A few moments later, Alice got in the car, and drove to his apartment. She knocked on the door. There was no answer.
"Claude, it's me." she said softly. "Open the door."
There was nothing but silence. Then the door opened partially, the chain still attached, and Claude peered out at her.
"Claude," said Alice. "I...let me in."
The door opened to reveal Claude standing there. He made a show of stepping aside for her, and then closed the door. Alice looked at him.
"Noblesse oblige." said Claude derisively.
"Claude, don't." Alice looked down at the ground. She looked up. "I'm sorry."
Claude looked at her for a moment. She went over to him.
"I didn't mean to…hurt you. I just…." She sighed. "Sometimes, it's hard to get so involved with someone, knowing….thinking that they might not care about you for who you are. It's hard to tell the difference."
"But Alice," said Claude. "All this time, I've cared about you, and I didn't know what your brother did."
"I know." said Alice. She stepped over to him, and he took her hand. Wordlessly, he led her over to the couch, a threadbare plaid sofa.
"I'm sorry." Alice said.
"Are you truly repentant, Alice McNamara?" Claude said. "Are you chastened properly?"
"Yes." said Alice.
"Good." said Claude. Alice leaned her head against him. They sat there in silence.
"The truth is," Claude said, almost imperceptibly. "there never was any Abu Ben Shah Oil well. I made it all up."
"I thought so." said Alice.
"I mean," said Claude. "I told my brother-in-law and others that there was. But there wasn't any oil well. It was bogus. Spurious. A scam."
"Claude the Newbold." said Alice. "I'm surprised at you."
"You shouldn't be." said Claude. "Those C-6000 vacuum cleaners were a cheap piece of shit."
"Well, I knew that." said Alice. "But I don't know how you could do such a dishonorable thing."
"You grow up," said Claude. "and suddenly you realize that you're not the man you dreamed you'd be when you were a kid. And…you find yourself doing things that you thought were beneath you."
"It is beneath you to lie." Alice said.
"I never meant to lie." said Claude. "But it was hard, finding work then, and…I became desperate."
"Desperation doesn't excuse subterfuge." said Alice. "But it's okay. We've all done things that we'd rather not have people know about."
"Once, I went around selling a weight loss powder. It was just some milk of magnesia laxative, but I had it in a fancy silver bottle, so it looked important."
Alice shook her head.
"And then, a few weeks later, this…corpulent man came knocking at my door. He said that the powder was worthless, and that he was going to give me what was coming to me. So I ran out of the apartment building through the back staircase, leaving everything but my wallet, and I went down to the train station, and took the next train. It went to Seattle."
"Sounds like a grand adventure." said Alice.
"The point is," said Claude. "that's the sort of thing that I thrive on, just taking the next train, and heading for some unknown destination. Knowing that I'll be able to run away, if things get too precarious."
"Well," Alice said. "It'll catch up with you, one day. You can't run forever. What about children? You said you love children. How can you have any children if you keep running away?"
"I do want to have children," Claude said. "but I'm afraid of getting old, and never pursuing my dreams. Of becoming like all of those hopelessly dull, tired people."
"You'll get old anyway, Claude," Alice said. "we all will. You don't want to be old and all alone, do you?"
"No." said Claude. "I don't."
Alice looked down at her hands. "You don't want to run away from me, do you, Claude?" she said uncertainly.
Claude put his arm around her.
"I'd never leave you." he said. And Alice believed him.
One night, Claude and Alice were walking from dinner to the movie theater, when they spotted Ernest coming up the sidewalk.
"Ernest." Alice said in surprise. "What a surprise to see you in this part of town."
"Well, I like to walk down this way occasionally, Alice." said Ernest. "What about yourself?"
Alice didn't believe him, but said nothing. "Oh, I was just about to go to the theater."
"So you're the fabled and revered Ernest McNamara." said Claude, extending his hand. "The tales of your bravery and cunning in the world of business are copious."
Ernest looked at his hand for a minute, and then took it. "Yes." he said. "Alice, I don't believe we've ever been formally introduced."
