Inside was an enormous and cavernous men's room, with a long row of urinals on the right side and a long row of sinks on the left, and a few paces inside the doorway was a wooden podium with a tall gaunt man in a dark suit standing behind it.
"Welcome," he said. "Oh, and Mr. Whitman! So good to see you again, sir!"
"Good to see you, Charles," said Mr. Whitman, continuing to guide Milford forward with his hand on the young fellow's back. "How's it hanging, my friend?"
"It is hanging well, sir. And yourself?"
"No use complaining, Charlie, no use complaining, and, anyway, who gives a shit?"
"I do, sir."
"Well, that's very nice of you to say, Charlie. And the wife, the kids?"
"All very well, sir, or no worse than might be expected. My wife's lumbago still pains her in the cold and rainy weather, and my son is due to be released from the reformatory in the spring, his good behavior willing. My daughter's pregnancy was unfortunate but we have resigned ourselves. My youngest son's polio is being treated by the best doctors we can afford."
"And your angina?"
"No better, but little worse, which at my age is something to be thankful for."
"Indeed, Charlie. We pass from one vale of tears to another, first skipping merrily, then trudging dutifully, finally crawling, but someday our troubles end."
"Only to begin again, sir."
"And so the great wheel of life turns," said Mr. Whitman. "You know, there's a very great Hindu epic called the Mahabarata, and–"
"Um," said Milford.
"Yes, Wilfrid?" said Mr. Whitman.
"Look, Mr., uh, Whitman, I, um, I really have to, um, you know, so if I could just go ahead, you and this gentleman can continue chatting –"
"Wow, you really do have to go, don't you, stepping from one foot to another as if you're dancing the Black Bottom."
"Yes, I really have to go," said Milford.
"I take it you two gentleman are together?" said the thin man at the podium.
"Yes, Charles," said Mr. Whitman. "Young Master Williford is with me."
"Hello, Mr. Williford," said the man.
"It's Milford, actually," said Milford, "and, look, I really don't mind just going ahead, I see lots of empty urinals in here, so if I could just –"
"So would that be one or two urinals?" said the man, glancing from Milford to Mr. Whitman. "Or perhaps a urinal and a stall?"
"Make it two urinals, Charlie," said Mr. Whitman, "Adjoining if at all possible."
"Of course, Mr. Whitman."
There was an engraved service bell on the podium, and the man struck its button smartly with the heel of his hand, the ring echoing through the huge long room.
A tiny man in a bellboy's red and black costume with white gloves and cocked cap with a chin strap sauntered up from somewhere.
"What's up, boss? Oh, hey, Mr. Whitman, whaddya say, whaddya know?"
"As usual I say too much despite knowing too little, Benny," said Mr. Whitman. "And how are you?"
"Not too bad, Mr. Whitman, considering I am a midget who works in a men's room reeking with the stench of piss and shit."
"Benny!" said the man at the podium. "Language, please!"
"Aw, Mr. Whitman don't mind, do ya, Mr. Whitman?"
"Not at all," said Mr. Whitman, who was knocking the bowl of his pipe against his knuckles, and letting the ash fall to the tiled floor.
"That's what I like about you, Mr. Whitman," said the tiny man. "You're a man of the people. Who's your buddy?"
"Mumfort, meet Benny."
"Hiya, Mumfort," said Benny.
"Hi," said Milford, "but, okay, look, everybody, I really have to go, so if you guys don't mind, I think I'll just jump ahead, and –"
"Hold your horses, pal," said Benny. He turned to the thin man. "What's the call, boss?"
"Two urinals, please, Benny," said the thin man.
"Adjoining, if possible," added Mr. Whitman.
"Adjoining, Benny," said the thin man.
"Two adjoining urinals, coming up!" said the tiny man. Then he turned to Mr. Whitman again. "But how are you, Mr. Whitman? Everything okay?"
"Never better," said Mr. Whitman, who had taken his pouch out and was filling his pipe again.
"You want to finish packing your pipe first?"
"Yes, just give me a moment here," said Mr. Whitman, tamping the gummy mixture with his big index finger.
"Take your time, Mr. Whitman," said the tiny man, "I'm here all night."
"Really?" said Mr. Whitman. "You like the overnight shift?"
"Love it," said the tiny man. "Me, I'm a night owl. Nothing I like better than getting off at seven in the morning, then going down the bar for some scrapple and eggs and home fries, maybe a stack of johnny cakes just the way I like 'em, with a half-dozen thick rashers of extra crisp bacon laid on top and slathered in butter and blackstrap molasses, wash it all down with a schooner or three of cold beer, then go to my trap and sleep like a baby."
"Sounds good to me," said Mr. Whitman. He had taken his box of Blue Tip kitchen matches out, but the thin man at the podium beat him to it, taking a wooden match from a small wooden box on the podium, striking it on his thumb, and leaning forward and giving Mr. Whitman a light.
"Oh, my God," said Milford.
"What's eating you, pal?" said the tiny man.
