Visions of Cody

by Jack Kerouac

  EVELYN. Pretty music

  CODY. Pretty music, hm-hm; and ah, course Milly was—she was really quite a nice lil girl, ah, ah we lived—they lived together, of course, I’d spend a many a night there and, but I lived in South L.A. with Harvey of course, but ah, one night Nick said “Say take me over to Whittier, will you?” and so I took him over to Whittier and ah, he’d used to live over there a couple of years ago in a—in a trailer that man-friend of his had, so he “I got something that I gotta get,” so he got it but he didn’t tell me what it was and so we come back, and by this time was pretty drunk, and he pulled it out and it was a gun. He said let’s drive down Main Street so I drove down Main Street, oh in a convertible, a new convertible just, ah, we’d rented, a Mercury, ‘forty-one, this was ‘forty-two, and he ah, shot out the streetlights on Main Street, see, so then…I finally got him home, we got home, and, ah, went to bed, I went to sleep, and I woke up and a couple cops were shaking me and waking me up, detectives see, “Now what’s goin on, where’s the gun?” I said “What gun? what gun?” and I thought Jesus they followed us from Main Street, I don’t see…how they did!—and ah, he said “Come on where’s the gun?” and he started shakin me and here’s Nick sittin on the couch and they punched him around a little bit, see, and he wouldn’t tell them nothin or anything see, so he said “Wal we’ll find it, we’ll find it,” so they did find it, Nick had hidden it under the, ah, dishes in kitchen cupboard. And, ah, so they said “Well come on now, we’re gonna take you down,” and we said “Wait a minute, what’s goin on here now?” and so but he took us all to jail, and then soon as we got into jail, of course there were little incidents on the way and this and that but, I say “What the hell, Nick, how’d they find us,” and he said, “Well,” and then he confessed what had happened—while I was sleeping, passed out evidently, he had taken out the gun to load it, or to clean it, and so we were on the top floor of a four, five floor apartment house, and so he’s workin on the gun like he should do pointing it down toward the ground see but he’s on top of all these other people beneath him, and the gun went off. And I didn’t hear it, imagine, it went off and went through the floor and…landed in the chair beside the bed at the head of a man sleeping there and, ah, ricocheted off into the windowsill, and it’s about three, four o’clock in the morning but instead of havin enough sense to run down and straighten it out with the guy, Nick jumped in bed and covered up his head—after he threw the, after he threw the, ah, gun, up in the the—up in the cupboard, see, so naturally the guy downstairs, ah, ran to the landlady except for the fact even so things might have been alright because the landlady and himself would have come upstairs to inquire perhaps and not call the police, except that the man who—to whom accidentally Nick had shot near his head, was, ah, in fear of his life, he was from South America or something and some two brothers had been hunting him for years to shoot him, to kill him, and so when that happened he screamed, jumped out of the bed, and ran to the landlady, “Call the police,” got on his knees and begged protection and everything, you see, by coincidence…. (laughter) And, ah, oh it was very frantic, he was Puerto Rican or something, or South or something like that, South America, and, ah—I saw the guy, he was in the hallway when they took us downstairs—and ah, that’s what we—Nick found out later, we were in jail there for about ten days while they checked on the gun and everything, they finally let us out, but, ah, Nick was always doing stuff like that. One night, for example, we broke—another Mercury, same thing, rented a car, and we wanted to see who could go around in a circle the fastest on the parking lot see, turn the wheel as tight as you can, then go around, see (Evelyn shudders), from a standing start, well we did it and did it, oh you can do fantastic things with it, but of course, finally I had to beat ’em all you know so—see the idea is, to let out the clutch as fast as possible so you can get that terrific getaway and, you know, and, but, I let out the clutch so fast…that I snapped the universal joint, just went kkk, just broke right—you know, ’cause I just—I r-revved the motorfull, you know, the motor’s goin like crazy, and you let out the clutch, why it just…breaks the driveshaft, see, ’cause the universal joint can’t…immediately, so, we had our hangup there, I, I don’t know what I finally did, we didn’t pay for it or anything like that, never paid for anything in those days. (Evelyn laughs) Ah, those were…crazy times alright. Course that Milly she, after she met me why she liked me and so…after while Nick found out—

  EVELYN. Oh I thought I remembered that name

  CODY.—what was happening, yeah, and so Nick realized that her and I was gettin a little now and then, and so, but still it wasn’t anything between us or anything, he really didn’t care by then, see? So the—but at any rate, ah, we were doing this and that, and this and that, one night there was a girl named Phyllis I picked up and, ah, we rented a car and Nick and Milly and I drove all night and finally I got in the backseat with Phyllis and then Nick went down the hill and ah the brakes gave out plus the fact I don’t think he had it in gear, besides the motor off perhaps also…drunk and everything, at any rate he went through a stop sign at the bottom of the hill and went across the street and up over a curbing at one end to the pillars of the Sunoco station…type, you know those white pillar things, and ah—

  EVELYN. Is that how you broke your nose?

