do that?' Franny asked Freud. 'How'd you make it talk?'

'n.o.body makes me talk, honey,' Susie the bear said, nuzzling Franny's hip.

Lilly screamed again. 'The bear talks, the bear talks!' she cried.

'She's a smart smart bear!' Freud shouted. 'Didn't I tell you?' bear!' Freud shouted. 'Didn't I tell you?'

'The bear talks!' Lilly screamed, hysterically.

'At least I don't scream,' Susie the bear said. Then she dropped all semblance of bear-like mannerisms; she walked upright, and sullenly, back to the couch - where Lilly's first scream had disturbed her. She sat down and crossed her legs and put her feet on the chair. It was Time Time magazine that she was reading, a rather out-of-date issue. magazine that she was reading, a rather out-of-date issue.

'Susie's from Michigan,' Freud said, as if this explained everything. 'But she went to college in New York. She's very smart.'

'I went to Sarah Lawrence,' the bear said, 'but I dropped out. What an elitist crock of s.h.i.+t,' she said - of Sarah Lawrence - the world of Time Time magazine pa.s.sing impatiently through her paws. magazine pa.s.sing impatiently through her paws.

'She's a girl girl!' Father said. 'It's a girl in a bear suit!'

'A woman woman,' Susie said. 'Watch it.' It was only 1957; Susie was a bear ahead of her time.

'A woman in a bear suit,' Frank said, with Lilly sliding against me and clutching my leg.

'There are no smart bears,' Freud said, ominously. 'Except this kind.'

Upstairs, the typewriters were quarreling over our stunned silence. We regarded Susie the bear - a smart bear, indeed; and a Seeing Eye bear, too. Knowing she was not a real bear suddenly made her appear larger; she took on new power before us. She was more than Freud's eyes, we thought; she might be his heart and mind, too.

Father viewed the lobby, while his old, blind mentor leaned on him for support. And what was Father seeing this this time? I wondered. What castle, what palace, what deluxe-cla.s.s possibility looming larger and larger - as he pa.s.sed over the sagging couch where the she-bear sat, pa.s.sed over the imitation Impressionists: the pink, bovine nudes fallen in flowers of light (on the clas.h.i.+ng floral wallpaper)? And the easy chair with its stuffing exploding (like the bombs to be imagined under all the debris in the outer districts); and the one reading lamp too dim to dream by. time? I wondered. What castle, what palace, what deluxe-cla.s.s possibility looming larger and larger - as he pa.s.sed over the sagging couch where the she-bear sat, pa.s.sed over the imitation Impressionists: the pink, bovine nudes fallen in flowers of light (on the clas.h.i.+ng floral wallpaper)? And the easy chair with its stuffing exploding (like the bombs to be imagined under all the debris in the outer districts); and the one reading lamp too dim to dream by.

'Too bad about the candy store,' Father said to Freud.

'Too bad?' Freud cried. 'Nein, nein, nicht too bad! It's too bad! It's good good. The place is gone, and they had no insurance. We can buy them up - cheap! Give ourselves a lobby people will notice notice - from the street!' Freud cried, though of course there was nothing his own eyes would notice, or could. 'A very fortunate fire,' Freud said, 'a fire perfectly timed for your arrival,' Freud said, squeezing my father's arm. 'A brilliant fire!' Freud said. - from the street!' Freud cried, though of course there was nothing his own eyes would notice, or could. 'A very fortunate fire,' Freud said, 'a fire perfectly timed for your arrival,' Freud said, squeezing my father's arm. 'A brilliant fire!' Freud said.

'A smart bear's sort of fire,' said Susie the bear, cynically tearing her way through the old issue of Time Time.

'Did you set it?' Franny asked Susie the bear.

'You bet your sweet a.s.s, honey,' Susie said.

Oh, there once was a woman who had also been raped, but when I told her Franny's story, and how it seemed to me that Franny had handled it - by not not handling it, perhaps, or by denying the worst of it - this woman told me that Franny and I were wrong. handling it, perhaps, or by denying the worst of it - this woman told me that Franny and I were wrong.

'Wrong?' I said.

