DAY OF THE WEDDING
199
her nails. She's got a nice apartment too, and she smells good and
she's got it where it counts. But I'll stick to the other for awhile. I
did have another girl, but
I
think she tried to poison me, arsenic
m~~lli~~~~~ry~~I~I~
drink the coffee they give you there, its full of some kind of stuff.
They put it in because they got it in for me there. I once went down
to the sea with my girl, the one I think I will marry, We took
the train down there and sat on the beach, on a towel. But, Jesus,
you know what happened? It was crowded, a lot of bodies, you
understand, and they all got radios, those little deals. There was
one beside every body. I couldn't stand it, the noise and the sea
made me nervous too, I don't know, it must have been that sort of
rhythmic noise it makes: swish, swish, but too slow for me. I like it
quick and the waves were too far apart. My girl said there had been
a storm and that makes fewer bigger waves. But all those radios, it
was too easy for someone to beam in and my plates were getting hot
in the sun and burning my skin from underneath so we had to leave,
stepping over all those bodies, and take the train back in the heat
and sweat."
"Oh sure. My beach was great this year too, covered with
handsome men, each one a replica of you and I went out with a
different one each night."
"Well, that's your mistake, lady. You've got to play it cool
and you've got to watch out. You wait, everybody has got those
machines now and when you are sleeping someone will put in those
receiving plates and center in on you."
"But I should of said something about marriage, or loved
him
more or given him more or something. I lost him like you lose a
fish that gets into the weeds and shakes the hook out, because you
had a slack line."
"He had it in for you. He was playing. I had a girl once, she
used to move her hips like this and she said nice things to me with
her eyes half closed and her face close to mine smelling of nice
perfume and clean sheets and a warm bed. She danced close, moving
her hips into mine and rubbing her breasts on my shirt. She thought
I had something she wanted, but when she found I didn't she went
down to the factory one morning and told the girl there something
about me. She went around to all the guys whispering little lies about
