476
JOYCE CAROL OATES
PETER
(enthusiastically):
Is she trying to break the window? Trying
to jump out? I'm not going to let her, not yet. Look at the spirit
she has! What muscles! What a lovely girl, eh? How much is she
worth to you? She has held up very well, it must have been her ex–
cellent family life back home, the good dental care and the fortified
cereal and the fuzzy lined boots; she is from an excellent suburb
of Detroit, Michigan. A lot of care went into her making, cen–
turies of care. She's a midwestern beauty. Look, she's preening,
she's posing for us out of sheer exuberance! (SHELLEY
stands with–
out moving, staring down into the street)
SHELLEY
(turning blindly, not seeing Peter):
He broke my body up
into pieces. I am like a jigsaw puzzle. It was right here, on the
floor ... this spot here.... But there's no mark. There's no blood.
People get nailed to the floor and bleed to death and there is no
mark to show what they went through, no evidence, no proof of
their existence. . . . The world
is
crowded with invisible people
who can't prove that they exist.
(lightly, lyrically)
Anyway, he
loved me! He might love me again! Peter, you did love me!
(She
runs to Peter and extends her arms, still without quite seeing him.
Peter eludes her, like a dancer. He makes a gesture to the audience,
gri'nning, as if exhibiting the girl, a possession of his.)
I got on a
bus and got off a bus, and there I was outside, a few yards away
from here, on a Saturday afternoon. What a crowd! All those
happy people! I could smell food - hotdogs, mustard, pizza - I
ran along the sidewalk with my coat fl apping open around me, my
skirt very short, my legs very pretty in bright blue stockings, like
legs seen flashing through water - And you came up behind me,
Peter, and put your arms around me-
PETER: I stood on the sidewalk and watched you run up to me. What
a lovely little girl!
If
I closed my eyes slightly you turned into a
herd of lovely little girls - a herd, and all so cute! Your hair was
very long then, in the style of your suburb, well-brushed and
healthy, a golden brown. Your yellow coat flapped open to show
your cute little body and your busy little legs, in blue stockings.
I was like a lighthouse; I stood in the crowd and you saw me.
SHELLEY: You stepped out of an alley and jabbed my breast with
your elbow!
PETER: I watched you collide with a man, one of our neighborhood
bums, a blind man, a tourist attraction the rest of us never notice
any longer. You ran right into him, you were so confused, and he
