GUY’S STILL GOING

By Ben Greenman

from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled

Guy Dalrymple, though a long way short of the full strength he displayed in years past, still managed to lift up most of the neighborhood, building by building, moving from east to west across town. Starting with the Pine Terraces apartment complex, he then hoisted the school, a trio of moderately sized Tudor homes, a small grocery, an Italian restaurant, an antique shop, and a larger grocery. He had trouble with the hospital, where he was forced to enlist Van Etten and Barker. Even Crook was on hand in case he was needed. Dalrymple got the hospital up, but he also heard the murmurs in the crowd, as did Crook, who conveyed them to Dalrymple with a sly smile. Dalrymple, affronted, sent his two pals packing and went west on his own again, lifting up the jeweler, the shoe store, the bank, the hardware store, the lighting-fixture specialist. The next block was taken up fully by the movie house, which Dalrymplye could not get off the ground at all, as four movies were playing, all popular, and the place was filled to capacity. But he would brook no suggestion of help, even when Crook, who had been following him closely since the jeweler, reminded him that Van Etten and Barker were still available. But Dalrymple’s pride was as prodigious as his strength. He adjourned for the day and released, through his press agent, a late evening statement: “Mr. Dalrymple will be back early in the morning,” it read, “in fact at the crack of dawn. The movie house will be no match for him. Mark it here: Guy’s still going.” Most of those who read it chuckled inwardly at what they knew would be the sight of a man straining vainly against four floors of brutal brick.