Gump & Co. (4 page)

Like Slim said, we was not going out there to
sell
encyclopedias. We was gonna
place
them in people’s homes. Actually, the deal was this. We gave the people the encyclopedias for free, provided that they would sign a contract agreeing to buy a new two-hundrit-and-fifty-dollar annual yearbook ever year for the rest of their lives. In this way the people got their free set of encyclopedias an the company got about ten thousan dollars for sellin the yearbooks, which cost about five dollars apiece to print. I would get fifteen percent of ever contract I made. An Slim got five percent of that. Now, how could anybody lose on a deal like this?

It was on a Monday when we was given our first assignments. We was tole to wear a coat an tie an be sure to get shaved an clean under our fingernails. An there was to be no drinkin on the job, either. We reported to the motel, an there was a big ole flatbed truck waitin for us. Slim herded us on board like cattle, an away we went.

‘Now, listen up,’ Slim says. ‘Each of you is gonna get dropped off in a neighborhood. What I want you to look for is children’s toys – swings, sandboxes, tricycles – that kind of shit. We want to sell these things to young parents! That way, they got longer to have to pay for the annual yearbook! You don’t see no children or children’s toys outside, don’t waste your time!’

So that’s what we did. Everbody, me included, got dropped off in some neighborhood. They wadn’t very nice neighborhoods, either, but Slim says that’s okay, cause people in nice neighborhoods is probly too smart to fall for the kind of scam we is tryin to pull. Anyhow, first house I see with a set of children’s swings, I go up an knock on the door. A woman answers an opens
the screen door. Immediately I stick my foot in it, like I have been tole to do.

‘M’am,’ I says, ‘you got a minute?’

‘Do I
look
like I got a minute?’ she answers. Her hair is up in curlers an she is wearin a nightgown, an they is all sorts of racket comin from the little kids in the backgroun.

‘I want to talk to you about the future of your children,’ I says, which is part of the rehearsed speech.

‘What is your interest in my children?’ she asts, sort of suspiciously.

‘They are badly in need of knowledge,’ I answers.

‘What are you, one of those religious nuts?’ she says.

‘No, m’am, I am here to make a free gift to your home of the world’s best encyclopedias.’

‘Encyclopedias! Ha,’ she says. ‘Do I look like I can afford to buy encyclopedias?’

I could see her point, but anyhow, I went on with the speech: ‘Ma’m, as I have said, I’m not astin you to
buy
encyclopedias. I am gonna
place
them in your home.’

‘What do you mean –
loan
them to me?’

‘Not exactly,’ I says. ‘If I could just come in for a minute . . .’

So she let me in an set me down in the livin room. Slim had done tole us if we got this far, we was almost home free! I opened my kit an begun explainin everthin to her, just like Slim had said to do. The speech was about fifteen minutes long, an she just looked an listened. Three little kids about the age of little Forrest come in an begun crawlin all over her. When I am through, she bust into tears.

‘Oh, Mr Gump,’ she says. ‘I wish I could afford them encyclopedias. But I just can’t.’ An then she begun to tell me her sad tale. Her husband done run off with a younger woman an left her without a cent. She lost her job as a diner cook cause she fell asleep from
overwork fryin eggs an ruint the griddle. The power company done shut down her electricity, an the phone company is about to do the same. She also got to have a operation but can’t afford it, an the kids is hungry half the time. That night the landlord is comin around to collect the fifty-dollar rent an she ain’t got it, so she’s about to be thowed out of her house. And there is a bunch of other stuff, too, but you get the gist of it.

Anyhow, I done loaned her the fifty bucks an got out of there. Man, she was pitiful.

All that day I done knocked on doors. Most people wouldn’t even let me in. About half of them says they have already been taken by other encyclopedia salesmen, an they was the unhappiest ones of all. Four or five slammed the door in my face, an somebody sicced a big ole ugly dog on me. By late that afternoon, when Slim’s truck pulled up to haul us off, I was exhausted and discouraged.

‘Now, don’t none of you worry about this first day,’ Slim says. ‘First day’s always the hardest. Just think, if any of you had sold just one of them contracts, you would be a thousand dollars richer. It don’t take but one, an I guarantee you there is plenty of suckers out there.’ Then he turns to me.

‘Gump,’ he says, ‘I been watchin you. You got
energy
boy! An charm, too. You just need a little practice with an expert! An I am the man to show you. Tomorrow mornin, you are comin along with me!’

