562
PARTISAN REVIEW
could stay as they were for eternit y; sh e would love them a ll then ,
even Roy. Pl ease freeze!
5. Did God answer h er p rayer?
T here is no God. Rita was just a bad winner.
6.
Was she born that way?
She was no t bo rn tha t way. Sh e was not even marri ed that
way. Rita began to exult in each o f h er hu sband 's mi sta kes, and
secretl y to rejoice every time something unfortun a te h appened to
them as a coupl e, onl y wh en it became ev ident th ey were getting
mo re th an their sh a re o f bad luck. Her earl y h ysterectomy.
Adopted son turning out poorl y. Roy's career as a songwriter
washed up prema turely. All thi s would have been spooky had
Ri ta all owed herself to be surpri sed each time. Instead sh e grew
to accept mi sfortun e, to anti cipa te and to welcome it.
7. S he w as bitt er?
No t in the ordinary sen se. She speciali zed in mi sfortun e and
derived sa ti sfacti on from it. T h ere is a popul a r exp ression for
thi s strategy.
8. If you can' t lick 'em , Join 'em?
Precisely. She jo ined 'em with glee.
It
was a lmos t a game, it
became her way o f winning.
It
was like those ca rd games where
certa in cards were bad , they counted aga in st you ... unl ess you
go t a ll of th em. Then th ey were very va luabl e.
9. Th en R ita w as ugly as a wi tch?
On the contra ry. She was bewitching ly bea utiful. The more
bad things sh e coll ected-husband mistakes, famil y tragedi es,
and so on-the more beautiful she became. On the day in
ques ti on sh e wore a yellow ribbon in h er bl ack ha ir. Sh e g lowed
with a nega tive electri cit y.
10. W hat k ind of day was it?
The second day o f the hottes t weekend in years. The day
before, Sa turday, h ad been so bad th a t factori es and offi ces up
and down the Eas tern seaboa rd were forced to cl ose, suburban
famili es to spend th e weekend sittin g in glacia l shopping mall s.
Sa turday ni ght was even worse because o f a bl ack- out in New
Yo rk City. All ni ght th ousands of h alf-deliri ous New Yorkers
flocked to the Sta ten Island ferry fo r a ride through moving air,
and by dawn Sunday mad sch emes o f escap e had been con cocted .
