Nick's diary entry by Lien

Wow thats so typical, i'm really sorry Mr. Pollicutt, i went on here a few days back to post this but ended up reading everyone else's and forgetting what i was on here to do in the first place...

sorry......!!! but look, i found an interesting article though, so i'll post that on the blog as well to redeem myself!!!!

hehe......

sorry

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Today I rode up to the city to have lunch with Gatsby. I hadn’t realize he had invited another guest along – his rather peculiar, to say the least, Jewish friend Mr. Meyer Wolfshiem – but arriving at the forty-second street cellar to find that I would not have to be alone with Gatsby somewhat loosened the knot inside my stomach that I hadn’t even realized had been there until that moment. I turned around to greet the small Meyer Wolfshiem before me. Glancing down at his face, my eyes immediately picked out a rather irritatingly outsized nose which annoyingly concealed much of his features and small eyes. It was going to be a very unusual day, and for some inexplicable reason I can’t seem to remember too much of it apart from Gatsby’s unrelenting strangeness and a few observations I made of Meyer Wolfshiem, all the while trying not to stare incessantly at his catastrophic thing of a nose. Although I do remember thinking from before I arrived to lunch that something about the day had been odd, little did I know that throughout the meal quite few things would happen to augment this initial thought quite heftily.

We had barely even reached our table before Wolfshiem dived blithely into his first story of the afternoon, one of how a young man he used to know named Rosy Rosenthal was shot in the old Metropole just opposite from us. Immediately after he finished, he turned my direction and asked me if I would like a business “gonnegtion”. The casual manner with which Wolfshiem seemed to make the connection between murder – and brutal murder as well, by the sounds of Rosy’s story – and business startled me greatly. I could tell he didn’t really think much of it and it was clearly a genuine remark. It confused me, how somebody could talk about death then go on straight to business in a way which clearly tells me he apparently believes the link between the two to be obvious or even, as if they regarded some kind of mutual theme! It's shocking, really... I wondered, could this be how they do business here in the East?

But before I had time to express any of these thoughts or even put my bewilderment into any form of words, out of nowhere Gatsby’s somewhat panicked voice sounded to our left and hurried to avoid the subject. This irritated me deeply, the way in which Gatsby, who probably knew precisely what he was doing, stopped me from criticizing Wolfshiem’s absurd notions. This had me under the suspicious impression that he was doing this to somehow protect Wolfshiem, who meanwhile, with his nose, merely sat there in the middle of it all, apparently unaware. I was also wary of the way Gatsby told Wolfshiem that he’d told him they’d talk about it some other time, like Gatsby was scared to speak of the matter in my presence. But what difference should that make? This only made me more curious to know what Wolfshiem meant about it all. Unless of course, he has something to hide, like Gatsby. I find his deliberate secrecy and vagueness quite frankly unsatisfying and lame, if I’m honest. As if his intrusion on matters between Jordan and I wasn’t enough already.

The issue did actually come up again for the second time today when Gatsby attempted to apologize. Seizing my chance I tried again to know more about his “request”, but he wasn’t about to put his delicate little ego away, again stubbornly insisting it was nothing I should fuss over. I could sense myself burning up more and more with every passing syllable uttered from his mouth. How could one be so incredibly big-headed and selfish to push his nose into other people’s affairs and expect them not to fret? He even added one of those smiles but for the first time I felt like it was piercing a hole through my face. I had to try enormously to resist the temptation of hitting back with something particularly nasty. Perhaps it was the wiser option in the end.

As if feeling my frustration from across the table Gatsby abruptly stood up and left the table. I felt myself heave a sigh of relief before realizing that I was now left alone at the table to deal with Meyer Wolfshiem. Too tired from being annoyed at Gatsby, however, I let him drone on without paying much attention, every now and then agreeing and nodding my head a bit to avoid him noticing.

Once Gatsby returned to the table again, it was Wolfshiem’s turn to leave as if he were in a rush, claiming that he didn't want to "impose himself" on us – the young generation as he put it. We shook hands and he left quickly. After that, Gatsby told me a little about Wolfhsiem but I didn’t really feel like staying much longer with him so I insisted on paying for our lunch so we could go. Trying to avoid any further awkward conversation with Gatsby, I pretended to look around the restaurant and coincidentally caught sight of Tom Buchanan who was sitting across the room. I told Gatsby I wanted to him to meet someone and we walked to where he was. I was somewhat oddly relieved to see him and quickly introduced Gatsby, more eager to talk to Tom as we hadn’t caught up for quite a while. Perhaps this was the reason why I didn’t really pay much attention to Gatsby and it wasn’t until I looked over while telling Tom that we had been eating together that I’d realized he had disappeared, into thin air as far as i was concerned. Only sitting here writing this now after racking my memory has made me remember seeing from the corner of my vision Gatsby’s bizarrely tense expression and body language. Why that could be hasn’t ceased to challenge my imagination today, even until now.