Elsinore by Jerome Charyn

there’s nothing to miss.”
    â€œThe best sandwiches I ever had came from Holland Park. And there’s nothing like tea at Brown’s. You have to reserve a chair for high tea.”
    â€œDad,” Minot said. “Make him stop.”
    â€œDon’t be rude to the boy,” Ethan said.
    â€œI mean, he’s talking like one of those cosmopolites. We don’t ride on planes. And we don’t drink tea. I play checkers with my dad and I win … dada, he’s wearing a gun. It’s bulging out of his pants.”
    â€œWhat do you expect him to wear? He’s Phippsy’s agent.”
    â€œBut he could have left it on the porch.”
    â€œWe’re friends, Minot, don’t you forget that.”
    â€œGive them the paper, dad, and tell them to blow.”
    â€œI can’t do that, son. Phippsy was my protégé. He gave you presents when you were a toddler. He gave you toys.”
    â€œI don’t like his friend,” Paul said.
    And Holden blamed himself for becoming Phipps’ companion. Now he’d have to strangle a seventy-five-year-old man.
    â€œAh, I know how you feel,” Phipps said. “Strangers upset them. They were always shy, your boys.…”
    â€œThey’re like animals,” Ethan said. “They never married … and after their mama died, they couldn’t stand another woman in the house. I wanted to marry again. You know what Paul said? ‘We’ll kill you and the whore, dad.’ I’m their prisoner, Phippsy, swear to God.”
    â€œWho’d ever marry you, dad?” Minot said. “You can’t pee straight any more. And you have a tube in your dick.”
    â€œBrother,” Paul said, “why are you telling this to strangers, giving them intimate details about our father?”
    â€œYou’re right,” Minot said. “Give them the money, will you?”
    The brothers smiled, and Ethan started to shake.
    â€œBoys, I want no violence in this house.”
    â€œViolence, dad?” Minot said. “We’re giving them their cash.… Fetch it, brother.”
    Paul went into a back room and returned with a pair of enormous suitcases. The leather had that same maddening orange rust. Minot must have salvaged them from the junkyard.
    Holden picked up the suitcases; his eyes began to water from all that weight.
    â€œGood-bye, Ethan,” Phipps said. “Good-bye, Minot. Good-bye, Paul.” He hugged the baron of Rhode Island and tried to hug Minot and Paul, but the boys moved away from him and smiled.
    â€œCount the paper,” Minot said.
    â€œI trust you. I know your father almost seventy years. I worked for him, Minot.”
    â€œCount the paper.”
    Phipps turned to Holden. “Please.”
    Holden unbuckled the first suitcase. It was stuffed with a potpourri: packages of fives, tens, twenties, and thousand-dollar bills. Holden had never seen a thousand-dollar bill before. He felt like some king of the currency. But the king was more like a fool, counting on his knees. He unbuckled the second suitcase. No one talked. Ethan looked like a sick snake. It took Holden half an hour to count all the cash. He buckled up the suitcases and carried three million two hundred twenty thousand and sixty dollars to the door.
    â€œSee you, sonny,” Minot said.
    Holden began to grumble once he left the house with Phipps. “How am I going to carry this, Phippsy, across three fucking fields?” The sun had gone down and Holden knew the dogs were out there.
    â€œStay,” Phipps said. “I’ll fetch the car.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen let me carry one of the cases.”
    â€œNo. I don’t like your friends, Phippsy. They belong in an institution.”
    â€œAh, Ethan’s all right. And the boys are bitter. You heard Ethan. They never married.”
    â€œWhat kind of deal did you make?”
    â€œIt wasn’t a deal. The money’s