Authors: Rona Jaffe
“Did he say we’re going out, or what?” she called through the open bathroom door to Bonnie.
“He didn’t say.”
Gerry came out of the bathroom. “How do I look?”
“Ooh, she’s got on her bats! Look at her, wearing those bats! Who are you trying to seduce?”
“You, Vincent. I’ve decided to make a man of you.” Gerry chased Bonnie around the bedroom until she caught her. Bonnie squealed until caught, then she fought back and began tickling Gerry unmercifully. She had the strength of a man. “Let go!”
“Don’t you kiss me, you sick freak!” Bonnie giggled.
“Let me go, you truck driver!”
“Truck driver! Truck driver! Look who’s calling who a truck driver.”
Gerry sensed the rough play changing. Bonnie had never really felt or held a girl before, and now her tickling and teasing was turning into curious touching disguised as mischief. She had her hands on Gerry’s breasts and was trying to get her fingers under Gerry’s skirt. Was she just trying to see what a girl had that she didn’t have, or was she really more of a boy than either of them had thought? Gerry pulled away and ran into the living room.
“I’m not a toy,” Gerry said. “If you want to know what a girl looks like I’ll draw you a picture.”
“Don’t. You’ll make me sick.”
“Do you know anything about girls?”
“How could I?” Bonnie said. She went into the bathroom and began painting her face. “I might as well paint for your friend,” she said. “I don’t want to scare him to death.”
Gerry wondered what Dick would think of Bonnie, while she made a pitcher of martinis which she put into the refrigerator—he drank the awful things winter and summer. She put a stack of records on the turntable and went to the air conditioner to turn it up higher. The air conditioner sputtered and clattered at her like an angry car and stopped dead. It was broken. One of the hottest nights of the summer and the air conditioner had to break. She opened the windows and the hot air felt like a wall. Well, Dick wouldn’t linger long over pleasantries now, he’d just meet Bonnie, have a drink, and the two of them could go. She didn’t know why she was so nervous. She had been working too hard, that was all, and summer in New York was a nightmare even when you kept moving from one air-conditioned place to another all day.
She made a large penciled note for Bonnie to call the air conditioner repairman in the morning and made herself a vodka and tonic.
“Do you want a drink, Bonnie?”
“No thanks. Oh, well, all right if you’re having one.”
She made another vodka and tonic and took it to Bonnie in the bathroom. Bonnie hadn’t locked the door against her in a long time.
“Are you going out?” she asked Bonnie, who was pasting on
her
bats.
“I don’t know. Why is it so hot in here?”
“The thing broke.”
“Oh God. Then I will go out.”
“Are you going to be here tomorrow so the man can come to fix it?”
“Okay. I don’t have a booking until three o’clock.”
“I left the number in the kitchen so you can call him.”
“Okay.”
There was a long silence, Bonnie concentrating on her eyelashes, putting them on, taking them off, putting them on again until she was satisfied. She knocked the drink off the sink by mistake and the glass broke. Gerry went to the kitchen for a dustpan and broom.
“Do you think he’ll like me?” Bonnie asked.
“Who?”
“Dick Devoid.”
“Not if you call him Dick Devoid.”
“Do you think he’ll think I’m a freak?”
“Why would he think that?”
“Because I am a freak.”
“You are not. Who said you were a freak?”
“Well I am,” Bonnie said. “You know it.”
“He’ll love you. Everybody does.”
“I’ll sweep that up.”
“It’s okay.”
“If he’s going to laugh at me, I don’t want to meet him,” Bonnie said.
“You’re not getting another drink till you get out of the bathroom. You only knock them over.”
“He’s not going to laugh at me, is he?”
“
No
.” Gerry took the broken glass to the kitchen and threw it away. “I wouldn’t walk around in there barefoot, if I were you, until the maid comes Wednesday.”
“You think I should wear a dress?”
“Why not?”
“Well, he
knows
.”
“Wear whatever you’re comfortable in. You can wear your neuter bell-bottoms.”
“I think I will. Then he can’t laugh.”
How funny Bonnie was—she didn’t think it was odd to wear two pairs of false eyelashes and a lot of panstick on her face, but she thought it was odd to wear a dress. Her rules were as confusing to the straight world as the straight world’s were to her. No wonder she sometimes made serious mistakes. Gerry hoped Dick would like Bonnie, and that Bonnie would feel at ease with him. Perhaps, since it was so hot and the air conditioner was broken, Dick would think to ask Bonnie to come along to dinner with them. It was silly to be jealous. There was a whole world of girls Dick Devere hadn’t had yet—he certainly wasn’t jaded enough and God knows not naïve enough to want to try a boy.
