PARTISAN REVIEW
431
Mimi,
I take full responsibility for my act. There comes a moment when
we must stand up and be counted. Today that moment came
for me.
James Cogan
P.S. I am sorry we must sever what has been one of the most
meaningful relationships of my life.
Hi-Marx Llewelyn growled when he heard his mistress's voice and
ran into the front room to nip at her ankles. With his rolled, tat–
tered copy of
Newsweek
Jim waited until Mrs. Schlotzer's screams
reached operatic proportions and ran past her out of the shop. Bring
them down, Jim thought. Bring them down.
It was only when he was slouched in a movie seat wasting the
two hours between his exit from the
Chateau de Chien
and the en–
counter with Shelley Waltz in Union Square that he realized he
had not been paid for the week. He felt enormously proud: life
had begun after all. The battle was launched. On the screen a girl
with fantastic legs but a plain face made love with an artist, an
older guy. They ran down the streets of a blue-hazed New York
doing beautiful free things, eating ice cream cones, lying out in
Central Park. Then the artist's wife showed up and it was over–
he had faked it and gave this feeble speech, in a business suit and
tie now, about how much it had meant, truly. Bring them down.
Bring them down. Bravely the girl rode off on her bike in the final
scene, her honesty and integrity intact in the full light of day. Wear–
ing blue jeans and a fatigue jacket she peddled off across Brooklyn
Bridge.
Shelley Waltz waited at the top of the subway stairs in Union
Square. Her round childish face looked less sullen than usual, more
actively annoyed. This evening she wore a new Indian robe,
di~
phanous and white, and looked like a child who has lost its role
in
the Christmas play. Her first words to Jim Cogan were not en–
couraging: "This is all a big mistake."
Jim looked down at her filthy bare feet.
"I have to go to Clauson's place," she said defiantly.
"So?"
"/ have to go there," Shelley said. "There's something on."
