Beautiful Girl by Alice Adams

Author:Alice Adams [Adams, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Women - United States - Social Life and Customs - Fiction, Social Science, Social Life and Customs, Short Stories, Fiction, United States, Women, General, Women's Studies, Contemporary Women
ISBN: 9780394427379
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: 1978-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Flights

“Oh, yes, Valerie will like it very much,” said the energetic young man with blue-black hair and a sharply cleft chin, in an accent that was vaguely “English.” He and Jacob Eisenman were standing in the large shabby room that overlooked the crashing Pacific, on Kauai, one of Hawaii’s outermost and least populated islands.

Jacob later thought that the implications of his tone were a sort of introduction to Valerie, although at the time he had not entirely understood what was being implied. Jacob, the gaunt sardonic literary German who, incongruously, was the owner of this resort. Then he simply wondered why, why very much? The young man’s clothes were pale, Italian, expensive; it was unlikely that he (or Valerie) would be drawn by the price, which was what drew most of the other guests: older people, rather flabby and initially pale, from places like North Dakota and Idaho and, curiously, Alaska—and a few young couples, wan tired families with children. These people stayed but were not enthusiastic; they would have preferred a more modern place. (Jacob was subject to radar intuitions.) And so this young man’s eagerness to register for the room and pay in advance, which was unnecessary (with a hundreddollar bill), made Jacob apprehensive, as though he were being invaded—a sense that he dismissed as paranoia, to which he was also subject. But before he could sort out reactions, the young man had swung out of the driveway in his orange Datsun, presumably to fetch Valerie from the nearby hotel, which he had said they did not like. “So loud, you know?”

In fact, for no reason Jacob found that his heart was beating in jolts, so that quite out of character he went to the bar, unlocked it and poured himself a shot of brandy.

The bar, a narrow slat-roofed structure, was ten winding steps up from the pool, between the rental units and Jacob’s own office-apartment-library. Curiously, it was almost never used by the Alaskan-North Dakotans, the young couples. Nor was the neat functional built-in barbecue, which was adjacent. Most of the units had kitchenettes, but still wouldn’t they sometimes want to cook outside? The barbecue was the last “improvement” that Jacob had given to his resort. He had spent most of his earlier years in California, going from Los Angeles up to International House at Berkeley; he later concluded that he had been misled by that background; only Californians liked barbecues, and no one from California seemed to come his way.

Except for a disastrous visit from his best friend, fat Otto from I. House days, and Otto’s new wife—a visit which Jacob had determined not to think about.

The Datsun rushed back into the parking area, and “Valerie” got out. At first and somewhat distant glance, filtered through the bougainvillaea that hung about the bar, she was a delicately built young blonde. In dazzling white clothes. Huge dark glasses on a small face. An arrogant walk.

Jacob took a too large swallow of the rough brandy, which made him cough.

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