your heart is an autumn garage

Found it.


“The Heart is an Autumn Wanderer,” she read, mused, aloud. “Unusual title,”

The response from behind the shower curtain was a trifle delayed but delighted. “It’s a what? It’s a what kind of title?”

Mrs. Glass’s guard was already up. She backed up and reseated herself, a lighted cigarette in her hand. “Unusual, I said. I didn’t say it was beautiful or anything, so just-“

“Ahh- by George. You have to get pretty early in the morning to get anything classy past by you, Bessie girl. You know what your heart is, Bessie? Would you like to know what your heart is? Your heart, Bessie, is an autumn garage. How’s that for a catchy title, eh? By God, many people – many uninformed people – think Seymour and Buddy are the only goddam men of letters in this family. When I think, when I sit down for a minute and think of the sensitive prose, and garages, I throw every day of my-“

“All right, all right, young man,”Mrs. Glass said. Whatever her taste in television-play titles, or her aesthetics in general, a flicker came into her eyes- no more than a flicker, but a flicker- of connoisseurlike, if perverse, relish, for her youngest, and only handsome, son’s style of bullying. For a split second, it displaced the look of all round wear, and plainly, specific worry that had been on her face since she first entered the bathroom. However, she was almost immediately back on the defensive : “What’s the matter with the title? It is very unusual. You! You don’t think anything’s unusual or beautiful! I’ve never once heard you-“

What? Who doesn’t? Exactly what I don’t think isn’t beautiful?” A minor groundswell sounded behind the shower curtain, as though a delinquent porpoise were suddenly at play. “Listen. I don’t care what you say about my race, creed, or religion, Fatty, but don’t tell me I’m not sensitive to beauty. That’s m Achilles’ heel, and don’t you forget it. To me, everything is beautiful. Show me a pink sunset, and I’m limp, by God. Anything. ‘Peter Pan’. Even before the curtain goes up at ‘Peter Pan’, I’m a goddam puddle of tears. And you have the gall to tell me I’m-“

“Oh shut up” Mrs. Glass said, absently.

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