224
DAVID JACKSON
did, another table where some recently made fans hailed
him,
"Hey, Manas, you after something?" It was a sunny late morning
and Mary Jane was opening her Paris
Herald,
asking for coffee,
exposing her fair head to lightly swirl in the currents of air. She
looked up.
"Hello, Nicolas, I saw you in the American Express."
For a moment he was stymied. He pondered swiftly and
then remarked, "I followed you. How come you here?"
Mary Jane was too quick, she out-candored him, (([ follow–
ed
you,
but changed my mind, yesterday."
By now he was sitting down, had ordered a beer to give
himself time. She turned back to her paper. Anyway she might
stand
him
a beer. He began gathering his wits.
"It was like a dream, that night, huh?"
She replied, "Yes."
"I been thinkin about you."
She smiled, "I thought about you, too--for nearly a week."
"Listen, thoughts cross each other. I believe that. It's a
great feelin...."
"Is it?"
"Look, I don't get you...."
"You're right, there."
Although none of this made any sense to him, he instantly
perceived a prize flapping away on dollar signs. Assuming his
little boy face he looked up at her from under several locks of
hair. "You going to be Nicolas's angel?"
Mary Jane was swayed. This assault had come quickly, and
he did look ragged in that blue shirt and those pants, his eyes...
She forced herself to think of her
new
poet. Yet only twenty
seconds passed before she said, "No," once again. And as she said
it she waved to the waitress.
Not listening to the No's, Nicolas had only heard the pause,
seen the wave as a call for help, and he moved in, instantly:
"Lemme buy that coffee for you. Nicolas wants to give you
something, see?"
