Read Online Any Minute I Can Split by Judith Rossner - Free Book Online Page A

“has different needs than an ordinary one. I shouldn’t say needs, I should say desires, because basically a pregnant woman has no needs, she’s the most complete, un-needy person in the world, but what she wants . . .” His voice was low and hypnotic, like the man on the astrology forecast records. “What she wants is comfort. The part of her that grooves on dirt and discomfort and being miserable is submerged. Tradition and pleasure are in the ascendancy.”
    They sipped at their drinks.
    â€œThis is delicious,” she said.
    â€œI invented it for my wife during her pregnancy,” hesaid. “My ex-wife. She was pregnant when I married her. I should’ve realized it couldn’t last.”
    â€œMaybe you should’ve married an elephant,” Margaret said.
    â€œIt has lemon and honey in it,” he said, “which is why the appeal to pregnant women. I won’t tell you more because it’s part of my total plan to lure you back.” He put down his drink, leaned over her, kissed her ardently while massaging her belly.
    â€œHow come you care so much?” she whispered, already pleasantly excited, putting down her drink and encircling him with her arms. “I mean, what is there about us?”
    â€œArrogance,” he whispered back, kissing her neck, drawing up the skirt of her flowing maternity dress and pushing down her pants so that he could fondle her stomach without interference. “Pregnant females are the most arrogant fucking creatures in the world . . . You can’t touch ’em . . . All you can really do is keep trying.”
    â€œI don’t feel arrogant,” she said truthfully.
    â€œSure you do,” he told her. “You just haven’t thought about it. If you reflect for a while . . . c’mere, sit up, I’ll help you get your clothes off . . . if you think about it you’ll realize that you have a certain good feeling these days. You’re sort of satisfied with yourself, right? You don’t sit around worrying about what you should be doing because you have this sense that whatever you’re doing is good enough. And you’re right! It is! It’s magnificent!” He took the barrette out of her hair so that it fell loosely down her back and over her shoulders. Naked and happy she reclined. For the first time since she’d begun to put on weight she felt no shame, no desire to hide under the covers. Once or twice in her third month Roger had still made love to her but he had made it quite apparent that he was using her very much as he would have used a knothole if that happened to be the most readily available place for him to come, the result being that she had experienced just about as muchpleasure as a knothole would have in the same circumstance. Now, feeling like a marvelous jewel for the first and last time during her pregnancy, she made love with pleasure, and if she still tended to be submissive rather than active, that seemed to be perfectly all right with Howie, who had, after all, said that what she was doing just by being pregnant was so magnificent that there was no need for her to be doing anything else.
    Not two weeks later she had gotten the call that her mother was dead.
    â€œSo how come you haven’t been sleeping with him?” David asked.
    â€œWith my husband, you mean? I only said some men like pregnant women. I didn’t say he was one of them.”
    â€œSo who’ve you been sleeping with?”
    She started to point out that she hadn’t said she’d been sleeping with anyone, but stopped herself. David had a shit-detector astounding in one so young and so detached.
    â€œIt was only once,” she told him. “A few months ago.”
    â€œHow come?”
    â€œI was afraid of getting too attached to him. He only liked me because he had this thing for pregnant women.”
    â€œHow do you get