Peter Rabe - Benny Muscles In

She stood flat against the wall. Benny could see her breathe and he saw that her light eyes weren’t cold any more.

“Come out,” he said.

She didn’t move, only her breath came faster.

Benny took her bare arm and led her to the bed. She was different now. Her nakedness was smooth and soft in the dark room.

“Lie down.” He pulled the covers back.

She lay down, waiting. This was as new to her as it was to him. Then he covered her with the blanket. He stepped back and looked down at her. “No dice,” he said.

For a moment she said nothing. “Start all over?”

“We’ll start all over,” he said. “Good night, now.”

Once in the middle of the night she woke up and looked for him. His breathing came from near the door, where he was lying on the floor asleep. You couldn’t have opened the door without waking him.

Before breakfast, before Pat woke up, he made another call. He called New York, he talked fast and urgently, and then he hung up. No word from Alverato.

The bad news made him edgy, but he didn’t find out just how bad it was till he joined Pat at the table. He sat down, they looked at each other, and then he saw it. She wasn’t through with him yet.

He thought he knew why. Of the men she had known, only Tapkow had been a stranger. He hadn’t wanted a thing. He had stood back, holding back, and that alone made him special.

“Let’s go,” he said, and put the change on the table. She followed him to the car without having asked where they were going.

He was sullen behind the wheel, and they took off with a sudden jerk, the wheels spitting gravel. He too didn’t know where he was going.

“Back to Dad’s place?” she said after a while. She had lit a cigarette, dragged on it, and then offered it to him. He took it without thinking. “Well?”

He had heard the question and hoped he wasn’t figuring it wrong. “No,” he said. “Not his place.”

It wasn’t a mistake. She sidled over and leaned against him, one arm along his back. He could feel her through the blouse. “Three days, Benny?” He could tell by her voice she was smiling at him.

“Three days,” he said. “You and me.”

“We’ll have some excitement?”

“Sure.” His short smile was automatic. He was trying to think. She was crazier than he had thought, half stone, half woman, only it had been easier before. He’d get her back on the old tack, the mean bitch who was so cold it would probably need a blast furnace of excitement to make an impression on her. Not like now, when even his shortest smile seemed to please her, but one big, impersonal blast of excitement-and then he remembered about Tober, crazy Tober. He’d been somebody once, before Benny’s time. He’d been with Old Man Ager for a while and he had helped Benny find the spot with Pendleton. Tober had been friendly. Benny was hoping that Tober was still that way. He hadn’t seen him for a while, ever since Tober quit, rich and bored. He’d moved to that place he had on the Gulf and stayed there most of the year. He’d imported his excitement, being rich and bored.

“Where are we going, Benny?” she asked again.

“Down the road a piece.”

“Excitement?”

“No tea and crumpets,” he said.

“Where?”

“You’ll see. Some party-time people I know.”

They drove for another hour. A private drive took them off the highway through neglected land. Dead swamp grass and crooked trees covered the view on both sides, but suddenly it changed to rich green growth and a tended row of palms. Another bend showed the house, which sprawled in all directions with little pillars, balconies, and a lot of green stucco. There were cars all over the wide yard, but nothing else.

“Where is everybody?” Pat was leaning out and looking.

“You stay here while I go see.”

Benny got out of the car and walked into the house. The big hall looked empty. He walked to the back, where the ocean was, and looked down the veranda.

“Looking for someone?”

The voice was high and fast, almost like the ping from an air rifle. Benny turned. “Tober, you old crook, it’s good to see you!” Benny pumped a limp hand.

Tober burst out in a shrill laugh when he saw who it was, and his hand became strong like a claw. “Benny the Tapkow! How have you been, how have you been? Come sit and have a drink. Christ, wait till the rest of them get a load of you! Say, man, what happened to your hat? No hat, Benny, I see no hat.”

Tober had talked with that rapid excitement in his voice which happened to him three times a day. Three times daily Tober was a pistol, sharp, fast, and full of noise. His shiny eyes glittered back and forth, and his long, stooped body looked tense.

“You high, Tober?” Benny tried to see the man’s pupils.

“Like a rocket, Benny, like a red, white, blue, and purple rocket. But for you slow-witted squares I got tamer stuff. How about some Scotch, how about some hipscotchdipscotch Scotch splashed over rocks, Benny boy?”

“Slow down, Tober. Listen, I got a guest. You mind if I bring a guest?”

“I’ll make two hipscotchdip-”

“Tober, pay attention. This is kind of a special deal. She and I got to stay under wraps for a day or so. I thought-”

“Benny boy, this is the place to stay under a wrap, if that’s the kind of thing you fancy. Where is this delight?”

“Outside. I’ll get her.”

Benny walked to the front door and waved Pat to come in.

“It’s O.K.?” she asked.

“Is it O.K.? Is it O.K.!” Tober rushed out to grab her by the hand. “I’d say, being a judge of such,” and he looked her up and down.

“Tober, you were going to get some drinks.” Benny took the girl by the arm and watched Tober rush into the house.

They went to the back, where a long veranda faced the Gulf, and sat down.

“Who’s Tober?” Pat asked.

“Just somebody I know.” Benny thought for a moment about the Tober he used to know, fifty pounds heavier, a quiet guy.

“Is he a little crazy?”

“Sometimes. He made too much money. Drives him crazy now and then.” He walked back and forth. “Where in hell are those drinks?”

There wasn’t a soul around, but a piano was being played someplace in the house.

“Let’s look for the piano player, seeing that Tober disappeared.” Pat got out of her chair.

They followed the sound of the music, which was alternately plinking and crashing with a fast rhythm, but it wasn’t so easy to find. They walked through one room where a man was sleeping on a couch. He had a three-day growth of beard and his cheeks puffed out like a bellows when he breathed. They saw a blonde who was sunning herself on a sun deck. She was stark naked and waved at them as they passed. When they finally reached the room with the piano, they found Tober, sitting there on a stool and hitting the keyboard as if he were chopping wood. He stopped when he heard them.

“The drinks!” he yelled, and ran out of the room.

“You sit here.” Benny pushed Pat onto the couch. “I better watch him.”

He could feel her following him with her eyes and then he closed the door behind him.

He wanted Tober to stick around, take some of the work off his shoulders and help put this thing on a business basis.

Tober was in the big kitchen, breaking ice cubes out of a tray.

“A delight,” he said without transition. “A lovely sight of delight.”

“Yeah.”

“Romantic Benny!” Tober said. “Here-warm yourself on an ice cube.”

“Listen, Tober. Anybody here from your old crowd?”

“All dead,” Tober said, “except me. I’m recharged daily.”

“Anybody here knows Pendleton and those people of his?”