'You bet your a.s.s,' this woman said. 'Franny was raped, not beaten up. And those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds did did get the "her in her" - as your bulls.h.i.+t black friend calls it. What's get the "her in her" - as your bulls.h.i.+t black friend calls it. What's he he know? A rape expert because he's got a sister? know? A rape expert because he's got a sister? Your Your sister robbed herself of the only weapon she had against those punks - their s.e.m.e.n. And n.o.body stopped her from was.h.i.+ng herself, n.o.body made her sister robbed herself of the only weapon she had against those punks - their s.e.m.e.n. And n.o.body stopped her from was.h.i.+ng herself, n.o.body made her deal deal with it - so she's going to be dealing with it all her life. In fact, she sacrificed her own integrity by not fighting her attackers in the first place - and with it - so she's going to be dealing with it all her life. In fact, she sacrificed her own integrity by not fighting her attackers in the first place - and you you,' this woman said to me, 'you conveniently diffused the rape of your sister and robbed the rape of its its integrity by running off to find the hero instead of staying on the scene and integrity by running off to find the hero instead of staying on the scene and dealing dealing with it yourself.' with it yourself.'

'A rape has integrity?' Frank asked.

'I went to get help,' I said. 'They just would have beaten the s.h.i.+t out of me and raped her, anyway.'

'I've got to talk to your sister, honey,' this woman said. 'She's into her own amateurish psychology and it won't work, believe me: I know rape.'

'Whoa!' Iowa Bob said, once. 'All psychology is amateurish. f.u.c.k Freud, and all that!' psychology is amateurish. f.u.c.k Freud, and all that!'

'That Freud, anyway,' my father had added. And I would think, later: Maybe Freud, anyway,' my father had added. And I would think, later: Maybe our our Freud, too. Freud, too.

Anyway, this rape-expert woman said that Franny's apparent reaction to her own rape was bulls.h.i.+t; and knowing that Franny still wrote letters to Chipper Dove made me wonder. The rape-expert woman said that rape simply wasn't like that, that it didn't have that effect - at all. She knew, she said. It had happened to her. And in college she'd joined a kind of club of women who'd all been raped, and they had agreed among themselves exactly exactly what it was like, and what were the what it was like, and what were the exactly exactly correct responses to have to it. Even before she started talking to Franny, I could see how desperately important this woman's private unhappiness was to her, and how - in her mind - the only credible reaction to the event of rape was correct responses to have to it. Even before she started talking to Franny, I could see how desperately important this woman's private unhappiness was to her, and how - in her mind - the only credible reaction to the event of rape was hers hers. That someone else might have responded differently to a similar abuse only meant to her that the abuse couldn't possibly have been the same.

'People are like that,' Iowa Bob would have said. 'They need to make their own worst experiences universal. It gives them a kind of support.'

And who can blame them? It is just infuriating to argue with someone like that; because of an experience that has denied them their humanity, they go around denying another kind of humanity in others, which is the truth of human variety - it stands alongside our sameness. Too bad for her.

'She probably has had a most unhappy life,' Iowa Bob would have said.

Indeed: this woman had had had a most unhappy life. This rape-expert woman was Susie the bear. had a most unhappy life. This rape-expert woman was Susie the bear.

'What's this "little event among so many" bulls.h.i.+t?' Susie the bear asked Franny. 'What's this "luckiest day of my life" bulls.h.i.+t?' Susie asked her. 'Those thugs didn't just want to f.u.c.k f.u.c.k you, honey, they wanted to take your strength away, and you let them. Any woman who accepts a violation of herself so you, honey, they wanted to take your strength away, and you let them. Any woman who accepts a violation of herself so pa.s.sively pa.s.sively ... how you can actually say that you knew, somehow, Chip Dove would be "the first." Sweetheart! You have ... how you can actually say that you knew, somehow, Chip Dove would be "the first." Sweetheart! You have minimized the enormity minimized the enormity of what has happened to you - just to make it a little easier to take.' of what has happened to you - just to make it a little easier to take.'

'Whose rape is it?' Franny asked Susie the bear. 'I mean, you've got yours, I've got mine. If I say n.o.body got the me in me, then n.o.body got it. You think they get it every time?'