Alice pressed her lips together. "Uh…Ernest McNamara, this is my friend, Claude Newbold. Claude, this is my brother, Ernest."
"Honored to make your acquaintance, my good man." said Claude. "Such a name as yours must require tremendous resolve and great diligence to live up to. Ernest. Sincere, frank, straightforward. Have you ever by any chance read The Importance of Being Earnest?"
Ernest looked at him for a moment, and then smiled a kind of humorless smile. "No. It's…a little on the light side."
"Ah, I see what you mean. Good old Oscar Wilde hasn't quite caught on here in Texas." said Claude. "But I greatly admire a man with a name that possesses the bluntness that you only seconds ago displayed. Far better than my own, which has earned me the name Claude the-"
"Claude!" Alice said abruptly. "Well, it's been great seeing you, Ernest. I think we're late for the movie. Perhaps we could get together another time."
Ernest was looking at Claude strangely. "Yes. I certainly hope we can." he said.
"I know," said Alice later that night. "that he was there to spy on me."
"Are intelligence missions usually on your brother's busy itinerary?" said Claude.
"Occasionally. He doesn't trust me. He thinks that I'm not to be trusted when it comes to running my own life."
"He did seem like quite the overbearing sort." Claude agreed. He was silent for a minute, and then he said. "I wondered…why you were so quick to cut me off earlier this evening. In front of your brother."
"Oh, Claude." Alice said. "Ernest doesn't…share the same sense of humor that we do. It's best that you don't make those kinds of jokes in front of him."
"Well, what would happen if I didn't? Would he melt into a puddle on the sidewalk? I know what a mess that would have made of your shoes, but don't you think that you could have stepped over it?"
"Probably," said Alice. "But that really isn't the way to relate to Ernest. He likes more serious conversation."
"Well, next time, I'll be sure to brush up on my knowledge of oil dealings and perhaps the state of affairs in Red China." Claude said.
"You do that." Alice said, smiling.
The next day, after getting off of work from the library, Alice drove to the corporate headquarters of McNamara Oil. After a short wait in the waiting area, Alice was shown into Ernest's office by his secretary.
"Alice. I didn't expect to see you today." Ernest said. "I hope you'll make it brief, because I have a conference call in thirty minutes."
"Oh, I will." Alice said. She sat in the chair. "I'd like to know what you were doing in my neighborhood last night."
"Well, I had no idea that I was breaking any trespassing laws, Alice." Ernest said, looking down at some papers on his desk. "But I must say that I'm disappointed at your odd choice of paramour. Disappointed, but not surprised. You've shown rather…avant-garde tastes in the past." He looked up at her. "Now Bill Mallory. I thought that you'd actually shown some sense when you dated him, but you let him slip through your fingers."
Bill Mallory had worked in management at McNamara Oil, and he and Alice had dated briefly.
"I dumped Bill because all he cared about was money." Alice said.
"Well, concern about money is a sensible attitude, but you're right, Alice. This is 1985, and McNamara Oil is a progressive company. You don't need a husband to define you, and I don't need an up-and-comer undercutting me. But the point is that upon choosing the right partner…you need to show some more sense than you have previously."
"And Claude isn't a sensible partner?" Alice looked at him challengingly.
" 'Claude?'" Ernest laughed. "You mean that…nonentity you were at the movie theater with last night? Alice, surely you're trying to irritate me."
"I'm not." Alice said. "As a matter of fact, I think that he'd do very well here at McNamara Oil."
"As what, office clown?" said Ernest.
"As a salesman." Alice said. "He'd do very well. He has a great gift of gab. You saw last night how witty he is."
"What you call wit," Ernest said. "the rest of the world would call schizophrenic babbling."
"You won't even give him a chance. You'd see he'd do very well." Alice said.
"Yes, well Alice, if you're through talking, I've got business to conduct here." Ernest said.
Alice saw herself out of the office, but resolved that their discussion wasn't over.
