The Piano Tuner

The Water-Tree

The Water-Tree He liked to sit under the water-tree in the cool of the evening , nursing a cold bottle of beer and smoking a cigarette. Mrs. Carlin didn't let him smoke indoors anymore. It was quiet here at that time, except for the soft sound of the water dripping from the blossoms, which smelled sweeter than the honeysuckle back in Georgia, although he supposed it wasn't really water dripping, but nectar. He liked the name: water-tree—there was something so elemental about it, like Africa itself. Tonight the silence was shattered by the American group singing in Elizabeth Hall: I know a driver, mighty rash Hey la dee la dee la dee He almost broke my calabash Hey la dee la dee da The raucous music made him feel old. He was getting old, he thought. At forty-seven he felt hemmed in, everything already behind him. He recognized this as unoriginal, irrational , and repetitious, but there it was. The skin in the crease of his elbow had that yellowish mummified look. Every night his wife came to bed with pink sponges in her hair. That was why he and Mrs. Carlin had come on this trip, leaving the children behind with relatives. He was on agovernment study grant with other university professors, so he i34 The Water-Tree had only to pay his wife's expenses. It was to be a great adventure and perk up their lives. Lions and tigers and bears oh my! But it hadn't worked out that way.After three weeks in Nigeria, Mrs. Carlin wanted to go home. She was always sick, she hated the food—monkey meat, she knew it was monkey meat floating in that soup!—and the malaria pills disagreed with her. And so, while his wife went to bed early each night, worrying (with cause) about rats in the dormitory , Mr. Carlin sat under the water-tree in the university courtyard and drank a liter bottle of Star Beer and thought about Africa. He was trying to figure out why he loved it. At first he thought it was because he had freedomhere: no teaching, no domestic chores, no committee meetings or bridge parties. But he decided finally that he loved Africa because it was unstable: anything could happen. Society here seemed always on the verge of breakdown—coup and countercoup, gutted and abandoned houses with elegant carved porches, overturned Mercedes by the side of the road rusting in the April rains. And with all this, it had a positive energy that was missing in the States. ForAmerican society was also breaking down, and less excusably: corrupt politicians , greedy doctors, sleazy lawyers, lazy teachers, arrogant students, surly workmen. And unhappy children. His own son had been resisting his advice when they left. "What do you know about life?" his son asked. "You've never done a damn thing!" "I know you're like life itself/' Mr. Carlin had replied. "Nasty, brutish, and short." His son had neither read Hobbes nor inherited Mr. Carlin's height. In Nigeria, at least, the children and workmen seemed happy. But maybe he was wrong, he didn't know. Maybe he liked it just because Mrs. Carlin didn't . . . Mr. Carlin looked at his watch: 9:30. He had been thinking of going to the casino on the outskirts of town with Professor Giannino to watch the gambling. He had never been to a casino in his i35 The Piano Tuner life, though in the army he had been a fair poker player. Gambling was legal in Nigeria and most of the large hotels had casinos as part of their attraction. Giannino, a young bachelor, had gone several times to the Hotel Internationale and had invited Mr. Carlin to accompany him the next time he went, probably tonight. But he was nowhere to be seen; perhaps he had forgotten his invitation and had gone off alone, as usual. The casino opened at ten o'clock and Mr. Carlin didn't want to stay out past midnight: his wife would worry. If he was going, he'd have to go now. Impulsively, he finished his beer, left the courtyard, and walked down the broad flight of steps, immense in the fading light, leading to the guardhouse where the taxis gathered. It was impossible not to think of the theme song from Rocky as he did so, and his...