'You bet your sweet a.s.s, honey,' Susie said. 'A rapist is using his p.r.i.c.k as a weapon. n.o.body uses a weapon on you without getting getting you. For example,' said Susie the bear, 'how's your s.e.x life these days?' you. For example,' said Susie the bear, 'how's your s.e.x life these days?'

'She's only sixteen,' I said. 'She's not supposed to have such a great s.e.x life - at sixteen.'

'I'm not confused,' Franny said. 'There's s.e.x and then there's rape,' she said. 'Day and night.'

'Then how come you keep saying Chipper Dove was "the first," Franny?' I asked her quietly.

'You bet your a.s.s - that's the point,' said Susie the bear.

'Look,' Franny said to us - with Frank uncomfortably playing solitaire and pretending not to listen; with Lilly following our conversation like a champions.h.i.+p tennis match that demanded reverence for every stroke. 'Look,' Franny said, 'the point is I own my own rape. It's mine. I own own it. I'll deal with it my way.' it. I'll deal with it my way.'

'But you're not not dealing with it,' Susie said. 'You never got angry enough. You've got to get angry. You've got to get savage about all the facts.' dealing with it,' Susie said. 'You never got angry enough. You've got to get angry. You've got to get savage about all the facts.'

'You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed,' said Frank, rolling his eyes and quoting old Iowa Bob.

'I'm serious,' said Susie the bear. She was too too serious, of course - but more likable than she at first appeared. Susie the bear would finally get rape right, after a while. She would run a very fine rape crisis center, later in her life, and she would write in the very first line of advice in the rape-counseling literature that the matter of 'Who Owns the Rape,' is the most important matter. She would finally understand that although her anger was essentially healthy for her, it might not have been the healthiest thing for Franny, at the time. 'Allow the Victim to Ventilate,' she would wisely write in her counseling newsletter - and: 'Keep Your Own Problems Separate from the Problems of the Victim.' Later, Susie the bear would really become a rape-expert woman - she of the famous line 'Watch Out: the real issue of each rape may not be serious, of course - but more likable than she at first appeared. Susie the bear would finally get rape right, after a while. She would run a very fine rape crisis center, later in her life, and she would write in the very first line of advice in the rape-counseling literature that the matter of 'Who Owns the Rape,' is the most important matter. She would finally understand that although her anger was essentially healthy for her, it might not have been the healthiest thing for Franny, at the time. 'Allow the Victim to Ventilate,' she would wisely write in her counseling newsletter - and: 'Keep Your Own Problems Separate from the Problems of the Victim.' Later, Susie the bear would really become a rape-expert woman - she of the famous line 'Watch Out: the real issue of each rape may not be your your real issue; kindly consider there might be more than one.' And to all her rape counselors she would impart this advice: 'It is essential to understand that there is no one way that victims respond and adjust to this crisis. Any one victim might exhibit all, none, or any combination of the usual symptoms: guilt, denial, anger, confusion, fear, or something quite different. And problems might occur within a week, a year, ten years, or never.' real issue; kindly consider there might be more than one.' And to all her rape counselors she would impart this advice: 'It is essential to understand that there is no one way that victims respond and adjust to this crisis. Any one victim might exhibit all, none, or any combination of the usual symptoms: guilt, denial, anger, confusion, fear, or something quite different. And problems might occur within a week, a year, ten years, or never.'

Very true; Iowa Bob would have liked this bear as much as he liked Earl. But in her first days with us, Susie was a bear on the rape issue - and on a lot of other issues, too.

And we were forced into an intimacy with her that was unnatural because we would suddenly turn to her as we would turn to a mother (in the absence of our own mother); after a while, we would turn to Susie for other things. Almost immediately this smart (though harsh) bear seemed more all-seeing than the blind Freud, and from our first day and night in our new hotel we turned to Susie the bear for all all our information. our information.

'Who are the people with the typewriters?' I asked her.

'How much do the prost.i.tutes charge?' Lilly asked her.

'Where can I buy a good map?' Frank asked her. 'Prefer ably, one that indicates walking tours.'

'Walking tours, Frank?' Franny said.

