Garden of Eden (17 page)

"No,
Devil," David said. "We're going to have lunch now."

At
the end of lunch Catherine who had made sense through nearly all of it except
for some absentmindedness said, "Please excuse me but I think I ought to
sleep."

"Let
me come with you and see you get to sleep," the girl said.

"Actually
I think I drank too much," Catherine said.

"I'll
come in and take a nap too," David said.

"No
please David. Come in when I'm asleep if you want," Catherine said.

In
about half an hour the girl came out of the room "She's all right,"
she said. "But we must be careful and good with her and only think about
her."

In
the room Catherine was awake when David came in and he went over and sat on the
bed.

"I'm
not a damned invalid," she said. "I just drank too much. I know. I'm
sorry I lied to you about it. How could I do that, David?"

"You
didn't remember."

"No.
I did it on purpose. Will you take me back? I'm over all the bitchiness."

"You
never were away.

"If
you take me back is all I want. I'll be your really true girl and really truly
be. Would you like that?"

He
kissed her.

"Really
kiss me."

"Oh,"
she said. "Please be slow."

They
swam at the cove where they had gone the first day. David had planned to send
the two girls to swim and then to take the old Isotta down to Cannes to have
the brakes fixed and the ignition overhauled. But Catherine had asked him to
please swim with them and to do the car the next day and she seemed so happy
and sound and cheerful again after her nap and Marita had said very seriously,
"Will you please come?" So he had driven them to the turnout for the
cove and shown them both on the way how dangerously the brakes were working.

"You'd
kill yourself with this car," he told Marita. "It's a crime to drive
it the way it is."

"Had
I ought to get a new one?" she asked.

"Christ
no. Just let me fix the brakes to start with."

"We
need a larger car with room for all of us," Catherine said. "This is
a fine car," David said. "It just needs a hell of a lot of work done
on it. But it's too much car for you."

"You
see if they can fix it properly," the girl said. "If they can't we'll
get the type of car you want."

Then
they were tanning on the beach and David said lazily, "Come in and swim.

"Pour
some water on my head," Catherine said. "I brought a sand bucket in
the rucksack."

"Oh
that feels wonderful," she said. "Could I have one more? Pour it on
my face too."

She
lay on the hard beach on her white robe in the sun and David and the girl swam
out to sea and around the rocks at the mouth of the cove. The girl was swimming
ahead and David overhauled her. He reached out and grabbed a foot and then held
her close in his arms and kissed her as they treaded water. She felt slippery
and strange in the water and they seemed the same height as they treaded water
with their bodies close together and kissed. Then her head went under and he
leaned back and she came up laughing and shaking her head that was sleek as a
seal, and she brought her lips against his again and they kissed until they
both went under. They lay side by side and floated and touched and then kissed
hard and happily and went under again.

"I
don't worry about anything now," she said, when they came up again. "You
mustn't either."

"I
won't," he said and they swam in.

"You
better go in, Devil," he said to Catherine. "Your head will get too
hot."

"All
right. Let's go in," she said. "Let Heiress darken now. Let me put
some oil on her."

"Not
too much," the girl said. "May I have a pail of water on my head
too?"

"Your
head's as wet as it can get," Catherine said.

"I
just wanted to feel it," the girl said.

"Wade
out, David, and get a good cold one," Catherine said. And after he had
poured the clear cool sea water on Marita's head they left her lying with her
face on her arms and swam out to sea. They floated easily like sea animals and
Catherine said, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if I wasn't crazy?"

"You're
not crazy.

"Not
this afternoon," she said. "Anyway not so far. Can we swim
further?"

"We're
pretty well out, Devil."

"All
right. Let's swim back in. But the deep water's beautiful out here."

"Do
you want to swim down once before we go in?"

"Just
once," she said. "In this very deep part."

"We'll
swim down until we just can make it up."

HE
WOKE when it was barely just light enough to see the pine trunks and he left
the bed, careful not to wake Catherine, found his shorts and went, the soles of
his feet wet from the dew on the stones, along the length of the hotel to the
door of his work room. As he opened the door he felt, again, the touch of the
air from the sea that promised how the day would be.

When
he sat down the sun was not yet up and he felt that he had made up some of the
time that was lost in the story. But as he reread his careful legible hand and
the words took him away and into the other country, he lost that advantage and
was faced with the same problem and when the sun rose out of the sea it had,
for him, risen long before and he was well into the crossing of the gray,
dried, bitter lakes his boots now white with crusted alkalis. He felt the
weight of the sun on his head and his neck and his back. His shirt was wet and
he felt the sweat go down his back and between his thighs. When he stood
straight up and rested, breathing slowly, and his shirt hung away from his
shoulders, he could feel it dry in the sun and see the white patches that the
salts of his body made in the drying. He could feel and see himself standing
there and knew there was nothing to do except go on.

