The Iowa Review
Volume 8
Issue 3 Summer
1977
Della: From Chapter IX
James Mechem
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Recommended Citation
Mechem, James. "Della: From Chapter IX." The Iowa Review 8.3 (1977): 103-105. Web.
Available at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview/vol8/iss3/44
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Article 44
Delia: from Chapter IX
I've been trying to call her all night, but she's not home. I'm a little wor
ried. But I have faith. It's just that I've been reading my writing
and it
has me bedazzled.
is that she likes me so much.
The only thing that really worries me
I
a
was
in
said some wicked
this
It's
I
novel.
about
things
talking
good thing
a fictional character.
She wondered
Maybe
she being
Delia's
gentle
if my wife really said, "Is that all you think about?"
worried
she thinks I'm cracking up.
about me. Maybe
on
I'm
the edge of a breakdown?
she's afraid
because
Is
Why was she talking about mental telepathy?We both had the idea I
would
accept her one way and think of her another. A few of
said were just what she did say when I asked them.
so beautiful
There's
about my writing.
I just fall
something
can love almost
it. I'm
satisfied.
I
I
didn't
say
easily
anything.
to talk all the way through about Delia.
I may have said all
the things
I
in love with
I was going
I'm going to
say.
me. Lassi
seems to be
I'm at peace with the world. Nothing
bothering
near
see
in the
tude. Sometime
dim future 111
Delia. Except
that I almost
never see her on
me
in
with
hour. Is
She's
every
my thoughts
Tuesdays.
that right? Yes.
came to school without
I forgot to wear my
them.
glasses today. I
I can't stand to live without
Let's run away together.
you.
It's a pleasant day. The sun is warm. A summer day in March. Cool wind
I see Delia
with a touch of winter
and a hot sun. A bright hot sun. Will
to
I
It
like
I'm
to
look
won't.
be
today?
begins
supposed
going to school.
I'm supposed to be studying. But what good is school? Except
if you want
to
want
more
courses. In
to
I
life?
I
life.
flunk
can't
any
plan your
plan my
career
checkered
flunked
too
I've
my
many.
I'm doing.
fun through
life. Can you
Don't
I'm having
ask me what
more
in
I
believe
kind
think of something
worthwhile?
and gentle. I
being
to
say that. I have fun being kind and gentle and I'm not always
forgot
kind and gentle when I'm having fun.
a lot of
In my career as a failure I've muddled
things. I've stum
through
is one of these
bled on to my share of delights. My relationship with Delia
delights. My wife is themost delightful thing inmy life.
to write,
to get up early and to go to bed late. It's delight
It's delightful
I
ful to have this climate.
It's nice to know so many people?even
when
so
no
to
to
attention
It's
nice
have
books?even
them.
pay
many
though I
don't read them.
103
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I don't know what to tell you ...
coffee al
If only I could get some coffee I'd be fine. I've had too much
see
I
to
after
Ill
be
Delia.
back
I'm impatient
get some
ready today?but
so
loaded with coffee then I won't be able to write.
coffee. I'll probably be
What
form will that take?
first. The next time I go over I'd like to eat lunch.
I'll smoke a cigarette
on the ball. I
Am I a fool like everyone
says I am? No?I've
got something
have faith. Anyway?I
love to do this. I love my art. It seems like play to
what I'm doing. It's like play to me. They grant
personal friends who know
term.
It seems not to be a serious
that it could be arty. An unfortunate
term. There's
judgment
built
into that word.
They
judge
it to be unrealis
tic endeavor.
is
fun. Because
that's why it's so much
it's so unreal. My writing
Maybe
a dream world?an
this. A doubt crossed
escape from reality. I don't mind
I took up the doubt, turned it over, cast it aside. I enjoy my es
my mind.
from
if this is all it is.
cape
reality?even
I'm no longer in that quietly exhilarated mood. No longer in that mood.
I have
I feel I might
be missing
Now
I'm in a tragic mood.
something.
be there when
tried to fail all day. I've timed it just right so I wouldn't
I'm doing this to myself?
Delia was there. Why
do I do this to myself?if
to see me
will
be
there.
I'm afraid maybe
that Robbie
So? So?if she wants
never
come
not
she
her lover. Perhaps
do that. I'm
she'll
up here. She'll
thinks I know when her free hours are.
am I ever going to study? I'm a mass of jelly. I have this feeling. I
When
it. Why
I'm dodging
did I work it out
can't be stern. Of course I can?but
she's there? We
could be eating
like this?so
that I would be writing while
lunch somewhere.
That would give me pleasure.
are so many
Well?there
things up in the air. One of them is my novel I
on the last
on last year. The novel
I was working
worked
thing I knew.
mess.
and
That is a confused
jumble
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"I'm going to the rest room," she said. Then
she started in on a lot of
to be in a hurry and I seemed to leave
I
follow.
couldn't
She
seemed
things
her.
I don't know what
time it was
then.
are
is slipping.
I've got to take it easy. My mind
Spectres
beginning
are
me down
loom on the edges. My vision is going. Hands
pulling
down, grasping hands, myriad hands, and I've gone below.
"So where's here, boss?"
"Hush for a moment."
"I don't get you, boss."
104
to
and
"Be quiet, I said."
"I know you said that, boss. But
we're doing here."
I want
to know what
the hell
you
think
"For the last time, be quiet."
is
I don't know.
is
Everything
everything.
nothing. You should
Nothing
is where your mother
is. It gets harder and
know what I'm telling you. Help
...
I'm crving. I'm
harder to tell you something.
pitiful
James Mechem
Carol Berge
:The Gentylle & Parfait Knight /
MECHEM'S MECHEM-AS-HERO
is a
romantic hero who
persona
writing
James Mechem's
swashbuckling
to
the
evolves
from
the
fourteenthnovels of
ritually
eighteenth-century
or
romances. His
manners
minuet
and from the medieval
could
be
ga
step
in the visor before
votte; the ritual is that of carrying a lace handkerchief
as Count Mechem
moves
the joust. His hero-figure
of a
among women
with
radio soap opera or an MGM historical
cape and
replete
spectacular,
he's Doug Fairbanks
and Errol Flynn and J. Bond, quaffing
in clear puns and ever
to the ladies, who are
bowing
speaking
as
a
to be
of
regarded
goddesses
nearby planet and thus
chauvinistically
I
his
is
of
and
The
treated with
awe, deference,
envy.
writing
tweaking
from Steve Katz' or Fielding Dawson's,
two of my other favorites:
different
in a future fantasy of transmutation
and omnivorous
Steve's I moves
glitzi
in
has
total
recall
ness; Fee's persona
power of
pres
boyish
larger-than-life
ent and recent past, concerned with
the aura of the Forties
and Fifties
mores
like finds in an
and displayed
described
contemporary
meticulously
men
use
to
shrive a dull
their hero-figure
dig. All these
archeological
a
as
is
far as possible
Mechem
mythos. Mechem's
youth and thereby create
own
and multi-kid
from the author's
computers
workaday world of business
names
in bright,
His
actual
self
writes
and
family
long-term monogamy.
on
to
admiration
love-letters
of
covering
script
envelopes,
large flowing
women
sends volumes
of
he has not yet met or knows only professionally;
heart-on-sleeve;
Polish vodka,
to his admired woman-friends;
picks up the
by earlier people
love-poetry
to
and
his
affection
the
in
the
middle
of
say
greetings,
just
phone
night
in modern
Geste
to any coast?Beau
from mid-country
drag, courtly and in
to each other. Mechem's
love as a classical wav to be beautiful
love with
105