The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer [278]
One day, however, he meets Beverly. (The slim dark-eyed, dark-haired girl on the left with the exciting red mouth she has penciled over her lips.) How'd you like the picture, Gloria? he asks the other one.
I thought it was a mighty sorry picture.
Yeah, it's awful. Hello. (To Beverly.)
Hello, Willie.
He smiles blankly. How do you know me?
Oh, I was the year behind you in school. I remember you from the cheer leaders.
The introductions, the bright talk. Bridling pleasantly. So you knew me, huh?
Everybody knows you, Willie.
Yeah, ain't it tough? They laugh.
Before she leaves, he has made a date.
The hot summer nights, the languor of the trees, the leaven in the earth. After the dates they ride in his car to a park at the crest of a hill on the highway outside the suburb. Inside the car they roll and squirm, bang their knees and their backs against the gearshift, the steering wheel, the knobs for the windows.
Aw come on, baby, I won't do a thing if you won't let me but come on.
No, I can't, I better not.
God, I love you, Beverly.
I do too, Willie. (The car radio is playing when it rains it rains. . . Pennies from Heaven. Her hair has a clean root smell, and her nipple is delicately fragrant against his mouth. He feels her writhing in his grasp, sobbing-panting.)
Oh, kid.
I can't, Willie, I love you so much please I can't.
I wish we were married.
Oh, do I. (Nuzzling his hair with her mouth) Ohhh.
The analyses: You made her yet, Willie?
I got to third base last night, I'll make her yet. Oh, what a dame.
What'd she do?
She moaned. Jeez, I go for her. I made her moan.
Aaah, if they won't put out.
Folklore: If she won't lay she's frigid; if she does she's a whore.
I'll make her yet. Don't forget she's cherry. (Way back is a sneaking guilt -- I love you, Beverly.)
Talking serious: You know I dreamt about you last night, Willie.
Me too. You know that movie we saw the other day, Captain Blood, I thought Olivia de Haviland looked like you. (Identification with the square of canvas in the dark cavern. His love is perfect like theirs.)
You're sweet. (Ineffable attraction of the girl playing mother. The red bow of her lips.) If you weren't so sweet I wouldn't. . . go so far. You don't have a bad opinion of me?
No. (Teasing.) I'd have a better one if. . . you know.
Uh-uh, momma knows best. (Silence, her head on his shoulder.) I feel funny when I start thinking of us.
Me too.
Do you suppose everybody is like us? I wonder if Madge pets the way I do, she always giggles when I try to pump her. (Augury of the practical woman) Something fishy there. (The maiden again) Don't you feel funny when you start thinking about things?
Yeah, it's all very. . . funny. (But said profoundly.)
I feel much older since I've known you, Willie.
I know what you mean. Gee, it's swell talking to you. (She has so many virtues; she feels so soft, and her mouth excites him so, and she's a good dancer, looks swell in a bathing suit, and besides that she's intelligent. He can talk to her. No one else had it like this. He glows with the intoxicating esteem of first love.) Oh, Beverly.
At the State University he is accepted in a good frat, is disappointed vaguely because initiations are forbidden. (He sees himself as a senior conducting it.) But it is fine. He learns to smoke a pipe, is introduced to the rewards of college life. Brother Brown as a pledgee in good standing of Tau Tau Epsilon we will preside over the circumsional rites. In the vernacular you will lose your cherry.
The brothel is expensive, catering to the college. He has heard of it before, is drunk enough to acquit himself without fear. Afterward in the college quadrangle he sings. Once in a While. . . Wheeeee-hooooooooh. Once in a while, get it, Father Perkins.
Quiet.
You're a good sonofabitch. (A new theme.)
He never means to slip, he has the best intentions in the world, but somehow drafting, freshman trig, freshman physics, etc., etc., is a little less vital than he has imagined. He tries to study, but there are better things. A man wants to get out after spending