Dear Mr. Carraway. This has been one of the most terrible shocks of my life to me I hardly can believe it that it is true at all. Such a mad act as that man did should make us all think. I cannot come down now as I am tied up in some very important business and cannot get mixed up in this thing now. If there is anything I can do a little later let me know in a letter by Edgar. I hardly know where I am when I hear about a thing like this and am completely knocked down and out.
Yours truly
MEYER WOLFSHIEMand then hasty addenda beneath:
Let me know about the funeral etc do not know his family at all.
When the phone rang that afternoon and Long Distance said Chicago was calling I thought this would be Daisy at last. But the connection came through as a mans voice, very thin and far away.
This is Slagle speaking
Yes? The name was unfamiliar.
Hell of a note, isnt it? Get my wire?
There havent been any wires.
Young Parkes in trouble, he said rapidly. They picked him up when he handed the bonds over the counter. They got a circular from New York giving em the numbers just five minutes before. What dyou know about that, hey? You never can tell in these hick towns
Hello! I interrupted breathlessly. Look here this isnt Mr. Gatsby. Mr. Gatsbys dead.
There was a long silence on the other end of the wire, followed by an exclamation then a quick squawk as the connection was broken.
* * *I think it was on the third day that a telegram signed Henry C. Gatz arrived from a town in Minnesota. It said only that the sender was leaving immediately and to postpone the funeral until he came.
It was Gatsbys father, a solemn old man, very helpless and dismayed, bundled up in a long cheap ulster against the warm September day. His eyes leaked continuously with excitement, and when I took the bag and umbrella from his hands he began to pull so incessantly at his sparse grey beard that I had difficulty in getting off his coat. He was on the point of collapse, so I took him into the music room and made him sit down while I sent for something to eat. But he wouldnt eat, and the glass of milk spilled from his trembling hand.
I saw it in the Chicago newspaper, he said. It was all in the Chicago newspaper. I started right away.
I didnt know how to reach you.
His eyes, seeing nothing, moved ceaselessly about the room.
It was a madman, he said. He must have been mad.
Wouldnt you like some coffee? I urged him.
I dont want anything. Im all right now, Mr.
Carraway.
Well, Im all right now. Where have they got Jimmy?
I took him into the drawing-room, where his son lay, and left him there. Some little boys had come up on the steps and were looking into the hall; when I told them who had arrived, they went reluctantly away.
After a little while Mr. Gatz opened the door and came out, his mouth ajar, his face flushed slightly, his eyes leaking isolated and unpunctual tears. He had reached an age where death no longer has the quality of ghastly surprise, and when he looked around him now for the first time and saw the height and splendour of the hall and the great rooms opening out from it into other rooms, his grief began to be mixed with an awed pride. I helped him to a bedroom upstairs; while he took off his coat and vest I told him that all arrangements had been deferred until he came.
I didnt know what youd want, Mr. Gatsby
Gatz is my name.
Mr. Gatz. I thought you might want to take the body West.
He shook his head.
Jimmy always liked it better down East. He rose up to his position in the East. Were you a friend of my boys, Mr. ?
We were close friends.
He had a big future before him, you know. He was only a young man, but he had a lot of brain power here.
I didnt know what youd want, Mr. Gatsby
Gatz is my name.
Mr. Gatz. I thought you might want to take the body West.
He shook his head.
Jimmy always liked it better down East. He rose up to his position in the East. Were you a friend of my boys, Mr. ?
We were close friends.
He had a big future before him, you know. He was only a young man, but he had a lot of brain power here.
He touched his head impressively, and I nodded.
If hed of lived, hed of been a great man. A man like James J. Hill[99]. Hed of helped build up the country.
Thats true, I said, uncomfortably.
He fumbled at the embroidered coverlet, trying to take it from the bed, and lay down stiffly was instantly asleep.
That night an obviously frightened person called up, and demanded to know who I was before he would give his name.
This is Mr. Carraway, I said.
Oh! He sounded relieved. This is Klipspringer.
I was relieved too, for that seemed to promise another friend at Gatsbys grave. I didnt want it to be in the papers and draw a sightseeing crowd, so Id been calling up a few people myself. They were hard to find.
The funerals tomorrow, I said. Three oclock, here at the house. I wish youd tell anybody whod be interested.
Oh, I will, he broke out hastily. Of course Im not likely to see anybody, but if I do.
His tone made me suspicious.
Of course youll be there yourself.