PARTISAN REVIEW
231
(UN--DEUX--TROIS)
"Tomorrow," 1 say, "I will call Mittman, Mittman, Mittman,
Mittman
&
Sons and order a new mattress, a new box frame, a
new headboard, and a new inner soul."
"I wish you would. I'm gett ing all hung up on this bed; really
hung all the fucking way. All I ever think about when we fuck
these days is your dead wife. Jesus , you have completely fucked
me up. Which side did she sleep on?"
I reach for her but she moves away. "When I get the new
mattress, your vis ta will change."
"Fuck." She sits up and stretches and wipes herself with the
sheet. "You come very heavy. Sometimes you are still oozing out
of me two hours later."
"When I first saw you at the ferry--"
"Yes?"
"While the ferry was docking I got a hard on. J was dead
twenty-four hours and jf you would have let me 1 would have
fucked you in ten minutes."
"Would you be interested in a menage?"
I sat up. My neck cracked. "Where?"
"Here." Smacking the bed with her fist. "Right on this god-
dam bed."
"N
0,
no, I'll get a room at the Pierre."
"Forget it."
"All right, here."
"It can be a groovy thing. I've had a couple of exceptional
experiences that way. Sometimes you can be a little uptight the
first time, but the second and third time can be exceptional. Dyna–
mite, I get hot just thinking about it. Two people work on one,
and you keep taking turns. The idea of you fucking me and some–
one li cking my cunt and ass and your cock and balls while you're
fucking me and then eating my cunt after you've come-–
dynamite, that grabs me." She reaches for the vibrating dildo that
we had been fooling aro und with and, placing it on a pillow,
lowers herself down and sits herself on top of it. "Don't talk to
me, Noel. Go away." Supporting herself with her hands, legs
spread, in a half-kneeling position, she begins to rock back and
