ALAN LELCHUK
603
into another element totally, more liquid than solid, as he heard the tinkle of
glasses and warm laughter and rolling film. Dusty Schulte's seemed a long
way off. And resisting not at all, he fully accepted being led down the narrow
dark corridor by the pair of mermaids, one bulging yellow in front, the other
slender, brushing his backside. In the new room sat a potted fern, a blowup
color photo of a South Sea island, a dim lamplight by a seedy double bed.
Augie, Eugene, Rimbaud , Aaron? The low voices of cajoling and easy se–
ducing, the slow unraveling ofclothing and sudden revelation of bodies-all this
hit him like being underwater and seeing everything through the medium of
translucent blue (here red). And he was swiftly transformed into a fish of a
boy, pulled this way and expanded that way in exercises of the flesh. Callie
and Buffulo (her name vanishing) played
in
tandem, baiting him with honeyed
limbs and hooking him with surprise openings, and at sixteen Aaron was
dropped down sweet chutes of pleasure that shocked him, scooping his breath
away. Though he had been with girls before, this scene was greedier, lustier,
fuller pleasure. If you 'd have asked him, and he were alert enough to an–
swer, he couldn't have sworn that what was happening was real, and not
part of the reel he had been viewing, so much was his imagination filled to
the brim, and beyond, with body play.
Soon, he was welcomed back into the card room with good-natured
laughter and joking congratulations, by the old and new pair ofcard players.
"I can see the new hair already!" shrieked Jackson.
"Why pick on a mere boy that way!" noted a white, paunchy new–
comer, puffing on a cigar.
I was alert enough to ask for a cup of coffee, before sitting down to
play. I drank it straight too, hating the bitterness, trying to collect my clarity.
The two gamblers joined us at the table, the black fellow adjusting a green
visor on his forehead , and the white fellow revealing a fat roll of dollars.
"Dealer's choice, gentlemen?" Jackson asked, shuffling the deck, and
dealing five hands.
Sure enough, beginner's luck. With the women flanking me, for good
fortune (I supposed), I did pretty well. We alternated between five card
poker and seven card stud, for quarters and halves, with a final card ceiling
of three dollars. Pretty stiff tariff, I knew. Almost immediately, I caught a run
of cards, a good long run for a whole hour or so-you know, a third three to
beat two high pairs; a fifth diamond for a flush; a king-high full house in stud
to beat a smaller house. Even drew an eight for an inside straight in five
card. The works. Change the deck? Why in the world would I want to do
that? I was raking in the dollars so much that I even handed each of my fe–
male good luck charms an extra fiver, on top of the earlier "tip" I had given
them, like a regular gambler. At one point I counted something like eighty-six
