broke into your apartment and smashed up the place. That’s all you know…
And theres something else. You may not like it~ but we think ifs best-and
safest.*
Owhaffo
“We think Mim Ballantyne should report the phone call she received to the
police.”
‘Hey, come onf The caller expected to find me there at four o!c1ock in the
morning. You doet spell that kind of thing out. Not if youre on a
fellowship and expect to work for museum foundations. They still revere
McKinley.”
‘The eye of the beholder, Dr. Matlock- She just received a phone call; some
mian asked for you, quoted Shakespeare, and made an unintelligible refer-
ence to some foreign word or city. She was goddamn vad. It wouldn’t rate
five lines in a newspaper, but since your apartment was broken into, ifs
logical she report te
Matlock was silent. He walked over to the comer of the squash court where
the ball had settled and picked it up. “We’re a couple of ciphers who got
pushed around. We doet know what happened; just that we doet like ft.”
nUfs the idea. Nothing is so convincing as someone wWs a bewildered injured
party and lets everybody know it Make an insurance issue about those old
books of yours…. I’ve got to go. There areet that many extinguishers in
the building, Anything else? What are you doing next?”
Matlock bounced the ball on the floor. “A fortuitous invitation.
Fortuitously received over a number of beers at the Afro-Commons. I’m
invited to a staged version of the original puberty rites of the Mau Mau
THE MATLOCK PAPER 95
tribes. Tonight at ten eclock in the cellars of Lummnba Hall. . . . It used
to be the Alpha Delt fraternity house. I can tell you there are a lot of
white Episco-
palians spinning in hell over that one.”
Again, rm not following, Doctor.
‘You don’t do your homework, either. Lumum
ba Hall is very large on your list.”
“Sorry. Youll phone me in the morning?’
“In the morning.”
‘IT call you Jim if you’ll call me Jason.*
‘No kiss, but agreed.”
‘O.K. Practice some more in here. IM take you when this is over.~
“Yoxere on.”
Greenberg let himself out. He looked up and down the narrow corridor,
satisfied that no one was there; no one had seen him enter or leave the
court Continuous thumping could be heard within the walls. All the courts
were in use. Greenberg wondered, as he was about to turn the comer into the
main hallway, why the Carlyle gymnasium was so heavily attended at eleven
o’clock in the morning. It was never the case at Brandeis; not fifteen
years ago. Eleven o’clock in the morning was a time for class.
He heard a strange noise that was not the sound of a hard ball against
thick wood and turned quickly.
No one.
He entered the main hall and turned once again. No one. He left quickly.
The sound he heard was that of a stubborn latch. It came from the door next
to Matlock’s court. Out of that door a man emerged. He, too, as Greenberg
had done less than a minute before, looked up and down the narrow corridor.
But instead of being satisfied that no one was there, he was annoyed. The
obstinate
96 Robert Ludluin
latch had caused him to n-Ass seeing the man who’d met with James Matlock.
Now the door of court four opened and Matlock himself stepped into the
corridor. The man ten feet away was startled, pulled his towel up to his
face, and walked away, coughing.
But the man wasnI quick enough. Matlock knew that face.
It was the patrolman from his apartment at four c~clock in the morning.
The patrolman who had called him “Doctor.” The man in uniform who knew
beyond a doubt that the campus troubles were caused by the “weirdos and the
niggers.”
Matlock stared at the retreating figure.
9
Over the large cathedral doors one could see.—if one looked closely, or
the sun was shining at a certain angle—the faded imprint of the Greek
letters Am). They had been there in bas-relief for decades, and no amount of
sand blasting or student damage could eradicate them completely. The
fraternity house of Alpha Delta Phi had gone the way of other such buildIngs
at Carlyle. Its holy order of directors could not find it within themselves
to accept the inevitable. The house had been sold-lock, stocl~, leaking
roof, and bad mortgage-to the blacks.
The blacks had done well, even extremely well, with what they had to work
with. The decrepit old house had been totally refurbished inside and out.
All past associations with its former owners were obliterated wherever
possible. The scores of faded photographs of venerated alumni were replaced
with wildly theatrical portraits of the new revolutionaries–Afiican, Latin
American, Black Panther. Throughout the ancient halls were the new
commands, screeched in posters and psychedelic art: Death to the Pigsl Up
Whiteyl Malcolm Lives! Lumumba the Black Christ!
