248
PARTISAN REVIEW
Of course they are there . Jenny is just a child . On a bedside table are
her mother's reading glasses and a little vase of marigolds . Deeply
hued, yellow, red, and orange. Her parents are very patient . She is a
normal little girl with fears, with nightmares . The nightmares do no
real harm, that is , they will not alter her life . She is afraid that she is
growing, that she will grow too much . She returns to her room after
being comforted, holding one of the little flowers .
The man likes flowers , although he dislikes Jenny's childishness .
He removes Jenny's skimpy cotton dress. He puts the flowers between
her breasts, between her legs . The house is full of flowers.
It
is Mexico
on the Day of the Dead. Millions of marigolds have been woven into
carpets and placed on the graves . Jenny's mouth hurts, her stomach
hurts . Yes, the man dislikes her childishness . He kneels beside her,
his hands on her hips , and forces her to look at his blank , warm face .
It
is a youthful face, although he is certainly no longer a young man .
Jenny had seen him when he was younger, drunk , blue-eyed.
It
doesn't matter. He doesn ' t age . He has had other loves and he has
behaved similarly with them all. How could it be otherwise? Even so ,
Jenny knows that she has originated with him, that anything before
him was nostalgia for this. Even so , there are letters, variously ad–
dressed , interchangeably addressed, it would seem. These letters
won ' t be kept.
It
isn't the time , but they are here now, in a jumble ,
littered with the toys. Jenny reads them as though in a dream . This is
Jenny! As in a dream too , she is less reasonable but capable of better
judgement.
I won ' t stay here. The alleys have disgusting names- the Street
of the Little Head, for example . It is a tomb , this town , and the
streets are full of whores, women with live mice or snakes or
fish in the clear plastic heels of their shoes. Death and the whores
are everywhere, walking in these bright, horrible shoes.
How unhappy Jenny's mother would be if she were
to
see this
letter! She comes into the child 's room in the morning and helps her
tie her shoes .
.•You do it like this ," she says , crossing the laces , .. and then you
do this, you make a bunny ear here, see. "
Her mother holds her on her lap while she teaches her to tie her
shoes . Jenny is so impatient . She wants to cry as she sees her mother 's
