Cannery Row

by John Steinbeck

  He put on a pot of coffee, started the Great Fugue on the phonograph, and took a shower. He was very quick about it, for he was dressed in clean clothes and was having his cup of coffee before the music was completed.

  He looked out through the window at the lot and up at the Palace but no one was moving. Doc didn't know who or how many were coming to his party. But he knew he was watched. He had been conscious of it all day. Not that he had seen anyone, but someone or several people had kept him in sight. So it was to be a surprise party. He might as well be surprised. He would follow his usual routine as though nothing were happening. He crossed to Lee Chong's and bought two quarts of beer. There seemed to be a suppressed Oriental excitement at Lee's. So they were coming too. Doc went back to the laboratory and poured out a glass of beer. He drank the first off for thirst and poured a second one for taste. The lot and the street were still deserted.

  Mack and the boys were in the Palace and the door was closed. All afternoon the stove had roared, heating water for baths. Even Darling had been bathed and she wore a red bow around her neck.

  "What time you think we should go over?" Hazel asked.

  "I don't think before eight o'clock," said Mack. "But I don't see nothin' against us havin' a short one to kind of get warmed up."

  "How about Doc getting warmed up?" Hughie said. "Maybe I ought to just take him a bottle like it was just nothing."

  "No," said Mack. "Doc just went over to Lee's for some beer."

  "You think he suspects anything?" Jones asked.

  "How could he?" asked Mack.

  In the corner cage two tom cats started an argument and the whole cageful commented with growls and arched backs. There were only twenty-one cats. They had fallen short of their mark.

  "I wonder how we'll get them cats over there?" Hazel began. "We can't carry that big cage through the door."

  "We won't," said Mack. "Remember how it was with the frogs. No, we'll just tell Doc about them. He can come over and get them." Mack got up and opened one of Eddie's wining jugs. "We might as well get warmed up," he said.

  At five-thirty the old Chinaman flap-flapped down the hill, past the Palace. He crossed the lot, crossed the street, and disappeared between Western Biological and the Hediondo.

  At the Bear Flag the girls were getting ready. A kind of anchor watch had been chosen by straws. The ones who stayed were to be relieved every hour.

  Dora was splendid. Her hair freshly dyed orange was curled and piled on her head. She wore her wedding ring and a big diamond brooch on her breast. Her dress was white silk with a black bamboo pattern. In the bedrooms the reverse of ordinary procedure was in practice.

  Those who were staying wore long evening dresses while those who were going had on short print dresses and looked very pretty. The quilt, finished and backed, was in a big cardboard box in the bar. The bouncer grumbled a little, for it had been decided that he couldn't go to the party. Someone had to look after the house. Contrary to orders, each girl had a pint hidden and each girl watched for the signal to fortify herself a little for the party.

  Dora strode magnificently into her office and closed the door. She unlocked the top drawer of the rolltop desk, took out a bottle and a glass and poured herself a snort. And the bottle clinked softly on the glass. A girl listening outside the door heard the clink and spread the word. Dora would not be able to smell breaths now. And the girls rushed for their rooms and got out their pints. Dusk had come to Cannery Row, the gray time between daylight and street light. Phyllis Mae peeked around the curtain in the front parlor.

  "Can you see him?" Doris asked.

  "Yeah. He's got the lights on. He's sitting there like he's reading. Jesus, how that guy does read. You'd think he'd ruin his eyes. He's got a glass of beer in his hand."

  "Well," said Doris, "we might as well have a little one, I guess."

  Phyllis Mae was still limping a little but she was as good as new. She could, she said, lick her weight in City Councilmen. "Seems kind of funny," she said. "There he is, sitting over there and he don't know what's going to happen."

  "He never comes in here for a trick," Doris said a little sadly.

  "Lots of guys don't want to pay," said Phyllis Mae. "Costs them more but they figure it different."

  "Well, hell, maybe he likes them."

  "Likes who?"

  "Them girls that go over there."

  "Oh, yeah--maybe he does. I been over there. He never made a pass at me."

  "He wouldn't," said Doris. "But that don't mean if you didn't work here you wouldn't have to fight your way out."

