An Evening With Jonathan and Lillith

A Story by Robert Caponi

      "Elizabeth, I told you having the Fitzpatricks over for dinner would
be a failure. They are already almost an hour late."
      "I'm sure they're fine. Sometimes unexpected things crop up, and I'm
sure we can find it fit to excuse them for being a tad late."
      "I really don't understand how they've remained married all these
years without driving each other to suicide. Nowhere else have I seen
such a harmful pairing of people,"
      The man who spoke was named William. He was looking out of the
curtains, searching for the dinner guests.
      "William, don't pass judgements like that. They complement each other
perfectly because Jonathan is often very shy and he requires her to say
the things he wants to say. For instance, Lillith is the one that made
them go to Paris, and Jonathan would have never done it had it not been
for her. I'm sure they both had a lovely time."
      "Oh, my," the maid said running into the living room, "the
Fitzpatricks have arrived."
      Sure enough, Jonathan and Lillith had just arrived at the manor
entrance, and were politely ringing for recognition.
      "You poor people must be freezing," Elizabeth said to her guests as
she opened the door, "please come in." The maid took Lillith and
Jonathan's coats and hung them on the coatrack.
      "Oh, I'm so very sorry Jonathan and I are so late for dinner. I am
sorry if we've kept you waiting. We had just run into some last minute
complications that held us up for an hour. But enough of my prattling,
let our lack of punctuality not stand in our way of having an enjoyable
evening," said Lillith.
      "Nonsense! We've barely set the table. Oh, Lillith, that coat is
absolutely perfect! Did you get it in Paris? Oh, it's beautiful."
      "No. Actually, I've had it for years. That's not to say there weren't
things in Paris I would have loved to have bought, but Jonathan was
being Jonathan, and he was Jonathan to no good end."
      The dinner conversation was pleasant, and was dominated mostly by
Lillith. Occasionally, when Lillith said something awkward, Elizabeth
or William would jump in to make it appear as if they had not noticed
her slip, but such talk was expected in Lillith's conversation.
Everybody paid their compliments towards the maid's cooking. Jonathan,
as he is wont to do, consumed an enormous amount of food, though nobody
was rude enough to confront him about it. Jonathan was by no means an
overweight man, and he didn't seem to enjoy eating at all in spite of
his seemingly bottomless appetite. Lillith, during her conversation,
made frequent references to Paris, but never explicitly mentioned their
trip to the city.
      "So tell me more about your visit to Paris," asked Elizabeth.
      "Well, it's not really a very happy story. Jonathan and I slept in
this fabulous hotel for the week and the food there is wonderful and
the people are charming, -and we briefly visited the Louvre!-, but
Jonathan lost fifteen hundred pounds at the craps table and we had to
leave early."
      The last part of the sentence was echoed in a nasal and insolent
manner. Eyes were directed towards Jonathan.
      "Well did you not lose fifteen hundred pounds at the craps tables?"
Lillith commanded, in response to which Jonathan did nothing save poke
compulsively the food lying on the plate before him. Continued Lillith
"He started out ahead, but quickly fell behind and continued doing so."
      William and Elizabeth were discomfited with this unpleasantness.
      "As I was saying, Jonathan and I did get the chance on the firstŠ"
      "Pudding's ready!" the maid chimed in, entering the room with a large
cake. She had not realized she had stepped on Lillith's story.
      "Excuse yourself," Elizabeth said to the maid, "our guest here was
relating a story to us."
      "Oh, it's no big deal," Lillith assured them.
      "No, it is a big deal, when there is a guest in the house, all due
courtesy is paid to them. I am awfully sorry, Lillith, please
continue," Elizabeth said, carving a sizable slice of cake for herself.
The maid, after gesturing her apologies to Lillith, continued with her
maid-like duties.
      "It's not even worth telling. But we did, as I have said, get a
chance to visit the Louvre, and I simply thought it was beautiful. Of
course, Jonathan claimed not to understand it at all, he couldn't
understand how people could spend so much energy doing something that
was so apparently fruitless. But he did make a humorous comment on 'A
Side of Beef' that I found pleasing. Do you remember that, Jonathan?"
      Jonathan shrugged his shoulders, indicating neither an affirmative
nor a negative. A deathly silence ensued. But he saw the maid nearby,
and he had a mind to do something.
      "Well," Elizabeth said, beginning with a gradualness of words that
was near unbearable, "our Jonathan would probably find good company
among today's Utilitarians!" The words were said with such delightful
lightness that they indicated absurdity, and a good laugh was enjoyed
by all.
      The three started again chatting amongst themselves.
      "Come here," Jonathan beckoned quite audibly to the maid while the
others were still conversing.
      The maid, somewhat bewildered by the way he had addressed her,
answered "Yes, Mr. Fitzpatrick."
      Jonathan paused. His wrists were shaking. He had realized that
Lillith was taking note of his actions as she slowly grinded down the
conversation with William and Elizabeth and paid more attention to him.
He knew that the next words he uttered would be piercingly loud in the
way words seldom are, and would hence have to have a few stutters
interspersed among them to disrupt a continuity which would shatter the
ears.
      "You are looking very n-nice this evening."
      "Oh, thank you," the maid responded, disconcerted by both the comment
and the stutter.
      William and Elizabeth started listening to Jonathan, believing what
he had to say to the maid was of universal importance.
      "Have you noticed the way L-Lillith is always displeased with
m-me?"
      "I can't say I know what you're talking about."
Lillith was monitering Jonathan's actions with some sembalance of
a smile. She took no actions to prevent what was going to happen.
      "S-She is always bickering at me. Everything is always 'Jonathan,
you're wrong,' or 'Jonathan. how many times do I have to tell you blah
blah blah,'" an automaton within Jonathan made his mouth utter, while
he was reeling over the day's events which seemed like merely a dream
from which he was only a few seconds emerged. Lillith was amused by his
impression of her. His heart was beating like a rabbit's, and
subsequent events would ring hollow and unjudged in their tiny,
overlit, dining room which was suspended in the eye of, and which
contained, a nameless, slowly swirling cosmos, the vastness of which he
was now acutely aware.
      "I've noticed nothing of the sort," the maid replied. In response
to what? Jonathan did not know.
      Jonathan craned his head, attempting to kiss the maid's hand.
      "Mr. Fitzpatrick! Shame on you!" The maid exclaimed, jerking back.
Jonathan sat shivering for a moment as the maid exited the room.
      "I am afraid you have acted foolishly once again, Jonathan," Lillith
counseled. "You will be sucessful in nothing because you have to suck
the life out everything."
      "I have to suck the life out of everything,"
      "You never know when to stop, do you, Jonathan?"
      "I never know when to stop."