The House on Alexandrine

Chapter 16

A MONTH OR so afterward Corbin wrote in his journal: "It seemed to begin with Jean McKiddie. She was the first to leave and left successfully with a purse full of money. What happened after her departure had nothing to do with her, but it was as if Jean had upset the balance. She had withdrawn her card from the card house. She left and our world began to disintegrate; slowly at first, then, after Joe Gage's death, the end came with a rush. But Jean was the beginning. Whenever I wanted someone to blame, I blamed her. She had gotten away safe." For a few days, Joe Gage's death seemed to bring the people in the house together. They met in each other's rooms. They inquired after each other's health. But their closeness was the suffocating closeness caused by self-protection and fear. As Corbin said in his journal, they were living on tiptoe. Joe Gage's death and the intrusion of a newspaper world showed them how fragile they were. They could be broken at any time. "We were like eggs," wrote Corbin. "Was I going to let George guard my back? There is nothing one Qgg can do to protect another egg." The death had other consequences. Joe Gage was gone. Mallett and his wife were gone. Without them, who could the others blame? The change which had become apparent in Duane in November—the growing coldness, the loss of belief—this could be attributed to Joe Gage's influence. But in December the coldness continued. Joe Gage had let them feel righteous. Without him, they became their own criminals. Isaac and Duncan disapproved of Ruth, who, after a month of avoiding them began seeing Duane again. Ruth, on the other hand, didn't think Duane should be living with two old men. Even Gunther thought that to some extent. Gunther also began to disapprove of Duane's friendship with Wencel and Helen. He considered Wencel an untalented machine who would destroy 180 T H E H O U S E O N A L E X A N D R I N E 1 8 1 Duane's natural spontaneity. Henry Oakes disapproved of Gunther, saw him as superficial. Duncan felt that Duane was too easily influenced by George. Ruth thought it didn't matter if Duane believed he wouldn't find his sister and felt it wrong to encourage him in a false belief. Louise thought the act of believing was more important than the subject of the belief. Corbin wanted Duane to go but he also wanted Duane to believe that he would find his sister. Besides Duane, there was the simple fact of Joe Gage's death. He had become a number at 1300 Beaubien, a three paragraph story in the Detroit News. He was dead. Mallett had killed him with a single blast from a .12 gauge shotgun. They had been there. They had observed it. It was irrevocable. But Corbin's mind kept catching itself and repeating the fact of Joe Gage's death, and each time it was a surprise. Corbin was grimly reminded of Joe's connection to Duane on Sunday afternoon when he was coming in from the library. The brightness of the day made it difficult to see anything inside the house. As Corbin began climbing the stairs, he noticed someone coming down, but couldn't make out who it was. The first thing he was aware of was a white cowboy shirt with red trim and all the facts of Joe Gage's death seemed to surround him on the stairs. "Hello, Daniel, how are you?" It was Duane. He joined Corbin in the hall, friendly, smiling. Corbin could see nothing but that cowboy shirt. "Where'd you get that shirt?" "Joe gave it to me last week." "Why're you wearing it?" "Joe Gage was my friend." Corbin could either pursue that, try to convince Duane that Gage hadn't been worthy of his friendship, or he could drop it. "Sorry, Duane, the shirt surprised me, that's all." "That's okay." Duane fidgeted as if he wanted to leave but was too polite just to walk away. His hair was carefully slicked back. "You going out?" asked Corbin, who still couldn't take his eyes off the shirt. "Me and Ruth are going to a movie later." They stood by Mallett's door. George's Southern Pacific Railway calendar showing...