Place in the City by Howard Fast

Author:Howard Fast
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Published: 2014-11-25T18:30:00+00:00

JESSICA laughed, because she had won from the beginning. Shutzey was a brute, but he was her brute. He was as much hers as any of his whores were his; body and soul, it would be, if Shutzey had a soul.

She was all alone in her room. Alice was a fool, because Alice had thrown herself away. What was the point in getting married? If your man went down, he dragged you down with him; and if he went up, he certainly couldn’t stay up forever. A clever woman knew how to hold on going up, and leave go on the way down. And Marion with her priest was no better. A priest was straw and wax. Unconsciously, when she thought of the priest, she pressed her hands to her own body. Warm flesh needed warm flesh.

When she came into the house, her father looked at her, as if she were all he had to hold onto. Her mother put her arms around Jessica and kissed her.

“Jessie,” she whispered—“Jessie, dear.”

Well, her mother was right, her father, too. She would make their fortunes. She would give them whatever they wanted, and still have more for herself. She would learn to play with dolls, strong dolls that fought with you.

While she undressed, she admired herself in the mirror. She was beautiful; she didn’t need men to tell her that she was beautiful. She followed her motions as her body came into view. Someday, Shutzey would have that. She knew better than to imagine that you could stand off a man like Shutzey forever. But Shutzey would not be the only one, nor would it ever be his to claim. There would be other men, better men than Shutzey, who was only a brute, withal a powerful one.

She bent and stepped in front of the mirror, saw years ahead when she would admire her beauty in the same way, when men would admire it and come crawling on their knees to her.

She looked at herself, laughing, because she had no doubts. She threw herself on the bed, stretched her body taut, and admired it. Then she lay on her stomach, put her chin on her palms, and smiled.

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