PARTISAN REVIEW
He was not devoted to the old man as Mr. Sweeney cun..'1ingly
thought him. He knew with devastating directness that Mr. Sweeney
thought of him with the same affection he thought of a roach. There
was a cold strain in Montague, perhaps born in those early years of
terror. Asia had probably gone to some slaughterpen.
Mea:qwhile, as Montague reached his teens, he found a wild
salacious gift in himself. He had always loved himself, body and soul,
through torment and health, having the fires of energy burning
throughout
him.
Delia tried to take care of soul by taking him to the
Baptist Church.
If
he demurred she beat him.
Delia remembered him most tenderly as a small figure there,
usually dancing to restrain the impulse of urination. She remembered
his thin hard little torso, the curved back as he sat like a fruit on
the seat,
his
sharp shoulder blades, the assumed languor in his half–
closed eyelids on his dark smooth hub face.
The little flattened nose wrinkled and sniffed continuously, he
remembering these prayer meetings mostly by smells, as he remem–
bered the privyjohn, menstruating women, the old white woman with
citronella,
his
father's underarm odors. But he had been thrilled in
the hubbub.
Delia remembered this time with heavy breasts, both for Willie
and the baby love Montague had been.
But Montague was no pilgrim. He reached adolescence believing
the Bible wrong. This was a tough conclusion for which he had the
fashionable incitements of Mr. Sweeney to thank.
Now Montague took to hanging himself like a hat on girls,
proudly a young criminal in intent. He was glib and easily persuasive
with his hands. One by one castles fell. He could steal small bars of
chocolate candy. First he was proud of being able to kiss a girl on
the cheek. Then one let him hug her. The same girl let him tenderly
squeeze her breast and run his hands over her smooth shanks with
a vagrant dreaming air.
Then one girl, who laughed a lot, let herself be chased into an
empty shed one late afterm>On, where she let him look at her body,
strangely moved herself to see
his
hands shake as he leafed her
clothing. He felt as if
his
veins would burst. They sealed each other's
lips with a
kiss,
and Montague promptly went out on the streets and
bragged of his luck to other eager-eyed panting young Lotharios. The
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