He doesn’t know himself, the imbecile. He rather thinks she wasn’t. The room was dark and then there was the champagne and his nerves all frazzled.
«But you ought to know something about her — if this isn’t all a goddamned lie!»
«Wait a minute,» he says. «Wait… let me think! No, she wasn’t beautiful. I’m sure of that now. She had a streak of gray hair over her forehead… I remember that. But that wouldn’t be so bad — I had almost forgotten it you see. No, it was her arms — they were thin… they were thin and brittle.» He begins to pace back and forth. — Suddenly he stops dead. «If she were only ten years younger!» he exclaims. «If she were ten years younger I might overlook the streak of gray hair… and even the brittle arms. Buc she’s too old. You see, with a cunt like that every year counts now. She won’t be just one year older next year — she’ll be ten years older. Another year hence and she’ll be twenty years older. And I’ll be getting younger looking all the time — at least for another five years…»
«But how did it end?» I interrupt.
«That’s just it… it didn’t end. I promised to see her Tuesday around five o’clock. That’s bad, you know! There were lines in her face which will look much worse in daylight. I suppose she wants me to fuck her Tuesday. Fucking in the daytime — you don’t do it with a cunt like that. Especially in a hotel like that. I’d rather do it on my night off… but Tuesday’s not my night off. And that’s not all. I promised her a letter in the meantime. How am I going to write her a letter now? I haven’t anything to say… Shit! If only she were ten years younger. Do you think I should go with her… to Borneo or wherever it is she wants to take me? What would I do with a rich cunt like that on my hands? I don’t know how to shoot. I am afraid of guns and all that sort of thing. Besides, she’ll be wanting me to fuck her night and day… nothing but hunting and fucking all the time… I can’t do it!»
«Maybe it won’t be so bad as you think. She’ll buy you ties and all sorts of things…»
«Maybe you’ll come along with us, eh? I told her all about you…»
«Did you tell her I was poor? Did you tell her I needed things?»
«I told her everything. Shit, everything would be fine, if she were just a few years younger. She said she was turning forty. That means fifty or sixty. It’s like fucking your own mother… you can’t do it… it’s impossible.»
«But she must have had some attractiveness… you were kissing her breasts, you said.»
«Kissing her breasts — what’s that? Besides it was dark, I’m telling you.»
Putting on his pants a button falls off. «Look at that will you. It’s falling apart, the goddamned suit. I’ve worn it for seven years now… I never paid for it either. It was a good suit once, but it stinks now. And that cunt would buy me suits too, all I wanted most likely. But that’s what I don’t like, having a woman shell out for me. I never did that in my life. That’s your idea. I’d rather live alone. Shit, this is a good room isn’t it? What’s wrong with it? It’s a damned sight better than her room, isn’t it? I don’t like her fine hotel. I’m against hotels like that. I told her so. She said she didn’t care where she lived… said she’d come and live with me if I wanted her to. Can you picture her moving in here with her big trunks and her hatboxes and all that crap she drags around with her? She has too many things — too many dresses and bottles and all that. It’s like a clinic, her room. If she gets a little scratch on her finger it’s serious. And then she has to be massaged and her hair has to be waved and she musn’t eat this and she musn’t eat that. Listen, Joe, she’d be all right if she were just a little younger. You can forgive a young cunt anything. A young cunt doesn’t have to have any brains. They’re better without brains. But an old cunt, even if she’s brilliant, even if she’s the most charming woman in the world, nothing makes any difference. A young cunt is an investment; an old cunt is a dead loss. All they can do for you is buy you things. But that doesn’t put meat on their arms or juice between the legs. She isn’t bad, Irene. In fact, I think you’d like her. With you its different. You don’t have to fuck her. You can afford to like her. Maybe you wouldn’t like all those dresses and the bottles and what not, but you could be tolerant. She wouldn’t bore you, that I can tell you. She’s even interesting, I might say. But she’s withered. Her breasts are all right yet — but her arms! I told her I’d bring you around some day. I talked a lot about you… I didn’t know what to say to her. Maybe you’d like her, especially when she’s dressed. I don’t know…»
«Listen, she’s rich, you say? I’ll like her! I don’t care how old she is, so long as she’s not a hag…»
«She’s not a hag! What are you talking about? She’s charming, I tell you. She talks well. She looks well too… only her arms…»
«All right, if that’s how it is, I’ll fuck her — if you don’t want to. Tell her that. Be subtle about it, though. With a woman like that you’ve got to do things slowly. You bring me around and let things work out for themselves. Praise the shit out of me. Act jealous like… Shit, maybe we’ll fuck her together… and we’ll go places and we’ll eat together… and we’ll drive and hunt and wear nice things. If she wants to go to Borneo let her take us along. I don’t know how to shoot either, but that doesn’t matter. She doesn’t care about that either. She just wants to be fucked that’s all. You’re talking about her arms all the time. You don’t have to look at her arms all the time, do you? Look at this bedspread! Look at the mirror! Do you call this living? Do you want to go on being delicate and live like a louse all your life? You can’t even pay your hotel bill… and you’ve got a job too. This is no way to live. I don’t care if she’s seventy years old — it’s better than this…»
«Listen, Joe, you fuck her for me… then everything’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll fuck her once in a while too… on my night off. It’s four days now since I’ve had a good shit. There’s something sticking to me, like grapes…»
«You’ve got the piles, that’s what.»
«My hair’s falling out too… and I ought to see the dentist. I feel as though I were falling apart. I told her what a good guy you are… You’ll do things for me, eh? You’re not too delicate, eh? If we go to Borneo I won’t have hemorrhoids any more. Maybe I’ll develop something else… something worse… fever perhaps… or cholera. Shit, it’s better to die of a good disease like that than to piss your life away on a newspaper with grapes up your ass and buttons falling off your pants. I’d like to be rich, even if it were only for a week, and then go to a hospital with a good disease, a fatal one, and have flowers in the room and nurses dancing around and telegrams coming. They take good care of you if you’re rich. They wash you with cotton batting and they comb your hair for you. Shit, I know all that. Maybe I’d be lucky and not die at all. Maybe I’d be crippled all my life… maybe I’d be paralyzed and have to sit in a wheelchair. Bu then I’d be taken care of just the same… even if I had no more money. If you’re an invalid — a real one — they don’t let you starve. And you get a clean bed to lie in… and they change the towels every day. This way nobody gives a fuck about you, especially if you have a job. They think a man should be happy if he’s got a job. What would you rather do — be a cripple all your life, or have a job… or marry a rich cunt? You’d rather marry a rich cunt, I can see that. You only think about food. But supposing you married her and then you couldn’t get a hard on any more — that happens sometimes — what would you do then? You’d be at her mercy. You’d have to eat out of her hand, like a little poodle dog. You’d like that, would you? Or maybe you don’t think of those things? I think of everything. I think of the suits I’d pick out and the places I’d like to go to, but I also think of the other thing. That’s the important thing. What good are the fancy ties and the fine suits if you can’t get a hard on any more? You couldn’t even betray her — because she’d be on your heels all