The Daily Revolt - A Moveable Trick (or Treat) - Annotated

June 3, 1999

Nick Adams (Note: Hemingway wrote a number of stories featuring Nick Adams, a serious young man back from the war) stepped from the hedge into the moonlight at the edge of the yard. Timmy stood behind him (Note: Nick was usually solo, but other Hemingway heroes had good-natured followers and hangers-on). The moonlight was enough if you knew the ground (Note: Hemingway smugly assigned great superiority to any character who knew his way around some wilderness territory). They went to the door of the house and knocked. It was a true and well-built house and the echo of the knock was true and solid (Note: Through all of Hemingway, the highest praise is to say that something is true, or strong, or solid; here we have both true and solid and well-built all at once; this is a door among doors). The door opened and a woman peered out.

Nick said, "Trick or treat."

The woman spat and said, "Basta!" (Note: This is not just gratuitous foreign language. This is from For Whom the Bell Tolls, in which a rowdy band of Spanish resistance fighters uses the phrase "Enough!" to tell other folks to shut-enzei up-enzei)

Nick held his sack out and said, "Candy?"

The woman spat and said, "Yo caga la leche!" (Note: More Spanish resistance talk. This one means "I spit in your mother's milk" which is really rude. There was never an explanation or a diagram to show how this feat is accomplished; does it assume the use of a breast-pump followed by spittage into a vessel, or expectoration directly upon the point of egress [the nipple]? It just sounds nasty)

Nick said to Timmy, "We will not get candy from the woman." (Note: We're on a Bell Tolls kick; this mimics the sad news when the hero sets himself up for a suicide mission and tells his girlie, "We will not go to Paris" At least I think it was Paris. In any case, it was sad and had a great air of regret and finality)

Timmy said, "Does she want us to do a trick?"

Nick returned the woman's stare with strength but without rudeness (Note: Hemingway's heroes could rapidly connect with people of other cultures). "It is not her custom. We must leave now."

The boys returned to the campsite in the hedge. Nick shaved while Timmy filled their canteens in the birdbath. There was goodness in staying clean and drinking the good water. The night air was cool. (Note: Now we're back to Nick Adams stuff. Nick spent a lot of time camping. The whole point of these trips seemed to be to keep himself groomed and to keep his camping gear in order)

Nick said, "It is early. We should go again."

Timmy said, "Let's go then."

Nick said without roughness, "That was my unspoken intent." (Note: Hemingway didn't like a lot of needless blather. You were supposed to be able to read his eyebrows or to figure out the plan from the way he scratched his ass, or some such subtle signal)

Timmy said, "Sorry."

The boys went east this time, into the wind. They moved well and truly together, without having to speak (Note: Ah, blessed manly non-speaking; also, emphasis on truly doing things well). There were others out in the night, but they did not know how to move well without speaking. The others moved in loud groups and ran through flower beds. (Note: Those bumbling inferiors)

Nick said, "This one." They walked to the door of a low brown house. Nick watched the yard well and Timmy rang the bell, also well (Note: How else?). They waited. Nick smelled chocolate in the night but Timmy did not notice. Nick thought that Timmy was a very loyal friend but that he was also a very foolish little boy (Note: Hemingway's heroes kindly tolerate imperfections in others). Nick did not mind the foolishness as long as it did not endanger him. He knew that if a lion or tiger attacked, it would kill the foolish first. Nick was well and truly prepared for the lion or the tiger (Note: Hemingway got hooked on Africa at some point. He went on safari several times and wrote some stuff that made it sound as if he had gone native over there; in biographies you find out that his camp was well-stocked with servants, and he spent a lot of time reading Huck Finn. He also shot one leg out from under an antelope at a great distance and was quite proud of the feat. I picture the creature grazing, then the leg just flying off like a toothpick, and the critter falling down and thinking: Damn, what happened? I'd better get up now. Wait, I can't. Where's the rest of me? WHERE'S THE REST OF ME!!?!). The door opened. A man looked out. Both boys said, "Trick or treat."

The man smiled and said, "Casper and The Incredible Hulk together! That's a good combination." (Note: The kindly, bland suburbanite makes our hero appear all the more cool and laconic. Of course, this man could be a Nazi spy. Hemingway spent time in the 30's and 40's trolling for Nazi submarines in his cool fishing boat)

Timmy giggled. Nick said, "Thanks." The man gave them chocolate bars and bags of jelly beans. Nick felt the jelly beans hit the other candy at the bottom of his sack. It was good candy and the jelly beans would also be good when it was time. Nick knew that he would eat all of the chocolate first, then the jelly beans. He would drink the water from the canteen with all of the candy. The hard candies would last a long time and would be good in their time. (Note: Hemingway was big on categorizing and anticipating his food and drink. He couldn't just eat for nourishment or for casual enjoyment; he had to consume things with a critical palate and a ready adjective) They thanked the man and walked away from the door (Note: Hmmm, I guess he was not a Nazi spy. Sorry I even mentioned it).

