robe and unlaced sneakers.
“Arrrgh,” I said.
“You weren’t supposed to be back yet,” she said, wiping at some of the cream with her Kleenex.
“Never mind that shit, lady,” I said, “what have you done with Susan Silverman?”
“It’s time you knew, sweetie, this is the real me.”
“Heavens,” I said.
“Does this mean it’s over?”
“No, but tell me the fake you will reappear in a while.”
“Twenty minutes,” she said, “I’ve made us reservations at the Coonamessett Inn for seven.”
“How about a swim first and then some tennis, or vice versa.”
“No. I just washed my hair. I don’t want to get it wet and sweaty. Or vice versa. Why don’t you swim while I conceal the real me. Then we can have a drink and a leisurely drive to the inn and you can explain yourself and where the hell you’ve been and what you’ve been doing and with or to whom, and that sort of thing.”
I swam for a half-hour. The pool was only about fifty feet long so I did a lot of turns, but it was a nice little workout and I went back to the room with the blood moving in my veins. Susan didn’t do anything to slow it down. The hair was unrolled and the robe and cream had disappeared. And she was wearing a pale sleeveless dress the color of an eggshell, and jade earrings. She was putting her lipstick on when I came in, leaning close to the mirror to make sure it was right.
I took a shower and shaved and brushed my teeth with a fluoride toothpaste that tasted like Christmas candy. I put on my dark blue summer suit with brass buttons on the coat and vest, a pale blue oxford button-down shirt and a white tie with blue and gold stripes. Dark socks, black tassel loafers. I checked myself in the mirror. Clear-eyed, and splendid. I clipped my gun on under my coat. I really ought to get a dress gun sometime. A pearl handle perhaps, in a patent leather holster.
“Stay close to me,” I said to Susan on the way out to the car. “The Hyannis Women’s Club may try to kidnap me and treat me as a sex object.”
Susan put her arm through mine. “Death before dishonor,” she said.
In the car Susan put a kerchief over her hair and I drove slowly with the top down to the inn. We had a Margarita in the bar and a table by the window where you could look out on the lake.
We had a second Margarita while we looked at the menu. “No beer?” Susan asked.
“Didn’t seem to go with the mood or the occasion,” I said. “I’ll have some with dinner.”
I ordered raw oysters and lobster thermidor. Susan chose oysters and baked stuffed lobster.
“It’s all falling into place, Suze,” I said. “I think I can do it.”
“I hope so,” she said. “Have you seen Pam Shepard?”
“Last night.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I slept in my apartment last night.”
“Oh? How is she?”
“Oh, nowhere near as good as you,” I said.
“I don’t mean that. I mean how is her state of mind.”
“Okay, I think you should talk with her. She’s screwed up pretty good, and I think she needs some kind of therapy.”
“Why? You made a pass at her and she turned you down?”
“Just talk with her. I figure you can direct her someplace good. She and her husband can’t agree on what she ought to be and she feels a lot of guilt about that.”
Susan nodded. “Of course I’ll talk with her. When?”
“After this is over, day after tomorrow it should be.”
“I’ll be glad to.”
“I didn’t make a pass at her.”
“I didn’t ask,” Susan said.
“It was a funny scene though. I mean we talked about it a lot. She’s not a fool, but she’s misled, maybe unadult, it’s hard to put my finger on it. She believes some very destructive things. What’s that Frost line, ‘He will not go behind his father’s saying’?”
“ ‘Mending Wall,’ ” Susan said.
“Yeah, she’s like that, like she never went beyond her mother’s sayings, or her father’s and when they didn’t work she still didn’t go beyond them. She just found someone with a new set of sayings, and never went beyond them.”
“Rose and Jane?” Susan said.
“You have a fine memory,” I said. “It helps make up for your real appearance.”
“There’s a lot of women like that. I see a lot of them at school, and a lot of them at school parties. Wives of