Between these screams for recognition were replicas of primitive African
artifacts-fertility masks, spears,
98 Robert Ludluin
shields, animal skins dipped in red paint shrunken heads suspended by hair
with complexions unmIstAably white.
Lunrumba, Hall wasn’t trying to fool anyone. It reflected anger. It
reflected fury.
Matlock didn7t have to use the brass knocker set beside the grotesque iron
mask at the edge of the doorfi-ame. The large door opened as he approached
it and a student greeted him with a bright smile.
“I was hoping youd make it! Iles gonna be a groovel”
Thanks, Johnny. Wouldn’t miss ft- Matlock walked in, struck by the
proliferation of lighted candles throughout the hallway and adjouung rooms.
“Looks like a wake. Wheres the casket?”
‘Males later. Wait11 you seel”
A black Matlock recognized as one of the campus extremists walked up to
them. Adam Williams’ hair was long-African style and clipped in a perfect
semicircle above his head. His features were sharp; Matlock had the feeling
that if they met in the veldt, W& hams would be assumed to be a tribal
chief.
“Good evemng,” Williams stud with an Infectious grin. “Welcome to the seat
of revolution.”
“Thanks very much.” They shook hands. ‘You doet look so revolutionary as
you do funereal. I was asking Johnny where the casket was.”
Williams laughed. His eyes were intelligent, his smile genuine, without
guile or arrogance. In close quarters, the black radical had little of the
firebrand quality he displayed on the podium in front of cheering
supporters. Matlock wasn’t surprised. Those of the faculty who had Williams
in their courses often remarked on his subdued, good-humored approach. So
different from the image he projected in campus-
TEE MATLOCK PAPER 99
rapidly becoming national-politics.
“Oh, Lordl Were lousing up the picture thenl This U a happy occasion. A
little gruesome, I suppose, but essentially joyfuV
Tin not sure I understand,” Matlock smiled.
‘A youngster from the tribe reaches the age of manhood, the brink of an
active, responsible life. A jungle Bar Mitzvah. It’s a time for rejoicing.
No caskets, no weeping shrouds.-
“rhaes rightl Thaes right, Adaml” said the boy named Johnny
enthusiastically.
‘Why don’t you get Mr. Matlock a drink, brother.” And then he turned to
Matlock. “Ifs all the same drink until after the ceremony~its called Swaluh
punch. Is that O.K.?”
“Of course.”
Mght.” Johnny disappeared into the crowd toward the dining room and the
punch bowl. Adam smiled as he spoke.
“Ies a light nun drink with lemonade and cranberry fuice. Not bad,
really…. Thank you for con-dng. I mean that.”
‘I was surprised to be invited. I thought this was a very& thing.
Restricted to the tribe…. That didn’t come out the way I meant it.”
Williams laughed. “No offense. I used the word. It’s good to think in terms
of tribes. Good for the brothers.”
“Yes, I Imagine it is….
‘The collective, protective social group. Possessing an Identity of its
own.”
“If that’s the purpose-the constructive purpose-I endorse it.”
“Oh, it is. Tribes in the bush don’t always make war on each other, you
know. Ifs not all stealing, looting,
ioo Robett Ludkm
carrying away women. 17haes a Robert Ruark hangup They trade, share hunting
and farming lands together, coexist in the mam. probably better than nations
or even political subdivisions.”
It was Matlock’s tam to laugh. “All right, professor. IT make notes aftm
the lecture
Sorry. Avocational hazard.-
OAvocational or occupational?*
rime will tell, woet it? … One thing I should make clear, however We
don7t need your endorsement”
Johnny returned with Matlock’s cup of Swahili punch. ‘Hey~ you know what?
Brother Davis, tws Bill Davis, says you told him you were going to flunk
hum, then at midterm you gave him a ffigh Passl”
“Brother Davis got off his fat ass and did a We work.0 Madock looked at
Adam Williams. OYou don’t object to that kind of endorsement, do you?-
WML&ms smiled broadly and placed his hand on madodes arm. No, sir, bwana…