Shiloh and Other Stories - Bobbie Ann Mason [95]
One evening when Sabrina comes home, Edwin is still up, as she puts on the sound track of Oklahoma! and sings along with Gordon MacRae while she does splits on the living room floor. Her legs are long and slender, and she still has her summer tan. She is wearing her shorts, even though it is late fall. Edwin suddenly has an overwhelming feeling of love for her. She really seems to believe what she is singing—“Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’.” When the song ends, he tells her that.
“It’s the middle of the night,” he says, teasing. “And you think it’s morning.”
“I’m just acting.”
“No, you really believe it. You believe it’s morning, a beautiful morning.”
Sabrina gives him a fishy look, and Edwin feels embarrassed. When the record ends, Sabrina goes into the bedroom and snaps on the radio. Rock music helps her relax before going to sleep. The new rock music she likes is monotonous and bland, but Edwin tells himself that he likes it because Sabrina likes it. As she undresses, he says to her, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t accusing you of nothing.”
“That’s O.K.” She shrugs. The T-shirt she sleeps in has a hole revealing a spot of her skin that Edwin would like to kiss, but he doesn’t because it seems like a corny thing to do. So many things about Sabrina are amazing: her fennel toothpaste and herbal deodorant; her slim, snaky hips; the way she puts Vaseline on her teeth for a flashier smile, something she learned to do in a beauty contest.
When she sits on the bed, Edwin says, “If I say the wrong things, I want you to tell me. It’s just that I’m so crazy about you I can’t think sometimes. But if I can do anything better, I will. I promise. Just tell me.”
“I don’t think of you as the worrying type,” she says, lying down beside him. She still has her shoes on.
“I didn’t used to be.”
“You’re the most laid back guy I know.”
“Is that some kind of actor talk from your actor friends?”
“No. You’re just real laid back. Usually good-looking guys are so stuck up. But you’re not.” The music sends vibrations through Edwin like a cat’s purr. She says, “I brag on you all the time to Jeff and Sue—Curly and Laurey.”
“I know who Jeff and Sue are.” Sabrina talks constantly about Jeff and Sue, the romantic leads in the play.
Sabrina says, “Here’s what I wish. If we had a big pile of money, we could have a house like Sue’s. Did I tell you she’s got woven blinds on her patio that she made herself? Everything she does is so artistic.” Sabrina shakes Edwin’s shoulder. “Wake up and talk to me.”
“I can’t. I have to get up at six.”
Sabrina whispers to him, “Sue has the hots for Jeff. And Jeff’s wife is going to have a duck with a rubber tail if she finds out.” Sabrina giggles. “He kept dropping hints about how his wife was going to Louisville next week. And he and Sue were eating off the same slice of pizza.”
“Is that supposed to mean something?”
“You figure it out.”
“Would you do me that way?”
“Don’t be silly.” Sabrina turns up the radio, then unties her shoes and tosses them over Edwin’s head into a corner.
Edwin is forty-three and Sabrina is only twenty, but he does not want to believe age is a barrier between them. Sometimes he cannot believe his good luck, that he has a beautiful girl who finds him still attractive. Edwin has a deep dimple in his chin, which reminded his first wife, Lois Ann, of Kirk Douglas. She had read in a movie magazine that Kirk Douglas has a special attachment for shaving his