  "You mean he don't like our profession?"

  "No, I don't mean that at all. He probably figures a girl that's workin' has got a different attitude."

  They had another small snort.

  In her office Dora poured herself one more, swallowed it and locked the drawer again. She fixed her perfect hair in the wall mirror, inspected her shining red nails, and went out to the bar. Alfred the bouncer was sulking. It wasn't anything he said nor was his expression unpleasant, but he was sulking just the same. Dora looked him over coldly. "I guess you figure you're getting the blocks, don't you?"

  "No," said Alfred. "No, it's quite all right."

  That quite threw Dora. "Quite all right, is it? You got a job, Mister. Do you want to keep it or not?"

  "It's quite all right," Alfred said frostily. "I ain't putting out no beef." He put his elbows on the bar and studied himself in the mirror. "You just go and enjoy yourself," he said. "I'll take care of everything here. You don't need to worry."

  Dora melted under his pain. "Look," she said. "I don't like to have the place without a man. Some lush might get smart and the kids couldn't handle him. But a little later you can come over and you could kind of keep your eye on the place out the window. How would that be? You could see if anything happened."

  "Well," said Alfred, "I would like to come." He was mollified by her permission. "Later I might drop over for just a minute or two. They was a mean drunk in last night. An' I don't know, Dora--I kind of lost my nerve since I bust that guy's back. I just ain't sure of myself no more. I'm gonna pull a punch some night and get took."

  "You need a rest," said Dora. "Maybe I'll get Mack to fill in and you can take a couple of weeks off." She was a wonderful madam, Dora was.

  Over at the laboratory, Doc had a little whiskey after his beer. He was feeling a little mellow. It seemed a nice thing to him that they would give him a party. He played the Pavane to a Dead Princess and felt sentimental and a little sad. And because of his feeling he went on with Daphnis and Chloe. There was a passage in it that reminded him of something else. The observers in Athens before Marathon reported seeing a great line of dust crossing the Plain, and they heard the clash of arms and they heard the Eleusinian Chant. There was part of the music that reminded him of that picture.

  When it was done he got another whiskey and he debated in his mind about the Brandenburg. That would snap him out of the sweet and sickly mood he was getting into. But what was wrong with the sweet and sickly mood? It was rather pleasant. "I can play anything I want," he said aloud. "I can play Clair de Lune or The Maiden with Flaxen Hair. I'm a free man."

  He poured a whiskey and drank it. And he compromised with the Moonlight Sonata. He could see the neon light of La Ida blinking on and off. And then the street light in front of the Bear Flag came on.

  A squadron of huge brown beetles hurled themselves against the light and then fell to the ground and moved their legs and felt around with their antennae. A lady cat strolled lonesomely along the gutter looking for adventure. She wondered what had happened to all the tom cats who had made life interesting and the nights hideous.

  Mr. Malloy on his hands and knees peered out of the boiler door to see if anyone had gone to the party yet. In the Palace the boys sat restlessly watching the black hands of the alarm clock.

  30

  The nature of parties has been imperfectly studied. It is, however, generally
understood that a party has a pathology, that it is a kind of an individual and that it is likely to be a very perverse individual. And it is also generally understood that a party hardly ever goes the way it is planned or intended. This last, of course, excludes those dismal slave parties, whipped and controlled and dominated, given by ogreish professional hostesses. These are not parties at all but acts and demonstrations, about as spontaneous as peristalsis and as interesting as its end product.

  Probably everyone in Cannery Row had projected his imagination to how the party would be--the shouts of greeting, the congratulation, the noise and good feeling. And it didn't start that way at all. Promptly at eight o'clock Mack and the boys, combed and clean, picked up their jugs and marched down the chicken walk, over the railroad track, through the lot across the street and up the steps of Western Biological. Everyone was embarrassed. Doc held the door open and Mack made a little speech. "Being as how it's your birthday, I and the boys thought we would wish you happy birthday and we got twenty-one cats for you for a present."

  He stopped and they stood forlornly on the stairs.

