Falconer+-+John+Cheever

Falconer 51
will not go to the club,” he told his mother, “unless you call the
steward by his name.” “His name,” said Mrs. Farragut, “is
Horton.” “His name is Mr. Horton,” said Eben. “Very well,” said
Mrs. Farragut. Eben got into the car. Mrs. Farragut was not an
intentionally reckless driver, but her vision was failing and on the
road she was an agent of death. She had already killed one Airedale
and three cats. Both Eben and Farragut shut their eyes until they
heard the sound of the gravel on the club driveway. They took a
table and when the steward came to welcome them their mother
asked: “What are you going to tempt us with tonight, Horton?”
“Excuse me,” said Eben. He left the table and walked home. When
Farragut returned he found his brother—a grown man—sobbing
in his room; but even Eben, his only brother, had been
inconsistent. Years later, when they used to meet for drinks in
New York, Eben would summon the waiter by clapping his hands.
Once, after the headwaiter had asked them to leave and Farragut
had tried to explain to Eben that there were simpler and more
acceptable ways of getting a waiter’s attention, Eben had said, “I
don’t understand, I simply don’t understand. All I wanted was a
drink.”
Opium had helped Farragut recall with serenity the fact that he
had not been sixteen the first time his father threatened to commit
suicide. He was sure of his age because he didn’t have a driver’s
license. He came in from pumping gas to find the supper table set
for two. “Where’s Dad?” he asked—impetuously, because the
laconism cultivated by the Farraguts was ceremonial and tribal
and one seldom asked questions. His mother sighed and served
the red flannel hash with poached eggs. Farragut had already
faulted and so he went on: “But where is Dad?” he asked. “I’m not
sure,” his mother said. “When I came downstairs to make supper
he handed me a long indictment enumerating my failures as a
woman, a wife and a mother. There were twenty-two charges. I
didn’t read them all. I threw it into the fire. He was quite
indignant. He said that he was going to Nagasakit and drown