Women - Charles Bukowski [104]
“I liked it very much.”
“I was going to bring a tape of the music but I knew you wouldn’t have a machine.”
“You’re right. It was great anyhow.”
I gave Iris a gentle kiss.
“Why don’t you come live in Los Angeles?” I asked her.
“All my roots are up in the northwest. I like it there. My parents. My friends. Everything is up there, don’t you see?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you move to Vancouver? You could write in Vancouver.”
“I guess I could. I could write on top of an iceberg.”
“You might try it.”
“What?”
“Vancouver.”
“What would your father think?”
“About what?”
“Us.”
95
On Thanksgiving Iris prepared the turkey and put it in the oven. Bobby and Valerie came over for a few drinks but they didn’t stay. It was refreshing. Iris had on another dress, just as appealing as the other.
“You know,” she said, “I didn’t bring enough clothes. Tomorrow Valerie and I are going shopping at Frederick’s. I’m going to get some real slut-shoes. You’ll like them.”
“I’ll like that, Iris.”
I walked into the bathroom. I had hidden the photo Tanya had sent me in the medicine chest. She had her dress hiked up and she wasn’t wearing panties. I could see her cunt. She was a cute bitch.
When I came out Iris was washing something in the sink. I grabbed her from behind, turned her around and kissed her.
“You are a horny old dog!” she said.
“I’ll make you suffer tonight, my dear!”
“Please do!”
We drank all through the afternoon, then got to the turkey around 5 or 6 PM. The food sobered us up. An hour later we began drinking again. We went to bed early, around 10 PM. I didn’t have any problems. I was sober enough to insure a good long ride. The minute I began stroking I knew that I would make it. I didn’t particularly try to please Iris. I just went ahead and gave her an old-fashioned horse fuck. The bed bounced and she grimaced. Then came low moans. I slowed down a bit, then picked up the pace and ripped it home. She appeared to climax along with me. Of course, a man never knew. I rolled off. I’d always liked Canadian bacon.
The next day Valerie came over and she and Iris left together for Frederick’s. The mail arrived about an hour later. It contained another letter from Tanya:
Henry, dear…
I walked down the street today and these guys whistled. I walked on past them without response. The ones I really hate are the car wash guys. They holler things and stick out their tongues like they could really do something with their tongues, but there isn’t really a man among them who could do it. You can tell, you know.
Yesterday I went into this clothing store to buy a pair of pants for Rex. Rex gave me the money. He can never buy his own things. He just hates to. So I went into this men’s clothing store and picked out a pair of pants. There were two guys in there, middle-aged and one of the guys was real sarcastic. While I was picking out the pants he came up to me and he took my hand and put it on his cock. I told him, “Is that all you’ve got, poor thing!” He laughed and said something wise. I found these real nice pair of pants for Rex, green with thin white stripes. Rex likes green. Anyhow, this guy says to me, “Come on back into one of the try-on booths.” Well, you know, sarcastic guys always fascinate me. So I went into the booth with him. The other guy saw us go in. We started kissing and he unzipped. He got a hard-on and put my hand on it. We kept kissing and he lifted my dress and looked at my panties in the mirror. He played with my ass. But his cock never got real hard, just half-hard, it just stayed half-hard. I told him he wasn’t shit. He walked out of the booth with his cock out and zipped up in front of the other guy. They were laughing. I came out and paid for the pants. He bagged them. “Tell your husband you took his pants into the try-on booth!” he laughed. “You’re nothing but a fucking fag!” I told him. “And your buddy is nothing but a fucking fag too!” And they were. Almost every man is a fag now. It’s really difficult for a woman. I had a girlfriend who married a guy and she