Living Witness(98)
“You want a raised ranch? Gregor, you know, if you really do, we could get one. They’re not expensive particularly. But I don’t think they’ll live up to your memory.”
“I don’t want a raised ranch. The town house will do, once we get it set up. But I’m in a raised ranch, you see. The place where I’m staying.”
“Gary Albright’s house.”
“Right. And it’s pretty much the same deal, except this is a lot farther out in the country, so there are houses only on one side of the street, and the yards are bigger. And you know what? I never was comfortable when people made fun of people who wanted houses like this, of people who were happy to have houses like this. I feel like I’m going around in circles here.”
“I understand. You don’t like snobs,” Bennis said. “That’s admirable. I don’t like snobs, either.”
“I know,” Gregor said. “What I’m trying to say, I think, is that I think Gary Albright has built a good and admirable life here. He’s got a lovely wife. He’s got two beautiful children, and the boy is smart as Hell. He lives comfortably. He does his job. What is there to laugh at, exactly?”
“Gregor, if I knew the answers to those kinds of questions, I’d be writing something more serious than fantasy novels.”
“You’d also be making a lot less money,” Gregor said. “Never mind. It’s the kind of thing I think of when I come to places like this. Because our friend Liz is right. She always says that small towns are the cesspit of humanity, and I can see it. I’ve run into people here who would fit, and I’ve heard about others who would really fit. But then there’s this, and this is good, and there’s something wrong about laughing at it.”
Bennis sighed. “Gregor, are you all right? Did something happen?”
“Between ten last night and now? No. I actually called for a reason, it’s just that I’ve been thinking. About a lot of things. About the wedding. Have you managed to get all those women to talk to Tibor again?”
“I think he’d be happier if they stopped talking to him,” Bennis said. “It’s only been a day, Gregor. It will work out. They just think Tibor is being, I don’t know, mean, I suppose, not to let us get married in Holy Trinity.”
“He isn’t refusing to let us get married there,” Gregor pointed out. “We don’t want to get married there. We never asked him. And we won’t. Because I don’t want—”
“Yes, I know,” Bennis said. “It’s all right, really. I’ll do my best, Gregor. I’ve ordered a bunch more chocolate from Box Hill to give to Mrs. Varamanian so she’ll take the evil eye off Tibor. It will work out.”
“The evil eye,” Gregor said.
“They’re just trying to be good to you,” Bennis said.
“Listen,” Gregor said, “do me a favor. Stop planning the wedding and achieving social peace for a minute and call Sister Beata for me. I’d do it myself but I don’t have her number on this phone and I never seem to get ten minutes to myself where I can talk. I want you to ask her about the Catholic Church’s position on evolution and Intelligent Design. If she’s got something on paper, a pamphlet, or she knows of a book, something I could get my hands on and read, that would be even better.”
“This is almost as odd as raised ranches,” Bennis said. “Don’t you already know what you think about evolution? Have you got Catholics there who don’t accept it? I thought what this was about was Protestants, fundamentalists, that kind of thing.”
“It’s not who it is,” Gregor said, “it’s this odd thing. I’ve been here for a day, I must have talked to half a dozen people, they all talk about the lawsuit. But do you know what none of them talks about? Science.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“I mean,” Gregor said, “that if an alien dropped down from his spaceship into this town right this minute and listened to what people are saying, he’d never in a million years guess that this is a scientific question. Everybody is talking, and from what I see they’re doing a fair amount of yelling at each other, but none of them is talking about science. Even the head of the group that’s bringing the lawsuit, this local lawyer named Henry Wackford, even he doesn’t talk about the science. He was on CNN last night, handing out hot and cold running anathemas, and the issues were persecution of atheists, radical fundamentalist nutcases trying to run the country, the rising tide of superstition in the nation, all the fault of eight years of George W. Bush, but not a word about the science. And I find that very odd.”