I took Vida in my arms and gathered the leaves and blossoms of her close, a thing she returned to me, delicate and bouquet-like. Then we took off our clothes and got into bed. I put out the light and she said, ‘Did you set the clock, honey?’
‘Oh, I forgot,’ I said. ‘I’ll get up.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said.
‘No,’ I said. ‘I should have remembered to set the clock. What time do you want to wake up? Six?’
‘No, I think you’d better make it 5.30. I want to take care of my “female complaints” before Foster wakes up, so I can cook a good breakfast for all of us. It’ll be a long day and we’ll need a solid start.’
‘The lady is not for breakfast,’ I said. ‘Remember what Foster said?’
‘Oh. Oh, that’s right. I forgot,’ Vida said.
It was hard for a minute and then we both smiled across the darkness at what we were doing. Though we could not see our smiles, we knew they were there and it comforted us as dark-night smiles have been doing for thousands of years for the problemed people of the earth.
I got up and turned the light on. Vida was still smiling softly as I set the clock for 5.30. It was absolutely too late for remorse now or to cry against the Fates. We were firmly in the surgical hands of Mexico.
‘Genius’
Vida did not look at all pregnant as she got into her bath. Her stomach was still so unbelievably thin that it was genius and I wondered how there could be enough intestines in there to digest any food larger than cookies or berries.
Her breasts were powerful but delicate and wet at the nipples.
She had put a pot of coffee on before she had got into the tub and I was standing there watching it perk and watching her bathe at the same time through the open door of the bathroom.
She had her hair piled and pinned on top of her head. It looked beautiful resting on the calm of her neck.
We were both tired, but not as nervous as we could have been facing the prospects of the day, because we had gone into a gentle form of shock that makes it easier to do one little thing after another, fragile step by fragile step, until you’ve done the big difficult thing waiting at the end, no matter what it is.
I think we have the power to transform our lives into brand-new instantaneous rituals that we calmly act out when something hard comes up that we must do.
We become like theatres.
I was taking turns watching the coffee perk and watching Vida at her bath. It was going to be a long day but fortunately we would get there only moment by moment.
‘Is the coffee done yet?’ Vida said.
I smelled the coffee fumes that were rising like weather from the spout. They were dark and heavy with coffee. Vida had taught me how to smell coffee. That was the way she made it.
I had always been an instant man, but she had taught me how to make real coffee and it was a good thing to learn. Where had I been all those years, thinking in terms of coffee as dust?
I thought about making coffee for a little while as I watched it perk. It’s strange how the simple things in life go on while we become difficult.
‘Honey, did you hear me?’ Vida said. ‘The coffee. Stop daydreaming and get on the coffee, dear. Is it done?’
‘I was thinking about something else,’ I said.
Foster’s Bell
Vida put on a simple but quite attractive white blouse with a short blue skirt — you could see easily above her knees — and a little half-sweater thing on over the blouse. I’ve never been able to describe clothes so that anyone knows what I am talking about.
She did not have any make-up on except for her eyes. They looked dark and blue in the way that we like eyes to look in these last years of the seventh decade of the Twentieth Century.
I heard the silver bell ringing on the library door. The bell was ringing rapidly in a kind of shocked manner. The bell seemed almost frightened and crying for help.
It was Foster.
Foster had never really taken to that bell. He had always insisted that it was a sissy bell and always offered to put a bell up himself. He continued the thing as I let him in. I opened the door but he stood there with his hand on the bell rope, though he was not ringing the bell any more.
It was still dark and Foster was wearing his eternal T-shirt and his buffalo-heavy blond hair hung about his shoulders.
‘You should take my advice,’ he said. ‘Get rid of this damn bell and let me put a real bell up for you.’
‘We don’t want a bell that will frighten people,’ I said.
‘What do you mean frighten people? How in the hell can a bell frighten people?’
‘We need a bell that fits the service we offer, that blends in with the library. We need a gentle bell here.’
‘No roughneck bells, huh?’ Foster said.
‘I wouldn’t put it that way,’ I said.
‘Hell,’ Foster said. ‘This bell rings like a God-damn queer down on Market Street. What are you running here?’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I said.
‘Well, I’m just trying to look out for your best interests. That’s all, kid.’ He reached over and gave the bell a little tap on its butt.
‘Foster!’ I said.
‘Hell, kid, a tin can and a spoon make a great bell.’
‘What about a fork and a knife and a bowl of soup to go with it, Foster? A little mashed potatoes and gravy and maybe a turkey leg? What about that? Wouldn’t that make a good bell?’
‘Forget it,’ Foster said. He reached over and gave the bell another little tap on its silver butt and said, ‘Good-bye, sweetie.’
The TJ Briefing
Vida cooked Foster and me a good breakfast, though she didn’t have anything with us except some coffee.
‘You certainly look pretty this morning,’ Foster said. ‘You look like a dream I’ve never had before.’
‘I bet you tell that to all the girls,’ Vida said. ‘I can see that you’re a flirt from way back.’
‘I’ve had a girlfriend or two,’ Foster said.
‘Some more coffee?’ Vida said.
‘Yeah, another cup of coffee would be fine. Sure is good coffee. Somebody here knows their way around coffee beans.’
‘What about you, honey?’ Vida said.
‘Sure.’
‘There you go.’
‘Thank you.’
Vida sat back down.
‘Well, you know what you’re supposed to do,’ Foster said after breakfast. ‘There’s nothing to worry about. Dr Garcia is a wonderful doctor. There will be no pain or fuss. Everything will go just beautifully. You know how to get there. It’s just a few blocks off the Main Street of town.
‘The doc may want to try and get a few extra bucks out of you, but hold the line and say, “Well, Doctor Garcia, Foster said that it was 200 dollars and that’s all we brought and here it is,” and take it out of your pocket.
‘He’ll look a little nervous and then he’ll take it and put it in his pocket without counting it and then he’s just like the best doctor in the whole wide world. Have faith in him and do what he says and relax and everything will be all right.
‘He’s a wonderful doctor. He saves a lot of people a lot of trouble.’
The Library Briefing
‘…’ I said.
‘I promise I won’t take down that swishy little bell of yours with the silver pants and put up a tin can with a spoon, which would be the best bell for this asylum. Have you ever heard one?’ Foster said.