The boys returned to the campsite in the hedge (Note: Many of the outdoor tales seem to feature a great deal of leaving camp and then returning to camp, affording numerous grooming and squaring-away chances). Nick shaved again and drank the bird-water from the canteen. Timmy counted his candy in the moonlight. Nick did not count his candy because counting it would not change anything. He knew that they needed more and that to count what they had would not change that. Timmy was foolish and he thought that counting his candy would make a difference, but it would not. The only thing that made a difference was doing a thing as well and truly as you could. That made a difference. (Note: Hemingway's heroes were plugged into the rock-bottom solid strong truth of things; other characters were somewhat more frivolous, damn them all to hell)

The wind had changed so now they went northeast, toward a white house that looked blue in the moonlight. Nick rang the doorbell and the door flew open and the woman spat and shouted, "Yo caga la leche!" (Note: I spit-enzei tit-enzei)

Timmy screamed, "How'd we get here again?"

Both boys ran back to the campsite in the hedge. Nick shaved well and then felt calm. Timmy had not shaved yet and was not good and clean but he did drink the good water from the good canteen (Note: good good good; good). Timmy began to unwrap a candy bar.

Nick said, "What are you doing?"

Timmy pretended not to understand, and said, "I thought I would eat a Hershey bar."

Nick said, "We had an agreement when we started." (Note: Read The Sun Also Rises. Then read lots of other Hemingway. To every trip and every activity there is a system, a set of rules. Woe betide the innocent friends who casually violate the system.)

Timmy said, "But I don't like those sandwiches."

Nick opened a lunch pail and took out two raw-onion sandwiches in white paper and two cool glasses of water with the paper towels wrapped around the bottoms and held on with rubber bands so the water on the glass would not make their hands wet. (Note: Aggggghhhhhh! Not the onion sandwiches and the elaborately-wrapped glasses! NO! NOOOOOOOOOO!! In one of the ocean-going books-To Have and Have Not or Islands in the Stream-there is much authorial lip-smacking over these powerful sandwiches, and the drinks with the paper towels, for God's sake. Why not skip the paper towel description and describe the boat motor instead, or a nearby pelican. Anything but the paper towels, which are not what you call Nobel material, unless of course they symbolize something deeper, like writer's block. Mayhap Hemingway spent so much time with his nose in a glass of gin that the particulars of the glass became very important to him. Of course, Nick and Timmy are just little kids so they have water in their special wrapped glasses) "You came on the trip but you want to make your own rules now."

Timmy protested, "But-"

"No, I understand. I understand that you came on the trip and agreed to the rules but now you don't care about the rules because you want to eat a Hershey bar and you want to make your own rules. That's why everyone likes you so much. Oh, yes, you're a great favorite." (Note: Especially in The Sun Also Rises does the hero publicly chastise and ridicule one of his travelling companions. Of course, the hero in that book had had his gonads shot off in the war, so he was generally ill-natured)

"Geez, Nick, I just want to eat some chocolate. It's Hallowe'en for gosh sakes."

"You can be a rough boy when you feel like it. I hope you are as rough when the lion or the tiger comes." (Note: "Rough boy" must have been tough, scary phraseology in the olden days. Remember that Hemingway was born in 1899. He revolutionized fiction writing, but some 19th-century phrasing survived in him)

"Oh, all right. Give me one of those." Timmy threw the candy bar into his sack and took one of the sandwiches. He took a bite and made a face. (Note: You know, as a young man, Hemingway ate his way around France and Spain, consuming all kinds of hearty food and wine. So if he wants to settle for raw onion sandwiches later in life, it is by choice; he still has the memory of every other flavor in the world. But Timmy might not be such a well-travelled gourmand. Why should he have to eat the onion sandwiches?)

Nick took a bite of his own sandwich and felt the crunch of the onion inside the soft bread. He chewed the bite and swallowed it and then another. He drank from the tall cool glass with the paper towels and the rubber band (Note: Did I mention the wet-hand prevention system that is in place on the glass? It's a paper towel). He took another bite and thought about the onion and the earth and then drank the water and thought about the city reservoir. (Note: Can't just eat. Must be aware of every molecule and how it feels. That must be exhausting.) He finished his sandwich and pretended that he didn't see Timmy hide his sandwich under a pile of leaves. Nick knew that this was his last trip with Timmy (Note: Damn chocolate-eater), but it was not important to tell Timmy that (Note: Nick despises Timmy now, but protocol demands the semblance of friendship until the trip is formally over). It was enough that he knew it well and truly (Note: Not poorly and falsely) himself.

(That's it. I hope that the literary nature of this revolt has not degraded your enjoyment of it too severely. You may even be able to impress others with your intimate knowledge of the recurring themes and character traits in the writings of Mr. E. Hemingway.)