672: “I talked . . .”
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 11 begins
11
“I TALKED DENNY into driving me to the resort for my first day on the job. The place wasn’t really ready yet, and there were contractors and carpenters and electricians swarming all over the place plying their trades. A very handsome sign was going up out front. It was about the size of a locomotive, a big, substantial thing, and it was all curvy and swoopy, like the buildings of the resort, in the same ice cream colors. It said
“There were other Babbington girls pulling up, many of them driven by their boyfriends—the new staff assembling for instructions and orientation. Some of them looked pretty glum about it, and that puzzled me.”
“THERE ARE quite a few of us, aren’t there?” she said. She was surprised to find that she was nervous, that she felt something like stage fright, and that she could hear it in her voice.
“It’s a big place,” said Denny.
“A lot of them don’t look too happy about the whole thing,” she said.
“Oh, you know how it is,” said Denny. “The old man said to them, ‘Time you started pulling your weight around here, girl. You oughta get yourself down to that new motel. They got good jobs going begging down there. You just go get one.’ Look at them. See that bovine look? They’d rather be sleeping. They’d always rather be sleeping.”
“I guess so,” said Ariane. They did look sleepy. She suddenly felt tired herself, but she didn’t want Denny to think that she belonged to their number. “Here I go, I guess,” she said.
She opened the door and swung out of the car, and as soon as she was outside, standing in the street, she began performing. Anyone who knew her and happened to be watching could have seen that something was different from the way she had brushed her hair. The style was new for her, swept to one side, a more womanly arrangement than what she had worn before, and her clothes were graceful and sophisticated, new clothes that she had bought just for this one moment, her first day on the job, her first impression. She had thought this moment through. She had decided what she wanted the resort to be, and she had dressed as an asset to her vision of it.
It was another sunny day, and the whiteness of the building was dazzling. Ariane blinked into the glare and gleam of it. The brightness made her squint and wrinkle her nose and sneeze.
“Gesundheit,” said Denny.
“Thanks, Denny,” she said.
“Hey!” said Denny. “A good-luck kiss?”
“No,” said Ariane. “Not now. Not here, with everyone watching.”
“Who’s watching?”
“Come on, Denny. Anyone might see us. They wouldn’t like it.”
“They must be pretty stiff.”
“Yes. They’re—you know—they’ve been around. Oh, not like that. I mean they’ve seen the world. They know how things are done. And how they aren’t done. And kissing on the street, it’s just not right for a place like this.”
“Classy joint,” said Denny. He put the car in gear and rolled away.
[to be continued]
In Topical Guide 672, Mark Dorset considers Health: Inherited Conditions: Photic Sneeze Reflex from this episode.
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