The Extra Man by Jonathan Ames

Author:Jonathan Ames [Jonathan Ames]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782274698
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 2018-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VIII

Straightish

We hardly acknowledged one another for a whole week after Henry had screamed at me. Only the most necessary communications were exchanged. There had been a viciousness to his “I don’t need you” and I felt too ashamed to be around him very much. He didn’t need me, but I was in some kind of love with him.

I avoided the apartment as much as possible. I went to Sally’s and stayed there late. When I came home Henry would be asleep or watching television and I’d go straight to bed. It felt odd now that I was living with and renting a tiny room from someone I hardly knew and yet whose opinion of me meant everything.

At Sally’s I often bought drinks for Miss Pepper. She never asked me anymore if I wanted a date. We had a platonic friendship. One night I asked her if she knew Wendy.

“What does she look like?”

“Kind of like Sophia Loren. Really high cheekbones and a hook nose.”

“A Puerto Rican girl?”

“Yes.”

“She has long curly brown hair, a nice body?”

“Yes.”

“I know her.”

“What’s happened to her? I haven’t seen her around.”

“She was arrested. She’s going to be upstate for a while.”

“What did she do?”

“She and another tranny tried to steal a date’s car. Those girls were crazy.”

I couldn’t believe it. Wendy had liked my car. I wondered if she had wanted to steal the Parisienne. But I didn’t think she did; she had genuinely seemed to like me. She had enjoyed playing my girlfriend. We had held hands while we drove to Queens. I felt bad for her. She had probably tried to steal the car to have money to put towards the surgery. I wondered if she could take her hormones in jail. If she couldn’t, would she lose her looks? That would devastate her.

“How long will she be in for?” I asked Miss Pepper.

“Probably six months. Unless you hurt somebody they don’t keep you in very long. Costs too much.”

“Have you ever been in jail?”

“Child, I have a sheet this long for pross.” Miss Pepper spread her hands wide like a fisherman talking about the one that got away.

“Pross is prostitution?”

“Don’t be a dick, child.” She was annoyed that I was slow, but then she continued. “Going to jail is part of the lifestyle. The cops have a quota. Every night they have to bring in a certain number of regular whores, drag Queens, and fags. Sometimes they count Queens as fags. I was arrested last week just walking down the street here in front of Sally’s. They had a sweep.”

“Do they put you in with the men or with the women?”

“Do I look like a man?”

“No, I’m sorry …”

“They put us with the whores, otherwise we’d be raped all night.”

After Miss Pepper told me about Wendy, I concocted this fantasy in my mind that I would visit her in jail. I would bring her things, take care of her. We’d fall in love. It was a romantic fantasy because I’d be in

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