Devlin's Wake

Beth in the office of Ways and Means Reardon told Karen in the office of Senator Bolter that Cecilia Dunn in the treasurer's office had refused to attend Ronald Devlin's wake. ''I couldn't believe it,'' Beth said. ''I said to her, 'Ceil, this is a guy that you knew all this time, am I right?' And she goes, 'Yeah, I guess so.' Like she wasn't really sure and stuff? And I go, 'Ceil, whaddaya mean, you guess so? This is the guy that two years ago when you first come in here, you get one look at the guy and you can't even talk for two days, am I right? This is the same guy and they got him laid out for two nights down at Donovan's, you're not even going, the wake?' And Ceil kind of just shrugs her shoulders and won't look at me, you know how she gets?''

''Yeah,'' Karen said, ''she does that with me, too. When you ask her something that she don't want to tell you, she won't look at you when she says something. It's very annoying.''

''Yeah,'' Beth said. ''Well, she did that. And then she goes, 'I didn't see Ronnie for quite a long time.' Like that's going to explain it or something, she hasn't been seeing the guy.''

''I don't think it explains it none,'' Karen said. ''When she was seeing the guy, she was seeing the guy just about every night. I couldn't keep track of it, what nights she was supposedly staying with me. It was kind of embarrassing, lots of those times, I'm afraid on the weekend, on Saturday morning, my mother wants me go down the store and pick up the meat for the week from Mr. Bemis, and I don't know if I oughta go, you know? Because what if I run into Ceil's mother down there and she starts talking to me about all the nights Ceil's sleeping over my house, huh? I don't even remember which nights they were, she's supposed to be there. What if her mother asks me what Ceil and me did on last Tuesday night that she hadda stay over my house we got home? I didn't see Ceil after work Tuesday night. All I saw of Ceil back on Tuesday was the back of her back, leaving the office at five when I was on my way down to the ladies' room and I happened to see her. What am I gonna say? I said to her many times, 'Ceil, this is OK and everything, you wanna see Ronnie like this, but now in addition to you probably getting in trouble if someone finds out, you got me where I'm going to get into trouble myself.' And she goes, 'Don't worry, Karen. Nobody's going to get into trouble.' When her mother knows she's been in my house, I got only one bed in my room and now that my brother's separated from his wife, he's back in his old room at home, and where did she sleep all those times at my house when she was supposedly there? But Cecilia don't care. Cecilia's in love.''

''I know it,'' Beth said. ''I said to her, 'Ceil, all right? It isn't like nobody knew you were seeing each other, you know? It was all over the State House. All the girls knew it and so'd most of the men. It isn't like nobody knew it.' ''

''Of course they did,'' Karen said. ''I seen some of the men that found it out right when she first started seeing him, and that was practically all they could talk about. Even with us. The Senator asked me one day, he was trying to get Ronnie for something, and he couldn't find him, and he calls me into his office and says, 'Karen, all right? Man to man? Has Devlin got something going on on the side with that kid in the treasurer's office?' And I like the Senator, you know? I didn't want to lie to the guy. He's been nice to me. But at the same time, I don't want to just go and tell him that Ceil's seeing Ronnie like that, so I goes, 'I don't know.' And he just looks at me like he knows I am lying, which naturally makes my face get all red, 'cause I am, and he just shakes his head and goes, 'Jesus H. Christ. It's not hard enough around here that I got to ride herd on these guys so I know how they're voting on something, I got also to keep track of who they're seducing and all of that kind of shit. It isn't fair, Karen, it just isn't fair, a grown man like that should know better, chasing around with a teenager like that.' ''

''Yeah, Karen,'' Beth said, ''but from the way Ceil was talking when she came in here, it wasn't like Ron was the first guy, you know? Plus which, she was twenty. Ceil knew what was going on. She didn't think it was Frenching made babies.''

''Yeah, I know,'' Karen said. ''I'm just saying, is all. If Ceil thought she was keeping a secret and stuff, she was wrong. All the girls knew it and so did the men. She just liked to pretend.''

