Jerzy Kosinski - Pinball (Kosinski, Jerzy)

PINBALL

Books by Jerzy Kosinski

NOVELS

The Painted Bird

Steps

Being There

The Devil Tree

Cockpit

Blind Date

Passion Play

Pinball

The Hermit of 69th Street

ESSAYS

Notes of the Author

The Art of the Self

Passing By

NONFICTION

(Under the pen name Joseph Novak)

The Future Is Ours, Comrade

No Third Path

Jerzy Kosinski

Copyright 1982, 1983 by Jerzy Kosinski

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

This edition, first published in 1983 by Arcade Publishing, Inc., New York,
incorporates minor textual changes and revisions.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kosinski, Jerzy N., 1933-1991

Pinball / Jerzy Kosinski.

p. cm.

eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-9576-0

1. Missing personsFiction. 2. MusiciansFiction. I. Title.

PS3561.08P5 1996

81354dc20 96-24958

Grove Press

841 Broadway

New York, NY 10003

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the publishers named below for permission to reprint the following material:

Excerpt from Under Which Lyre from W. H. Auden: Collected Poems by W. H. Auden: copyright1946 by W. H. Auden. Courtesy of Random House.

Excerpt from Ulysses by James Joyce, copyright1914, 1918 by Margaret Caroline Anderson, and renewed 1942, 1944 by Nora Joseph Joyce. Reprinted by permission of Random House, The Bodley Head, and the Society of Authors, literary representative of the Estate of James Joyce.

Excerpt from Hypocrite Auteur from New and Collected Poems 1917-1982 by Archibald MacLeish. Copyright1985 by The Estate of Archibald MacLeish. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.

Excerpts from The Book of Rock Quotes by Jonathan Green used by permission of the Publishers, Omnibus Press, UK/Music Sales Corporation, USA/Angus & Robertson, Australia.

Excerpt from His Confidence from Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., M. B. Yeats, Anne Yeats, Macmillan London Limited, and A. P. Watt Ltd. Copyright 1933 by Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., renewed1961 by Bertha Georgie Yeats.

Excerpts from The Legacy of the Blues by Samuel Charters, copyright1977 by Samuel Charters. Published by Marion Boyars, Ltd., London, and Da Capo Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

The excerpts and translations from Chopin: The Man by Arthur Hedley, Studies, Preludes and Impromptus by Robert Collet, and The Songs by Bernard Jacobson, which are included in Frdric Chopin: Profiles of the Man and the Musician, edited by Alan Walker (Taplinger Publishing Co., Inc., 1967;1966 by Barrie & Rockliff), are reprinted by kind permission.

To Katherina v. F., with love
like no other,
and to the memory of Goddard Lieberson
and Boris Pregel

The man that hath no music in himself
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus;
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

SHAKESPEARE
Merchant of Venice

For he who has once had to listen
will listen always, whether he knows
he will never hear anything again,
or whether he does not Silence
once broken will never again be whole.

BECKETT
The Unnamable

When Patrick Domostroy turned the ignition key of his car, no sound came from the engine and no lights showed on the dashboard. He tried again and again, and still nothing happened: the battery was dead.

Knowing that in his neighborhood it would take at least an hour to get a mechanic to show up and not wanting to lose the time, he unbolted the battery from its brackets and put it in an old canvas bag he kept in the trunk of the car. Then he carefully lugged the bag the full length of the parking lot, and when he reached the street, he hailed a taxi.

In a few minutes he was at the National Know How, the largest automobile service station in the South Bronx. A big sign reading Wouldnt You Rather Know How? loomed above the main entrance.

Canvas bag in hand, Domostroy went to the manager, a big-bellied guy in a blue work shirt, with JIM stitched on his white coveralls.

Will you charge a battery for me? asked Domostroy.

Sure, said Jim. Just bring her in.

Here, Domostroy said, setting down the bag on the floor.

Jim looked at the bag, then at Domostroy over his glasses. The car, he said, pronouncing each word deliberately; bring the car in.

I cant, said Domostroy. It wouldnt go with a dead battery.

Couldnt you jump-start it? Jim asked.

A jump-start is not enough: It needs a full charge. I just took the battery out, grabbed a taxi and here it is! He prodded the bag open with the tip of his shoe.

Jim lifted his eyes wearily and asked, Where is the car?

In the Old Glorys parking lot, Domostroy replied.

You brought thisJim pointed at the batteryin a cab?

Sure. It was too heavy to carry all the way here on foot, said Domostroy.

Jims expression changed. Taking his glasses off, he kicked the bag shut. He called to another mechanic. Pete, will you come here for a minute!

Pete, a slim young man, looked up, saw Jim and Domostroy, and put down his wrench. Coming, he said.

Turning to Pete, Jim pointed at the canvas bag. Guess whats in that? he said brightly, with the air of a host on a TV game show.

Petes eyes circled from the bag to the visitor, back to the bag, then back to Jim. I, dont know, he said with a shrug.

Just guess, said Jim, clapping him on the back.

Petes eyes measured Domostroy, then the bag. Dirty laundry, he said.

Wrong, Jim answered triumphantly.

A bowling ball?

Wrong again! Try once more, Jim prodded.

Pete took his time. A dead dog, he ventured.

Deadright! Dogwrong, Jim announced, kicking the bag open. Its a dead battery! And this guy, he said, pointing at Domostroy, brought it here. After pausing for effect, he added, In a cab!

But wheres his car? asked Pete.

Couldnt come with its battery dead, Domostroy broke in, so the battery had to come without it.

In a cab? asked Pete.

In a cab. To save time.

Shaking his head, Pete wandered away.

Jim started to write out a work order. Ive been twenty years at National Know How, he said, bending over the form. Plenty of people tow in cars with dead batteries. But youre the first to haul in a dead battery without a car. He paused. What kind of work do you do?

Im a musician, said Domostroy.

You have an accent, said Jim. Where are you from?

South Bronx, said Domostroy.

I meanbefore that. Where does that accent come from?