The Girl That He Marries by Rhoda Lerman

Author:Rhoda Lerman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781468311433
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2018-05-05T04:00:00+00:00

12

WHILE I SAT ON A BENCH RESTING MY ANKLE BEFORE THE UNICORN, Richard wandered through the Cloisters whistling, rocking on his feet before exhibits, hands folded behind his back. I could hear his heels clicking on the stone floors. A very handsome, magnificently dressed woman sat next to me in something gray and soft. She had the same face as the Armengol woman in the tomb, great carved peaceful planes. She looked at my Ace bandage.

“How did you do it?”

“I’m faking it.”

“Oh.” She waved to a man passing by who said he would be back in a minute.

“Are you happy?” I asked her, astonished at my involuntary question. But she began to answer in an astonishing way.

“Yes. Now. Once I had a husband. We used to go places together. On Saturday afternoons. But that wasn’t enough. So I got rid of my husband and took a lover. But then I never went any places on Saturday afternoons and I spent Saturday and Sunday waiting for him to call and take me someplace. We always slept together on Saturday night.”

“Why didn’t you stay with your husband and keep the lover?”

“My husband understood that he wasn’t capable of being both. But I didn’t understand no man was. Now, I don’t sleep with the men I go places with and I don’t go places with the men I sleep with and it isn’t bad. My date is going to call the girl he sleeps with for tonight. I’m not unhappy. I’m not happy. I just don’t have to stay home on Saturday afternoons and wait for somebody to take me someplace. I go a lot of places now. I’m very busy on weekends. Men just aren’t capable of handling both kinds of relationships with the same woman.”

“I thought it was because they’re bastards.”

“Oh, not at all, poor babies. They can’t do both. It’s not their fault.” She put her hand on my knee. I kicked my bad ankle, again involuntarily. “Women can.”

I really wanted to take her hand off my knee. There are too many battle-scarred bisexuals already. And I was still in there fighting.

“Except you’ll die alone,” I told her. “That’s the problem.”

“Yes,” she answered thoughtfully. “Yes, it is.” She took her hand away.

Richard turned to me and smiled. Then he came over and offered me his arm and helped me limp out. “Who was that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why did she have her hand on your knee? I don’t like that at all.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“Sorry,” he answered nastily.

“Oh, Richard, I’m edgy with this pain. I’m sorry.” Actually I wanted to think about the woman’s words and remember them. I didn’t want to talk or listen to Richard. I had never recognized the duality. Richard is unable to do both things with the same woman. That’s what Miriam has been trying to say. That’s what Richard had been trying to say. “Anyone can make love. I want you to be my friend.” That’s precisely what he said and precisely what he meant. He needed me to be his friend.

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