At
half past ten he had crossed the lakes and was well beyond them. By then he had
reached the river and the great grove of fig trees where they would make their
camp. The bark of the trunks was green and yellow and the branches were heavy.
Baboons had been eating the wild figs and there were baboon droppings and
broken figs on the ground. The smell was foul.

But
the half past ten was on the watch on his wrist as he looked at it in the room
where he sat at a table feeling the breeze from the sea now and the real time
was evening and he was sitting against the yellow gray base of a tree with a
glass of whiskey and water in his hand and the rolled figs swept away watching
the porters butchering out the Kongoni he had shot in the first grassy swale
they passed before they came to the river.

I'll
leave them with meat, he thought and so it is a happy camp tonight no matter
what comes after. So he put his pencils and the notebooks away and locked the
suitcase and went out the door and walked on the stones, dry and warm now, to
the hotel patio.

The
girl was sitting at one of the tables reading a book. She wore a striped
fisherman's shirt and tennis skirt and espadrilles and when she saw him she
looked up and David thought she was going to blush but she seemed to check it
and said, "Good morning, David. Did you work well?"

"Yes,
beauty," he said.

She
stood up then and kissed him good morning and said, "I'm very happy then.
Catherine went in to Cannes. She said to tell you I was to take you
swimming."

"Didn't
she want you to go in town with her?"

"No.
She wanted me to stay. She said you got up terribly early to work and maybe
you'd be lonely when you finished. Can I order some breakfast? You shouldn't
always not eat breakfast." The girl went into the kitchen and she came out
with oeufs au plat avec jambon and English mustard and Sovora. "Was it
difficult today?" she asked him. "No," he said. "It's
always difficult but it's easy too. It went very well." "I wish I
could help." "Nobody can help," he said. "But I can help in
other things can't I?" He started to say there are no other things but he
did not say it and instead he said, "You have and you do." He wiped
the last of the egg and mustard up from the shallow dish with a small piece of
bread and then drank some tea. "How did you sleep?" he asked.
"Very well," the girl said. "I hope that's not disloyal."
"No. That's intelligent." "Can we stop being so polite?"
the girl asked. "Everything was so simple and fine until now."
"Yes, let's stop. Let's stop even the 'I can't David nonsense," he
said. "All right," she said and stood up. "If you want to go
swimming I'll be in my room. He stood up. "Please don't go," he said.
"I've stopped being a shit." "Don't stop for me," she said.
"Oh David how could we ever get in a thing like this? Poor David. What
women do to you. She was stroking his head and smiling at him. "I'll get
the swimming things if you want to swim. "Good," he said. "I'll
go get my espadrilles."

They
lay on the sand where David had spread the beach robes and the towels in the
shade of a red rock and the girl said, "You go in and swim and then I
will."

He
lifted very slowly and gently up out and away from her and then waded out from
the beach and dove under where the water was cold and swam deep. When he came
up he swam out against the chop of the breeze and then swam in to where the
girl was waiting for him standing up to her waist in the water her black head
sleek and wet, her light brown body dripping. He held her tight and the waves
washed against them.

They
kissed and she said, "Everything of ours washed into the ocean.

"We
have to get back."

"Let's
go under once together holding tight."

Back
at the hotel Catherine had not arrived and after they had taken showers and
changed David and Marita sat at the bar with two martinis. They looked at each
other in the mirror. They watched each other very carefully and then David
passed his finger under his nose while he looked at her and she blushed.

"I
want to have more things like that," she said. "Things that only we
have so I won't be jealous."

"I
wouldn't put out too many anchors," he said. "You might foul the
cables."

"No.
I'll find things to do that will hold you."

"That's
a good practical Heiress," he said.

"I
wish I could change that name. Don't you?"

"Names
go to the bone," he said.

"Then
let's really change mine," she said. "Would you mind terribly?"

"No.
. . . Haya."

"Say
it again please."

"Haya."
"Is it good?" "Very good. It's a small name between us. For
nobody else ever.

"What
does Haya mean?"

"The
one who blushes. The modest one. He held her close and tight and she settled
against him and her head was on his shoulder. "Kiss me just once,"
she said.