Mockingbird

by Walter Tevis

‘That’s very odd,’ the girl said, ‘to think that there may not have been television once. But I feel I can understand that. I feel that I understand a good many things since I have begun to memorize my life. You get the sense that one thing comes after another and that there is change.’ I looked at her. ‘Good God, yes,’ I said. ‘I know what you mean.’

She laughed. ‘Simon always said, “Check out your surroundings, sweetheart.” So I’ve been wandering around the halls like Lady Macbeth opening doors. Most of the rooms were empty.’ ‘What’s Lady Macbeth?’ I said, trying to make conversation. ‘A person who walks around in pajamas,’ she said.

After breakfast I decided to work on a film, and Mary Lou watched it with me. It was called The Stock Broker and its star was Buster Keaton. Buster Keaton is a very intense man who has many unusual difficulties in his films. They would be funny if they were not so sad.

Gone With the Wind resembles some of the films I know. It is, I think, a made-up story. It is about some silly people in big houses, and about a war. I don’t think I will ever finish it, since it is very long.

‘When the drugs and the television were perfected by the computers that made and distributed them, the cars were no longer necessary. And since no one had devised a way of making cars safe in the hands of a human driver, it was decided to discontinue them.’