  "Come on in," said Doc. "Why--I'm--I'm surprised. I didn't even know you knew it was my birthday. "

  "All tom cats," said Hazel. "We didn't bring 'em down."

  They sat down formally in the room at the left. There was a long silence. "Well," said Doc, "now you're here, how about a little drink?"

  Mack said, "We brought a little snort," and he indicated the three jugs Eddie had been accumulating. "They ain't no beer in it," said Eddie.

  Doc covered his early evening reluctance. "No," he said. "You've got to have a drink with me. It just happens I laid in some whiskey."

  They were just seated formally, sipping delicately at the whiskey, when Dora and the girls came in. They presented the quilt. Doc laid it over his bed and it was beautiful. And they accepted a little drink. Mr. and Mrs. Malloy followed with their presents.

  "Lots of folks don't know what this stuff's going to be worth," said Sam Malloy as he brought out the Chalmers 1916 piston and connecting rod. "There probably isn't three of these here left in the world."

  And now people began to arrive in droves. Henri came in with a pincushion three by four feet. He wanted to give a lecture on his new art form but by this time the formality was broken. Mr. and Mrs. Gay came in. Lee Chong presented the great string of firecrackers and the China lily bulbs. Someone ate the lily bulbs by eleven o'clock but the firecrackers lasted longer. A group of comparative strangers came in from La Ida. The stiffness was going out of the party quickly. Dora sat in a kind of throne, her orange hair flaming. She held her whiskey glass daintily with her little finger extended. And she kept an eye on the girls to see that they conducted themselves properly. Doc put dance music on the phonograph and he went to the kitchen and began to fry the steaks.

  The first fight was not a bad one. One of the group from La Ida made an immoral proposal to one of Dora's girls. She protested and Mack and the boys, outraged at this breach of propriety, threw him out quickly and without breaking anything. They felt good then, for they knew they were contributing.

  Out in the kitchen Doc was frying steaks in three skillets, and he cut up tomatoes and piled up sliced bread. He felt very good. Mack was personally taking care of the phonograph. He had found an album of Benny Goodman's trios. Dancing had started, indeed the party was beginning to take on depth and vigor. Eddie went into the office and did a tap dance. Doc had taken a pint with him to the kitchen and he helped himself from the bottle. He was feeling better and better. Everybody was surprised when he served the meat. Nobody was really hungry and they cleaned it up instantly. Now the food set the party into a kind of rich digestive sadness. The whiskey was gone and Doc brought out the gallons of wine.

  Dora, sitting enthroned, said, "Doc, play some of that nice music. I get Christ awful sick of that juke box over home."

  Then Doc played Ardo and the Amor from an album of Monteverdi. And the guests sat quietly and their eyes were inward. Dora breathed beauty. Two newcomers crept up the stairs and entered quietly. Doc was feeling a golden pleasant sadness. The guests were silent when the music stopped. Doc brought out a book and he read in a clear, deep voice: Even now

  If I see in my soul the citron-breasted fair one

  Still gold-tinted, her face like our night stars,

  Drawing unto her; her body beaten about with

  flame,

  Wounded by the flaring spear of love,

  My first of all by reason of her fresh years,

  Then is my heart buried alive in snow.

  Even now

  If my girl with lotus eyes came to me again

  Weary with the dear weight of young love,

  Again I would give her to these starved twins of

  arms

  And from her mouth drink down the heavy wine,

  As a reeling pirate bee in fluttered ease

  Steals up the honey from the nenuphar.

  Even now

  If I saw her lying all wide eyes

  And with collyrium the indent of her cheek

  Lengthened to the bright ear and her pale side

  So suffering the fever of my distance,

  Then would my love for her be ropes of flowers, and

  night

  A black-haired lover on the breasts of day.

  Even now

  My eyes that hurry to see no more are painting,

  painting

  Faces of my lost girl. O golden rings

  That tap against cheeks of small magnolia leaves,

  O whitest so soft parchment where

  My poor divorced lips have written excellent

  Stanzas of kisses, and will write no more.

