252
PARTISAN REVIEW
her pubic hair is silver. Her mouth is a thickly frosted white . The
water foams on her skin in tiny translucent bubbles. The woman
laughs and moves her legs up in a scissors grip around the man's
waist. Jenny sees him kiss her .
Another man, a Mexican, comes up to Jenny. He is barechested
and wears white trousers and tall, yellow boots. He absently plucks at
his left nipple while he looks at her.
"Ford Galaxie," he says at last. He takes a ring of car keys from
his pocket and jerks his head toward the mountains .
"No," Jenny says.
"Galaxie, " the Mexican says. "Galaxie.
Rojo."
Jenny sees the car, its red shell cold in the black mountains,
drawn through the landscape of rock and mutilated maguey . Drawn
through, with her inside, quietly transported.
"No," she says . She hates the baths. The tile in the bottom of
the pool is arranged in the shape of a bird, a heron with thin legs
and a huge , flat head . Her lover stands still in the water now, looking
at her, amused.
"Jenny," her mother laughs. "You're such a dreamer. Would
you like to go out for supper? You and Daddy and I can go to the
restaurant that you like. "
For it is just the summer. That is all it is, and Jenny is only five.
In
the house which they are renting on Martha's Vineyard, there is a
dinghy stored in the rafters of the living room. The landlord is sup–
posed to come for it and take it down, but he does not. Jenny posi–
tions herself beneath the dinghy and scatters her shell collection over
her legs and chest. She pretends that she has been cast out of it and
floated to the bottom of the sea.
"Jenny-cake, get up now, " her mother says. The child rises
heavily from the floor. The same sorrow undergone for nothing is
concluded . Again and again, nothing.
" Oh Jenny-cake," her mother says sadly, for Jenny is so quiet ,
so pale . They have come to the Island for the sunshine, for play, to
offer Jenny her childhood . Her childhood eludes them all. What is
the guide whichJenny follows?
"Let's play hairdresser," her mother says . "I'll be the hair–
dresser and you be the little girl. ' ,
Jenny lets her comb and arrange her hair.
