On the way to his room on the fourth floor, Jack wondered at the size of the function rooms and corridors, their gold fabric-lined walls contrasting with the blue diamond-patterned carpets. The mock Corinthian columns and ebony figures of lions were such a display of opulence that he felt like a thief who’d been given permission to steal whatever he wished.
He checked his room number. It was 428. He was searching for the key in his pockets, when at the end of the corridor, he saw Elizabeth appear. The young woman was alone, looking down at the floor, seemingly deep in thought. Jack watched her closely. She was walking carelessly, with her low-heel shoes hanging from one hand and her crocodile-skin purse swinging gently in the other. Jack thought to himself that he had never seen such a beautiful twenty-two-year-old.
“Hello,” he said to her, a yard before she bumped into him. She gave a start.
“Oh! Hello, Jack. Sorry. I hadn’t recognized you.”
“Yeah. As soon as I take my jacket off, I look like a waiter.” He smiled.
She returned the smile, but it was forced. “What’re you doing here? This part of the hotel’s reserved for guests.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You’re not worried they’ll throw you out?”
“Nope.”
“No? How brave! Anyway, I’m exhausted. Wearing new shoes to a ball is the stupidest thing a woman can do.”
“Well, the way everyone was looking at you, I’d say it was worth it.”
Elizabeth’s smile this time, though tired, was sincere. She let herself slump into a chair and gently massaged her feet. Jack gazed at her.
“You still haven’t told me what you’re doing here,” she said.
“I was waiting for you,” he lied.
“For me? What for?”
“You still owe me a dance. You promised, remember?”
“I did? I don’t know. I’ve got no shoes on now, and I wouldn’t want you to step on me with those big feet. We’ll have to leave it for my next birthday.”
“I’m very careful,” he said in a persuasive tone.
She sat looking at him, then closed her eyes and smiled. “Maybe some other time. It’s been a really long day and—”
Jack didn’t let her finish. He threw his arms around her and found her mouth. For a moment he felt her abandon herself to him. But it was just an instant, before she pulled away abruptly and slapped him across the face.
“How dare you?” The sweetness in her face had now turned bitter with indignation.
“I . . . I don’t know what came over me . . .” Jack didn’t know how to apologize.
“Are you crazy? Do you think that smiling at you a couple of times means I’m attracted to you?”
“Elizabeth! Keep your voice down! I told you I’m sorry. Anyway, when I was kissing you, I didn’t get the impression you disliked it.”
“What? How pathetic! Do you really think someone like me would notice a down-and-out like you? Did you think that I’d like you, and we’d end up frolicking in some dump of a boardinghouse where you no doubt live?”
Jack fell silent, his head bowed, biting the lips that a moment before had savored Elizabeth’s.
“You’re right,” he finally said, withdrawing a few steps. “I’ve been a fool. And you were also right to think that I like you, and that I believed you might notice a down-and-out like me.” He paused for a few seconds. “But you were wrong about one thing, at least.” He slowly took the key from his pocket and opened the door to his room. “I wouldn’t have taken you to some dump of a boardinghouse. I can promise you that.”
13
He wandered around the extravagant room, marveling at every detail. The delicately decorated porcelain coffee set, the satin-lined walls, the beautiful pair of Empire-style armchairs, the comfortable temperature of the heating. He admired the vaulted ceiling, ornamented with floral motifs and a hunting scene. The sense of luxury overwhelmed him. It was a luxury as alien to him and as unattainable as Wilbur Hewitt’s niece. He leaned against the radiator and allowed the warmth to imbue his body. The room smelled of clean, starched cotton, as deep and as intoxicating an aroma as the one given off by the shirt section at the Hudson’s department store in Detroit. It had been so long since he’d been there, and he still remembered it! He let himself fall onto a bed that seemed to welcome him. What a bewildering life his was! Luck seemed to smile on him or abandon him at random, as if someone were pulling the strings of his destiny at whim.
The velvet bedspread made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He imagined it to be like Elizabeth’s skin: soft, warm, delicate . . .
He’d kissed her. Though it seemed improbable, it had happened, and the memory of her mouth was so powerful that he could feel nothing that wasn’t her lips. Perhaps it was because it hadn’t been like any kiss he’d experienced before. The heat from her lips still burned him; he could still taste the sweet flavor that he had savored for that one fleeting moment. But the more he tried, the more difficult it became to remember it clearly, and his thoughts turned again to her half-open mouth, its softness, its trembling warmth, surprised and yielding at the same time. That brief instant during which he’d kissed her had felt eternal until the moment when their lips had separated and stopped a hairbreadth apart, as if they longed to remain touching, and there, almost brushing together, stole each other’s breath for the last time, as if to keep it with them forever.
He’d never kissed like that before, and he doubted that she had, either, which was why he couldn’t understand the rage with which Elizabeth had slapped him.
He closed his eyes. At some point he dreamed of her. He dreamed that they were dancing together, going to parties and shows arm in arm, dining in posh restaurants, and that Wilbur Hewitt approved. Sometimes, in his delirium, Elizabeth appeared wrapped in linen sheets, writhing with mischief, aware of her beauty and nakedness, rationing every portion of exposed skin to feed his desire, a desire that grew with each insinuation, with each movement.
And then suddenly, Elizabeth’s face transformed into Sue’s, and Jack retreated, frightened. He saw Kowalski stalking him, threatening to evict him again, approaching with his goons, and Jack gripped the arm that brandished a pistol, and held it with all his might until the bangs echoed in his ears, again and again. Tock, tock, tock.
Tock, tock, tock.
Jack woke with a start, dressed in the same clothes he’d collapsed onto the bed in a few hours before. Someone was knocking on the door. He tidied his hair as well as he could and rushed to open it. Seeing who it was, he was almost as surprised as he was flushed.
“Sue! Er, what are you doing here?”
“I should ask you the same thing!” She strode into the room in a rage. “May I ask where you got to? You were supposed to come with us to the People’s Commissariat this morning.”
“What? The Commissariat? Oh damn! I forgot. What time is it?” It all flooded back to him. The whole room was spinning.