Caine Mutiny, The - Herman Wouk [290]
May and Willie were alone in the vast dance room painted with Aztec designs. The rows of empty tables and chairs were bleak and mournful. Willie said, “Why the hell did you dye your hair?” His voice made a thin, hollow echo in the room.
“Do you like it?” They were confronting each other not two feet apart, like prize fighters.
“No. I think it’s cheap and hard.”
“Thank you, honey. Every night-club columnist in town has complimented me on the improvement.”
“Night-club columnists are maggots.”
“You’ve come back in a sweet mood.”
“Do you want something to eat?”
“It doesn’t matter. You said you want to talk to me. This is as good a place as any if you want privacy.”
They went to the nearest table and sat. Willie threw open his coat and pulled his scarf off. May clutched her coat around her. He thought she was shivering. She said, “You look all different.”
“Why didn’t you answer my letter?”
“What did Marty tell you?”
“Never mind Marty.”
“You always hated him. You never believed what a friend he was to you. God knows why he likes you-”
“Didn’t you think I was entitled to an answer? Just one line saying no thanks, I’ve got me a bandleader and I’m a blonde?”
“I don’t have to listen to you get nasty. Just remember, my friend, you kicked me into the gutter. If somebody picked me up what do you care?”
“May, everything I said in the letter still goes.” He wanted to add “I love you,” but he couldn’t. There were too many grinning Aztec masks all around.
The girl’s look softened. “It was a wonderful letter, Willie. I cried over it. I still have it. But you wrote it four months too late.”
“Why? Are you engaged, or married? What’s happened?”
May looked away.
A twist of pain crossed Willie’s face. He said flatly, “Are you his mistress?”
“That’s a corny word. Mistresses went out with Dickens, dear.”
“Are you, May?”
She faced him. Her face was so white that her make-up looked garish. “Well, what the devil do you think? What do grown people do when they’re together night and day like me and Walter-play marbles? Everybody knows about us. You and your goddamn stuffy, stupid questions.” Tears stood in her eyes.
Willie could hardly talk. His throat was closed up. “I-all right, all right, May.”
“So I guess that takes care of everything, doesn’t it?”
“Not necessarily-I just-” He leaned his head on a fist. “Give me ten seconds to get used to it-”
“Is that all it’ll take?” she said bitterly. “You’re broadminded.”
Willie looked at her and nodded. “Okay, it’s absorbed. Will you marry me?”
“Now you’re being noble. Nobility is your long suit. You’ll think better of it in the morning and back out gracefully-”
“May listen, I love you, and I always will. Every name you call me I deserve. Everything that’s happened is my fault. We might have had a perfect love, the springtime thing that’s in all the books. I wrecked that. But you and I belong to each other, I know that.” He took her hand. “If you love me, May, marry me.”
May didn’t take her hand away. He thought he felt a little pressure. The blond hair troubled him very much. He tried not to see it. “What changed you, Willie? You’re different, really you are.”
“I almost died, and I realized that all I regretted was you.” He knew it was a good speech, but to himself he was wondering whether he really wanted her after all. But the momentum of his emotions was impossible to arrest. May was inside this creature somewhere and he was going to have May.
She said wearily, “Willie, what do you want me to do? Come to a college with you on the GI bill and make chops on an electric grill for you and wash diapers and talk about books? I’m making two-fifty a week steady.”
He leaned to her and kissed her. Her lips smiled under the kiss. He jumped to his feet, pulled her up, and kissed her passionately, and this time she responded in the old way. She leaned back in his arms, and said huskily, “Amazing. That still works.”
“Then that’s all-”
“Not by a long shot. Sit down, beautiful sailor.” She pushed him into his chair and sat, and put her hand