What is happiness?
In Eliza"s and my case, happiness was being perpetually in each other"s company, having plenty of servants and good food, living in a peaceful, book-filled mansion on an asteroid covered with apple trees, and growing up as specialized halves of a single brain.
Although we pawed and embraced each other a great deal, our intentions were purely intellectual. True-Eliza matured s.e.xually at the age of seven. I, however, would not enter p.u.b.erty until my last year in Harvard Medical School, at the age of twenty-three. Eliza and I used bodily contact only in order to increase the intimacy of our brains.
Thus did we give birth to a single genius, which died as quickly as we were parted, which was reborn the moment we got together again.
We became almost cripplingly specialized as halves of that genius, which was the most important individual in our lives, but which we never named.
When we learned to read and write, for example, it was I who actually did the reading and writing. Eliza remained illiterate until the day she died.
But it was Eliza who did the great intuitive leaping for us both. It was Eliza who guessed that it would be in our best interests to remain speechless, but to become toilet-trained. It was Eliza who guessed what books were, and what the little marks on the pages might mean.
It was Eliza who sensed that there was something c.o.c.keyed about the dimensions of some of the mansion"s rooms and corridors. And it was I who did the methodical work of taking actual measurements, and then probing the paneling and parquetry with screwdrivers and kitchen knives, seeking doors to an alternate universe, which we found.
Hi ho.
Yes, I did all the reading. And it seems to me now that there is not a single book published in an Indo-European language before the First World War that I have not read aloud.
But it was Eliza who did the memorizing, and who told me what we had to learn next. And it was Eliza who could put seemingly unrelated ideas together in order to get a new one. It was Eliza who juxtaposed juxtaposed.
Much of our information was hopelessly out of date, of course, since few new books had been brought into the mansion since 1912. Much of it, too, was timeless. And much of it was downright silly, such as the dances we learned to do.
If I wished, I could do a very presentable and historically accurate version of the Tarantella, here in the ruins of New York.
Were Eliza and I really a genius, when we thought as one?
I have to say yes, especially in view of the fact that we had no instructors. And I am not boasting when I say so, for I am only half of that fine mind.
We criticized Darwin"s Theory of Evolution, I remember, on the grounds the creatures would become terribly vulnerable while attempting to improve themselves, while developing wings or armorplate, say. They would be eaten up by more practical animals, before their wonderful new features could be refined.
We made at least one prediction that was so deadly accurate that thinking about it even now leaves me thunderstruck.
Listen: We began with the mystery of how ancient peoples had erected the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, and the great heads of Easter Island, and the barbaric arches of Stonehenge, without modern power sources and tools.
We concluded there must have been days of light gravity in olden times, when people could play tiddledy winks with huge chunks of stone.
We supposed that it might even be abnormal on earth for gravity to be stable for long periods of time. We predicted that at any moment gravity might become as capricious as winds and heat and cold, as blizzards and rainstorms again.
Yes, and Eliza and I composed a precocious critique of the Const.i.tution of the United States of America, too. We argued that it was as good a scheme for misery as any, since its success in keeping the common people reasonably happy and proud depended on the strength of the people themselves-and yet it described no practical machinery which would tend to make the people, as opposed to their elected representatives, strong.
We said it was possible that the framers of the Const.i.tution were blind to the beauty of persons who were without great wealth or powerful friends or public office, but who were nonetheless genuinely strong.
We thought it was more likely, though, that the framers had not noticed that it was natural, and therefore almost inevitable, that human beings in extraordinary and enduring situations should think of themselves as composing new families. Eliza and I pointed out that this happened no less in democracies than in tyrannies, since human beings were the same the wide world over, and civilized only yesterday.
Elected representatives, hence, could be expected to become members of the famous and powerful family of elected representatives-which would, perfectly naturally, make them wary and squeamish and stingy with respect to all the other sorts of families which, again, perfectly naturally, subdivided mankind.
Eliza and I, thinking as halves of a single genius, proposed that the Const.i.tution be amended so as to guarantee that every citizen, no matter how humble or crazy or incompetent or deformed, somehow be given membership in some family as covertly xenophobic and crafty as the one their public servants formed.
Good for Eliza and me!
Hi ho.
7.
HOW NICE it would have been, especially for Eliza, since she was a girl, if we had been ugly ducklings-if we had become beautiful by and by. But we simply grew more preposterous with each pa.s.sing day. it would have been, especially for Eliza, since she was a girl, if we had been ugly ducklings-if we had become beautiful by and by. But we simply grew more preposterous with each pa.s.sing day.
