The Graduate by Charles Webb

Author:Charles Webb [Webb, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Mistresses, College graduates, Bildungsromans, General, Literary, Young men, Mothers and daughters, English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, Drama, Love stories
ISBN: 9780743456456
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Published: 2002-04-01T23:00:00+00:00

The Graduate

113

“Why don’t you watch the show,” he said. She was sitting very straight in her chair, looking across the table at him.

“Benjamin?” she said.

“What.”

“Do you dislike me?”

“What?”

“Do you dislike me for some reason?”

“No,” Benjamin said. “Why should I.”

“I don’t know.”

Benjamin settled back in his chair with the drink. The woman on the stage was still prancing around but instead of swinging the tassels she was holding them out in front of her. Suddenly she stopped and faced the audience. She dropped the tassels. The band stopped playing except for the drummer, who began rolling his drumsticks against the top of his drum. The stripper began swaying one way, then the other, and the tassels began swaying back and forth with her. She swayed faster and faster until finally the tassels started swinging in circles around her breasts. Several of the customers began to applaud.

Benjamin held his hands out in front of him and clapped.

“You’re missing a great effect here,” he said.

Elaine turned in her chair to watch the two tassels swinging around the woman’s breasts, then turned back. She folded her hands in her lap and looked up into the smoky air over Benjamin’s head.

“How do you like that,” Benjamin said.

She didn’t answer him.

“Could you do it?”

“No.”

Suddenly the dancer caught one of the tassels and threw it around the other way so that the tassels were twirling around in opposite directions. The customers applauded. The woman slowly raised her arms out beside her and bent slightly forward. Then she walked to the front of the stage. Elaine was the only customer who had not brought her chair around to the side of the table facing the stage. The dancer walked over to where she was sitting and bent forward so the pink tassels began swinging down in front of Elaine’s face. She winked at The Graduate

114

Benjamin, still holding her arms out beside her. Several men in the back began to laugh. Benjamin sat up in his chair and set the drink on the table. He frowned at the face of the dancer, then at Elaine, who was still sitting very straight in her chair looking up over Benjamin’s head with the pink tassels crossing every few seconds in front of her face. She was crying. Benjamin stood suddenly and held one of his hands in the path of the tassels. They stopped swinging. A man in back began to boo. Benjamin took Elaine’s hand and led her across the room to get her coat.

“Elaine?” he said when they were out on the sidewalk.

“Will you take me home now, please?”

“Elaine, I’m sorry.”

She wiped one of her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I think I’d better go home now, please.”

“But Elaine?”

“Which way is the car,” she said. She put her hands in the pockets of her coat and looked down the sidewalk.

“Elaine, listen to me.” She began walking ahead of him down the sidewalk. “Elaine?”

“Please take me home,” she said, walking faster and beginning to cry again.

“Well wait a minute,” Benjamin said, catching up to her.

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