'Show the children their rooms, Susie,' Freud instructed his smart bear.

Somehow, we all went first to Egg's room, which was the worst room - a room with two doors and no windows, a cube with a door connecting it to Lilly's room (which was only one window better) and a door entering the ground-floor lobby.

'Egg won't like it,' Lilly said, but Lilly was predicting that Egg wouldn't like any of it: the move, the whole thing. I suspect she was right, and whenever I think of Egg, now, I tend to see him in his room in the Gasthaus Freud that he never saw. Egg in an airless,. windowless box, a tiny trapped s.p.a.ce in the heart of a foreign hotel - a room unfit for guests.

The typical tyranny of families: the youngest child always gets the worst room. Egg would not have been happy in the Gasthaus Freud, and I wonder now if any of us could have been. Of course, we didn't have a fair start. We had only a day and a night before the news of Mother and Egg would settle over us, before Susie became our our Seeing Eye bear, too, and Father and Freud began their duet in the direction of a grand hotel - a successful hotel, at the very least, they hoped; if not a great hotel, at least a good one. Seeing Eye bear, too, and Father and Freud began their duet in the direction of a grand hotel - a successful hotel, at the very least, they hoped; if not a great hotel, at least a good one.

On the day of arrival, Father and Freud were already making plans. Father wanted to move the prost.i.tutes to the fifth floor, and move the Symposium on East-West Relations to the fourth floor, thereby clearing floors two and three for guests.

'Why should the paying guests have to climb to the fourth and filth floors?' Father asked Freud.

'The prost.i.tutes,' Freud reminded my father, 'are also paying guests.' He didn't need to add that they also made a number of trips every night. 'And some of their clients are too old for all those stairs,' Freud added.

'If they're too old for the stairs,' Susie the bear said, 'they're too old for the dirty action, too. Better to have one croak on the stairs than to have one give up the s.h.i.+p in bed - on top of one of the smaller girls.'

'Jesus G.o.d,' said Father. 'Maybe give the prost.i.tutes the second floor, then. And make the d.a.m.n radicals move to the top.'

'Intellectuals,' Freud said, 'are in notorious bad shape.'

'Not all these radicals are intellectuals,' Susie said. 'And we should have an elevator, eventually,' she added. 'I'm for keeping the wh.o.r.es close to the ground and letting the thinkers do the climbing.'

'Yes, and put the guests in between,' Father said.

'What guests?' Franny asked. She and Frank had checked the registration; the Gasthaus Freud had no guests. guests?' Franny asked. She and Frank had checked the registration; the Gasthaus Freud had no guests.

'It's just the candy fire,' Freud said. 'It smoked out the guests. Once we get the lobby right, the guests will pour in!'

'And the f.u.c.king will keep them awake all night, and the typewriters will wake them up in the morning,' said Susie the bear.

'A kind of bohemian hotel,' Frank said, optimistically.

'What do you know about bohemians, Frank?' Franny asked.

In Frank's room was a dressmaker's dummy, formerly the property of a prost.i.tute who had kept a permanent room in the hotel. It was a stoutish dummy, upon which perched the chipped head of a mannequin Freud claimed had been stolen from one of the big department stores on the Karntnerstra.s.se. A pretty but pitted face with her wig askew.

'Perfect for all your costume changes, Frank,' Franny said. Frank sullenly hung his coat on it.

'Very funny,' he said.

Franny's room adjoined mine. We shared a bath with an ancient bathtub in it; the tub was deep enough to stew an ox in. The W.C. was down the hall and directly off the lobby. Only Father's room had its own bath and its own W.C. It appeared that Susie shared the bath Franny and I shared, although she could enter it only through one of our rooms.

'Don't sweat it,' Susie said. 'I don't wash a whole lot.'

We could tell. The odor was not exactly bear, but it was acrid, salty, rich, and strong, and when she took her bear's head off, and we saw her dark, damp hair - her pale, pockmarked face, and her haggard, nervous eyes - we felt more comfortable with her appearance as a bear.

'What you see,' Susie said, 'are the ravishments of acne - my teen-age misery. I am the original not-bad-if-you-put-a-bag-over-her-head girl.'