''Yeah,'' Beth said. ''Well, she's still at it, I guess. I says to her yesterday, I saw her at lunch, I said, 'Ceil,' and I told her I drove in so I had the car, and did she want to come with me, the wake down to Donovan's there, and then I'd drive her home. See, I figured she's not gonna want to take the T after dark, all of them dead beats around when you get on the next car at Park Street, just waiting to see which one you pick and there isn't anybody else around or anything. And she goes, 'Oh. I ain't going,' and then she won't look at me. And for a minute or so, I just looked at her, because I could not believe that I just heard her say that. And I said to her, 'Ceil, you're not going? You were close to this guy.' And she goes, 'I don't care. I'm not going.' And I figure she's thinking, people will talk if she shows up the wake, and I tell her, I said, 'Ceil, listen to me, all right? We've been friends a long time, or so I've been thinking, you first come around and ask me start lying for you, and I feel like I must have some rights in this thing. If you're staying away from Ron Devlin's wake on account you were seeing Ron and you think it'll make people talk if you go, just forget it. Because people were already talking, all right? Talking long before this. And all you're gonna make them do if you don't go to this is make them talk some more. And what they're gonna say this time if you do that will not be better. It will be a whole lot worse and it won't help you none.' ''

''Of course it won't,'' Karen said. ''It's just like she admitted it, she stayed away like that.''

''That's exactly what I told her,'' Beth said. ''I said, 'Ceil,' I said, 'if you don't show up down to Donovan's tonight, it will be just like you went down there and put up a big sign that said that you and Ron was having an affair and that was why you didn't go, because you were afraid to face his family.' And she looks at me and she goes, 'Well, so what, Beth, all right? I was having an affair with him, and I am afraid to face his family. That time last year when they had the party for the speaker leaving there and Ronnie brought his wife? She had too much to drink and she got mad at me. She was all right at the beginning of the evening, but then she had a lot to drink, and I lost track of her in the crowd, and I'm gonna go the ladies' room before I leave, all right? And she followed me right in there, like she'd been waiting the whole night just to catch me in there by myself, and I hadda sit there in the stall until finally he sent someone in to get her out while she was screaming at me and calling me just about every filthy name that you could think of and saying if it wasn't for me he would've still been living with her and he never would've left her like he did with those three kids.' ''

''Well,'' Karen said, ''that isn't true. Old Ronnie there was pretty careful and he never went around talking all the time about the things that he was doing, maybe, but I happen to know it for a fact he never spent much more time in his house than he absolutely had to.''

''I know you do, Karen,'' Beth said.

''That was a long time ago, Beth,'' Karen said. ''It was a long time ago, and he was a lot younger then'n he was when he started seeing Ceil there, and I was a lot older'n Ceil was when I was seeing him, and, anyway, it was just something that happened because we both had way too much to drink down the Cape outing there for the Fourth July. And a few times after that. That was all there was, and it was a long time ago.''

''Quite a few times, Karen,'' Beth said.

''It wasn't that many times, Beth,'' Karen said. ''It was all over by Christmas of that same year. I just got tired of him, that's all, and the sneaking around, and it was all over.''

''That's not what I remember being told when it was over, Karen,'' Beth said. ''That isn't what you told me at the time.''

''Well,'' Karen said, ''maybe that isn't what I said then, but I was upset then. I don't know what I might've said.''

''You said he dumped you,'' Beth said. ''That's what I told Ceil. I said, 'Ceil, you look, all right? All you're doing here is you are making yourself like you were something different than a lot of people in this building that could say exactly the same thing. That they know Ronnie Devlin's dead but they're not going down the wake because they got the same excuse you got, and you don't see them doing that. Karen, she's going there. You don't see her just hanging back and pretending that she never knew the guy or anything like that.'''