When Dick arrived, Bonnie was still lurking in the bathroom. He kissed Gerry hello and looked around.
“What happened to your air conditioning?”
“It just broke.”
“It’s terrible in here.” He wasn’t wearing a jacket, just a silk turtleneck sweater and tight jeans. “Where’s your friend?”
“Getting ready to meet you. Be nice to her.”
“I wouldn’t dream of not being nice to the gentleman.”
Gentleman! It sounded like he was talking about somebody else. Gerry laughed. “I never heard her called a gentleman before.”
“What do you call her then?”
“Well, I called her a lady once, and Bonnie said: ‘I’m not a lady, I’m a woman. Unless they’ve lowered the standards.’”
Dick laughed. “I know I’ll like her.”
Gerry gave him a martini and made herself another drink. It was becoming unbearably hot. “Bonnie, hurry up.”
Bonnie glided out of the bathroom, silent and shy as a cat. She was holding her face in that immobile position she always kept for a few minutes after she’d put her make-up on, so that she would not put laugh lines in the paint. It made her look as if she’d had a shot of novocaine in the jaw.
“Bonnie Parker, Dick Devere.”
Dick stood up and shook hands with Bonnie as if she were another man. “Hello,” she murmured.
“What’s the matter with your face?” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“You look like you’re talking through your teeth.”
“Oh.” Bonnie looked so frightened Gerry thought she might bolt out the front door.
“Do you want a drink, Bonnie?” Gerry asked. She glared at Dick.
“All right.”
She put a vodka and tonic into Bonnie’s hand and watched over her until she’d had a few swallows.
“You certainly are pretty,” Dick said.
“Thank you.”
“I was prepared to beat you up, but now would you please hold my hand?”
Bonnie laughed, forgetting about her laugh lines. Gerry breathed a sigh of relief. The Devere charm was working again and she knew everything would be all right.
“Mr. Libra has Bonnie up for
The Marilyn Monroe Story
,” Gerry said. “And she’s going to start acting lessons.”
“You should be in films,” Dick said. “You’re wasted on modeling. You’re even better live.”
“Oh, I don’t think I have a chance,” Bonnie said.
“I’m not saying in that particular film. But in something. It’s better that you don’t get your hopes up too much about
The Marilyn Monroe Story
because it will be very difficult for you as a newcomer to get that. They’ll probably take a girl who’s done a hundred television shows but whose face is unfamiliar. Big studios seldom take a gamble on an unknown to star in such an expensive picture. But if you don’t get it, don’t take it personally. It has nothing to do with your talent or your looks. Just keep plugging and you’ll be a star someday, I can tell that. You’re going to be a big, big star.”
“Wow,” Bonnie breathed, and giggled.
“It’s very good for you to start acting lessons now, not wait until you’re already acting in films and making mistakes. Sam Leo Libra is a very shrewd man. Who are you studying with?”
“Simon Budapest.”
“Oh. Well, don’t take him too seriously. He’s a pompous old jerk in love with himself.”
“Dick!” Gerry said.
“I just don’t like him,” Dick said. “But it doesn’t matter—studying with him is better than not studying at all.”
“Do you think he’s no good?” Bonnie asked, worried.
“No … no, he’ll be all right. Don’t worry about it. Just don’t let him get an emotional hold on you.”
“Nobody gets a hold on Bonnie,” Gerry said.
“You know it, Mary,” Bonnie said. She was sitting there giving Dick her old eye trick: staring at him, letting him drown in those huge violet eyes. She’d often told Gerry that once she turned her eyes on a man he was through. Gerry was amused to see her doing it to Dick, but at the same time she wished Bonnie would stop.
“Let’s get out of this steam bath,” Dick said. “Bonnie, can you join us for dinner?”
Bonnie glanced at Gerry, who nodded. “Yes,” Bonnie said.
Because Bonnie was wearing pants they went to an informal little restaurant which Gerry knew was the chic In-place for the jet set during the summer despite its unpretentious appearance. When Dick walked into the room with the two girls everyone turned around to stare, especially at Bonnie. Gerry had grown used to this—Bonnie caused a stir wherever she went. For one thing, she was spectacular, for another, she was very tall so you couldn’t miss her.
