The Wayward Bus (37 page)

The night was very black, but a new breeze had come up, bearing the semenous smell of grass and the spice of lupine. The headlights tunneled the night over the road and an owl flew flashing in and out of the light. Far ahead a rabbit crossing the road looked into the lights so that its eyes glowed red, and then it hopped clear into the ditch.

Juan kept the bus in second gear and missed the waterscored ruts with his wheels. The inside of the bus was dark except for the dash lights. Juan let his eyes dart to the Virgin. “I ask only one thing,” he said in his mind. “I gave up the other, but it would be nice if you could make it so she was sober when I get back.”

Mrs. Pritchard was not rigid any more. Her head swayed with the movement of the bus and she was dreaming. She was dressed in—what—what would she have on? Something light. It would have to be white. And she was taking Ellen through her little orchid house. “You wonder why I keep a few purple orchids?” she asked Ellen. “Well, everybody has relatives who like purple ones. Even you have, Ellen, you know that. But look over here. These are just coming—the lovely browns and greens. Elliott ordered those from Brazil. They came from a thousand miles up the Amazon.”

On the floor of the bus the pickax clinked against the shovel.

Pimples leaned close to Juan's ear. “I could take her over, Mr. Chicoy. You're tired out. I'll drive if you want.”

“No, thanks, Kit, you've had enough.”

“But I ain't tired.”

“It's all right,” said Juan.

Mildred could see Juan's profile against the lighted road. “I wonder how long I can make the day last. Like a peppermint stick. I'll have to hold on to today until I can get another one as good.”

Over the banging and the bouncing of the bus Mr. Pritchard listened for the breathing of Van Brunt. He could just barely see the face against the seat. He found that he hated this man because he was dying. He inspected his hatred in amazement. He felt that he could strangle this man easily and get it over with. “What kind of a thing am I?” he cried. “What makes these horrible things in me? Am I going crazy? Maybe I've been working too hard. Maybe this is a nervous breakdown.”

He leaned close to make sure that the breathing of the sick man was not cut off. There would be a bad bruise in the roof of his mouth where the stick was wedged. He heard a little stir and saw that Ernest Horton had come back and taken the next seat.

“You want me to take over?”

“No,” said Mr. Pritchard. “I guess everything's all right. What do you suppose it is?”

“It's a stroke,” said Ernest. “I didn't mean to blast you today. I was just nervous.”

“Just one of those days,” said Mr. Pritchard. “When things are pretty bad my wife says, ‘It'll be funny some time.' ”

“Well, that's a good way to look at it if you can do it,” said Ernest. “I'll be at the Hollywood Plaza if you want to give me a call. Or try that apartment some night—that number I gave you.”

“I'm going to be all tied up, I'm afraid,” said Mr. Pritchard. “I wish you'd look in at the plant some time, though. We might do business yet.”

“We might at that,” said Ernest.

Norma sat next to the window now and Camille was by her side. Norma leaned her elbow on the window sill and looked out at the fluttering dark. There was a little rim of lighter sky around the edge of a great dark cloud over the western mountains, and then as the cloud lifted the evening star
¹
shone out of it, clear and washed and steady.

“Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, wish I may, wish I might, get the wish I wish tonight.”

Camille turned her head sleepily. “What did you say?”

Norma was silent for a moment. Then she asked softly, “We'll see how it goes?”

“Yeah, we'll see how it goes,” said Camille.

Far ahead and a little to the left a cluster of lights came into view—little lights winking with distance, lost and lonely in the night, remote and cold and winking, strung on chains.

Juan looked at them and called, “That's San Juan up ahead.”

NOTES

1
Hollywood:
Center of the American film industry north of Los Angeles. First studio established there in 1911.

2
newspaper king:
William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), publisher of the San Francisco
Examiner
, built the palatial mansion San Simeon on a vast estate near U.S. Highway 1 along the California coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

3
Coca-Cola girls:
The popular cola drink was often advertised on posters featuring fresh-faced women in provocative poses drawn by such artists as Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942).

4
the big Greyhound busses:
The Greyhound Bus Company was founded in 1914 and adopted its running dog logo in 1926. It was prominently featured in the movie
It Happened One Night
(1934), which won all five major Academy Awards (best picture, best actor, best actress, best director, best screenplay) the year of its release.

5
Clark Gable:
(1901-1960) a popular actor voted the so-called King of Hollywood in 1938. He had recently returned from military service in Europe with the Eighth Air Force. He also starred in
It Happened One Night
. See note 4 above.

6
the race of Amudkins, who preceded the Atomites:
Steinbeck coins names for two races—Amudkins or “kin to mud,” a term that evokes the Genesis creation myth of Adam and Eve, and Atomites, or the race of people who live in an atomic age.

7
the Sinatras, the Van Johnsons, the Sonny Tufts:
Handsome matinee idols Frank Sinatra (1915-1998); Van Johnson (1916- ); and Sonny Tufts (1911-1970), the latter best known (if at all) for spanking Betty Hutton in the movie
Cross My Heart
(1946).

8
National Dollar Stores:
A chain of dry goods stores mostly located in the western United States and the target of a strike by San Francisco garment workers in 1938.

9
Aztec calendar stone:
Also known as the sun stone, the most important archaeological artifact discovered in Mexico. The original stone, with a diameter of about twelve feet and etched with hieroglyphics, was discovered in 1790 buried in the main square of Mexico City.

1
penates:
The Roman gods of the home.

2
Virgin of Guadalupe:
According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego on December 9 and again on December 12, 1531. The Miracle of Guadalupe was formally recognized by the Vatican in 1709, and Juan Diego was canonized in 2002. Annual celebrations of “the Queen of Mexico,” the protector of the poor and weak, are still held throughout the country on December 12.

