The Serial by Cyra McFadden

Author:Cyra McFadden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Apostrophe Books
Published: 2012-12-06T00:00:00+00:00

28. Kate’s new playmate

Ms. Murphy kept Marlene on “Hold” for twenty minutes before she finally told Harvey his “chick from the checkout stand” was on the line. “You wanna rap with her,” Ms. Murphy asked, “or should I just, like, tell her her account’s closed?”

Harvey considered. Kate and her consciousness-raising group had made it clear as liquid crystal that he wasn’t supposed to communicate with Marlene privately. No way. Further, he was into the simple life these days. But he couldn’t let Ms. Murphy manipulate him, so he told her to put Marlene through instanter. “She probably wants some advice about money or something,” he said.

Ms. Murphy snorted. “Yeah,” she said, “for sure. Hey, listen, am I right or am I right? I get this feeling she’s a Virgo. Like, it’s just this feeling I get.”

Harvey conceded that Marlene was a Virgo. “I knew it,” Ms. Murphy said with satisfaction. “Listen, Virgos are bad news. You wanna stay clear, you wanna go with your water signs.”

Harvey picked up the phone. “I can’t swim,” he said. “You got that letter I gave you this morning, or are you permanently out to lunch?”

Ms. Murphy sauntered out of his office with the walk that was one reason he kept a secretary who thought typing was a bummer. The other reason was his fear that like Elizabeth Ray, she might be writing her memoirs. “Don’t get uptight,” Ms. Murphy said, as a parting shot. “You get uptight and my typewriter freaks. It picks up vibes, you know?”

“Harvey,” Marlene said, while he was still wondering why women took turns working him over these days, “what’s coming down? Like, I wondered how you were, you know, swinging with the Third World? You keeping your cool?”

“You mean not buying grapes?” Harvey said, mystified. “Well, I can take or leave grapes. It’s no big thing.”

Marlene sighed. “Harvey,” she said, “you really are too much. Wow, I should’ve known you’d come on like this. Don’t you ever let yourself feel, Harvey?”

“Sure I let myself feel,” Harvey told her. “Listen, I rode in the Marin Century last weekend. One hundred miles on the old Motobecane. You better believe it, it hurts when I laugh.”

Marlene sighed heavily again. “Harvey, I’m gonna be upfront with you. I mean, I know you don’t like it when a person is upfront, but I don’t get off on games anymore. I’m in a whole nother space. And anyway, I still care about you. I can’t help caring about you, because I’m a people person.”

“Terrific,” Harvey said. “Marlene, I swear to you. Cesar’s my main man. I’m not holding, okay? No grapes. ”

Marlene waited him out. “Harvey,” she said, “you’ve gotta know, because you’ve gotta learn to get behind pain. Really go with it. But I don’t want you to make any value judgments.”

“Hey, listen, Marlene, I’ve gotta sign this letter, so why don’t you just sort of, you know, spit it out?” He figured it must be Marlene’s turn to work him over and was immediately proved right on.

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