The Thanatos Syndrome

think we’ve got about five minutes. Mrs. Cheney will bring Claude, all right, but the others will be coming too. Ricky and I are going to talk a little bit, maybe play a card game. Uncle, I think it would be a good idea for you to stand outside. When you see the others coming, give a couple of knocks, okay?”
    â€œDon’t worry about a damn thing,” says the uncle, not quite sure what is going on but glad to do something.
    â€œAll right, Uncle. Do this. Keep your eye peeled on the big house. When you see anyone come out and head this way, knock twice.”
    â€œNo problem,” says the uncle, glad to get back to his shotgun.
    â€œRicky, where is Greenville, Mississippi?”
    â€œThat’s”—Ricky is practicing some trick of ducking his big head rhythmically to make the sofa creak—“one hundred and thirty miles south of Memphis, one hundred miles north of Vicksburg, on the river.”
    â€œWhere’s Wichita, Kansas?”
    He doesn’t stop ducking, but I notice that he closes his eyes and frowns as if he is reading the back of his thin veined eyelids. “About a hundred and twenty-five miles southwest of Kansas City.”
    â€œDo you know your multiplication tables?”
    He shrugs, goes on ducking.
    â€œHow about your sevens?”
    â€œYou mean going by the tables?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œSure.” But he strikes out, doesn’t know seven times three.
    â€œWhat’s the biggest sunfish you’ve caught?”
    He shows me.
    â€œWhat’s eighty-seven times sixty-one?”
    He doesn’t stop ducking but closes his eyes. “Five thousand three hundred and seven.”
    â€œDo you know how to play War?”
    â€œSure. You want to play?”
    â€œSure.”
    We play War on the sofa. War is the dumbest of all card games, requiring no skill. High card wins. If there is a tie, it is a war. You put three cards face down and the next high card wins.
    Ricky plays with pleasure, takes a child’s pleasure in taking my cards, takes the greatest pleasure in double war, when there are two ties in a row and he wins nine cards. He evens up the cards against his stomach.
    Vergil interrupts the second game of War. He comes down the stairs slowly. He is holding both rails as if he were unsteady. When he clears the ceiling and his face comes full into the fluorescent light, I notice that his skin is mealy. His eyes do not meet mine.
    Without a word he sits on the sofa on the other side of Ricky and puts his hands carefully and symmetrically on his knees.
    â€œYour turn,” says Ricky.
    I am looking at Vergil.
    â€œCome on,” says Ricky.
    â€œRicky, I have to talk to Vergil for a minute. Would you like to play that game over there?”
    â€œStar Wars 4? It costs fifty cents.”
    â€œHere’s three quarters. Vergil, you got any quarters?”
    Vergil gives a start. “What? Oh, sure.” He digs in his pockets, gives Ricky more quarters. He puts his hands back on his knees. His expression is still thoughtful, but his face is still mealy.
    â€œOkay,” says Ricky. “But leave the cards right here.”
    â€œOkay.”
    Presently lasers are lancing out into a three-dimensional cosmos. Satellites explode.
    â€œWell?” I say to Vergil.
    He opens his hands on his knees, inspecting them carefully, as if he were curious about the sudden change from the liver-colored backs to the creamy palms.
    â€œVergil?”
    â€œThey have a rocking horse up there,” says Vergil, bending his fingers and inspecting the large half-moons on his nails. For some reason he is talking like his father.
    â€œA rocking horse?”
    â€œA rocking horse with a socket holder for a buggy whip.”
    â€œI see. What about tapes, cassettes, movies?”
    â€œAll that. There was a 3-D tape all set up. All I had to do was turn it on.” He falls silent.
    â€œAnd?” I ask, irritated with him.
    â€œIt was pornography.”
    â€œPornography? What do you mean? Commercial? The stuff you can buy? Child pornography? What?”
    â€œAll that. I’m not sure. There wasn’t time. What they had set up to roll was a local tape. It was like home movies. I mean a tape of folks here. But there were commercial cassettes. I brought three.” He taps his jacket pockets.
    â€œWhat did you see?”
    The Star Wars 4 game stops. We wait while Ricky feeds new quarters and the laser