  CODY.—he hit—no, I broke the nose another way, with Nick—

  EVELYN. Nick was there then

  CODY. No, with Nick it was another night, it was very comical, I was with a girl, that Peggy Sneed, you know, the one that I balled all the time? and her—

  EVELYN. Huh?

  CODY. Yeah, this other guy, ah, married her because he loved her, and all that but at any rate…but that happened just accidentally, we was going down very sober in fact, it was about six, seven o’clock at night, goin down Slauson Boulevard, we’d just picked me up and I was driving, of course, you—and so ah, Nick was sittin beside with Milly on his lap, and I said, ah…well I started to kiss her, and ah, instead of…saying “Nick take the wheel,” I just with my hand pointed, at the wheel, obviously thinking that he’d have enough sense to grab the wheel, but instead he thought “Look at me” or “I’m kissing her,” or, ah, pointin at the girl he thought—

  EVELYN. “Watch…watch…”

  CODY. So he, ah—yeah, yeah, “watch,”—so he started watching me and of course naturally no one took the wheel, Milly couldn’t drive anyhow, so at fifteen miles an hour, we were just easing along, twenty at the most, we ran right into a telephone pole and…broke the girl’s rib, Peggy’s, and cut his scalp didn’t hurt Milly, broke my nose. And—but at any rate, they, ah—this time we come down the hill and we hit the post and it snapped the bumper right in two, you know that’s pretty bad, you know, bumpers don’t…break like that, but they did, this one, you know ’cause they spring, but this one didn’t, and, ah, so we’re very drunk, so I got out and saw a flat tire and fixed the flat because I thought we had a flat but instead we had—now that I started to drive away, that took a half hour, and it was all four tires were flat! (laughs)…See, so, so we started plunkin along the, ah, the—we were in Pasadena and we was goin to L.A., it’s about five in the morning, time to go back to work you know, and, so we’re goin along very happy at two miles an hour and, ah, so here comes a car and then I see it’s the cops and then I still say “Well we ain’t done nothin, may as well stop, and try to—” so we got stopped, I told this story before but I mean, it’s what I’m talking about when you tell the same thing over then you just, ah, say the words as they come to your mind that you’ve already thought about before and so there’s nothing—you’re not pleased by it, no one else is, but the fact is, there’s no, ah, spontaneity, or anything, there’s no, ah, pleasure, you see, because you’re—you’re just rehashing old subjects, see? You know. (Evelyn faintly speaks to Cody) Yeah! well, ah, they got us up in court—course, ah, Nick was so mad, course I was very angry too—but all night long he picked up this bunk, ah, that which is held
from the wall by iron chains, you know, see? the chain? and he’d pick it up and slam it down, pick it up, slam it down—you know, real…frantic, he’s an Indian like I said, and he did that, and they threatened to turn water on him and everything you know, and what happened was he finally broke the chain, believe it or not, it came loose just at the last moment before we was going to trial at nine o’clock, so we went up—course I won’t elaborate on all the trial, and all my—

  EVELYN. Well that—what happened was that they got you for stolen cars didn’t they?

  CODY. No (protesting anxiously), that wasn’t a stolen car! no it was a rented car! no they just caught us for—they charged Nick with contributing to the delinquency of a minor because he was twenty-one and the girls and myself are both under eighteen see? And, ah, Phyllis as it turned out was a reform school escapee, you know—

  EVELYN. Phew

  CODY.—eh, no one knew that, of course, so she went back to reform school; and, ah, Milly was sent back to her folks in Oklahoma, and Nick was given six months, and I was given out-of-state probation, see. (Evelyn speaks softly) Yeah, yeah that’s what started my affair with Peter J. Rock, you know, that’s, ah, you know…the attorney? the man—

  EVELYN. Oh, yeah

  CODY.—I had four different tussles with him, and we tied; I won the first one and the third one, he won the fourth one—the second and the fourth one. You know. But, ah, (sighing)—Oh there’s a hundred things to talk about, I really don’t want to talk about that period because it’s so, you know, in my mind, as just little things, like I say…. These things that I remember…I have talked about. (Evelyn speaks softly) Yeah, I used to be—but I was always the quiet one of the bunch, and all that you know, I mean I wasn’t—see I’m more exuberant or wild or somethin now, or show-offy or whatever you might call it, you know, ah, than I was, then, I mean I wasn’t that way at all, see, now I don’t do anything and sound loud, before (laughing) I used to be reckless and, and was quiet, not quiet like this tall silent type but I was just normal young kid going around you know

  EVELYN. Normal!

  CODY. Well, I mean, you know, normal-seeming, I’d go to work, and go home, go and try to get a girl or somethin, only thing was, these cars, and naturally all young guys in America they’ll tell you, they’ll—anybody you want to meet about…Saturday night fights or somethin, or…this or that happening, it’s all the same thing, everybody’s that way…you know, except for the fact of course I had more opportunity working on the parking lots, and like I say, that’s about the only thing I got any fun out of was driving cars. And, ah…. (long silence)…Well…(he and Evelyn sort of laugh)

  EVELYN. Next question?