3
out had gone St. Patrick and St. Bridget:
St. Patrick (387-493), the patron saint of Ireland; and St. Bridget or Brigid or Bride (451?-525), the patroness of Ireland.

4
Guadalupana:
The Virgin of Guadalupe. See note 2 above.

5
“Take Ford”:
Henry Ford (1863-1947) American automaker.

6
Kit Carson:
(1809-1868) Western scout and frontiersman.

1
He looked like Truman:
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) thirty-third President of the United States (1945-1953).

2
little blue enamel bar with white stars on it:
The Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor in combat against an enemy that may be given to an individual in the U.S. military.

3
Eugene Debs:
Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) American socialist leader and candidate for president in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920.

4
The Spanish war:
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) pitted the Republicans, assisted by leftists from around the world, against the Nationalists led by Francisco Franco (1892-1975) and supported by the Fascist regimes in Germany and Italy.

5
stolen private property:
All private oil companies in Mexico, including foreign-owned ones, were ordered in March 1938 to sell their assets to the Mexican government, effectively nationalizing the petroleum industry.

6
Baby Ruth:
A candy bar introduced in 1920 by the Curtiss Candy Company and ostensibly named after Baby Ruth Cleveland (d. 1904), the infant daughter of President Grover Cleveland (1837-1908). The baseball star Babe Ruth (1895-1948) was later prevented from using his own name on a candy bar on the grounds of copyright infringement.

1
James Stewart:
(1908-1991), American star of such films as
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(1939) and
It's a Wonderful Life
(1946), directed by Frank Capra. As a bomber pilot in World War II he was awarded the Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross.

2
Melrose Grotto:
Located in the 5500 block of Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles adjacent to several sound studios.

3
RKO:
Abbreviation for Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation, a major Hollywood studio and theater chain established in 1929.

4
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer:
A major Hollywood studio headed by Samuel Goldwyn (1882-1974) and Louis B. Mayer (1885-1957). The studio had produced the film version of
Tortilla Flat
in 1942.

5
Santa Ana:
Seat of Orange County in southern California, incorporated in 1886.

6
Rhett Butler:
Clark Gable's most famous role as a scalawag in the film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's
Gone With the Wind
(1939).

7
“Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman and Joan Fontaine”:
Bette Davis (1908- 1989), Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982), and Joan Fontaine (1917- ) were Hollywood leading ladies.

1
jabots:
Decorative ruffles on the front of a dress.

2
“. . . I even figured out a little bag to carry them in.”:
The idea for this invention originated with Steinbeck. As he reminisced in 1954,“Some years ago I invented silk slip covers for the lapels of a dark suit to make it a dinner jacket. . . . It was for salesmen and for people who fly a lot and can't take much luggage. A lovely idea.” See
Steinbeck: A Life in Letters
, ed. Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten (New York: Viking Press, 1975), p. 493.

3
Puebla, Cuernavaca, Tasco, Acapulco:
Popular tourist destinations in Mexico.

4
volcano:
Paricutin volcano, 220 miles west of Mexico City, first erupted in a level cornfield and remained in continuous eruption from 1943 until 1952.

1
Lions Club:
A fraternal business organization founded in 1917.

2
Bob Hope, or, better, Bing Crosby:
In the four “Road” musical comedies released prior to publication of Steinbeck's novel (
Road to Singapore
[1940],
Road to Zanzibar
[1941],
Road to Morocco
[1942], and
Road to Utopia
[1946]) Bob Hope (1903-2003) and Bing Crosby (1904-1977) play a pair of scheming partners, with Crosby's character in the end always winning the love of the female lead. Crosby was the top Hollywood box-office draw five consecutive years (1944-1948); Hope was fifth in 1946 and sixth in 1947. In one of his wartime dispatches to the
New York Herald Tribune
( July 26, 1943), Steinbeck insisted that “When the time for recognition of service to the nation in wartime comes to be considered, Bob Hope should be high on the list” (
American and Americans and Selected Nonfiction
, ed. Susan Shillinglaw and Jackson J. Benson [New York: Viking, 2002], pp. 293-95).

3
Time
and
Newsweek: Among the most important news developments at the time the novel appeared concerned the Chinese Civil War, waged between Communist forces loyal to Mao Tse-tung and the Nationalists loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, and the negotiations between the Hindu-dominated Congress Party and Moslem League to establish self-government in India. The same month Steinbeck's novel appeared, in fact, the government of Great Britain announced it would withdraw its colonial representatives in June 1948, eventually permitting partition into India and Pakistan.

4
stags:
Male-only parties.

5
new treatment:
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), Howard W. Florey (1898-1968), and Ernst B. Chain (1906-1979) shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 for developing penicillin as an antibiotic.

6
Captain Hornblower:
None of the five books by C. S. Forester (1899- 1966) featuring the intrepid Captain Horatio Hornblower published between 1937 and 1946 was entitled
Captain Hornblower
, though the most recent volumes in the series were entitled
Commodore Hornblower
(1945) and
Lord Hornblower
(1946).

7
and a
Life of Beethoven: Probably
Life of Beethoven
, the first modern biography of the composer, by Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1817- 1897), a well-known music historian, most recently reprinted in 1921 by the Beethoven Association.

8
the short stories of Saroyan:
William Saroyan (1908-1981) was an American writer and, like Steinbeck, a native of California. Ironically, he wrote an unused screen treatment of
The Wayward Bus
a decade later.

1
Bellodgia:
A perfume with a floral scent, named after the Italian town of Bellagio on Lake Como.