There were a few advantages to being a male 2 meters tall. I was respected as a basketball player at prep school and college, even though I had very narrow shoulders and a voice like a piccolo, and not the first hints of a beard or pubic hair. Yes, and later on, after my voice had deepened and I ran as a candidate for Senator from Vermont, I was able to say on my billboards, "It takes a Big Man to do a Big Job!"
But Eliza, who was exactly as tall as I was, could not expect to be welcomed anywhere. There was no conceivable conventional role for a female which could be bent so as to accommodate a twelve-fingered, twelve-toed, four-breasted, Neanderthaloid half-genius-weighing one quintal, and two meters tall.
Even as little children we knew we weren"t ever going to win any beauty contests.
Eliza said something prophetic about that, incidentally. She couldn"t have been more than eight. She said that maybe she could win a beauty contest on Mars.
She was, of course, destined to die die on Mars. on Mars.
Eliza"s beauty prize there would be an avalanche of iron pyrite, better known as "Fool"s Gold."
Hi ho.
There was a time in our childhood when we actually agreed that we were lucky lucky not to be beautiful. We knew from all the romantic novels I"d read out loud in my squeaky voice, often with gestures, that beautiful people had their privacy destroyed by pa.s.sionate strangers. not to be beautiful. We knew from all the romantic novels I"d read out loud in my squeaky voice, often with gestures, that beautiful people had their privacy destroyed by pa.s.sionate strangers.
We didn"t want that to happen to us, since the two of us alone composed not only a single mind but a thoroughly populated Universe.
This much I must say about our appearance, at least: Our clothing was the finest that money could buy. Our astonishing dimensions, which changed radically almost from month to month, were mailed off regularly, in accordance with our parents" instructions, to some of the finest tailors and cobblers and dressmakers and shirtmakers and haberdashers in the world.
The practical nurses who dressed and undressed us took a childish delight, even though we never went anywhere, in costuming us for imaginary social events for millionaires-for tea dances, for horse shows, for skiing vacations, for attending cla.s.ses at expensive prep schools, for an evening of theater here in Manhattan and a supper afterwards with lots of champagne.
And so on.
Hi ho.
We were aware of all the comedy in this. But, as brilliant as we were when we put our heads together, we did not guess until we were fifteen that we were also in the midst of a tragedy. We thought that ugliness was simply amusing to people in the outside world. We did not realize that we could actually nauseate strangers who came upon us unexpectedly.
We were so innocent as to the importance of good looks, in fact, that we could see little point to the story of "The Ugly Duckling," which I read out loud to Eliza one day-in the mausoleum of Professor Elihu Roosevelt Swain.
The story, of course, was about a baby bird that was raised by ducks, who thought it was the funniest-looking duck they had ever seen. But then it turned out to be a swan when it grew up.
Eliza, I remember, said she thought it would have been a much better story if the little bird had waddled up on sh.o.r.e and turned into a rhinoceros.
Hi ho.
8.
UNTIL THE EVE of our fifteenth birthday, Eliza and I never heard anything bad about ourselves when we eavesdropped from the secret pa.s.sageways. of our fifteenth birthday, Eliza and I never heard anything bad about ourselves when we eavesdropped from the secret pa.s.sageways.
The servants were so used to us that they hardly ever mentioned us, even in moments of deepest privacy. Dr. Mott seldom commented on anything but our appet.i.tes and our excretions. And our parents were so sickened by us that they were tongue-tied when they made their annual s.p.a.ce voyage to our asteroid. Father, I remember, would talk to Mother rather haltingly and listlessly about world events he had read about in news magazines.
They would bring us toys from F.A.O. Schwarz-guaranteed by that emporium to be educational for three-year-olds.
Hi ho.
Yes, and I think now about all the secrets about the human condition I withhold from young Melody and Isadore, for their own peace of mind-the fact that the human afterlife is no good, and so on.
And then I am awed yet again by the perfect Lulu of a secret that was concealed from Eliza and me so long: That our own parents wished we would hurry up and die.
We imagined lazily that our fifteenth birthday would be like all the rest. We put on the show we had always put on. Our parents arrived at our suppertime, which was four in the afternoon. We would get our presents the next day.
We threw food at each other in our tile-lined diningroom. I hit Eliza with an avocado. She hit me with a filet mignon. We bounced Parker House rolls off the maid. We pretended not to know that our parents had arrived and were watching us through a crack in the door.
Yes, and then, still not having greeted our parents face-to-face, we were bathed and talc.u.med, and dressed in our pajamas and bathrobes and bedroom slippers. Bedtime was at five, for Eliza and I pretended to sleep sixteen hours a day.
Our practical nurses, who were Oveta Cooper and Mary Selwyn Kirk, told us that there was a wonderful surprise waiting for us in the library.
