HOPE FOR CHANGE... But Settle for a Bailout (41 page)

Gina kept her hands in place, and held her
head bowed, as Larry sat silently, unmoving. “Oh,” said Larry, “uh,
amen.”

Gina slid her hands from the table and
smiled to Larry. “Thank you,” she said. “Most people don’t go for
it when I ask to say ‘Grace.’ Your grandmother says I am a
loon.”

“My grandmother thinks everyone is a loon,”
said Larry, lifting a silver dome, revealing a steak dinner. Gina
uncovered ravioli. They switched platters. “I’m really grateful, by
the way, that you’re helping take care of her. I mean, not at the
moment….”

“It feels like the right place to be,” said
Gina, offering Larry the basket of bread, which he took. “It’s
charming living as the tutors did. And you’re very generous for
what little work I do.”

“You spend whole days with her,” said Larry.
“I couldn’t have someone who doesn’t like being with my grandma...
or who she didn’t like.”

“No, I like her,” said Gina, accepting the
bread basket back from Larry and offering him a plate of butter.
“It truly does not feel like a job.”

Larry smiled. “I don’t feel the same…
pressure... like when it’s with other people,” he said, pouring
milk into a glass.

Larry took up fork and spoon and
methodically cut a ravioli in half, ate both halves, and then moved
on to the next. After consuming a quarter of the serving, he put
his cutlery down, wiped his mouth and looked to Gina, who had cut
her steak into squares.

“I don’t believe in pressure,” said Gina,
“If something is right, it’s right. The couple will know.”

The two ate in the silence of candlelight,
in no rush, each looking to the other.

Gina extended her fork, several steak cubes
skewered on it. Larry stood and leaned that he could bite the cubes
off. A few moments later, Gina guided Larry to a spot on her plate
to deposit a serving of ravioli, soon joined by several more
deposits.

.

Larry and Gina leaned into one another as
they sat on a wide, leather sofa. Gina raised the remote, flipping
channels on the big screen unit mounted across the room, over the
crested wooden mantle above the video fireplace.

“That’s ‘Little Big Man,’ ” said Larry, and
Gina set the remote in her lap as Dustin Hoffman smiled. She leaned
into Larry’s chest, as Hoffman, and his native-American wife,
obviously made love under the watchful eyes of her two sisters, who
expressed with giggles the expectation that Hoffman service the
women of the family.

“Maybe something else?” said Larry, as
Dustin Hoffman groaned.

Gina reached for the remote, and handed it
to Larry. “I’m not a prude, you know,” said Gina.

“Wha-t?” said Larry. “I didn’t say....”

“I don’t believe in sex before marriage, but
I’m not a prude.”

“You… don’t...?”

“Most guys can’t take that,” said Gina.
“Like Ed. So unable to handle it.”

“Why marriage?” asked Larry,

“Marriage means you chose well and you both
got lucky,” said Gina, cuddling into Larry. “Two people who want to
give themselves just to one another are set free in marriage. They
belong to one another. The husband and the wife perform their
duties as a gift and free to find out what it all means and feels
like. But some people are just in it for the sex.”

“And, so, you, like, have… never…”

Gina nodded.

“Ever?”

“No, ever.”

“Wow,” said Larry, as Gina’s body slid into
a more natural fit against his.

“We can touch each other and give pleasure
to one another,” she said, lowering her head onto his chest, and
resting her fingers on his arm. “That’s the gift we can give and we
each can receive. We just wait for the big stuff.” Gina kissed
Larry’s neck.

Larry wrapped his arms around Gina, and she
burrowed into his chest.

Larry’s phone vibrated. “LORI,” read the
screen, visible on the table in front of the couch. Larry looked to
the phone and let it ring.

“She means a lot to you,” said Gina.

“She means everything to me.”

“Did you two ever have sex?”

“No,” said Larry. “Not like sex.”

Gina said nothing.

“… The summer before our senior year in high
school…. We would… go… driving.”

“It’s okay,” said Gina, picking up the
remote. “That was a long time ago.” She flipped past a psychic
line, a phone sex service, a golf match showing a close-up of Tiger
Woods, before stopping at a black-and-white film.

“Please,” said Larry. “I gotta tell
someone.”

She lowered the remote and put her hands on
his shoulders.

“I would drive, and, uh… she would, cuz, you
know, the car was the only place we could..., the only place we…
could…. That’s the only times I… with someone else… got….”

“Excited?” said Gina.

“W’ull, hard, yeh,” said Larry. “I guess
it’s my heart.”

Gina sat up. “What about your heart?”

“Oh, um, it beats in a not-regular rhythm,
and so I take two pills each morning for the rate and the pace, and
my doctor says my heart is big because of it, but I am lucky that
it is just two pills and so I’ve been diagnosed with a big heart…
and a-tree-ul fib-ru-la-tion,” said Larry.

“What about all the coffee and soda you
drink?” asked Gina.

“I’m not supposes to, but... I haven’t felt
like anything mattered, so I let that go” said Larry. “There hasn’t
been a lot to stick around for.”

“What about, Lori?”

“Oh, she eats good stuff,” said Larry.

“Right,” said Gina, “don’t you want to be
around to see her grow old? And maybe... other people?”

Larry took a moment to answer. “I don’t want
to go before my grandmother. That’d be rude. And I don’t want her
to cry. But, otherwise, I don’t know….”

“It’s okay about when you and Lori were
kids,” said Gina. “That’s pretty innocent.”

“The accident wasn’t,” said Larry.

“What accident?”

“We were in San Francisco and as I was
driving, Lori was going to work on me and, it had happened before
so I knew what was coming, but... you know... it was unlike
anything I’ve ever experienced in this life.”

“The orgasm?”

“And the incredible pain when I crashed. I
drove off the road. It was so bumpy going down the hill that Lori
got thrown from the car.”

“Oh my God!”

“I smacked into a tree. Lori had to pull me
out. I stopped driving. And so when Lawrence and Lori got married
after that, I never went looking. Just sort’a, you know...”

“Oh, Larry,” said Gina, reaching for his
hand. “Let’s go lay down.”

“No, really....”

Gina looked directly at Larry, leaning in
close so their eyes were only inches apart. “Larry, I’m tired, and
we’re going to lay in bed, as a couple, and fall asleep. You’ll be
okay.” She looked towards the table. “Do you want to call Lori back
before we lay down?”

“No. It’s okay.”

Larry allowed Gina to lead him into the
bedroom. “Stand still,” said Gina, who then proceeded to undress
Larry, leaving him standing in just his boxers. “Now you undress
me.” Gina stood still, moving only to make it easier for Larry to
remove her top, and to step from her skirt. She stood in a bra,
panties and stockings before him. “What you see is the outside,
Larry. It will change with time, and you will find out what is
inside. First, we each learn about the outside.

Larry stood, motionless.

“Do you like what you see, Larry?”

“You have an amazing body,” said Larry.

“Thank you,” said Gina, smiling. Gina
reached behind with both hands, before turning, and with a glance
over her shoulder, said, “Unfasten me.” Larry unhooked the two
fasteners on her bra, and she smiled to him before removing and
folding her bra and setting it on the clothing placed on a valet at
the foot of the bed.

“Let’s go to bed,” said Gina.

Long minutes later, with Gina’s head on his
chest and his left arm wrapped around her, