corner, feeling her stare after him. When he looked back, she had taken off her glasses and gazed now with the look of the nearsighted at what, at most, must be a moving blob of light in the great darkness here. Then, for good measure he went around the block again, through a city so suddenly beautiful he wanted to yell, then laugh, then yell again.
Returning, he drifted, oblivious, eyes half-closed, and seeing him in the door the others saw not Martinez but themselves come home. In that moment, they sensed that something had happened to them all.
«You're late!» cried Vamenos, but stopped. The spell could not be broken.
«Somebody tell me,» said Martinez. «Who am I?»
He moved in a slow circle through the room.
Yes, he thought, yes, it's the suit, yes, it had to do with the suit and them all together in that store on this fine Saturday night and then here, laughing and feeling more drunk without drinking, as Manulo said himself, as the night ran and each slipped on the pants and held, toppling, to the others and, balanced, let the feeling get bigger and warmer and finer as each man departed and the next took his place in the suit until now here stood Martinez all splendid and white as one who gives orders and the world grows quiet and moves aside.
«Martinez, we borrowed three mirrors while you were gone. Look!»
The mirrors, set up as in the store, angled to reflect three Martinezes and the echoes and memories of those who had occupied this suit with him and known the bright world inside this thread and cloth. Now, in the shimmering mirror, Martinez saw the enormity of this thing they were living together and his eyes grew wet. The others blinked.
Martinez touched the mirrors. They shifted. He saw a thousand, a million white-armoured Martinezes march off into eternity, reflected, reflected, for ever, indomitable, and unending.
He held the white coat out on the air. In a trance, the others did not at first recognize the dirty hand that reached to take the coat. Then:
«Vamenos!»
«Pig!»
«You didn't wash!» cried Gomez. «Or even shave, while you waited! Compadres, the bath!»
«The bath!» said everyone.
«No!» Vamenos flailed. «The night air! I'm dead!»
They hustled him yelling out and down the hall.
Now here stood Vamenos, unbelievable in white suit, beard shaved, hair combed, nails scrubbed.
His friends scowled darkly at him.
For it was not true, thought Martinez, that when Vamenos passed by, avalanches itched on mountain-tops. If he walked under windows, people spat, dumped garbage, or worse. Tonight now, this night, he would stroll beneath ten thousand wideopened windows, near balconies, past alleys. Suddenly the world absolutely sizzled with flies. And here was Vamenos, a fresh-frosted cake.
«You sure look keen in that suit, Vamenos,» said Manulo sadly.
«Thanks.» Vamenos twitched, trying to make his skeleton comforable where all their skeletons had so receatly been. In a small voice, Vamenos said, «Can I go now?»
«Villanazul!» said Gomez. «Copy down these rules.»
Villanazul licked his pencil.
«First,» said Gomez, «don't fall down in that suit, Va-menos!»
«I won't.»
«Don't lean against buildings in that suit.»
«No buildings.»
«Don't walk under trees with birds in them, in that suit. Don't smoke. Don't drink?»
«Please,» said Vamenos, «can I sit down in this suit?»
«When in doubt, take the pants off, fold them over a chair.»
«Wish me luck,» said Vamenos.
«Go with God, Vamenos.»
He went out. He shut the door.
There was a ripping sound.
«Vamenos!» cried Martinez.
He whipped the door open.
Vamenos stood with two halves of a handkerchief torn in his hands, laughing.
«Rrrip! Look at your faces! Rrrip!» He tore the cloth again. «Oh, oh, your faces, your faces! Ha!»
Roaring, Vamenos slammed the door, leaving them stunned and alone. Gomez put both hands on top of his head and turned away. «Stone me. Kill me. I have sold our souls to a demon!»
Villanazul dug in his pockets, took out a silver coin and studied it for a long while.
«Here is my last fifty cents. Who else will help me buy back Vamenos's share of the suit?»
«It's no use.» Manulo showed them ten cents. «We got only enough to buy the lapels and the buttonholes.»
Gomez, at the open window, suddenly leaned out and yelled, «Vamenos! No!»
Below on the street, Vamenos, shocked, blew out a match, and threw away an old cigar butt he had found somewhere. He made a strange gesture to all the men in the window above, then waved airily and sauntered on.
Somehow, the five men could not move away from the window. They were crushed together there.
«I bet he eats a hamburger in that suit,» mused Villanazul. «I'm thinking of the mustard.»
«Don't!» cried Gomez. «No, no!»
Manulo was suddenly at the door.
«I need a drink, bad.»
«Manulo, there's wine here, that bottle, on the floor ?»
Manulo went out and shut the door.
A moment later, Villanazul stretched with great exaggeration and strolled about the room.
«I think I'll walk down to the plaza, friends.»
He was not gone a minute when Dominguez, waving his black book at the others, winked, and turned the doorknob.
«Dominguez,» said Gomez.
«Yes?»
«If you see Vamenos, by accident,» said Gomez, «warn him away from Mickey Murillo's Red Rooster Cafe. They got fights not only on TV but out front of the TV, too.»
«He wouldn't go into Murillo's,» said Dominguez. «That
suit means too much to Vamenos. He wouldn't do anything to hurt it.»
«He'd shoot his mother first,» said Martinez. «Sure he would.»
Martinez and Gomez, alone, listened to Dominguez's footsteps hurry away down the stairs. They circled the undressed window dummy.
For a long while, biting his lips, Gomez stood at the window, looking out. He touched his shirt pocket twice, pulled his hand away, and then at last pulled something from the pocket. Without looking at it, he handed it to Martinez.
«Martinez, take this.»
«What is it?»
Martinez looked at the piece of folded pink paper with print on it, with names and numbers. His eyes widened.
«A ticket on the bus to El Paso, three weeks from now!»
Gomez nodded. He couldn't look at Martinez. He stared out into the summer night.
«Turn it in. Get the money,» he said. «Buy us a nice white panama hat and a pale blue tie to go with the white ice-cream suit, Martinez. Do that.»
«Gomez?»
«Shut up. Boy, is it hot in here! I need air.»
«Gomez. I am touched. Gomez ?»
