Cannery Row Page #2

to work when I was about ten.

- I was making my way to the coast.

- Doing what?

The usual.

I was runner-up in the Miss America

Pageant, then I was an ice skater.

- You don't say!

- That's correct.

Judging by your hands, it looks like

you've done a little fruit picking.

I've had worse jobs,

even taxi dancing,

but I couldn't take all the creeps.

We don't get any

Eagle Scouts in here, either.

You can't worry

about your dignity in this line.

Miss Flood, I need this job.

So I get pushed around a little bit

here and there...

Just as long as I'm not being

made to feel small.

Winnie's going east next week.

Take her spot until she gets back.

J.C. Penny's is open till six. Buy

yourself a dress, fancy but cheap.

Supper's at 6:
30. Beef stew, creamed

carrots. Cherry Jell-O for dessert.

Dormitory's on the third floor.

You're not going to regret this.

Oh, sure!

By the way,

what do we call ourselves?

"Girls" is good enough.

Doc plunged into his octopus studies

with total professional dedication.

He prodded them,

put chemicals in their water

and did everything he could

to get the little buggers to react.

Unfortunately, the conclusions to be

drawn from this were slow in coming.

Doc decided

a change of pace might help.

It was Wednesday night, so he knew

where Ellen Sedgewick would be.

Ultimately,

even Ellen failed to inspire him.

But Doc knew he was

on to something...

..even if he couldn't

figure out what it was.

- Hi, Joseph and Mary.

- Hi, Fauna.

Let's see now,

I need some yellow pads,

a box of pencils - no. 2 lead,

and blackberry brandy.

- You still doing that astrology?

- Yeah.

Hazel wants me to do a chart on him.

Since the stars said Jones

would marry Lana Turner,

everybody wants their chart done.

- I'll go and get the brandy.

- Take your time.

- So he's the one.

- The one what?

He leaves the stuff for The Seer.

Doc's been doing that

for nearly 15 years now.

Him and the boys

even built him a house.

And the guy still thinks

it comes from heaven?

He ain't all with it up here.

- Hell of a town you've got here.

- Yeah, it is nice, ain't it?

All set, Fauna.

- Hi, Doc.

- Hi, Fauna.

Hey, J.M. How about a couple

of cold ones back on the ice?

Doc, you know Suzy here?

- How do you do?

- How do you do?

Suzy's just starting

at the Bear Flag.

Oh, really?

I'm in here to buy beer.

Budweiser.

I knew this guy who always wanted to

order a beer milkshake at a drive-in.

He... he never did.

He was chicken.

I've got your beer, Doc.

Suzy... nice to have met you.

- So long, Doc.

- Bye, Fauna.

Nice to have met you.

Come in.

How do you do?

Oh, hello. What's that you got?

Some macaroons.

The cook at the Bear Flag made them.

Fauna told him to.

She sent you some beer, too.

That's nice.

- I wonder what she wants.

- Nothing. I think...

- What have you got them for?

- I sell their venom.

I'd never live with filthy snakes.

Snakes are cleaner than people.

Why call them filthy?

- You want to know why?

- Yeah.

- Because you ran Fauna down.

- No, I didn't.

You said she did it

to get something out of you.

That's why you call snakes filthy.

Fauna is one of my best friends.

Why don't we just have a beer

and make peace, okay?

Sit down.

I guess it's okay.

Here.

What are you doing

with these little dishes?

I'm making slides to show the

development of sea urchin embryos.

Here, take a look.

I fix one culture every half hour

and monitor it on a slide

until I have a series

to show students a sea urchin going

from egg to a complete organism.

- Why do they want to know that?

- That's the way people develop.

I have to do another culture

in two minutes.

Why don't they just study people?

And kill unborn babies

every half hour?

I don't know about all this.

It's a funny business, unborn things.

- There are funnier businesses.

- Are you talking about my business?

- You don't like my business?

- That doesn't matter.

I just think

it's a sad substitute for love.

And what have you got?

Bugs, snakes?

Look at this dump!

You haven't even got decent clothes.

When was your last hot meal?

You sit here breeding starfish.

- Sea urchins!

- And what's that a substitute for?

Wait a minute. I do what I want,

I live the way I want and I'm free.

Do you get that?

- I'm free and I do what I want.

- Who'd want to do this stuff?

- Who'd sleep with a guy for money?

- Maybe someone who needs the money.

And I heard about you writing

some highfalutin paper.

- Who told you that?

- Everybody knows it.

You know why? They know

you ain't never gonna do it.

Some of them are laughing at you.

Who's laughing at me?

I shouldn't have said that.

I'm leaving before

I stick my foot in it any more.

Wait a minute.

Who's laughing at me?

I don't know what I'm talking about.

I'm just running off at the mouth.

Fauna's going to ring my neck.

Forget about it, Doc.

- Hi, I'm Suzy Desoto.

- How are you doing, Desoto?

Why aren't you getting undressed?

- You can do it as a lead-in.

- I don't need no encouragement.

Lead-ins are for guys

who can't cut the mustard.

As long as I've got this on,

what do you think of it?

- How do I look?

- I don't know, you're dressed.

I mean the dress.

Took me over an hour to pick out.

- It's taking longer to take it off.

- What do you think?

- I have no opinion.

- Well, make one up.

I paid $12.99 for this damn dress.

$13 to look nice for guys like you.

I ain't taking it off

till you tell me how you like it.

- It's all right. I like it okay.

- Thank you.

I've got to get out of here.

Suzy?

Hey, what are you doing up?

- Thinking.

- About what?

Doc.

What about him?

I don't understand what a man

like him is doing here.

- Maybe he likes it.

- I know, but he don't need it.

He could make a good living

anywhere.

Does he ever talk about himself?

Like where he comes from?

Sometimes he mentions little things

here and there.

- I know he played baseball once.

- Baseball? Like major league?

- Yeah, I guess so.

- What's his real name?

Daniels. Ed Daniels.

- Eddie "The Blur" Daniels?

- The what?

He pitched for the

Philadelphia Athletics.

They called him "The Blur" because

his pitches were too fast to see.

How do you know about baseball?

I used to listen to baseball

all the time.

Jeez, you know... Doc was

a hell of a pitcher for a while.

Then I didn't hear about him.

- One year he won twenty games.

- Two years. '25 and '26.

- You've been holding out on me.

- Look, I'm beat!

- I've got to hit the sack.

- Is that it? What about the rest?

What rest?

He played ball, now he don't.

But why did he stop? One day he's

pitching, the next day he's gone.

- He don't say much about it.

- And nobody asks him?

I got as much interest

as the next guy in a person's past,

but on the Row,

folks don't have very good ones,

so we don't dwell on it. Okay?

It's not okay,

because everybody looks up to him.

And no one knows anything about him.

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