The Argentinian Virgin by Jim Williams

Author:Jim Williams [Jim Williams]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908446091
Publisher: HopeRoad
Published: 2011-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

A girl got on the stage and took her clothes off. Another girl did the same and they did some moves together while the soldiers hooted and threw money and the band drank at the bar. I suppose this is what Colonel Glue Eye had in mind.

A record was playing and the others were still dancing as we’d last seen them. I took Maisie to one of the booths where we sat in the darkness, her face pale and her scarlet dress glowing.

She said, ‘I’m sorry about that, Pat. Do I look a mess?’

‘You look lovely,’ I told her.

‘I can’t think straight when I think about Tom.’

‘I understand.’

‘He’s such a good man!’ she said.

‘So everyone says.’

We were silent a while. The record had stopped. Ben and Signora Pitti were standing on the dance floor in conversation. Hetty and Colonel Glue Eye were at a table, heads together, and she looked happy. I felt Maisie’s hand on mine.

She said, ‘I want you to marry me.’

Her voice was quite even.

‘What about Ben?’

‘Oh, I love him desperately, of course. But you’ve seen what he’s like. Not exactly the nice, charming man you first thought. We’re getting a divorce. I’d get one here, but I’m not sure I can or if it would hold up back home. That’s why I want to leave.’

‘How does Ben feel about it? I take it he knows?’

‘Don’t be stupid, of course he knows. He says it’s fine by him. In any case, that isn’t the issue. Will you marry me?’

I was so astonished all I could say, stupidly was: ‘I’ve got no money.’

‘So what? Ben won’t be mean, and, in any case, I’m stinking rich. You’d be able to write.’

‘Why me?’

‘I like you … you’re kind … I don’t want to be alone. It’s so pitiful when a pretty girl is alone. Everyone says there must be something wrong with her and starts feeling sorry.’

‘You don’t love me,’ I told her, trying to make sense of a situation that was beyond me.

‘Don’t I?’ she asked as if this might be a surprise. ‘Don’t be so sure – I’m not. I’ve felt the emotions that people call love but they’re not reliable. Then again, I’m not a reliable person – everyone says so. They say I’m strange – a little touched, you know? I’m touched only because I want something better but don’t see my way clearly.’ This was said in one breath so that she sounded urgent when she asked, ‘D’you love me?’

‘I … well I … I don’t really understand love.’

Maisie looked at me sceptically then said, ‘It’s a washout, believe me.’

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