My own work went on fitfully. I composed an answer to Bishop Winston
which brought down on my head a series of ecclesiastical thunderbolts,
each louder than the one before. I wrote a short life of Cave in
simple declarative sentences which enjoyed a considerable success
for many years and, finally, seriously, my first attempt at a real
counterattack, I began the several dialogues in which Cave and I
purportedly traversed the entire field of moral action.
I felt that in these dialogues I could quietly combat those absolutist
tendencies which I detected in the disciples. Cave himself made
no pretense of being final on any subject other than death where,
even without his particular persuasiveness, he stood on firm, even
traditional ground. The attacks he received he no longer noticed. It
was as simple as that. He’d never enjoyed reading and to watch others
make telecasts bored him, even when they spoke of him. After the
fateful Empire State Building conference he ceased to attend the world;
except for a few letters which Paul forwarded to him and his relations
with us, he was completely cut off from ordinary life, and perfectly
happy. For though human contacts had been reduced to a minimum, he
still possessed the polished glass eye of the world before whose level
gaze he appeared once a week and experienced what he called: “Everyone:
all of them, listening and watching everywhere.”
In one year he had come a long way from the ex-embalmer who had studied
a book of newspaper clippings on a Washington farm and brooded about
an old man in a hospital. Though Paul was never to refer again to the
victim of Cave’s driving, I was quite sure that he expected, sooner or
later, it would return to haunt us all.
By midsummer, however, Cave had grown restless and bored and since the
telecasts had been discontinued until the following November, he was
eager to travel. He was never to lose his passion for places. It was
finally decided that he spend the summer on one of the Florida keys, a
tiny island owned by a Cavite who offered to place everything at Cave’s
disposal. And, though warned that the heat might be uncomfortable, Cave
and his retinue left secretly one night by chartered seaplane from
Long Island Sound and for at least a month the press did not know what
had happened to him.
I declined to accompany Cave and Iris. Paul remained in New York while
Iris’s work was temporarily turned over to various young enthusiasts,
trained by her. I went back to the Hudson Valley, to my house and....
2
I’ve not been able to write for several days. According to the doctor,
it is a touch of heat but I suspect that this is only his kind
euphemism.
I had broken off in my narrative to take a walk in the garden last
Friday afternoon when I was joined by Butler whose attentions lately
have been more numerous than I should like.
“He’ll be here Sunday, Hudson. Why don’t we all three have dinner
together that night and celebrate.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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