The Graduate (20 page)

She stopped underneath him on the sidewalk and looked up.

“You aren’t joking me now,” he said.

“No.”

“You’ll think it over by tomorrow night.”

She nodded.

Benjamin watched her walk on down the sidewalk and out of sight.

Then he turned around and looked down at one of the wooden legs of the chair in the middle of the room. Finally he walked slowly over to the chair and sat down. “Good God,” he said, reaching up to pull at the lobe of one of his ears.

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The telegram from Mrs. Robinson was slid under his door sometime while Benjamin was sleeping. He got up in the middle of the morning, picked it up to look at the front of it and then the back, then tore it open and read it.

UNDERSTAND FROM YOUR PARENTS YOU ARE IN

BERKELEY STOP WANT YOU TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY

AND PHONE ME TODAY THAT YOU HAVE STOP SERIOUS

TROUBLE IF I DO NOT HEAR FROM YOU TODAY

G L ROBINSON

Benjamin read the telegram twice, once before he dressed and again after he dressed. Then he set it on his desk and hurried down the hall to wash his face and comb his hair. When he was finished he went outside onto the sidewalk and stopped the first person he saw.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Could you tell me where there’s a jewelry shop.”

During the afternoon, after he had finished his lunch, he walked back and forth in his room awhile, then packed all his clothes into his pillowcase and carried them down to the laundromat. There were no dryers available and a long line of people waiting to use them, so when he was finished he stuffed the damp laundry into the pillowcase again and carried it back to his room to dry it. He emptied it onto his bed and looked at it for a while, then he went out to dinner. When he came back he sorted it and began hanging it up to dry. It was just as he had draped the last sheet over the closet door that Elaine knocked. He walked across the room to let her in.

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“Come on in,” he said. He removed a wet pair of pants from the back of the chair in the center of the room and dropped them on his bed.

“Sit down,” he said.

She walked past the chair to frown at a pair of shorts hanging over the shade of a lamp beside his desk.

“Did you just wash your clothes?”

“Yes,” he said. “Now sit down.”

“Where did you wash them.”

“Elaine, I washed them at the laundromat. Now sit down in the chair, please.”

Elaine seated herself. “Don’t they have dryers down there?” she said.

Benjamin pulled up a chair beside her and sat down on it without bothering to remove a shirt drying on its back. “Here’s the ring,” he said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a plain gold ring. “See if it fits,” he said.

Elaine took it from him. “It’s too big,” she said.

“Could you try it on please?”

She put it around her finger.

“How is it.”

“Too big.”

“Let’s see,” he said. He took her hand and turned the ring several times around her finger. “It is,” he said.

“Here,” Elaine said. She removed it and slid it over her thumb.

“Perfect,” she said, holding it up.

“Give it to me.”

She took it off her thumb and handed it back to him. “I’ll get a smaller one,” he said, returning it to his pocket. “But do you like the style.”

“What?”

“Do you like the style,” he said. “The color. The width and so forth.”

She nodded.

“Good,” he said. “I’ll get a size or two smaller.”

“But Benjamin?”

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“What.”

“I haven’t even said I’ll marry you yet.”

“I know that,” he said. “But I think you will.”

“You do.”

“I mean I just feel like it’s kind of an inevitable thing now,” he said.

“I don’t,” she said.

He frowned at her.

“Benjamin?” she said. “I’ve been thinking about it.”

“And?”

“And I don’t think it would work out.”

“Elaine, it would!” he said.

She shook her head.

“Why wouldn’t it.”

She stood from the chair and walked to the bureau to look at a sweater drying on top of it. “Did you put this sweater in the washing machine?”

“Why wouldn’t it work.”

She picked up one of the sleeves of the sweater and held it up close to her eyes to inspect it. “It’s ruined,” she said.

Benjamin stood. “Goddammit Elaine, why wouldn’t it work,” he said.

“It just wouldn’t.”

“Well Elaine?”

“What.”

“I mean you just kind of came walking in here last night. I was all ready to go and then you came walking in. Why did you do that.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I was just passing by.”

“But Elaine?”

She put the sleeve of the sweater back down on the top of the bureau and smoothed it.

“I sort of assumed you were fond of me,” Benjamin said. “After last night.”

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Elaine didn’t answer him.

“Are you fond of me?”

“I am,” she said.

“All right then,” Benjamin said. “We’re fond of each other. So let’s get married.”

“Can you imagine my parents?” she said, turning about to face him.

“Your parents?”

“Can you imagine how they might feel?”

“You mean your mother.”

“No,” she said. “My father.”

“That man—” Benjamin said, pointing toward the wall. “Elaine, that man would be the happiest guy in the world if we got married.”

She frowned at him.

“Elaine,” he said, “he bends over backward to get us together. One time he told me I was like a son to him.”

“And what if he finds out what happened.”

“He won’t.”

“But what if he does.”

“Well so what,” Benjamin said. “I’ll apologize to him. I’ll say it was a stupid foolish thing to do and he’ll say he’s a little disappointed in me but he can understand it and that’s that.”

“You’re naïve,” Elaine said. She walked back across the room and seated herself again in the chair.

“Look,” Benjamin said. “Forget about the parents.” He sat down beside her. “Do you have any other objections.”

“I do.”

“Well what are they.”

“You’re not ready to be married,” she said.

“Why not.”

“You just aren’t,” she said. “You’re too young.”

“Come on.”

