Garden of Eden (15 page)

"I
know she will and you must make her feel good too." "Sure. Does she
feel badly?" "Only when I did. When I knew I was unfaithful. I never
was before you know. You go and bring her, David. Then she won't feel bad. No
don't bother, I'll go." Catherine went out the door and David watched her
go. Her movements were less mechanical and her voice was better. When she came
back she was smiling and her voice was almost natural. "She's coming in
just a minute," she said. "She's lovely, David. I'm so glad you
brought her." The girl came in and David said, "We were waiting for
you." She looked at him and looked away. Then she looked back at him and
held herself very straight and said, "I'm sorry to be late."

"You
look very handsome," David said and it was quite true but she had the
saddest eyes he had ever seen. "Make her a drink please, David. I had
two," Catherine said to the girl. "I'm glad you feel better,"
the girl said. "David made me feel good again," Catherine said.
"I told him all about everything and how lovely it was and he understands
perfectly. He really approves. The girl looked at David and he saw the way her
teeth bit her upper lip and what she said to him with her eyes. "It was
dull in town. I missed the swimming," he said. "You don't know what
you missed," Catherine said. "You missed everything. It was what I
wanted to do all my life and now I've done it and I loved it." The girl
was looking down at her glass. "The most wonderful thing is that I feel so
grown up now. But it's exhausting. Of course it's what I wanted and now I've
done it and I know I'm just an apprentice but I won't always be."
"Apprentice allowance claimed," David said and took a chance then and
said very cheerfully, "Don't you ever talk on any other subjects? Perversion's
dull and old fashioned. I didn't know people like us even kept up on it.
"I suppose it's only really interesting the first time one does it,"
Catherine said. "And then only to the person who does it and a bloody bore
to everyone else," David said. "Do you agree, Heiress?" "Do
you call her Heiress?" Catherine asked. "That's a nice funny
name." "I can't very well call her Ma'am or Highness," David
said. "Do you agree, Heiress? About perversion?" "I always
thought it was overrated and silly," she said. "It's only something
girls do because they have nothing better." "But one's first time at
anything is interesting," Catherine said.

"Yes,"
David said. "But would you want to always talk about your first ride at
Steeplechase Park or how you, yourself, person ally soloed alone all by
yourself in a plane absolutely away from the earth and up in the sky?"

"I'm
ashamed," Catherine said. "Look at me and see if I'm not
ashamed."

David
put his arm around her.

"Don't
be ashamed," he said. "Just remember how you'd like to hear old
Heiress here recall how she went up in that plane, just herself and the plane,
and there was nothing between her and the earth, imagine the Earth, with a big
E, but just her plane and they might have been killed and smashed to horrible
bits both of them and she lose her money and her health and her sanity and her
life with a capital L and her loved ones or me or you or Jesus, all with
capital letters, if she "crashed"— put the word crashed in
quotes."

"Did
you ever solo, Heiress?"

"No,"
the girl said. "I don't have to now. But I would like another drink. I
love you, David."

"Kiss
her again the way you did before," Catherine said.

"Sometime,"
David said. "I'm making drinks."

"I'm
so glad we're all friends again and everything is fine," Catherine said.
She was very animated now and her voice was natural and almost relaxed.

"I
forgot about the surprise that Heiress bought this morning. I'll go and get
it."

When
Catherine was gone, the girl took David's hand and held it very tight and then
kissed it. They sat and looked at each other. She touched his hand with her
fingers almost absent mindedly. She curled her fingers around his and then
released them. "We don't need to talk," she said. "You don't
want me to make a speech do you?"

"No.
But we have to talk sometime."

'Would
you like me to go away?"

"You'd
be smarter to go away.

"Would
you kiss me so I know that it is all right if I stay?" Catherine had come
in now with the young waiter who carried a large tin of caviar in a bowl of ice
on a tray with a plate of toast. "That was a wonderful kiss," she
said. "Everyone saw it so there's no longer any fear of scandal or
anything," Catherine said. "They're cutting up some egg whites and
some onion. It was very large firm gray caviar and Catherine dipped it onto the
pieces of thin toast. "Heiress bought you a case of Bollinger Brut 1915
and there is some iced. Don't you think we should drink a bottle with
this?" "Sure," said David. "Let's have it all through the
meal." "Isn't it lucky Heiress and I are rich so you'll never have
anything to worry about? We'll take good care of him won't we Heiress?"

'We
must try very hard," the girl said. "I'm trying to study his needs.
This was all we could find for today."

HE
HAD SLEPT about two hours when the daylight woke him and he looked at Catherine
sleeping easily and looking happy in her sleep. He left her looking beautiful
and young and unspoiled and then went into the bathroom and showered and put on
a pair of shorts and walked barefoot through the garden to the room where he
worked. The sky was washed clean after the wind and it was the fresh early
morning of a new day toward the end of

summer.

