The Snare

12. THE TRIAL RESUMES

12. THE TRIAL RESUMES Jake talked in a deliberate way, bent forward and attentive, and leaned his head slightly to catch the questions accurately . His accent sounded somewhat Northern, correct and grammatical in the syrupy atmosphere stirred by the fans. It gave the impression of directness and honesty which his words reinforced . It also accomplished a subtle thing: when an outsider is called on to speak clearly and does so, he gains a better audience than a native would. There had been, he at once admitted, a series of robberies. The robberies were generally of filling stations in out-of-the-way places, usually at dimly lit state highway intersections, or in semiresidential neighborhoods, rather poor, where few people came out at night for gas. He himself had either held a gun on the attendant while Mamie lifted ready cash out of the register, or Marnie had held the gun while he had lifted cash. Later, they had split it up. Why had he done it? They needed money, for rent and food. (Pause.) Anyway, he added, nobody was really being robbed. (Note of surprise.) Weren't the attendants' wages docked by however much was missing? Jake did not even think that was true—the companies were insured against such eventualities. A certain number of stick-ups were counted on statistically during the year. Anyway, if you thought about money long enough, it did not seem to exist unless you were hungry, or had to pay a bill or the rent. (This spread another surprise wave, and one or two people laughed, then more.) Q. And well . . . and then? 102 Elizabeth Spencer 103 A. Then there had been the night they had taken all of $20 from a station with a few cents over, and Marnie had refused to split it. He, Jake Springland, had told Marnie this was the last time for him and he wouldn't even go inside with him, but only held the truck ready, back in the shadows with the motor running. It had been a mistake to tell Marnie they were all but finished. They had gone back to the apartment together and the woman, Wilma Wharton, had come in. Jake was determined to have his money and go, he was tired of them, of both of them. Q. Why was he tired of them? Weren't they his best friends? A. Friends! He'd got mixed up with them for somebody to talk to, and for the interest in Marnie, a real type, something you wouldn't believe was real. A source for his songs as well. But they quarreled too much, he and the Wharton woman, and it had got tiresome. Besides, the robberies He didn't feel right about them. It was not any way to live. He wanted done with it. He had made his big mistake in telling Marnie they were finished, that that was his last time to go out with him. Marnie didn't like to lose anybody. Marnie needed an audience for his crazy ideas. He was a see-er, a man who could see souls, but he needed somebody to appreciate him, somebody to see him seeing. The woman wasn't enough. Jake had been an audience. Now it was over. He wanted to take his money and go. Then the woman. She wanted to make it a test of Marnie, of how he might be Jesus Christ but he couldn't keep promises. She kept screaming that he'd promised her things too, but they'd never materialized. That put her and Jake in the selfsame boat. It made a gang of the two of them, against the anointed one. Marnie had been sitting in a chair with a beatific smile on his face, listening. There is one thing to know in life and that is how far a belief in God can take you along with all who happen to fall under the spell. All you have to do is switch on the connection you have with 104 T H E S N A R E the Almighty and everything clears up. You listen with a benign smile while others go through their long rigmarole of error; you just wait until it's over with so you can get moving once again along the one true pathway, leading the disciples forward. Not too many months before, Jake Springland had toyed with...