JOY WILLIAMS
251
,'Jenny ,Jenny, Jenny, •• her mother calls .
"I want a baby," Jenny says. " Can I have a baby?"
"Of course," her mother says , "when you get to be a big girl
and fall in love .•,
Jenny will write on the stationery of the
Hotel Principal:
The claims of love and self-preservation are opposed .
The man looks over her shoulder. He is restless, impatient to get
going. They are going to the baths outside of town , in the mountains .
A waterfall thuds into a long, stone basin which has been artificially
heated. It is a private club, crowded with Americans and wealthy
Mexicans. When Jenny and the man arrive at the baths, they first go
to a tiny stone cubicle where the man strips. He hangs his clothes
carefully from the wooden pegs which are f!Xed in the stone . Jenny
looks outside where a red horse grazes from a long , woven tether.
There is water trickling over the face of the hillside. There is very little
grass . The water sparkles around the horse 's hooves . The man turns
Jenny from the window and begins to undress her. She is like a little
child with artless limbs . He rolls her pants down slowly. He slips her
sweater off. He does everything slowly. Her clothes fall to the floor
which is wet with something, which smells sweet. With one hand, the
man holds her arms firmly behind her back. He doesn ' t do anything
to her. She cannot smell him or even feel his breath . She can see his
face which is a little stern but not frightening.
It
holds no disappoint–
ment for her. She tries to move closer to him, but his grip on her arms
prevents her. She begins to tremble. Her body feels his stroking, his
touch , even though he does nothing. Her body starts to beat, to move
in the style of their lovemaking . She becomes confused , the absence
of him in her is so strong. She closes her eyes , her knees sag. At last he
enters her.
Later , the man goes out to the pool. Jenny hates the baths, but
they come here several times a week on the man's insistence . She
dresses and goes out to the side of the pool and watches the man swim
back and forth . There are many people here, naked or nearly so ,
tossing miniature footballs back and forth . She sees the man grasp the
ankles of a woman and begin to tow her playfully through the water.
The woman wears silver earrings. Her carefully touseled hair is silver,
