Флетчер Флора - Park Avenue Tramp

“Well, I gather that your friend Samantha isn’t a real Exurbanite. It was probably easier for her to be fair than it was for some of the others.”

“That’s true. Samantha only comes out for short periods every once in a while. She really prefers to live in her apartment in town.”

“Why does she bother with the house at all, then?”

“It’s no particular bother. She has lots of money and can afford it easily, and she feels that it’s important to her career.”

“Career? Does she have a career?”

“Oh, yes. Didn’t I tell you? She’s very serious about being a TV actress, but she hasn’t had much luck at it yet.”

“Sorry. I don’t get the connection.”

“Lots of important TV people live in Fairfield County. Don’t you remember that from the book?”

“Yes, I do, now that you mention it. TV and advertising.”

“That’s the reason she keeps the house. She has parties sometimes and invites certain people to them.”

“I see. Wasn’t it fortunate that she hadn’t planned a party for this weekend?”

“It was. It was very fortunate.”

“How does it happen that you don’t have a country house of your own?”

“I don’t care for one. I wouldn’t want to live here or come here as a regular thing, and I have no other reason like Samantha’s to make it worthwhile.”

“Wouldn’t your husband care to live here either?”

“Oliver? Not at all. Oliver wants to live in the same place all the time and do the same things over and over. He’s really quite abnormal about it. He has a kind of schedule that he keeps. That’s why it’s possible for me to go around different places with little or no interference.”

“Even on weekends?”

“Yes. Isn’t it convenient?”

“At least. Do you really believe that he’s ignorant of what you do?”

“Well, most of it. Anyhow, even when be learns something, it doesn’t seem to make much difference in the long run.”

“That’s convenient, too. Do you think he’s learned anything about us?”

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Why not? Because he has?”

“To tell the truth, someone saw us that first night and told him, and I’m of the opinion that it was Milton Crawford. He’s the one I was with when I walked away and blacked out and went to where you were. Milton’s just the kind of sneak who would tell on someone if it suited him.”

“What did he say?”

“Milton?”

“No. Your husband.”

“Nothing much. He was sarcastic and nasty, the way he can be, but now it’s over and forgotten.”

“Oh, God. Just over and forgotten and nothing more to it.”

“I’ve told you and told you that Oliver’s odd. If you knew him, you’d understand. You can’t expect him to react to anything the way someone else probably would.”

“Thanks for telling me anyhow.”

“Are you angry because I didn’t tell you sooner?”

“No. I’m not angry.”

“I didn’t want to worry you, and I was afraid, besides, that you might decide it would be better if we didn’t see each other any more.”

“I have no doubt at all that it would have been better.”

“You see? If I’d told you, you would have refused to see me.”

“I don’t think so.”

“In spite of Oliver’s knowing about the first night?”

“In spite of it.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t have. Because I’m weak or strong or don’t care. Because I’ve wanted you constantly almost the whole week I’ve known you.”

“Isn’t it marvelous, the way it’s lasted? I’ve wanted you all the time, too, and as far as I’m concerned it’s very unusual. I’d not have thought in the beginning that it was possible. Do you think it will go on and on until we die?”

“For me or for you?”

“For both.”

“No.”

“For either?”

“Not for you.”

“For you?”

“Possibly. It won’t have as far to go in my case, you see, which makes a difference.”

“Don’t talk like that. You know very well that it makes me sad. Anyhow, it has lasted this long and is still lasting, and I don’t want to talk about it, or my husband, or anything depressing and unpleasant like that.”

He turned his head to look at her and saw that she had been looking at him all along. Reaching for his near hand, she smiled the smile that was somehow sad even when she was relatively happy She was wearing a white blouse and short white shorts, even though it was quite cool now in the evening, and her skin was smoothly golden all over, where it showed and didn’t show, for the color had been acquired by lamps in privacy and not by the sun, which she didn’t particularly like and generally avoided.

“What do you think it would be amusing to do tonight?” she said.

“Honestly?”

“Of course honestly.”

“What we did last night.”

“Well, naturally That’s assumed. I meant besides that.”

“Nothing especially. Do you have an idea?”

“There are always lots of parties around different places on Saturday night. It’s true that we haven’t been invited to any, since no one knows we’re here, but we could undoubtedly find one where we would be welcome if we wanted to go.”

“Do you think we’d better?”

“I guess not. I don’t much want to go, anyhow. Do you?”

“I don’t want to go at all. I’d rather lie here and hold hands and look at the split-rail fence.”

“It’s very pleasant, isn’t it? And that’s another surprising and unusual thing. Ordinarily I’m not content to sit quietly for any length of time. Ordinarily I’d much rather be going somewhere and doing something exciting.”

“I’ll go somewhere with you if you want to go.”

“No. I agree that it’s much more pleasant here than it would be anywhere else. It’s beginning to get quite dark, isn’t it? It reminds me of under the trees on the street where I lived as a girl. That was in another town in another state. Light filtered through the leaves into the shadows and there were thousands of cicadas in the trees.”

“I thought you were a native New Yorker.”

“No. Not at all. Why did you think so?”

“I don’t know. I just assumed that you were.”

“Well, I’m not. I lived in another town in another state.”

“Tell me about living there.”

“I don’t think I want to. It would depress me. It’s better here and now than it’s ever been anywhere else at any other time. Don’t you think so?”

“Yes. I think so. I was even thinking that it would be pleasant and easy to die here. Just lying here looking at the split-rail fence. It’s strange. You’re subject to the absolute indifference of the universe, and you take comfort and courage in a split-rail fence.”

“It’s nice, I admit, but I don’t think you need to be so gloomy about it. You seem determined to make me sad, and I wish you wouldn’t do it.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t feeling gloomy or trying to make you feel sad. As a matter of fact, I’m feeling very happy.”

“Truly?”

“Yes. In my frame of reference, at least.”

She lifted his hand and pressed it flat against her breast and held it there. Between the hand and her heart was only the thin fabric of her blouse. After a moment, she slipped the hand inside the blouse, and the heart quickened and became urgent, pounding in his palm.

“Darling,” she said, “the bartender was wrong, wasn’t he? I’ve been good for you, haven’t I?”

“You’ve been good for me for almost a week.”

“Did you like it out on Long Island? Did you think it was good on Orient Point?”

“I liked it on Long Island. Especially on Orient Point. You told me how it would be, and that’s the way it was.”