Laura cinched the towel around herself and approached Beebo. “Do you know what you’re saying, you nut?” she said. “You big fool? Beebo, answer me!” But Beebo turned her back and watched Laura with glittering eyes in the mirror on the medicine chest.
“You’re saying that you can’t stay sober without me, Beebo. Do you realize that?”
“I can’t stay sober if you don’t love me, Laura.”
“Oh, damn you, Beebo!” Laura almost wept with frustration. “You’re only saying that to make me feel guilty. To put the blame on me instead of on yourself where it belongs! I didn’t give you your first drink, God knows. I don’t ply you with liquor. You’ve fixed it with your conscience so no matter when you get drunk it’s my fault No matter how much you drink, you’re only drinking because Laura is such a bitch. Well, I won’t buy it! It’s a damn plot to make a prisoner of me!”
“A prisoner! Now where did little Bo-peep get that fancy idea?” Beebo’s eyes were narrow and sharp in spite of the whiskey. Her anger brought clarity with it. “That sounds like the kind of propaganda Jack would spout.”
“No—” Laura began, but Beebo silenced her with a menacing wave of her hand. Laura found herself trapped against the bathroom door.
Beebo put a hand up on the door on either side of Laura and looked down at her. “Now, suppose you just tell me what Jack said,” she said.
“What makes you think Jack said it? I can think for myself and you know it, And I am a prisoner here!”
“You can’t think for yourself when Jack’s around. That bastard is the Pied Piper of Greenwich Village. He opens his yap and all the little fairies listen popeyed to whatever he has to say. Including you.”
Laura looked at her and found herself caught by Beebo’s spell again. Beebo was born to lose her temper. She looked wonderful when she did. It exasperated Laura to feel a bare animal desire for her at times like this.
“Jack said it. Come on. Jack said it, didn’t he?” Beebo insisted.
“All right!” Laura almost screamed. “Jack said it!”
She looked up at Beebo with embarrassed desire and to make her shame complete, Beebo saw it. And she knew she was in command again, even if only for an hour or so. Beebo was learning to live for those hours. The rest of the time nothing much mattered.
Beebo shifted support of her leaning body from her arms to Laura, lifted up Laura’s angry helpless face and kissed it. “Why aren’t you like this all the time?” she asked. And Laura startled her when she echoed, “Why aren’t you like this all the time?”
“Like what, baby? Drunk?”
“No…,“ Laura hesitated. She didn’t quite understand what she meant herself.
“Mad?” Beebo asked.
“I don’t know.”
Beebo laughed. “If it’ll help I’ll get mad and stay mad, Bo-peep. I’ll get drunk and stay drunk. Would you like that?” She interspersed her words with kisses.
“No. I just—I hate it when you act like a spoiled brat, Beebo.”
“I never act like a spoiled brat.” Her voice was little more than a whisper now.
They sank to the floor where they were and made love then.
And even after Laura had finally fallen asleep, in her arms, Beebo felt a tide of renewed passion. She caressed Laura’s hair and back with her hands and thought, If it can be this good it’s not over.
Laura had left work meaning to go straight home. But as before she hadn’t gone far when she knew she was headed for Tris’s little studio.
Tris opened the door herself. She had evidently been practicing for she was dressed in tights and breathing hard. Her black hair was smoothed over her head, caught in back with a clasp and braided. The braid, heavy and shining, hung halfway down her back and swung like a whip when she whirled.
Tris paused for a moment when she saw Laura on her threshold and for an awful second Laura thought she might turn her away. But Tris smiled suddenly and said, “Laura. How nice. Please come in.”
“I just dropped by to say hello,” Laura apologized.
“That is not all, I hope?” Tris said, looking at her.
Laura felt an odd little twist of excitement. “Well…I shouldn’t stay. I don’t want to interrupt your work.”
“Of course you do. That’s why you came,” Tris said, spinning reflectively in place, her weight shifting delicately to pull her around and around.
Laura didn’t know if she was being scolded or teased, if she should leave or stay. Tris stopped twirling and said, “I’m glad you came. I didn’t want to work any more anyway.”
Laura hesitated, wondering whether to believe her. But when Tris walked across the room to her and kissed her cheek she melted suddenly with pleasure. She stood quietly and let herself be kissed, afraid to return the compliment. She was very unsure of herself with Tris. Even the gentlest gesture seemed to irritate the dancer sometimes. Laura could only let her take the lead.
Tris turned away abruptly, her mood shifting. “Well, now you are here,” she said in her careful English. “What would you like to do?” It was a sort of challenge.
“I—I’d like to see you dance, Tris. Would you dance for me?”
“No.” She was pouting. “You are my excuse for not dancing any more today, Laura.”
“Maybe we could just talk for a little while, then.”
“We could…but we won’t.”
Laura was at a loss for words. She stammered a little and finally she blurted, “I think you’d rather have me go home.”
“I think Beebo would like you home more than I would. She doesn’t let you out very often, does she?”
Laura colored. “She’s not my jailkeeper,” she said.
“I don’t like this—this interference you force me to make in your love affair, Laura,” Tris said and surprised her guest. “I don’t know your Beebo, but I have nothing against her. Still, I do not imagine she will like me very well if she finds out you are my guest now and then.”
“What
