THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE
January 26, 2015
Jerome Bessemer was not by any stretch of the imagination a major participant in his own life. Chosen to be valedictorian of his high school class, he gave a terrific speech at graduation. It’s a pity he wasn’t there to hear it. At college he was a rogue bacteriology student, but never found the time to leave his room or, for that matter, to acknowledge the fact that he was in a room. There were rhymes. There were reasons. He was unaware of them. Somehow he got a job under the floor of a museum. That said, he never reported to work or to anywhere else. When he died, he didn’t die. He wasn’t even watching. He played cards instead in a stairwell, the cards being blank and often imaginary.
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