and begged for an extra ten pesos and gave a long story about something. I didnt know the value of Mexican money; for all I 167 knew I had a million pesos. I threw money at her. We rushed back to dance. A greater crowd was gathered in the Street. The cops looked as bored as usual. Deans pretty Venezuelan dragged me through a door and into another strange bar that apparently belonged to the whorehouse. Here a young bartender was talking and wiping glasses and an old man with han canada goose coat men dlebar mustache sat discussing something earnestly. And here too the mambo roared over another loud* speaker. It seemed the whole world was turned on. Venezuela clung about my neck and begged for drink canada goose coat men s. The bartender wouldnt give her one. She begged and begged, and when he gave it to her she spilled it and this time
wishes for a cigarette to go with his cleaned-out feeling inside and remembers he gave up smoking and feels cleaner still. He slumps down and puts one arm up canada goose coat men on the back of the seat and glides on down the twilight pike lefthanded. A field of corn the Negresss voice bending dark and warm like the inside of a cello the grasses grow the countryside dipping around the road like a continuous dark bird it makes no mind no how his scalp contracts ecstatically wihithout a. The smell of parched rubber says the heater has come on and he turns the little lever to MOD. Secret Love, Autumn Leaves, and some canada goose coat men thing whose title he missed. Supper music. Music to cook by. His mind nervously shifts away from the involuntary vision of Janices meal sizzling in the pan, chops probably, the grease-tinted water
hair, as she tilts back her head and squints at a ceiling light, settles into one grave shade. The light flatters her hair more than her face; on this side of her nose there are some spots in her skin, blemishes that make bumps through her powder. You dont, he says. The bubble rolls off his chest. If it doesnt worry anybody else why should it worry him? O.K. What shall we talk about? Whats your weight? One forty-seven. R canada goose coat men uth, youre tiny. Youre just a welterweight. No kidding. Nobody wants you to be all bones. Every pound you have on is priceless. Hes talking just for happiness, but something he says makes her tense up. Youre pretty wise, arent you? she asks, tilting her empty glass toward her eyes. The glass is a shallow cup on a short stem, like an ic canada goose coat men e-cream dish at a fancy birthday party.
legs, crossed, show the blue dabs of varicose veins. Her face, when she sits, is not as young as at the door. Double chin when she relaxes, head tucked back. Smug little cookie. Firm little knockers. He asks, How old is your child? Two children. Two girls, one and three. I have a boy whos two. Id like a boy, she says. The girls and I have personality problems; were too much alike. We know exactly what canada goose coat men the others thinking. Dislikes her own children! Rabbit is shocked, this from a ministers wife. Does your husband notice this? Oh, its wonderful for Jack. He loves to have women fighting over him. Its his little harem. I think a boy would threaten him. Do you feel threatened? Not by the kid, no. Hes only two. It starts earlier than two, be canada goose coat men lieve me. Sexual antagonism begins practically at birth.
be best at that and I honestly believe he was. I know what you mean, Eccles says. I play a little golf with him and already hes become better than I am. She puts the cubes in a glass and holds the glass under a spigot and brings it to him. He tilts it at his lips and Earl Angstroms palely vehement voice wavers through the liquid. Then he comes back from the Army and a canada goose coat men ll he cares about is chasing ass. Your language, Earl, his wife says, setting coffee in a flowered cup on the table between his hands. He looks down into the steam and says, Excuse me. When I think of what that boys doing my stomach does somersaults. Hes become the worst kind of B canada goose coat men rewer bum. If I could get my loving hands on him, Father, Id try to thrash him if he killed me in the process. His ashen face bunches defiantly at
The older girl sneaks into the kitchen, dressed just in underpants. Joyce. Her mother halts halfway to the sink with the empty cups. You get right back up to bed. Hello, Joyce, Rabbit says. Did you come down to see the naughty man? Joyce stares and hugs the wall with her shoulder blades. Her lo canada goose coat men ng golden stomach protrudes thoughfully. Joyce, Lucy says. Didnt you hear me? Why doesnt he have his shirt on? the child asks distinctly. I dont know, her mother says. I suppose he thinks he has a nice chest. I have a T-shirt on, Its as if neither of them see it. Is that his boo-zim? Joyce asks. No, darling: only ladies have bosoms. Weve been through that. Hell, if it makes everybody nervous, Rabbit says, and puts on his shirt. Its rumpled a canada goose coat men nd the inside of the collar is gray; he put it on clean to
Its hateful. She turns her face away and stu canada goose coat men dies the calm green globe of the dead television set. The front of her nightie is drying; the crusty stiffness scratches her. The baby book said Keepnipplesclean,Soapgently:germs enter scratches. She sets the drink on the round chair arm and stands up and pulls her nightgown over her head and sits down again. It gives her nakedness a mossy hug. She puts the bunched nightgown in her lap on top of her Modess pad and canada goose coat men belt and pulls the footstool over cleverly with her toes and rests her ankles on it and admires her legs. She always thought she had good legs. Straight small nice even thighs. She does have good legs. Their tapering wavering silhouettes are white against the deep shadow of the rug. The dim light erases the blue veins left from carrying
discouraged. On the top of the mountain it is still broad day. Up in the se canada goose coat men a of sky a lake of fragmented mackerel clouds drifts in one piece like a school of fish. There are only a couple cars parked around the hotel, jalopies, 5 canada goose coat men 2 Pontiacs and 51 Mercs like Springer Motors sells to these blotchy kids that come in with a stripper in their wallets and a hundred dollars in the bank. Inside the cafeteria a few of them are playing a pinball machine called B OUNCING B ETSY. They look at him and make wise faces and one of the boys even calls, Did she rip your shirt? But, its strange, they dont really know anything about him except he looks mussed. You do things and do things and nobody really has a clue. The clock says twenty of six. He goes to the pay-phone on the mustard-colored wall and looks