382
SUS AN SON TA&
"Mr. Obscenity," she whispered, fearing the worst, and pre–
ferring immediate censure to suspense.
Instead of turning, the figure convulsively manipulated some
dials. The image on the master screen changed from a roller-skating
derby to a woman, legs agape,
in
the last stages of childbirth.
Demoted, the roller-skating derby continued, one of the imaga
on the row below.
"Please tell me who you are. I know I shouldn't
be
here."
Competing with all these images, Miss Flatface feared
she
would never get an answer. The figure in the white hood threw a
switch. A bald toothy state governor addressing a Shriners' conven·
tion was promoted from the row to the master screen, and
the
anguished mother-to-be seemed much calmer seen only once, next
to the roller-skating derby. The political speech lasted a few mo–
ments. It was erased by the image Miss Flatface had had her eye on
from the beginning, surely the most interesting, a delightful erotic
scene between two women and a Nisei youth with an enonnous
erection.
Making an effort, Mis Flatface wrenched her glance from
the master screen.
"Mr. Obscenity, I love you." This was a feckless lie.
A commercial for a new roll-on deoderant blanked out
the
erotic scene on the television screen. The impassive figure turned,
its attention for the moment released. Miss Flatface, tremblingly,
un–
did her blue flowered housecoat, yearning to seduce. So far so good:
now she had the attention of the eyes, which were
all
of the hooded
face she could see, quite to herself. A hand reached toward
her
clammy thighs. Miss Flatface noticed that the hand seemed slenderer
than Mr. Obscenity's.
"Yes, yes," she cried, leaning toward the hand.
But at that very moment, the commercial ended, and the Nisei
youth and the two women resumed their sport. The hooded tech·
nician's delicate hand hovered in mid-air, suspended between
Mis
Flatface and the instrument panel. Seconds that seemed like hoUJ1
passed. Then the machine won: the hand abruptly lunged toward a
dial. Humiliated, Miss Flatface wrapped the housecoat around her
shivering loins, and found her way back to her room.
