She led him back to her bedroom and turned on a low lamp beside the bed. Then she stood in front of him and unbuttoned his blue wool shirt and drew it off his shoulders. He was lean and stringy, with a growth of white hair spread over his chest.
Now will you unbutton me? she said. She turned around.
I don’t know about this.
Yes, you do. I know you know how to undo buttons.
Not on a woman’s dress.
Try.
Well, he said. I suppose it’s kind of like counting out the steps in a waltz dance, ain’t it.
She laughed. You see. It’s not so bad. You’ve made a joke.
A awful little one, he said.
He began awkwardly to unbutton her peach dress. She waited. It took him a long time. But she didn’t say anything, and when he was finished she slipped out of the dress and laid it over the back of a chair and turned to face him. Her slip was peach-colored too, and she looked very pretty in the slip. Her round shoulders were freckled and she had full breasts and wide hips. What would you think of getting out of your pants and boots now? she said.
I’ve come this far.
That’s right. You can’t turn back now.
They finished undressing and got into bed.
In bed Raymond was amazed at how it felt to be next to her. It was past all his experience, to be lying next to a woman, both of them unclothed, her body so smooth and warm and full-fleshed, and she herself so good-hearted. She lay facing him with her arms around him, and he slid his hand across the smooth point of her hip, feeling along the upper reaches of her leg. She leaned close and kissed him. Shut your eyes, she said. Try kissing me with your eyes shut.
Yes ma’am.
She kissed him again. Wasn’t that better?
I like looking at your face too, though. At all of you.
Oh my, she said. Aren’t you a nice man. Aren’t we going to have us some fun together.
I’m having a pretty good time already, Raymond said.
Are you?
Yes ma’am. I am.
There’s more, she said.
LATER SHE LAY WITH HER HEAD ON HIS ARM AND HE SAID: Rose. You’re awful good for a old man like me.
You’re not so old, she said. We’ve just had evidence of that.
You’re going to embarrass me now.
There’s no reason for embarrassment. You’re just a healthy man. And you’re good for me too. There aren’t many men like you available in Holt. I know, I’ve looked.
HE LEFT HER HOUSE AT MIDNIGHT AND DROVE HOME IN the dark on the narrow blacktop highway. Out in the flat treeless country he counted himself more than lucky. Victoria and Katie in his life, and now to have whatever was starting with this generous woman, Rose Tyler. He drove with the windows rolled down, and the night air came in and brought with it the smell of green grass and sage.
39
THE FIRST SATURDAY NIGHT OF APRIL. AND DJ AND HIS grandfather were at the tavern on Main Street and it was not yet late, only about eight-thirty. The old man’s pension check had come and he wanted his monthly night out.