“I saw Sara Pike,” I said.
“Was she the only one?”
“Yes.”
This was true, strictly speaking, for Sid had never seen Beth and didn’t know her, and she had used first person plural, not second singular, which gave me an out. That is, it gave me a chance to be evasive, a God-damn sneak, and so, after feeling for a few seconds like a God-damn sneak, I took a swallow of good domestic white Burgundy from California and came clean.
“I saw someone I used to know,” I said. “Before you and I met. Beth Thatcher. Used to be Beth Webb. She was a girl around town.”
Sid dipped a bite of tail into her little butter pot and popped it into her mouth. Chewing, she stared past me across the backyard into the gathering darkness beneath the oak, and she seemed suddenly to be listening intently to all the sounds around us.
“I’ve heard about her,” she said.
“To tell the truth, we went together for a while.”
“That’s one of the things I heard.”
“She married Wilson Thatcher and went out to California with him. Later they were divorced, and he came back without her when he took over the local factory. Now she’s in town for a day or two, and I had a couple of drinks with her.”
“Are you back to a couple again? I thought it was four.”
“I had two before she came in.”
“Oh, well, that’s all right, then. Two drinks with an old girl friend are permissible, even if it means keeping me waiting and waiting while the God-damn lobster tails get tougher and tougher, but four would be too many and not permissible at all.”
“She asked me to buy her a drink, so what the hell could I do? I had to be courteous, at least.”
“Of course you did, sugar, and I admire you tremendously for it. If you keep practicing, you may even become courteous enough to make a reasonable effort to come to dinner on time and things like that.”
“Oh, hell. I can see that I made a mistake in telling you about it.”
“Do you think so? Why? Do you think I’m being unreasonable or something? I simply can’t understand you.”
“All I can say is, if you don’t want to be treated like a wife, you’d better try not to act like one.”
“Now, why in hell would you make a remark like that? Have I said a single thing to justify your calling me a dirty name? All I did, in connection with the number of gimlets you had with your old girl friend, was to point out calmly that enough is enough and too much is too God-damn much. That’s all.”
“Oh, cut it out, Sid. Please do. I’m sorry I was late, and I’m sorry I had the damn drinks with Beth.”
“Well, now that you’re properly contrite, I may as well admit that I may have been a little unreasonable about it. I think it was mostly because you came directly home afterward and covered me with gin kisses. I got the impression that you were trifling with my affections.”
“It wasn’t your affections I was trifling with. You wait a while until it’s a little darker, and I’ll show you some trifling you’ll remember.”
“That would be nice, sugar, and I’m all over prickly just thinking about it, but I can’t possibly stay for it.”
“Can’t stay? Why not?”
“Because I have to go over to Rose Pogue’s for a conference. She and I are conducting the next session of our discussion group, you know, and tonight is absolutely the last chance we’ll have to get together and plan things. What we’re discussing now is the great religions of the world, and Rose and I are having Zoroaster.”
“Why do you have to have a conference? Couldn’t you each just take a part and plan it by yourselves?”
“No, no, sugar. Not possibly. We need to talk things over.”
“Well, if you must have a conference, why must it be so late? Don’t you realize that it’s already eight-thirty?”
“Honest to God?” Sid jumped up and tugged at the bottoms of her short shorts, which were still, after the tugging, short short. “Sugar, I simply must take a shower and dress and run. Would you mind too much clearing away the things? There are only a few, and you can simply put them in the sink and leave them.”
“You’ve eaten only one of your tails.”
“You may eat the other, if you wish. They’re such little tails, I’m sure you can eat three easily. You may also drink all the rest of the wine.”
“All right. I’ll come up in a few minutes and watch you dress.”
“You’re welcome to come up and watch, sugar, but you mustn’t touch me or make any suggestions. You know how susceptible I am, and I simply haven’t the time.”
She went inside, and I sat there and finished the white Burgundy, but not the fourth tail. It was pretty dark now, and the moon and a mess of stars were getting bright in the sky. A mosquito began buzzing around my head. I made a couple of passes at it, but it wouldn’t go away, and after a minute or two I got up and cleared the table and carried the things into the kitchen. I left the things in the sink, as Sid had suggested, and went upstairs.
Sid was out of the shower but not yet out of the bathroom. I sat down on the edge of the bed in our room and waited for her to come out. Pretty soon she did, as brown and lustrous as a polished acorn, and walked over to the closet and took down a sleeveless dress, pale yellow cotton, that she was going to wear.
“Sugar,” she said, “I said that you mustn’t make suggestions.”
“Who’s made any? I haven’t said a word.”
“It isn’t necessary to say anything. It’s your expression.”
“Lascivious and lustful?”
“At least.”
“I guess I’ll have to practice a poker face.”
“Well, I don’t think I’d want you