That night when I got back to Mrs Curran’s, I didn’t even feel like eatin no supper. Here I was, a great ‘Promotional Representative,’ fifty bucks poorer an got nothin to show for it but thinner shoe soles an a hole in my pants where the dog got me.

Little Forrest was playin on the livin room floor, an ast me where I been.

‘Sellin encyclopedias,’ I said.

‘What kind of encyclopedias?’

And so I showed him. I did just what I was tole to do. I gave my whole speech, openin out the folder with all the pictures an layin down the samples of the encyclopedias an yearbooks. When I was finished, he looked at one of the books an says, ‘This is a bunch of shit.’

‘What is that?’ I said. ‘Who taught you to talk that way?’

‘Sometimes my mama would say that,’ he replied.

‘Well, it ain’t no proper way for a seven-year-ole boy to be talkin,’ I says. ‘Besides, why you call my books that?’

‘Because it’s true,’ he said. ‘Look at all this stuff. Half of it’s wrong.’ He points to a part of the encyclopedia that’s open. ‘Look at this,’ he says, pointin to a drawin that said ‘1956 Buick,’ ‘That’s a fifty-
five
Buick,’ he says. ‘The fifty-six didn’t have fins like that. And look at this, too,’ he said, ‘that’s an F-eighty-five fighter plane – not an F-one-hundred!’ Little Forrest gone on to point out a bunch of other stuff, too, he said wasn’t right.

‘Any dummy would know all this is wrong,’ he says.

Well,
almost
any dummy, I figgered. I didn’t know if he was right or not, but I intended to ask Slim about it next mornin.

‘You got to catch em at just the right time,’ Slim says. ‘Right after the husband has gone off to work an before they take their kids to school. If you see a yard with toys for little kids who ain’t old enough to go to school, save it for later in the day.’

We had got off the truck in a neighborhood an was walkin down the street, an Slim was teachin me the tricks of the trade.

‘Next best time,’ he says, ‘is right after the soap operas is over an before they got to go pick up the kids again, or the husband gets home from work.’

‘Look,’ I said, ‘I need to ast you somethin. Somebody done tole me a lot of the things in the encyclopedia ain’t right.’

‘Yeah, who tole you that?’

‘I’d rather not say. Question is, is it true?’

‘How the hell would I know?’ Slim says. ‘I don’t read that crap. I’m just here to get people to buy it.’

‘But what about the folks who do?’ I says. ‘I mean, it don’t seem fair to be gettin them to pay all that money for stuff that ain’t so.’

‘Who cares?’ Slim answers. ‘Ain’t any of them people know the difference – an besides, you don’t think they actually use this shit, do you? They get it to put on a shelf, and it probly don’t ever get opened up.’

Anyhow, Slim pretty soon spotted the house he was gonna make a sale at. It needed some paint an all, but outside there was an old tire hangin from a tree branch by a rope an some small bikes on the porch.

‘This is it,’ Slim said. ‘I can feel it in my bones. Two kids, just about school age. I bet Mama’s in there right now opening her checkbook for me.’

Slim knocked on the door, an pretty soon a lady appeared, sort of sad-eyed an tired lookin. Slim went right into his pitch. As he kept on talkin, he just sort of worked his way inside the house, an the next thing the lady knew, the two of us was settin in her livin room.

‘But I really don’t need any more encyclopedias,’ she says. ‘Look I’ve already bought the
Encyclopedia Britannica
and the
Encyclopedia Americana
. We’ll be payin on those the next ten years.’

‘Exactly!’ Slim says. ‘And you won’t be using them until then, either! You see, them encyclopedias are for older kids – late high-school and college students. But you gotta have somethin
now
, while your kids are still
young – somethin they can get interested in! And here it is!’

Slim begun handin the lady all his samples, pointin out how many pictures an all were there an how the writin was simplified an much more understandable than them other encyclopedias the lady already had bought. Time he was through, Slim had got the lady to serve us some lemonade, an when we left, Slim walked away with a contract in his hand.

‘Now, Gump! See how easy it is! Lookee here, I just made myself a thousand dollars for twenty minutes work – just like takin candy from a baby!’

In fact, he was correct. Cept I didn’t feel exactly right about it. I mean, what was that poor lady gonna do with all them encyclopedia sets? But Slim said she was just the kind of ‘client’ he liked. ‘They believe all the bullshit you can lay on em,’ he said. ‘Most of em are grateful just to have somebody to talk to.’