  Even now

  Death sends me the flickering of powdery lids

  Over wild eyes and the pity of her slim body

  All broken up with the weariness of joy;

  The little red flowers of her breasts to be my

  comfort

  Moving above scarves, and for my sorrow

  Wet crimson lips that once I marked as mine.

  Even now

  They chatter her weakness through the two bazaars

  Who was so strong to love me. And small men

  That buy and sell for silver being slaves

  Crinkle the fat about their eyes; and yet

  No Prince of the Cities of the Sea has taken her,

  Leading to his grim bed. Little lonely one,

  You clung to me as a garment clings; my girl.

  Even now

  I love long black eyes that caress like silk,

  Ever and ever sad and laughing eyes,

  Whose lids make such sweet shadow when they

  close

  It seems another beautiful look of hers.

  I love a fresh mouth, ah, a scented mouth,

  And curving hair, subtle as a smoke,

  And light fingers, and laughter of green gems.

  Even now

  I remember that you made answer very softly,

  We being one soul, your hand on my hair,

  The burning memory rounding your near lips:

  I have seen the priestesses of Rati make love at

  moon fall

  And then in a carpeted hall with a bright gold

  lamp

  Lie down carelessly anywhere to sleep.1

  Phyllis Mae was openly weeping when he stopped and Dora herself dabbed at her eyes. Hazel was so taken by the sound of the words that he had not listened to their meaning. But a little world-sadness had slipped over all of them. Everyone was remembering a lost love, everyone a call.

  Mack said, "Jesus, that's pretty. Reminds me of a dame--" and he let it pass. They filled the wine glasses and became quiet. The party was slipping away in sweet sadness, Eddie went out in the office and did a little tap dance and came back and sat down again. The party was about to recline and go to sleep when there was a tramp of feet on the stairs. A great voice shouted, "Where's the
girls?"

  Mack got up almost happily and crossed quickly to the door. And a smile of joy illuminated the faces of Hughie and Jones. "What girls you got in mind?" Mack asked softly.

  "Ain't this a whore house? Cab driver said they was one down here."

  "You made a mistake, Mister." Mack's voice was gay.

  "Well, what's them dames in there?"

  They joined battle then. They were the crew of a San Pedro tuna boat, good hard happy fight-wise men. With the first rush they burst through to the party. Dora's girls had each one slipped off a shoe and held it by the toe. As the fight raged by they would clip a man on the head with the spike heel. Dora leaped for the kitchen and came roaring out with a meat grinder. Even Doc was happy. He flailed about with the Chalmers 1916 piston and connecting rod.

  It was a good fight. Hazel tripped and got kicked in the face twice before he could get to his feet again. The Franklin stove went over with a crash. Driven to a corner the newcomers defended themselves with heavy books from the bookcases. But gradually they were driven back. The two front windows were broken out. Suddenly Alfred, who had heard the trouble from across the street, attacked from the rear with his favorite weapon, an indoor ball bat. The fight raged down the steps and into the street and across the lot. The front door was hanging limply from one hinge again. Doc's shirt was torn off and his slight strong shoulder dripped blood from a scratch. The enemy was driven half-way up the lot when sirens sounded. Doc's birthday party had barely time to get inside the laboratory and wedge the broken door closed and turn out the lights before the police car cruised up. The cops didn't find anything. But the party was sitting in the dark giggling happily and drinking wine. The shift changed at the Bear Flag. The fresh contingent raged in full of hell. And then the party really got going. The cops came back, looked in, clicked their tongues and joined it. Mack and the boys used the squad car to go to Jimmy Brucia's for more wine and Jimmy came back with them. You could hear the roar of the party from end to end of Cannery Row. The party had all the best qualities of a riot and a night on the barricades. The crew from the San Pedro tuna boat crept humbly back and joined the party. They were embraced and admired. A woman five blocks away called the police to complain about the noise and couldn't get anyone. The cops reported their own car stolen and found it later on the beach. Doc sitting cross-legged on the table smiled and tapped his fingers gently on his knee. Mack and Phyllis Mae were doing Indian wrestling on the floor. And the cool bay wind blew in through the broken windows. It was then that someone lighted the twenty-five-foot string of firecrackers.