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“Benjamin, you should do other things first,” she said. “Before you tie yourself down to being married you should do other things.”

“Like what.”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Yesterday you were talking about traveling.”

“I don’t want to go to Canada.”

“Well not Canada,” she said. “Other places.”

“What other places.”

“Around the world,” she said. “Africa. Asia. Some of those continents.”

“I have no urge to see those continents.”

“But wouldn’t it be exciting?” she said. “To see all the different lands and the different peoples and so forth?”

Benjamin shook his head. “This is nutty,” he said. “What brought this up.”

“Don’t you want to do it?”

“Hell no.”

“But why not.”

“Because I don’t,” he said. “But I’d like to know where you came up with this.”

“Well I just think you’re wasting your time sitting around in this room,”

she said. “Or sitting around in a room with me if we got married.”

“All right,” he said. “Now I don’t know what brought this up but I have no intention of hopping around the world ogling natives and peasants or whatever you had in mind. So are you going to marry me or not.”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Well let’s have some more objections.”

“I don’t have any more.”

“Then let’s get married.”

She looked down at one of her knees and didn’t answer.

Benjamin took her hand. “Look,” he said. “I figured out how we’ll do it.

First we’ll—could you listen to me, Elaine?”

She nodded.

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“All right,” he said. “Now we’re going down in the morning and get the blood tests.”

“Benjamin, I haven’t—”

“Will you just listen a minute?”

She nodded.

“Now. We’ll get the blood tests in the morning. Then we’ll get the birth certificates. I happen to have mine with me.

Where’s yours.”

“At home.”

“Where at home.”

“In a drawer.”

“Which drawer.”

“What?”

“Will you just tell me in which drawer, please?”

“In the den.”

“All right,” Benjamin said. “Now I’m flying down there tomorrow night.”

“You’re what?” she said, looking up at him.

“To get it.”

“You’re flying down to my house?”

“Right. I’ll get it during the night.”

“You’ll sneak in my house?”

“Right.”

Elaine frowned at him. “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard,”

she said.

“What’s stupid about it.”

“Because I’ll just call my father and he’ll send it up.”

“Well we can’t let them know about it till after we’re married.”

“Oh.”

“So it’s all set then.”

“I told you I haven’t decided yet.”

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“I know,” he said. “But that’s how we’ll do it.” He stood and walked across the room to the door of the closet to feel a sock that was drying on the doorknob. “I assume you have a key to your house and everything.” he said.

“Benjamin?”

“What.”

She turned in her chair to look at him. “Do you really have any idea of what you’re doing?”

“Of course I do,” he said.

“I mean you think about flying down to my house in the middle of the night and sneaking off with the birth certificate, but do you think about the rest of it?”

“Of course.”

“Have you thought about finding a place to live and buying the groceries every day?”

“Sure.”

“You haven’t.”

“Well I haven’t thought about the kind of cereal we’ll buy at the market.”

“Why not.”

“What?”

“I mean that’s the kind of thing you’ll have to be thinking about, Benjamin, and I think you’ll get sick of it after two days.”

“Well I won’t get sick of you, will I?”

She stood up. “I think you probably will,” she said.

“Come on.”

“Because I’m not what you think I am, Benjamin.”

“What are you talking about.”

“I’m just a plain ordinary person,” she said. “I’m not smart or glamorous or anything like that.”

“So?”

“So I think you might be better off with someone smart and glamorous.”

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“I wouldn’t,” he said.

“You want someone dumb and drab.”

“That’s right.”

“Well what about babies.”

“What about babies.”

“Well, do you want any?” she said. “Because that’s what I want.”

“I do too.”

“Come on,” she said.

“What?”

“How could a person like you possibly want babies.”

“I do.”

“You do not.”

“Goddammit Elaine, I want babies. Now let’s change the subject.”

“Another thing,” Elaine said, “is that you’re an intellectual.”

Benjamin yanked the sock off the doorknob and turned around.

“Elaine?” he said.

“And I’m not.”

“Elaine?”

“You are an intellectual, Benjamin, and you should marry another intellectual.”

“Goddammit!” Benjamin said. He threw the sock down on the floor and hurried across the room to sit down again in the chair. “Now listen,” he said.

“You should marry someone who can discuss politics and history and art and—”

“Shut up!” He pointed to himself. “Now,” he said. “Have you ever heard me talking about those things? Once? Have you ever once heard me talking about that crap?”

“What crap.”

“History and art. Politics.”

“I thought you majored in that crap at college.”

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“Will you answer my question!”

“What is it.”

“Have you ever heard me talking about it.”

“That crap.”

“Yes.”

“No I haven’t.”

“All right then.” He stood and shook his head. “God-dammit, I hate that,” he said. He picked up the sock from the floor and returned it to the doorknob. “Well,” he said. “Let’s have it. Will you marry me or not.”

Elaine shook her head.

Benjamin walked across the room and fell down on his back on the bed on a pair of pants and a shirt that were drying on the mattress.

“Let’s have some more objections,” he said, staring up at the ceiling.

“What about my school.”

“What about it.”

“I want to finish,” she said.

“So who’s stopping you.”

“Well my father might not want to pay for it after we got married.”

“He won’t pay for it,” Benjamin said, getting up off the bed. “I’ll pay for it.”

“With what,” she said. “The money from your car?”

“Look,” Benjamin said, sitting down on the chair beside hers. “Now we’ll get married tomorrow. Or the day after. As soon as I get the birth certificate. Then I’ll get a job teaching.”