JOYCE CAROL OATES
387
He could tell she was angry but she was frightened too which made
him feel better toward her, he shrugged her off when she came over,
asking right away about his hand though he was hiding it, asking if
he'd been in a fight, he went past her into the kitchen and got a beer
from the refrigerator, pulled off the ring and tossed it somewhere,
Marian was pulling at his arm, saying he was drunk, saying he was
cockeyed drunk and not to wake Paulie, her voice was low and flat
and accusing but he could tell she was scared. He just shoved her out
of the way and went into the bathroom.
He was in there a while, five minutes, ten, he heard the tele–
phone ringing but it was only his head, a good loud buzzing like
Quaaludes but he couldn't remember having taken any that night,
unless it was back at that place before the last place where the bar–
tender gave him a drink on the house, hell of a nice guy, that was a
place he intended to go back to, some cousin or somebody of Fritz's,
but mainly he thought it must be just what he'd drunk and how good
he felt from messing up that son of a bitch with the ponytail, Harley–
Davidson t-shirt , big black bike, the works, and the girl gone crazy
thinking her boyfriend was dead which anybody could see he wasn't:
not crawling around like he was and making noises like he was, puk–
ing into the sand, puke and blood, the son of a bitch.
When he came out of the bathroom Marian said in that low
voice , "Barbara just called," meaning Pete's wife, and Harvey didn't
bother replying, got his shoes off with a grunt, pulled his shirt off
over his head without taking time to unbutton it, his fingers were
getting too numb to work the buttons, he was suddenly very tired
and ready for bed, and Marian pulled at his arm, Marian said, "She
says there was some trouble tonight ," but he just pushed her away,
not hard, just out of his way . She said, "Was there?"
He was rubbing his face with the shirt. Waves of exhaustion like
he'd been working overtime, two hours overtime, could hardly keep
from keeling over, but there were waves of something else too, short
quick stabbing waves, excitement, elation, the knowledge of some–
thing secret . He could smell Marian's hair and the stale powdery scent
of her underarms. The special rayony smell of that shortie nightgown
of hers with the lace top. Her mouth was close to his ear, her breath
was hot and accusing, she said again, "Was there? Harvey? Was
there?" and he said, "Was there what?" She was so close, he hadn't
expected her so close , he reached around and grabbed hold of her
ass , she gave him a slap, told him again not to wake Paulie, did he