At a table in the corner Gerry noticed Peter and Penny Potter with a group of friends. When Penny Potter saw them her eyes widened and she looked down quickly. Dick pretended not to see them.
Bonnie was overjoyed because the restaurant had spaghetti. She could eat spaghetti three times a day, no matter how chic the restaurant was, and it never made her fat. Gerry and Dick settled for something cold, and he ordered wine. He did most of the talking, to both of them, while Bonnie sat there and stared at him with her eye power.
“You understand, don’t you, what I was trying to say about the film?” he went on. “I didn’t mean it in any way as a personal put-down. I just want you to be prepared for the rejections in this business, because they come every five minutes. And they don’t mean a thing.”
“Oh, I don’t care if I’m not a star,” Bonnie said. “I just want to get married and have a baby. Be a mother or a father or whatever. Either one, take your pick.”
“I can only see you as a mother,” he said seriously.
Little Penny Potter was coming toward them, on her way to the ladies’ room. She stopped at the table. It was the first time she had deigned to acknowledge Gerry’s existence and Gerry knew she was stopping only because Dick was there. She had her hair done up in a Mr. Nelson Summer Horror, masses of Dynel curls with daisies twined among them. She was wearing a Franco creation, a white see-through mini-dress with comic strip cartoons cut out, laminated to some sort of plastic, and sewn on strategic places.
“Hello, Dick.”
“Hello, Penny. Do you know Gerry Thompson, and Bonnie Parker?”
They all said hello. Penny’s eyes had not left Dick. “How have you been?”
“Fine, thanks. And you?”
“All right. We’ve missed you at our parties. It’s been too long.”
“I’ve been very busy,” Dick said.
“I see.” She looked at Gerry and Bonnie, evidently trying to decide which one was keeping him so busy.
Dick glanced over at Penny’s husband at the corner table. “Say hello to Peter for me.”
“I will. He misses you too. Call us.” She was nervously fingering something on her shoulder, and when she took her hand away Gerry saw that it was a gold and diamond teddy bear pin, much like the nightingale Dick had given to Silky.
So that’s it!
she thought, surprised she hadn’t figured it out before. Penny Potter was an old affair of his, and she evidently hadn’t gotten over it yet or she wouldn’t be wearing Dick’s famous kiss-off pin in front of her husband.
I hope to God he never gives me any jewelry
, Gerry thought.
“That’s a beautiful pin,” Bonnie said.
“Thank you.” Penny looked at Dick for an instant and then looked away. “Nice to have met you.” And she was gone.
Maybe the pin was just a coincidence, Gerry thought. Her husband could have bought it for her, or she could have picked it out herself. Dick Devoid wasn’t the only person who bought jewelry for his loved ones at David Webb. But her woman’s intuition told her the pin was from Dick—that and the way Penny had looked at him. She knew there were a lot of things about Dick she was aware of but preferred not to think about, and his track record was one of them.
“Did you see all those falls!” Bonnie was saying. “The worst! And her make-up! All that shading—brown, white, beige, pink, like in stripes, carefully disguised to look like no make-up at all. Old putty face. If she had one more fall on she wouldn’t be able to keep her head up. And that dress! The only comic strip character that wasn’t pasted on that dress was
her
.”
“Be kind,” Dick said.
“Her pin was nice. I loved that pin.”
“Well, you be a good girl and maybe someone will give you one,” Gerry said. She hadn’t meant to be bitchy to Dick, but it just came out. She was tired and the wine wasn’t helping her disposition any. It was bad enough to have to work and fight all day at the office, but then to have to come home at night and fight for a man was too much. She wished Dick would just make up his mind, but she had begun to suspect that he never would, and that if she ever so much as hinted at it he would disappear.
Bonnie was pushing her spaghetti around her plate, hardly eating any of it. She seemed mesmerized by Dick. Gerry knew her well enough to know that she was flattered because Dick was straight and paying so much attention to her, but that Bonnie had no more interest in him than in any of the other straight or ambivalent or whatever guys who fall in love with her. All Bonnie wanted, as she told Gerry so many times herself, was to know that they wanted her. After that she had no more interest in them. Her whole romantic life was a quest for acceptance—beyond the conquest there was no story.
What am I going to do
—
get married and have guppies?
Bonnie had often said to her.
When he and I get married we can go to Woolworth’s and pick out our babies
. So each man found himself greeted eventually with icy boredom from Bonnie and went away confused and depressed, wondering what he had done wrong.