He
started in again on the new and difficult story and worked attacking each thing
that for years he had put off facing. He worked until nearly eleven o'clock and
when he had finished for the day he shut up the room and went out and found the
two girls playing chess at a table in the garden. They both looked fresh and
young and as attractive as the wind-washed morning sky. "She's beating me
again," Catherine said. "How are you, David?" The girl smiled at
him very shyly.

They
are the two loveliest girls I've ever seen, David thought. Now what will this
day bring. "How are you two?" he said. "We're very well,"
the girl said. "Did you have good luck?" "It's all uphill but
it's going well," he said. "You haven't had any breakfast."
"It's too late for breakfast," David said. "Nonsense,"
Catherine said. "You're wife of the day, Heiress. Make him eat
breakfast." "Wouldn't you like coffee and some fruit, David?"
the girl asked. "You ought to eat something." "I'll have some
black coffee," David said. "I'll bring you something," the girl
said and went off into the hotel. David sat by Catherine at the table and she
put the chessmen and the board on a chair. She mussed his hair and said,
"Have you forgotten you have a silver head like mine?"
"Yes," he said. "It's going to be lighter and lighter and I'll
be fairer and fairer and darker in the body too." "That will be
wonderful." "Yes and I'm all over everything." The pretty dark
girl was bringing a tray with a small bowl rounded with caviar, a half lemon, a
spoon and two pieces of toast and the young waiter had a bucket with a bottle
of the Bollinger and a tray with three glasses. "This will be good for
David," the girl said. "Then we can go swimming before lunch."

After
the swimming and lying in the sun on the beach and a big long lunch with more
of the Bollinger, Catherine said, "I'm really tired and sleepy."
"You swam a long way," David said. "We'll make a siesta."

"I
want to really sleep," Catherine said.

"Do
you feel well, Catherine?" the girl asked.

"Yes.
just deadly sleepy."

"We'll
put you to bed," David said. "Do you have a thermometer?" he
asked the girl.

"I'm
sure I haven't any fever," Catherine said. "I just want to sleep for
a long time."

When
she was in bed the girl brought in the thermometer and David took Catherine's
temperature and her pulse. The temperature was normal and the pulse was one
hundred and five.

"The
pulse is a little high," he said. "But I don't know your normal
pulse."

"I
don't either but it's probably too fast."

"I
don't think the pulse means much with the temperature normal," David said.
"But if you have a fever I'll bring a doctor up from Cannes."

"I
don't want a doctor," Catherine said. "I just want to sleep. Can I
sleep now?"

"Yes,
my beauty. You call if you want me.

They
stood and watched her go to sleep and then went out very quietly and David
walked along the stones and looked through the window. Catherine was sleeping
quietly and her breathing was regular. He brought two chairs up and a table and
they sat in the shade near Catherine's window and looked out through the pines
to the blue sea. "What do you think?" David asked.

"I
don't know. She was happy this morning. just as you saw her when you finished
writing."

'What
about now?"

"Maybe
just a reaction from yesterday. She's a very natural girl, David, and this is
natural."

"Yesterday
was like loving someone when someone s died," he said. "It wasn't
right." He stood up and walked to the window

and
looked in. Catherine was sleeping in the same position and breathing lightly.
"She's sleeping well," he told the girl. "Wouldn't you like to
take a nap?"

"I
think so."

"I'm
going down to my room where I work," he said. "There's a door to
yours that bolts on each side." He walked down along the stones and
unlocked the door of his room and then unbolted the door between the two rooms.
He stood and waited and then heard the bolt turn on the other side of the door
and then the door opened. They sat side by side on the bed and he put his arm around
her. "Kiss me," David said.

"I
love to kiss you," she said. "I love it so very much. But I can't do
the other."

"No?"

"No,
I can't."

Then
she said, "Isn't there anything I can do for you now? I'm so ashamed about
the other but you know how it could. make trouble."

"Just
lie here by me."

"I'd
love that."

"Do
what you like."

"I
will," she said. "You too please. Do what we can.

Catherine
slept all through the afternoon and early evening. David and the girl were
sitting at the bar having a drink together and the girl said, "They never
did bring the mirror."

"Did
you ask old man Aurol about it?"

"Yes.
He was pleased."

"I'd
better pay him corkage on that Bollinger or something."

"I
gave him four bottles and two very good bottles of fine. He's taken care of. It
was Madame I was afraid of about trouble."

"You
were absolutely right."

"I
don't want to make trouble, David."

"No,"
he said. "I don't think you do."

The
young waiter had come in with more ice and David made two martinis and gave her
one. The waiter put in the garlic olives and then went back to the kitchen.

"I'll
go and see how Catherine is," the girl said. "Things will turn out or
they won't."

She
was gone for about ten minutes and he felt of the girl's drink and decided to
drink it before it got warm. He took it in his hand and raised it to his lips
and he found as it touched his lips that it gave him pleasure because it was
hers. It was clear and undeniable. That's all you need, he thought. That's all
you need to make things really perfect. Be in love with both of them. What's
happened to you since last May? What are you anymore anyway? But he touched the
glass to his lips again and there was the same reaction as before. All right,
he said, remember to do the work. The work is what you have left. You better
fork up with the work.