We pretended to be gaga about what that surprise could possibly be.
We were full-grown giants by then.
I carried a rubber tugboat, which was supposedly my favorite toy. Eliza had a red velvet ribbon in the mare"s nest of her coal black hair.
As always, there was a large coffee table between Eliza and me and our parents when we were brought in. As always, our parents had brandy to sip. As always, there was a fizzing, popping blaze of pine and sappy apple logs in the fireplace. As always, an oil painting of Professor Elihu Roosevelt Swain over the mantelpiece beamed down on the ritual scene.
As always, our parents stood. They smiled up at us with what we still did not recognize as bittersweet dread.
As always, we pretended to find them adorable, but not to remember who they were at first.
As always, Father did the talking.
"How do you do, Eliza and Wilbur?" he said. "You are looking very well. We are very glad to see you. Do you remember who we are?"
Eliza and I consulted with one another uneasily, drooling, and murmuring in ancient Greek. Eliza said to me in Greek, I remember, that she could not believe that we were related to such pretty dolls.
Father helped us out. He told us the name we had given to him years ago. "I am Bluth-luh," he said.
Eliza and I pretended to be flabbergasted. "Bluth-luh!" we told each other. We could not believe our good fortune. "Bluth-luh! Bluth-luh!" we cried.
"And this," said Father, indicating Mother, "is Mub-lub."
This was even more sensational news to Eliza and me. "Mub-lub! Mub-lub!" we exclaimed.
And now Eliza and I made a great intellectual leap, as always. Without any hints from anybody, we concluded that, if our parents were in the house, then our birthday must be close at hand. We chanted our idiot word for birthday, which was "Fuff-bay."
As always, we pretended to become overexcited. We jumped up and down. We were so big by then that the floor began to go up and down like a trampoline.
But we suddenly stopped, pretending, as always, to have been rendered catatonic by more happiness than was good for us.
That was always the end of the show. After that, we were led away.
Hi ho.
9.
WE WERE PUT INTO custom-made cribs-in separate but adjacent bedrooms. The rooms were connected by a secret panel in the wall. The cribs were as big as railroad flatcars. They made a terrible clatter when their sides were raised. custom-made cribs-in separate but adjacent bedrooms. The rooms were connected by a secret panel in the wall. The cribs were as big as railroad flatcars. They made a terrible clatter when their sides were raised.
Eliza and I pretended to fall asleep at once. After a half an hour, however, we were reunited in Eliza"s room. The servants never looked in on us. Our health was perfect, after all, and we had established a reputation for being, as they said, "... as good as gold at bedtime."
Yes, and we went through a trapdoor under Eliza"s crib, and were soon taking turns watching our parents in the library-through a tiny hole we ourselves had drilled through the wall, and through the upper corner of the frame around the painting of Professor Elihu Roosevelt Swain.
Father was telling mother of a thing he had read in a news magazine on the day before. It seemed that scientists in the People"s Republic of China were experimenting with making human beings smaller, so they would not need to eat so much and wear such big clothes.
Mother was staring into the fire. Father had to tell her twice about the Chinese rumor. The second time he did it, she replied emptily that she supposed that the Chinese could accomplish just about anything they put their minds to.
Only about a month before, the Chinese had sent two hundred explorers to Mars-without using a s.p.a.ce vehicle of any kind.
No scientist in the Western World could guess how the trick was done. The Chinese themselves volunteered no details.
Mother said that it seemed like such a long time since Americans had discovered anything. "All of a sudden," she said, "everything is being discovered by the Chinese."
"We used to discover everything," she said.
It was such a stupefied stupefied conversation. The level of animation was so low that our beautiful young parents from Manhattan might have been up to their necks in honey. They appeared, as they had always appeared to Eliza and me, to be under some curse which required them to speak only of matters which did not interest them at all. conversation. The level of animation was so low that our beautiful young parents from Manhattan might have been up to their necks in honey. They appeared, as they had always appeared to Eliza and me, to be under some curse which required them to speak only of matters which did not interest them at all.
And indeed they were were under a malediction. But Eliza and I had not guessed its nature: That they were all but strangled and paralyzed by the wish that their own children would die. under a malediction. But Eliza and I had not guessed its nature: That they were all but strangled and paralyzed by the wish that their own children would die.
And I promise this about our parents, although the only proof I have is a feeling in my bones: Neither one had ever suggested in any way to the other that he or she wished we would die.
Hi ho.
But then there was a bang bang in the fireplace. Steam had to escape from a trap in a sappy log. in the fireplace. Steam had to escape from a trap in a sappy log.