{"id":"01KG6FHTA6ZYJZCP8NDDXZJWJC","cid":"bafkreicsiqclfpwsldkw2o2l64kduepfria7vxb5fo4sw2366ia4uycq5i","type":"file","properties":{"cid":"bafkreib72raysn5dewgt2zv46nc62nhpkh7n2iekbuqvombvraebkffk4u","content_type":"image/jpeg","filename":"Rye_page_0040.jpg","height":2400,"key":"pdf-page-1769744163150-avj3v79dytn","label":"Rye_page_0040.jpg","page_number":40,"pdf_type":"born_digital","size":774255,"text":"\"Listen. I toleja about that. I don't like that type language,\" she said. \"If you're\ngonna use that type language, I can go sit down with my girl friends, you know.\"\nI apologized like a madman, because the band was starting a fast one. She started\njitterbugging with me-- but just very nice and easy, not corny. She was really good. All\nyou had to do was touch her. And when she turned around, her pretty little butt twitched\nso nice and all. She knocked me out. I mean it. I was half in love with her by the time we\nsat down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, even if\nthey're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with\nthem, and then you never know where the hell you are. Girls. Jesus Christ. They can\ndrive you crazy. They really can.\nThey didn't invite me to sit down at their table-- mostly because they were too\nignorant--but I sat down anyway. The blonde I'd been dancing with's name was Bernice\nsomething--Crabs or Krebs. The two ugly ones' names were Marty and Laverne. I told\nthem my name was Jim Steele, just for the hell of it. Then I tried to get them in a little\nintelligent conversation, but it was practically impossible. You had to twist their arms.\nYou could hardly tell which was the stupidest of the three of them. And the whole three\nof them kept looking all around the goddam room, like as if they expected a flock of\ngoddam movie stars to come in any minute. They probably thought movie stars always\nhung out in the Lavender Room when they came to New York, instead of the Stork Club\nor El Morocco and all. Anyway, it took me about a half hour to find out where they all\nworked and all in Seattle. They all worked in the same insurance office. I asked them if\nthey liked it, but do you think you could get an intelligent answer out of those three\ndopes? I thought the two ugly ones, Marty and Laverne, were sisters, but they got very\ninsulted when I asked them. You could tell neither one of them wanted to look like the\nother one, and you couldn't blame them, but it was very amusing anyway.\nI danced with them all--the whole three of them--one at a time. The one ugly one,\nLaverne, wasn't too bad a dancer, but the other one, old Marty, was murder. Old Marty\nwas like dragging the Statue of Liberty around the floor. The only way I could even half\nenjoy myself dragging her around was if I amused myself a little. So I told her I just saw\nGary Cooper, the movie star, on the other side of the floor.\n\"Where?\" she asked me--excited as hell. \"Where?\"\n\"Aw, you just missed him. He just went out. Why didn't you look when I told\nyou?\"\nShe practically stopped dancing, and started looking over everybody's heads to\nsee if she could see him. \"Oh, shoot!\" she said. I'd just about broken her heart-- I really\nhad. I was sorry as hell I'd kidded her. Some people you shouldn't kid, even if they\ndeserve it.\nHere's what was very funny, though. When we got back to the table, old Marty\ntold the other two that Gary Cooper had just gone out. Boy, old Laverne and Bernice\nnearly committed suicide when they heard that. They got all excited and asked Marty if\nshe'd seen him and all. Old Mart said she'd only caught a glimpse of him. That killed me.\nThe bar was closing up for the night, so I bought them all two drinks apiece quick\nbefore it closed, and I ordered two more Cokes for myself. The goddam table was lousy\nwith glasses. The one ugly one, Laverne, kept kidding me because I was only drinking\nCokes. She had a sterling sense of humor. She and old Marty were drinking Tom\nCollinses--in the middle of December, for God's sake. They didn't know any better. 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