The Chosen

Paul must be asleep. Despite her fatigue, the excitement still ticked: she couldn’t wait to tell Paul about the offer, but now it looked as if she’d have to wait till morning.

What will he say? she wondered again, more intensely this time. The question, now, seemed to shimmer, like the cold night, the moonlit bay, and Feldspar’s squat, jeweled hand and silky suit. She stood, suddenly stiff in the dark living room. Why was she thinking these things now? Maybe Paul would want her to take the job. Maybe he wants to move. He often mentioned a desire to write books someday. He could pretty much do that anywhere, couldn’t he? Vera’s new salary, plus the free room and board, would give Paul all the time he needed to write.

Why didn’t I think of that before?

Was she being selfish? Vera wanted the job—just not at the expense of her relationship. She was prejudging the situation. Perhaps Paul would be as enthusiastic about it as she was.

There was only one way to find out.

She went down the warm, dark hall, not even yet having taken off her coat. This was important, and the only way she’d know how he felt was to ask him. She’d wake him up and ask him.

But only a few steps showed her she wouldn’t need to. The bedroom light glowed in the door’s gap; he wasn’t asleep after all. Must still be up, reading. Paul read a lot of books, lots of philosophical fiction like Kafka and Drieser and Seymore, and a lot of sociology texts. Vera’s excitement carried her to the door, and when she opened it—

What the…

The scene divided her perceptions. Wrong apartment! she squealed at herself, forgetting that her key had unlocked the front door. She did not consider logic at this precise moment, she couldn’t. She’d walked into the middle of an orgy.

Her hands fell limp at her sides. At once her senses collided with the lewdest scents, sounds, and glimpses. Wrong apartment, she thought again, only now it was the limpest thought that had ever occurred to her, and the palest lie.

This was not the wrong apartment. It was her apartment—hers and Paul’s—theirs. This was their bedroom, their furniture, their carpet and their pictures on the wall.

This was their bed—

—on which now the most perverse scene unfolded.

Vera’s eyelids felt held open by hooks. Three nude figures crowded the bed. A skinny lank-haired blonde, whose wrists had been lashed to the bedposts, lay on her back with her legs splayed. Her eyes looked glazed; she was grinning stupidly. A man stood between her legs on hands and knees, his head lowered in steady cunnilingus. He looked like someone trying to push a peanut with his nose. Though his face was busily buried, Vera knew at once that the man was Paul.

A second woman, much more beautiful than the blonde, knelt aside. She grinned down fixedly, as if in supervision, stroking Paul’s back. She had perfectly straight, light-red hair that shimmered like satin, and large, erect breasts.

“Baby want some more?” she asked.

The skinny blonde wagged her head. On the night stand sat a small jar of some mauve powder. The redhead leaned across, stuck a tiny coke spook in the jar, then brought it to the blonde’s nostril, into which the small amount of powder instantly disappeared. The blonde went limp against her wristbonds, her grin widening. “Aw, God,” she moaned and lolled her head.

“That good, baby?”