Islay: A Novel

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356 28 Lyson still felt cheated. Debate not finished! Still must debate! With the weariness felt by any wife whose husband insists on playing the harp, Mary rolled her eyes. Listen. New game now. She threw the newspaper on his lap. It had been some weeks since the so-called debate, the one where the future of Islay was to be identified for the edification of the voters, where the future of the deaf in Islay was supposed to be clearly defined, their relation to the hearing, to the schools and the college, to the creation of a state for, by, and of the deaf, with the hearing as auxiliaries, like the ladies auxiliaries of the Rotarians. Lyson had been up in the air since the fiasco; there were still so many unresolved questions. He was as confused and frantic as a dog with an itch but couldn’t find the flea. And now here was the newspaper lying in his lap. He didn’t want to know. All he wanted to think about was how it all came to be. This great debate was supposed to clarify the issues between himself and a pretty boy. Mary had grabbed one ear and Beatrice the other, and together they made him watch the television. The Petite Pipers kicking. The superior look on his own face as he looked down on their rumps. The smooth, suave grin on Gene Owles’s face as he urged them on. The melee. The Petite Pipers disappearing tearfully down the way to salvation, pointed out by Geraldine and the Reverend Dowie. It was all so confusing. Lyson, time grow-up, said Mary with the patience of someone urging one last spoonful on a protesting infant. You gotta get-up and— islay 357 Lyson held his head in his hands as if it were a separate entity and rocked it. He had been so happy with his dream. The nifty little matchboxes . The knight on his Pegasus! Mary picked the newspaper up and slammed it down again on his lap. Lyson, you must read! You know that, he cried, making a huge gesture where a simple fist would suffice, with both his hands far apart, twisting his nose as large as a barrel: Bull! His Gene Owles! Nothing his newspaper worth reading! Read! insisted Mary. Don’t want! I’m happy myself my own mind! He says you cheat. You must read. Must respond! He says yourself using the deaf for your own benefit, that you’re taking-advantage— Don’t want hear. He says he won debate. Not true! Yourself that one tried disrupt debate and cloud issues. Myself not saying this. The newspaper! You must read and respond! Lyson fell to the floor, helpless as a fish out of water, and banged his head on the wooden boards. Mary fell, too. She had to, to reach him, to get down to his level where she could make herself seen, understood . The newspaper says you that one who fraudulently sold houses then leave people holding bags on sidewalk— Not so! But that’s what newspaper said. You and I know that’s not true, but that’s rumor going around. You can’t prove-it here floor, you must get up and read! GENE! OWLES! CATCHES LYSON C period SULLA Our candidate for GOVERNOR GENE! OWLES! has caught one Lyson C period Sulla in an act of fraud. This Lyson C period Sulla has been cheating innocent home buyers out of their down payments on houses supposedly for sale but actually occupied by innocent homeowners who never knew their homes were for sale. Dirty bastard! Get-up and fight! Lyson kicked on the floor, and Mary, her heart knocked to pieces, gathered him up into her arms and proffered of herself something so 358 Douglas Bullard soft it would render a man, any man, senseless. As Lyson partook of its softness she thought it wondrous how it could bring the strongest of the strong to his knees, to the cradle indeed. She held Lyson close to herself like a babe, and he reveled in the tenderness as would a babe; she marveled at the insanity of some of her sisters, those who despise their softness and instead imitate what is despicable in the hardness of the opposite sex in pursuit of an equality where indeed no man dares to venture. In doing so, they...