A FRIEND
When Mrs Kletz finished copying the letter, we sealed it with the snapshot of Glynis Stonehouse in a plain manila envelope. Mrs Kletz addressed it in her hand.
'Just ring the bell at the front gate,' I instructed her, as I prepared to send her out on this important assignment.
'The butler, a big man, will come out. Tell him you have a letter for Mrs Kipper, give it to him, and walk away as quickly as you can.'
'Don't worry, Mr Bigg,' she said. 'I'll get out of there fast.'
She put on her Tam O'Shanter and a loden coat as billowy as a tent and set out. A half-hour later I locked the Kipper and Stonehouse files securely away and left the office. Uncharacteristically I took a cab home, so anxious was I to find a message from Cleo. I found it slipped under my door: 'Miss Cleo Hufnagel accepts with pleasure Mr Joshua Bigg's kind invitation to dinner tonight in his apartment at 8.00 p.m.'
Smiling, I changed into parka and watch cap, and then checked my larder, refrigerator, and liquor supply. I made 339
out a careful list of things I needed and then set forth with my two-wheeled shopping cart. It was a cold, misty evening, and I didn't dawdle. I bought two handsome club steaks; baking potatoes; sour cream already mixed with chives; butter (should she prefer it to the sour cream); a head of iceberg lettuce; a perfectly shaped, plasma- coloured tomato; a cucumber the size of a tough, small U-boat, and just as slippery; a bottle of creamy garlic dressing; and a frozen blueberry cheesecake. I also purchased two small shrimp cocktails that came complete with sauce in small jars that could later be used as juice glasses. A paper tablecloth. Paper napkins. An onion.
I also bought a cold six-pack of Ballantine ale, two bottles of Chianti in raffia baskets, and a quart of California brandy. And two long red candles. On impulse I stopped at a florist's shop and bought a long-stemmed yellow rose.
She tapped on my door a few minutes after 8.00 and came in smiling. She bent swiftly to kiss my cheek. She had brought me a loaf of crusty sour rye from our local Jewish bakery. It was a perfect gift; I had forgotten all about bread. Fortunately I had butter.
I gave her the yellow rose, which came close to bringing tears to her eyes and earned me another cheek-kiss, warmer this time. I led her to my favourite armchair and asked her if she'd like a fire.
'Maybe later,' she said.
I poured a glass of red wine for her and one for myself.
'Here's to you,' I toasted.
'To us,' she said.
I told her what we were having for dinner.
'Sounds marvellous,' she said in her low, whispery voice. 'I like everything.'
Suddenly, due to her words or her voice or her smile, something struck me.
'What's wrong?' Cleo asked anxiously.
I sighed.:I bought a kite. And a ball of string and a winder. But I left them at the office. I forgot to bring them home.'
She laughed. 'We weren't going to fly it tonight. But I'm glad you remembered.'
'It's a red kite,' I told her. 'Listen, I have to go into the kitchen and get things ready. You help yourself to the wine.'
'Can't I come in with you?' she said softly. 'I promise I won't get in the way.'
I couldn't remember ever having been so content in my life. I think my feeling — in addition to the beamy effects of the food and wine — came from a realization of the sense of home. I had never known a real home. Not my own. And there we were in a tiny, messy kitchen, fragrant with cooking odours and the smoke of candles, quiet with our comfort, walled around and shielded.
It was a new experience for me, being with a woman I liked. Liked? Well. . wanted to be with. I didn't have to make conversation. She didn't have to. We could be happily silent together. That was something, wasn't it?
After dinner, she murmured that she'd help me clean up.
'Oh, let's just leave everything,' I said, which was out of character for me, a very tidy man.
'You'll get roaches,' she warned.
'I already have them,' I said mournfully, and we both smiled. Her large, prominent teeth didn't offend me. I thought them charming.
We doused the candles and straggled back to the living room. We decided a blaze in the fireplace would be superfluous; the apartment was warm enough. She sat in the armchair. I sat on the floor at her feet. Her fingers stroked my hair idly. I stroked her long, prehensile toes.
Her bare toes. She groaned with pleasure.
'Do you like me, Cleo?' I asked.
'Of course I like you.'
' Then, if you like me, will you rise from your comfortable chair, find the bottle of brandy in the bar, open it, and pour us each a small glass of brandy? The glasses are in the kitchen cupboard.'
'Your wish is my command, master,' she said humbly.
She was back in a few moments with glasses of brandy, handed me one and, while she was bent over, kissed the top of my head. Then she resumed her sprawling position in the armchair, and I resumed stroking her toes.
'It was a wonderful dinner,' she said sighing.
'Thank you.'
'I'm a virgin,' she said in exactly the same tone of voice she had said, 'It was a wonderful dinner.'
What could I answer with but an equally casual, 'Yes, you mentioned it last time.'
'Did I also mention I don't want to be?' she added thoughtfully.
'Ah,' I said, hoping desperately that I could eventually contribute something better than monosyllables. When it occurred to me almost at once that a lunge qualified as something better, the ice broke.
I have told you that she was tall. Very tall. And slender.
Very slender. But I was not prepared for the sinuous elegance of her body, its lithe vigour. And the sweetness of her skin. She was a rope dipped in honey.
Initially, I think, there was a certain embarrassment, a reticence, on my part as well as hers. But this reserve soon vanished, to be replaced by a vigorous tumbling. She was experiencing new sensations, entering a new world, and wanted to know it all.
'What's this?' she asked eagerly. 'And this?'
She was amazed that men had nipples capable of erection. She was delighted to learn that many of the things that aroused her, aroused me; that there could be as much (or more) pleasure in the giving as in the taking. She 342
wanted to know everything at once, to explore, probe, understand.
'Am I doing this correctly?' she asked anxiously. And,
'Is it all right if I do this?' and, 'What must I do now?'
'Shut up,' I replied.
We may have roared. We certainly cried out, both of us, and I dimly recall looking into a face transformed, ecstatic, and primitive. When it was over, we lay shuddering with bliss, so closely entwined that my arms ached with the strain of pulling her closer, as if to engulf her, and I felt the muscular tremor in those long, flexible legs locked about me.
'I love you,' she said later.
'I love you,' I said.
I buried my face in the soft hollow of neck and shoulder.
My toes caressed her ivory shins.
I interrupted our idyll for business reasons only once that evening. Feeling I had to be honest, I informed Cleo that I had to call the floozie spotted earlier leaving my apartment by the evil Finkel. Further, I would seemingly be arranging a rendezvous, really an interrogation. Should Cleo mistakenly conclude I was growing bored with her, I would be glad to prove her wrong as soon as I completed the call. She laughed and kissed me merrily.
The phone rang three times before Perdita Schug answered. 'Yes?'