  CODY. Yeah (laughing, goofing) JACK. (sepulchrally) Are…you…?

  CODY. I’d just like to know what old Bull Hubbard thinks whenever he hears the “William Tell Overture” (laughing) You know? just the mere fact of the word, sometime before he gets hungup—

  JACK. I wonder who made that up? hm?

  CODY. Well, it’s a…it’s a, you know, some…writer, like Julien or, come through on a press, you know, a guy’ll just say—that’s what it is, after all, William Tell-type, huh?

  EVELYN. Is that what he really did I wonder?

  CODY. Well he says later—he reneged on that and said he didn’t—he said it might have…went…happened that way but she put it on her head but what happened is he was just loading the gun or cleaning it and it went off or something, remember?

  JACK. Yeah later…that’s what he said—

  CODY. But he never wrote, ah, to any one, has he, to really describe—I guess he’s kinda afraid to—

  JACK. Well you know what Val wrote

  CODY. Val? no

  JACK. Val King

  CODY. What’d he write?

  JACK. He said it was all her fault (CODY, Yeah?), that she…deliberately caused all this. (Yeah?) Yeah. Val of course is mad

  CODY. He must be

  JACK. But he says it was all her…her

  CODY. Jesus

  JACK. Deliberately put the glass on her head and dared Bull to shoot it off—

  CODY. Well you know after she was walking around the room with him for five years while he sits there and shoots all the time, remember in New Orleans that…shootin at the Benzedrine tubes with his cap—with his pellet gun, you know, sit across the room all day, and he’d sit there, and about like where the candle bottle is…

  JACK. We used to rush to put the fresh benny tubes up

  CODY. Yeh, put the fresh benny tube up, and then he’d shoot, get up and walk over, and put a tube up—very hard to hit, you know, hard to hit!

  JACK. And then I’d do it

  CODY. He made one out of two, one out of three, sometimes—very good, see? And we couldn’t hit it hardly, maybe we might hit it once; then he’d show us how to draw all day you know, all day long he’d keep showing you how to draw the gun: “Now don’t hold it up here! Don’t shoot before you get it out! Hold it down here, hold it low, take your time, aim,” you heard him, a hundred times, show you how to draw the gun…

  JACK. After you left Mexico we used to draw all day

  CODY. Yeah! Draw all day! Hear that, see?—I didn’t say a thing with him in Mexico, I’d stand right there or somethin—

  JACK.—jess drawin—

  CODY.—see to see who’s first, see?

  JACK.—see who’s first—

  CODY. See? “But I got ya, now, see, I got ya Jack! that’s aimed right at yore heart, there, right at yore belly, see you was a little off to the side here see?”

  JACK. And she would be laughing all the time

  CODY. Yeah, so you can imagine her being around that all the time, you know, naturally some night she’s gonna say “Come here and shoot this off my head.” It’s very plausible as you think about it, you know, I mean it’s not only plausible it’s just the thing you’d expect like Jack and I were earlier gonna speculate on what’s gonna become of everybody, you know, like we know what happened to June, and we know what happened to Finistra, what’s gonna happen to, say, Irwin? or what’s gonna happen to, say, Jack, or Julien, you know what I mean?

  JACK. Oh yeah! we didn’t do that!

  CODY. We didn’t do that, no; ’cause I didn’t have any ideas…to talk about

  EVELYN. Sudden death?

  CODY. Well now, just as you could surmise what would happen to June so too you could happen to surmise I suppose—

  EVELYN. Would you have surmised that would happen to June?

  CODY. Well you wouldn’t expect her to do that, though, in the end, because…she…herself is—you know, she’s used to his hangup, you’d think, and so she’d go, see? but we could speculate like what’s gonna happen to you and me somehow that way perhaps…

  EVELYN. You wouldn’t have expected that to happen to Finistra would you?

  CODY. No, although we were…talking and saying that Finistra had been looking for death anyhow, and when it finally did come he wasn’t ready for it, wasn’t lookin for it, he was—so really it’s a joke on Finistra, see, ’cause it happened accidentally

  JACK. We didn’t do that

  CODY. No. It’s very hard, because of several things but if you could think about it, ah, you know…

  JACK. Well, Hubbard, boy, I don’t know what’s gonna happen to him!

  CODY. I just think he will go—here’s what I thought about…Hubbard anyhow, that really nothing ever will happen to him as far as, you know, like, he could have a lot of times been hungup, and hung (laughing), you see, but instead, yeah, he’ll go on and on, and go down and he’ll disintegrate in the…in the heat of the tropics; that’s bound to be what’ll happen, he can’t come here, he can’t go no place, see, he’s going to go South

  JACK. He’ll—he’ll disappear into South America—