JOHN SHEA
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culty-without an amorous thought of one's own slithering into the
pristine garden of the mind unbidden ? But that is that.
"Thanks, Terry," she was saying in a voice lacking all vitality.
There was no dance, no joyful dizziness this time . "You were a doll.
Thanks a lot ."
She undid herself from her tyro's position and slowly extended
her legs until they were parallel to the floor. The muscles tautened,
the toes pointed: long, graceful dancer's legs.
"It
was nice to hear
what it said, but .. . you know .
It
brings everything back. The good
things . And a damn ocean between us."
With an appropriate look of sympathetic glumness, he watched
as she wiggled her feet into the slack old pair of sandals: the pink
little toes, so lusciously playing in formation . Then she snatched up
her keychain and walked to the door . He followed her, hands in his
pocket. "Thanks again, Terry . Sorry to bother you."
"No bother at all," he murmured. "Take it easy." She let herself
out. After watching her walk down the hall towards her apartment
for a moment or so, he closed the door and turned the lock. In the
silence, the sound of the bolt pushing brusquely into place was
strangely loud . Almost a full minute passed before he could think of
what there was to do.
II
She had been the first neighbor to greet him when he had
moved into the building, a graduate student largely unfamiliar with
the city, having severed most previous ties. They had exchanged
witticisms while waiting for the elevator, whose slow progress from
floor to floor certainly provided sufficient time for such exchanges, if
one wanted them. She had escorted him to the laundry room that
first week, and he had gone to her , following respected tradition , for
the cup of sugar he had unaccountably forgotten. But the rather
dour-faced man he had seen her with at times seemed an indication
of a commitment, or at least attachment, on her part; and perhaps
she was a trifle too un intellectual for him to be worth any further
pursuit. She laughed at his jokes while they waited for the elevator to
groan to a halt, but she did not seem to catch all the allusions. At
times she laughed because he obviously expected her to laugh.
It
would only have made things difficult to explain them. She laughed,
and that was enough.
It
was nice to watch her laugh, although in
