570
PARTISAN REVIEW
fancy voice you reply, no, Daniel. . I couldn't do that. I want to
sleep with you Daniel. Then I tell you . . . the kid needs it too."
"Daniel ..."
He gets out of me the reaction he had wanted. And, abruptly,
he tumbles to the side of me, spent. He grins. "They wept and they
fucked . They fucked and they wept." And soon he is asleep. Night.
An American motel. We are two people finally trying to walk away
from one another. But the sex goes on. I fall asleep first. When I
waken it is early morning. I hear Daniel in the can, making a clatter.
"Is that you Daniel?"
"For Christ's sake. Haven't you learned during four years to
stop asking each morning, 'Daniel, is that you?' Who the hell else do
you expect it to be?" I doze off again, familiar with his vague invec–
tive.
• • •
Later that week we are able to sail the
Adelina II
out of the har-
bor. In spite of bad patches offog, for reasons that seem to have little
l
to do with Daniel and me, life on the yawl, abruptly, begins to work.
Our habits are meshing better, I remember not to lose the Zippo.
We are making eight-hour runs through the fog. When we pull into
a cove, around five in the evening, I take territorial possession of
the yawl. I have out the pots and pans, and have pulled apart the
kitchen stove.
"You can never say this millionaire didn't keep you well sup–
plied with Comet."
After supper we play Checkers.
Feels like you are back in Camp
Wigmachi. The counselor posted a chart on the wall nearyour cot. Your weekly
schedule.
We make it through to the Cape Canal in time to pull into a
cove for the second hurricane. Daniel throws the first anchor out.
But he's afraid it won't hold. I can't see the harbor because we are
whirling too fast in a circle. I hear the putter of the Coast Guard
near us. It's okay, I know. I pick up my copy of
People
magazine, lie
down on the bunk with it, and bite into a Granny Smith apple.
Daniel seems confused, he senses that no anxious vibes are
coming from me. It's like he has lost something. Like the situation
has gotten out of control because I am peacefully chewing an apple.
Daniel, meanwhile, has stretched out on the opposite bunk.
His hair is soaked through, he throws the blue woolen cap his mother