(concluded on page 232)Devlin's Wake(continued from page 128)

''Beth,'' Karen said, ''you little bastard. Did you go and tell Cecilia Dunn that I was seeing Ronnie?''

''No, I didn't, Karen,'' Beth said. ''I just said, all I said was that she didn't need to go around pretending she was any different from all the other girls in here that had a little fling with Ronnie Devlin there or anything like that. Like she was better than the rest of us. And your name just happened to come up, when I was mentioning it there.''

''You little bitch, Beth Shaughnessey,'' Karen said, ''you little gabby bitch. Telling things like that to her about me and mentioning my name that I was one the ones that was involved with Ronnie Devlin.''

''Well,'' Beth said, ''I don't see what harm it did. You did see Ronnie for a while, and you also went the wake. You didn't go around pretending like you were the one that was responsible, the guy had that high blood pressure and he didn't do anything about it. Like you were the woman that should've been his widow there or something 'cause you went to bed with him. That was all I said to her, that she didn't have no reason she should act like that, and I just happened to use you for an example what I meant.''

''I'm gonna kill you, Beth,'' Karen said. ''I don't see why the hell you thought you hadda bring my name in this thing. The only other one that ever knew about me when I was seeing him was you.''

''Sure,'' Beth said, ''because I had you all the time staying over my house when your parents might decide to call and ask somebody why they didn't get no answer when they tried to call the place that you and Ginger had there in Jamaica Plain. Because you didn't even want to tell Ginger. And I did that. But you went down his wake, didn't you? I saw your name right there in the book when I signed mine. 'Karen Jacques,' it said, and it was your writing, too. You must've gone.''

''I did go,'' Karen said.

''Well,'' Beth said, ''that's all I said to her. That you went to his wake and she should do the same. I told her that she didn't have no balls, and the next time she decided she was gonna play around with someone, she could find somebody else to cover up for her, because I wasn't going to do it anymore if she was going to act like that.''

''So you and her aren't speaking now, I guess,'' Karen said.

Beth shrugged. ''Well,'' she said, ''I don't know if we are speaking or we aren't. And I don't really care.''

''And as a result of what you told her about me and Ron,'' Karen said, ''I suppose that me and her aren't speaking, either.''

''I can't say as I know,'' Beth said. ''I didn't ask her that.''

Karen gazed at her a moment. Then she smiled. ''Well, Beth,'' she said, ''I certainly got to hand it to you, haven't I?''

''I don't understand,'' Beth said.

''Of course you do,'' Karen said. ''You come in here now and tell me about all this talk you had with Ceil, now that you and me both went down to Donovan's and had ourselves one last look at that handsome devil Ronnie lying dead there in that gray suit we both liked, and Ceil hasn't got him anymore and so you rubbed it in to her, she didn't even dare to go and see him off. Maybe throw a Hail Mary his way if it wouldn't do any harm. And then, when you get through reminding Ceil she hasn't got him anymore, you come in here and you give me the business about how I didn't have him anymore even when the guy was still alive, because Ceil took him away from me. So you got Ceil feeling worse than she felt when she found out he was dead, and now you got me feeling worse than I felt when I heard the same thing, and that's not a bad day's work for one day, is it, Beth?''

''I don't,'' Beth said, ''I can't imagine what you mean.''

''No,'' Karen said, ''not much you can't. You know what I think, Beth? I think you're glad he's dead. Now you know just where he is, and you always will know, too. Ronnie Devlin won't be going on no more outings on the Cape now, will he? And this time, when you said goodbye to him, you know he won't be coming back with me.''

''You make me sick, Karen,'' Beth said. ''I never thought of that before until you mentioned it right now.''

''Right,'' Karen said. ''I wish we had some booze right now. Ronnie Devlin is the first man I ever met who was more trouble dead than most men are alive. It could be worse, I suppose. Now that he is dead, you're the one who's got him back. I hope you're both quite happy.''

''Ronnie Devlin is the first man I ever met who was more trouble dead than most men are alive.'''