'Don't feel bad,' said Frank. 'I'm a h.o.m.os.e.xual. I'm not in for such a hot time as a teen-ager, either.'

'Well, at least you're attractive,' said Susie the bear. 'Your whole family is attractive attractive,' she said, darting a mean look at us all. 'You may get discriminated against, but let me tell you: there's no discrimination quite like the Ugly Treatment. I was an ugly kid and I just get uglier, every f.u.c.king day.'

We couldn't help staring at her in the bear costume without the head; we wondered, of course, if Susie's own body was as burly as a bear's. And when we saw her later in the afternoon, sweating in her T-s.h.i.+rt and gym shorts, doing squats and knee bends against the wall of Freud's office - warming up for her role when the radicals checked out for the day and the prost.i.tutes came on at night - we could see she was physically suited to her particular form of animal imitation.

'Pretty chunky, huh?' she said to me. Too many bananas, Iowa Bob might have said; and not enough road work.

But - to be fair - it was hard for Susie to go anywhere not not dressed, and performing, as a bear. Exercise is difficult when dressed as a bear. dressed, and performing, as a bear. Exercise is difficult when dressed as a bear.

'I can't blow my cover or we're in trouble,' she said.

Because how could Freud ever keep order without her? Susie the bear was the enforcer. When the radicals were bothered by troublemakers from the Right, when there were violent shouting matches in the hall and on the staircase, when some new-wave fascist started screaming, 'Nothing is free!' - when a small mob came to protest in the lobby, carrying the banner that said the Symposium on East-West Relations should move ... farther East - it was at these times that Freud needed her, Susie said.

'Get out, you're making the bear hostile!' Freud would shout.

Sometimes it took a low growl and a short charge.

'It's funny,' Susie said. 'I'm not really so tough, but no one tries to fight a bear. All I have to do is grab someone and they roll into a ball and start moaning. I just sort of breathe breathe on the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, I just kind of lay a little weight on them. No one fights back if you're a bear.' on the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, I just kind of lay a little weight on them. No one fights back if you're a bear.'

Because of the radicals' grat.i.tude for this bearish protection, there was really no problem telling the radicals to move upstairs. My father and Freud explained their case in midafternoon. Father offered me as a typewriter mover, and I began carrying the machines up to the empty fifth-floor rooms. There were a half-dozen typewriters and a mimeograph machine; the usual office supplies; a seeming excess of telephones. I got a little tired with the third or fourth desk, but I hadn't been doing my usual weight lifting - while we were traveling - and so I appreciated the exercise. I asked a couple of the younger radicals if they knew where I could get a set of barbells, but they seemed very suspicious - that we were Americans - and either they didn't understand English or they chose to speak their own language. There was a brief protest from an older radical, who struck up what appeared to be quite a lively argument with Freud, but Susie the bear started whining and rolling her head around the old man's ankles - as if she were trying to blow her nose on the cuffs of his pants - and he calmed down and climbed the stairs, even though he he knew Susie wasn't a real bear. knew Susie wasn't a real bear.

'What are they writing?' Franny asked Susie. 'I mean, is it one of those newsletter kind of things, is it propaganda?'

'Why do they have so many phones?' I asked, because we hadn't heard the phones ringing, not once - not all day.

'They make a lot of outgoing calls,' Susie said. 'I think they're into threatening phone calls. And I don't read their newsletters. I'm not into their politics.'

'But what are are their politics?' Frank asked. their politics?' Frank asked.

'To change f.u.c.king everything,' Susie said. 'To start again. They want to wipe the slate clean. They want a whole new ball game.'

'So do I,' said Frank. 'That sounds like a good idea.'

'They're scary,' said Lilly. 'They look right over you, and they don't see you when they're looking right at you.'

'Well, you're pretty short,' said Susie the bear. 'They sure look at me me, a lot.'

'And one of them looks at Franny, a lot,' I said.

'That's not what I mean,' said Lilly. 'I mean they don't see people people when they look at you.' when they look at you.'

'That's because they're thinking about how everything could be different,' Frank said.

'People, too, Frank?' Franny asked. 'Do they think people people could be different? Do could be different? Do you you?'