Anyway, he says for me to go on now an start pushin the encyclopedias on my own, an he expects me to have a sale or two by the end of the day – now that he has showed me how to do it.

So that’s what I did. But by late that afternoon, I had knocked on two-dozen doors an hadn’t even once got asked inside. Four or five times the people wouldn’t even open the door – they spoke through the mail slot an tole me to go away. One lady was hoein some crabgrass out of her driveway an when she found out why I was there, she ran me off with the hoe.

I was walkin on back to the truck pickup point when I looked down a street that was different from the ones I had been working on. This was a nice street, with real pretty houses an gardens an expensive cars in the driveways. An at the very end of the street, up on a little hill, was the biggest house of them all – a mansion, I guess you could call it. I figgered, what the hell. I know Slim has tole us these kinds of folks don’t buy
encyclopedias, but I got to try
somethin,
an so I gone on up to the mansion an rang the doorbell. It was the first doorbell I seen all day. First, nothin happened, an I figgered ain’t nobody home. I rang two or three more times, an was about to go on my way, when suddenly the door opened. It was a lady standin there, wearin a red silk gown, an carryin a cigarette holder in her hand. She was older than me, but she was still very beautiful, with long wavy brown hair an a lot of makeup. When she saw me, she looked me over two or three times, an then gave a big ole smile. Afore I had a chance to say anythin at all, she opened the door an invited me in.

Mrs Hopewell was her name, but she says for me to call her Alice.

Mrs Hopewell – Alice – took me into a great big room with high ceilins an a lot of fancy furniture an ast me if I wanted somethin to drink. I nodded, an she says, ‘What’ll it be then, bourbon, gin, scotch?’ But I remembered what Slim had tole us about drinkin on the job, so I tole her a CokeCola would be just fine. When she come back with the CokeCola, I went into my spiel. About halfway through, Mrs Hopewell says, ‘Thank you, Forrest. I have heard enough. I’ll buy them.’

‘What?’ I ast. I ain’t believin my luck.

‘The encyclopedias,’ she says. ‘I’ll take a set.’

She ast me how much to write the check for, an I explained about how she ain’t really buyin them, just makin a contract to buy the annual yearbook for the rest of her life, but she waved me off. ‘Just show me where to sign,’ she said, an that’s what I did.

Meantime, I took a swig of the CokeCola.
Uggh!
it tasted horrible! For a moment I thought she done poured me somethin else besides CokeCola, but in fact she hadn’t, account of she done left the can right there on the side table.

‘And now, Forrest, I am gonna go slip into somethin more comfortable,’ Mrs Hopewell says.

I am thinkin she looks comfortable enough already, but of course this is none of my bidness.

‘Yes’m,’ I says.

‘Just call me Alice,’ she says, and disappears out of the room with her skirts sashayin behind her.

I set there lookin at the CokeCola an gettin thirstier and thirstier. I really wish I had a RC or somethin. Anyhow, I figger she is gonna be a few minutes, so I gone on back to where the kitchen was. I have never seen such a kitchen as this! I mean, it is bigger than the whole house Jenny growed up in, with tiles an wood an stainless stuff an lights that come out of the ceiling! I looked in the icebox to see if there was another CokeCola, thinkin maybe that one had just gone bad. To my surprise there was about fifty cans of it in there, an so I popped open another one an took a great big swig.
Arrrrragh!
I had to spit it out. It tasted like shit!

Well, actually it didn’t taste exactly like shit, whatever shit tastes like. It tasted more like a combination of turpentine an bacon grease, with a little sugar an fizzy-water thowed in. I am thinkin somebody done played a trick on Mrs Hopewell.

Just about this time, Mrs Hopewell come through the door. ‘Ah, Forrest, I see you have found the CokeCola. I didn’t know you were that thirsty, you poor boy. Here, let me put that in a glass for you.’ She had put on a little pink nighty that showed everthin she had, which was considerable, an was wearin little fluffy pink slippers, an I am thinkin that she must be gettin ready for bed.

But now I was really on the spot. She got a fresh glass that sparkled like a rainbow an poured the CokeCola over some ice. I could hear it cracklin in the glass an was wonderin how I was gonna drink it when Mrs Hopewell says she will be right back, that she is goin to ‘freshen up.’