"I just really have to urinate," said Milford. "I'm sorry, but can't I just go ahead and –"
"Look, sonny, can't you wait just two seconds till Mr. Whitman gets his pipe lit?"
"Okay," said Milford, "fine, I'll wait."
"Sheesh," said the tiny man. "Hey, Mr. Whitman, where'd you dig this guy up, anyways, Bellevue or the Tombs?"
"Ha ha, neither, my friend, neither," said Mr. Whitman, puffing on his pipe. "He's okay, just a little impatient."
"Patience is a virtue," said the tiny man.
"So it is," said Mr. Whitman, "so it is." He took the pipe out of his mouth and gazed fondly at it, while slowly exhaling an enormous cloud of sweet thick smoke.
"Y'know, Benny, sometimes the old sayings have a lot of truth in them, like for instance, 'All good things come to those who wait.'"
"And bad things too, Mr. Whitman," said the little man.
"This is true," said Mr. Whitman. "You wait long enough, and not just the good will come, but, yes, the bad as well."
"And, if I may dare to interpose," said the tall thin man, who seemed eager to re-enter the conversation, "also the indifferent."
"Yes, the indifferent too," said Mr. Whitman. "That too. There's no denying it."
"And, again, not that I would claim to be a philosopher," the thin man went on, "but is not the preponderance of life nothing but the indifferent? The humdrum, the repetitive, the dull plodding forward into the great unknown?"
"You got something there, boss," said the tiny man. "Like, how many times have I done just what I'm doing now? Walking back and forth to and from this podium, escorting gentlemen to urinals and terlet stalls, whilst passing the time of day with the same old pleasantries and platitudes?"
"The same actions, repeated," said the thin man, "the same words spoken, the same thoughts thought, ad infinitum."
"Hey, Charles," said Mr. Whitman, with a smile, "I thought you said you were no philosopher!"
"Oh, my goodness, Mr. Whitman," said the thin man, "I am just a simple man, but I have plenty of time to think in my profession, to think and to observe, and to ponder."
"Um," said Milford. "Look –"
"Oh, by the way, Muggles," said Mr. Whitman, "how rude of me. Would you care for another puff or two from the old peace pipe?"
"No, thank you."
"I think you'll find that the first bowl is good, the second one better, the third, better still, but it is not until the fourth that we begin to reach that state our Buddhist friends call satori." He proffered the pipe to Milford, stem first. "Go ahead, take a good long hit. Take two!"
"No thanks, Mr. Whitman –"
"'Walt', please," said Mr. Whitman. "I thought we had well gotten beyond this 'mister' honorific."
"No, thanks, Walt," said Milford.
"It'll always be Mr. Whitman for me," said the tiny man. "I know my place, and I'm happy in it."
"So also I," said the thin man. "We all have our places in life."
"But I wonder," said Mr. Whitman, "must those places remain set, as in stone?"
"That is a question not for such as I to attempt to answer," said the thin man.
"Like I said," said the tiny man, "I'm happy in my place."
"Oh, my God!" said Milford, again, but this time with an exclamation point.
"Don't you want a drag, Mookford?" said Mr. Whitman, who was still proffering the pipe to Milford.
"No, thank you," said Milford, "because the thing is, at the risk of sounding tediously repetitive, the thing is, I really, really, really –"
"What?" said Mr. Whitman, "because now you 'really' are getting repetitive, with all these reallys, ha ha –"
"I just really have to go. Like right now."
"Oh," said Mr. Whitman. "Okay."
"So can we go now?" said Milford. "Because I really need to pee."
"Christ, buddy," said the tiny man. "Don't wet yourself already."
"Ha ha. All righty then," said Mr. Whitman. "What do you say, Benny? My friend Mimsley does seem anxious to get going, so shall we set forth?"
"I'm ready if you are, Mr. Whitman."
"Right then, let's go!" said Mr. Whitman.
"Thank God!" said Milford.
"God ain't got nothing to do with it," said the little tiny man.
Mr. Whitman pursed his lips at this remark, nodding as if thoughtfully, then turned and addressed the thin man at the podium, "Well, on that stoic note, Charles, we will catch you on the return trip."
"Right you are, Mr. Whitman," said the thin man at the podium. "Enjoy!"
"I'm sure we will," said Mr. Whitman, and to the tiny man, "lead on, Benny, lead on!"
The tiny man did a smart about-face, and looking over his shoulder, cried, "Once more unto the breech, fellas!"
"Ha ha," said Mr. Whitman again, as if heartily, and, putting his great hand on the small of Milford's back, gave him a shove, and Milford stumbled forward in the footsteps of the tiny man, who was singing
Oh I been a wild rover
and I been a bold romancer,
and I have wandered all over
from Maine to Port-au-Prince, sir!
So don't you give me no lip
when I leap and cock my hip
'cause I ain't no common chancer
but a jolly good buck dancer…
The row of urinals seemed endless in this enormous room, and most of them were occupied, but not all, and it seemed the little fellow was attempting to obey his injunction to find two adjoining urinals; Milford decided not to complain for the time being, and concentrated on trying to hold it in.
