474
PARTISAN REVIEW
"It was damned hard," Paco was saying, "to break with the band.
The club's manager wouldn't release me from the contract and the
men naturally thought I was doing them dirt. I couldn't blame them.
But I had to get away or go nuts. So I just bolted-and they can sue
me if they want to. I didn't even wait for the money I still had coming
to me. I came back poorer than I left. Nastier, too. I felt as if I had
sneaked off. It's not a nice feeling: gives you what Mary calls the
Boris Karloff look in the eye."
"So that's the end of the Tune Technicians," said Pepe.
"-And of Tex the Bandleader," said Paco, his forehead wrinkling.
"Nobody's going to trust me again after what I did. I'll have to teach
me another trade ..."
"I wonder what drives her to tell a lie like that?"
"Connie?"
"-About the navel stuff."
"Oh, just to shock, of course, and to corrupt. She's not after one's
body, she wants to ruin your soul."
"Oh, come now, Paco."
"They're both agents of the devil-she and her mother. They
work as a team: the mother catches you and plays with you until
you're just a bloody rag; then she feeds you over to her daughter."
"I'd say they were working against each other, not with each
other."
"They work
tor
each other. Whenever I was with one of them
I could feel the other watching greedily. They share each other's
pleasure, watching you twitch. And when they've screwed you up to
the breaking point the daughter springs her abominable revelation–
and you go mad and run amuck. And there's one more soul that's
damned."
"No, Paco-no."
"What do you know about them? You've only seen them once."
"But I think you're wrong. About the daughter, especially. I think
she's just a scared girl, desperately trying to save herself."
"And so she runs around saying she's got two navels-"
"I'm beginning to see it's her way of saying she's got a guardian
angel ..."
"Oh, you poor sap, Pepe-to be taken in by that little-girl act of
hers
!"
"Well, weren't you?"
"Oh, yes. Oh, yes indeed."
"And you really haven't got over it yet, have you?"
