The Dud Avocado - Elaine Dundy [75]
“I invested it all in sending Dertu Dubecq’s Puppet Theater on an American tour. It flopped, of course. Couldn’t even get the theater critics over there interested enough to go and see him. They all sent their second string or those ballet birds. Peasants! What the hell. It was a gamble. Let’s get back to the house party. It’s the chance of a lifetime, isn’t it? You’ve got to come. Missy won’t go without you either. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea to be the only girl in the house. I see her point. She likes you terrifically, by the way. But anyway the whole point is that Bax has got his heart set on you. You just don’t know what you do to that boy.”
“Without even meeting me? Tiens, tiens. I’ve never had such a dazzling effect on anybody, even in my own mind.”
“Do you want to meet him now? I’ll call him up right away.” Larry made a dash for the phone.
I stopped him. “No,” I said. “No, I don’t want to meet him until we start down there. If I’m going to do this thing at all I’m going to do it right.”
I had no idea what I’d said until Larry had; Larry and I both suddenly realized it together. I don’t know which of us was more surprised.
One of the piquant factors in this interview was that it was taking place with me in my pajamas and Larry fully dressed. This was putting me at a decided disadvantage. In fact I felt quite shy. I didn’t want to slink down under the covers—it would be emphasizing the “in bed” part of the scene too much; on the other hand, every time I sat up, I was reminded that there were several buttons missing from my pajamas. My mind went searching desperately for my dressing gown, but when the possibilities narrowed themselves to the hook which held a raincoat and a sweater as well, or the chair on which Larry was sitting, and I realized that one of the missing buttons was the one that held my pajama pants together, I gave up.
“Please get out and let me get dressed,” I said, wondering how I was going to back down now.
“You’re coming!” he shouted. “You’re coming! You’re coming. I knew you would, you darling!”
“No I’m not,” I said desperately. “No I can’t, Larry. What’ll I tell Jim? You’re ruining my life,” I wailed desperately.
“You’ll never regret this, Gorce, please. Just for a couple of weeks. If you don’t like it you can turn right around and come back. I’ll drive you to the station myself!”
“Oh all right, all right. Only get out now and let me get dressed.”
“You’ll come then? Promise? Word of honor?”
I took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“Gorce,” he said solemnly, standing over me, “I’ll do anything in the world for you. Anything. Just ask me.”
“Let me get dressed,” I mumbled.
“Meet you at the Dome in half an hour. I’ll have Missy there and we can start planning. You won’t regret this.”
It was only after he left and I started getting dressed that I realized with a thud of amazement that he’d seen me with a lot less on than a pair of pajamas. “I must be losing my mind” I said aloud in my surprise at the unexpected turn of events.
I began combing my hair. I made a wise and soulful little moue at myself in the mirror. “Oh Jim,” I murmured softly into it, “you poor, poor fool. It’s just your luck to get mixed up with a heartless bitch like me.” I leaned closer to the glass, clouding it with my breath, and made an imprint on it with my mouth. I stood back, letting my eyes fill with tears. Then I picked up my eyebrow pencil and penciled my eyebrows into dark wings.
Then I gave myself one last challenging look and ran downstairs out and over to the Dôme to meet Larry and my change of fate.
I told Jim about it one night while he was painting me. He went right on painting.
“I suppose I can’t stop you,” he said.
“No.”
“Why are you going?”
“I don’t know.” Why was I going? For curiosity? For adventureship or friendship? For the sun or for the moon? “It’s just the way I am. Flighty. It’s only for a couple of weeks, anyway,” I added, trying to soften the blow.
He didn’t stop painting.
“What do you want?” he asked me finally.
My sense of bewilderment increased. “Oh … how do I know?