Show FICTION FK ON I 1 THE BUILDUP BUILD UP borner J 1 by RUBE GOLDBERG I 1 was ambling along in my car counting posts and watching my nervous windshield wiper as it slapped out a clear segment of a circle when I 1 spied a smallish man walking ahead the back of his neck seemed a bit scrawny and a little round hat sat on top of his head as though a vagrant breeze had dropped it there he was carrying a small bunch of flowers when I 1 pulled alongside I 1 asked him it if be he wanted a lift his clothes were limp with the steady drizzle and he seemed emed to have walked a long way I 1 ve on only y got a short way to go now he said it am ain t hardly worth bothering about jump in anyway I 1 said you re all soaked all right but I 1 in only going around the bend there to cypress hills As he got into the car he held the flowers high so as not to break the stems cypress hills I 1 repeated by way of showing a little interest a cemetery isn t it ita yes its a cemetery oh I 1 said flowers cemetery rain I 1 kept a respectful silence whence when we had driven a short dis tance there was a great rumble of thunder through the low hills and the this sky opened with a sudden torrent that weeks made the surround ing landscape a wet best blur guess I 1 pull fiction up alongside the I 1 road until it blows over I 1 told my passenger neither of us spoke for a W while ile the great clatter of the storm out side rendered the silence behind the closed windows a little oppressive presently the little man said M my y wife is buried over there he point ed in the direction of cypress hills I 1 in sorry I 1 answered when 0 just a few weeks ago was it sudden or he ignored my unfinished ques alon and said absently it s strange what a delicate thing life is it can be cut off by an accidental move or even a thoughtless word some thing you say can snap it off just like a thin piece of thread there was a clap of thunder and the downpour wrapped us in a fresh film of rain the little man told me his story I 1 give it to you in ris ils words as closely as I 1 can remember them martha spent her whole life trying to build me up into something she started right at the wedding she was about an inch taller than me and she wore her flattest heels at the wedding and stooped over a little when the minister stood us up for the ceremony she looked so proud you d think she was marrying a millionaire and me only a book keeper at the mill there wasn gasn t much about me she could brag about but she made up a lot ol 01 things she said she won me away from a fancy blonde named tillie and told how I 1 saved the company s payroll when six armed bandits broke into the mill of course there wasn gasn t any blonde named tillie and the six armed bandits were just two fellows who looked in when they saw a light and asked the road to cloverdale martha gasn wasn t very strong and got spells now and then they said it was her heart I 1 didn dian t pay much attention to what the doctor said I 1 d always make her rest after one of her spells and she d come how did it goa I 1 she cried around fine jed miley down at the post office told me his wife was like that and as long as they didn dian t get any excitement or shock they could live to be a hundred martha al ways rested when I 1 told her but she never really rested even when she was lying down her mind was working she was thinking how she could make the town know what a great husband she had I 1 tried to explain that it didn dian t matter as long as we were happy but she kept on being riled I 1 just kind of hoped something big would happen to me for martha s sake well sir it was like the hand of fate something big did happen at last at least it was big to martha and me mr clawson the dent of the mill was getting up a dinner in honor of the town council and asked me to make a speech when I 1 came home and told mar tha that evening she nearly jumped out of her skin I 1 had never made a speech before in my life I 1 was scared stiff at the thought of it but martha was going to prove everything she had said about me through that speech I 1 just had to show mister clawson and the coun oilmen she was right the dinner was two weeks off and during that time martha got some of the red back in her cheeks and she moved around more lively than she had in years she made me get a dinner coat with all the fixings that went with it she had the studs screwed in the shirt four days be fore the banquet after we wrote the speech we went over it here and there until it sounded right each evening after dinner we d go to the kitchen where people couldn coulden t look in and I 1 d stand on a chair and make the speech I 1 must have delivered that speech at least f fifty times well the big night finally came when I 1 got dressed up I 1 looked pret N ILI t ax 4 I 1 t have told her ty good martha stood at the gate waving good by and looked ten years younger I 1 was sort of choked up and happy I 1 was only sorry she t come along it was just for men you know I 1 left my car in front of the house and walked down to the clifton hotel so I 1 could go over my speech just one last time when I 1 got there I 1 said hello to everybody even longyear president of the bank I 1 d never spoken to him before I 1 felt pretty important tto THEY HEY put me on the platform next to charlie summons simmons who is quite a wit around these parts he has one of those ventriloquist dummies and also does card tricks he told me a few jokes and I 1 laughed al though I 1 didn dian t listen I 1 took a taste of the soup but after that I 1 couldn coulden t eat a thing the speech kept pound mg ing in my head after the ice cream mister claw son rapped for order and made a flowery speech about the town coun cil then the head of the council said a lot of nice things about the mill and how much good it had done the town more speeches fol foi lowed each time the toastmaster got ready to call on the next speak er I 1 shook all over thinking it might be me it seemed that everybody in town was making a speech my mouth got dry then simmons got up and did his dummy act and some card tricks he went over to the piano and sang some songs people called tor for more they all laughed and sang with him I 1 looked at my watch it was eleven 0 clock I 1 managed to get my head clear and quickly thought over the first few paragraphs of my speech they were saving me for the last A sort of surprise I 1 thought then mister clawson got up and his voice sound ed far off he said some of the boys wanted to play poker and others wanted to sit around and chat it was too late tor for more speeches after hearing simmons any more talk would be tame it was a wonderful evening and everybody had enjoyed it thoroughly they all stood up and sang auld lang syne the dinner was over you can t blame me for not being able to think clearly after that I 1 was so disappointed I 1 got kind of numb I 1 sneaked out through the back door and went home martha ran down to the front gate and grabbed me around the neck she cried how did it go 1 I said they didn dian t call on me I 1 sho ulan t have told her the truth it was a dreadful blunder |