Read Online Brightness Falls by Jay McInerney - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jay McInerney
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ever tells you things, she thought groggily, like about dating, how you are treated as a prize, something rare and special, and that it ends with marriage.
Why don't they tell you things like that?
That night Corrine had a dream. She is in the shower. It is a big communal bathroom like the one at summer camp on Lake Winnipe-saukee, except she is all alone and it is many years after her childhood. She is a widow now, although her naked body is still young and fresh. Her husband is dead. He died in the Cola Wars. She is all alone in this white-tiled chamber full of warm steam, washing herself with a white bar of soap. A bar of Ivory soap. Washing all over. She shouldn't be washing herself. For some reason she thinks that is her husband's job. But he's dead in the Cola Wars. She is rubbing herself with the bar of soap, up and down her arms, her hips, up and down, from her toes all the way up her legs, one leg and the other leg and in between. In the naked steam she rubs the soap along the inside of her thighs. It moves up and down because it's so slippery. She feels guilty washing herself, but there's no one else, and then there is someone else. It's Johnny Monocle. He is there in the bathroom with her and he says, I'll wash you. He seems to have only one eye, but he is very distinguished-looking with his black patch and sharkskin suit. Corrine is naked. He washes her up and down as she closes her eyes. He has a beautiful touch that makes her think of butterflies brushing her with their wings. Up and down and back and forth all over her body Johnny Monorail makes tracks. The bar of soap is actually his tongue. They are in bed now. Johnny has taken off his suit and he is naked now too as he travels across her body and suddenly she realizes her husband is alive after all but it's too late because Johnny has grown a penis and something needs to be done about it. She can't very well just ask him to take care of it himself. But they can hear the sounds of her husband coming back from the Cola Wars. Not Russell, some other husband, she doesn't know who. Still, they have to escape. It's a very long penis Johnny has, and a smooth one, smooth as ivory. She compliments him on it and he says thank you. But they have to hide it. It is too big to hide under the sheets, and it keeps getting bigger as she talks about it and touches it. It's so big that it disappears over the edge of the bed and out the window. Come on, quick, says Johnny Monolith. He isn't in the bed now, he's calling from far away, from the other end of the penis, which stretches away into the darkness like an ivory banister. She hears footsteps approaching, the footsteps of her husband, returning from the wars. She crawls to the edge of the bed and straddles the smooth banister, then pushes off, sliding down, floating off into the lovely darkness... and awoke tingling and guilty, the red numbers of the clock glowing in the dark, her husband asleep beside her, making small holes in the silence with his prickly breath.
In the morning, when she awoke again, she didn't tell Russell about her dream.
4
Glenda Banes hated working with babies. Not that she was entirely wild about encountering them in her leisure hours; she didn't care to think about how many of her friends had recently succumbed to the you're-less-fhan-a-whole-woman-if-you-don't form of propaganda, under the duress of an alleged biological clock—it's just a clock, for Christ's sake, not a bomb. Lately Glenda was finding herself at dinner tables from which everyone was jumping up to call home to the baby-sitter instead of the drug dealer, and conversation often degenerated into discussions of private nursery schools and the plague of nanny-napping— Can you believe our wonderful Jamaican nanny... hijacked by some unscrupulous yuppie parent while she was in the park strolling little Brendan, they offered her an obscene wage and a green card and a room with a view and a new VCR, it's just incredibly unethical...
Why don't they tell you things like that?
That night Corrine had a dream. She is in the shower. It is a big communal bathroom like the one at summer camp on Lake Winnipe-saukee, except she is all alone and it is many years after her childhood. She is a widow now, although her naked body is still young and fresh. Her husband is dead. He died in the Cola Wars. She is all alone in this white-tiled chamber full of warm steam, washing herself with a white bar of soap. A bar of Ivory soap. Washing all over. She shouldn't be washing herself. For some reason she thinks that is her husband's job. But he's dead in the Cola Wars. She is rubbing herself with the bar of soap, up and down her arms, her hips, up and down, from her toes all the way up her legs, one leg and the other leg and in between. In the naked steam she rubs the soap along the inside of her thighs. It moves up and down because it's so slippery. She feels guilty washing herself, but there's no one else, and then there is someone else. It's Johnny Monocle. He is there in the bathroom with her and he says, I'll wash you. He seems to have only one eye, but he is very distinguished-looking with his black patch and sharkskin suit. Corrine is naked. He washes her up and down as she closes her eyes. He has a beautiful touch that makes her think of butterflies brushing her with their wings. Up and down and back and forth all over her body Johnny Monorail makes tracks. The bar of soap is actually his tongue. They are in bed now. Johnny has taken off his suit and he is naked now too as he travels across her body and suddenly she realizes her husband is alive after all but it's too late because Johnny has grown a penis and something needs to be done about it. She can't very well just ask him to take care of it himself. But they can hear the sounds of her husband coming back from the Cola Wars. Not Russell, some other husband, she doesn't know who. Still, they have to escape. It's a very long penis Johnny has, and a smooth one, smooth as ivory. She compliments him on it and he says thank you. But they have to hide it. It is too big to hide under the sheets, and it keeps getting bigger as she talks about it and touches it. It's so big that it disappears over the edge of the bed and out the window. Come on, quick, says Johnny Monolith. He isn't in the bed now, he's calling from far away, from the other end of the penis, which stretches away into the darkness like an ivory banister. She hears footsteps approaching, the footsteps of her husband, returning from the wars. She crawls to the edge of the bed and straddles the smooth banister, then pushes off, sliding down, floating off into the lovely darkness... and awoke tingling and guilty, the red numbers of the clock glowing in the dark, her husband asleep beside her, making small holes in the silence with his prickly breath.
In the morning, when she awoke again, she didn't tell Russell about her dream.
4
Glenda Banes hated working with babies. Not that she was entirely wild about encountering them in her leisure hours; she didn't care to think about how many of her friends had recently succumbed to the you're-less-fhan-a-whole-woman-if-you-don't form of propaganda, under the duress of an alleged biological clock—it's just a clock, for Christ's sake, not a bomb. Lately Glenda was finding herself at dinner tables from which everyone was jumping up to call home to the baby-sitter instead of the drug dealer, and conversation often degenerated into discussions of private nursery schools and the plague of nanny-napping— Can you believe our wonderful Jamaican nanny... hijacked by some unscrupulous yuppie parent while she was in the park strolling little Brendan, they offered her an obscene wage and a green card and a room with a view and a new VCR, it's just incredibly unethical...
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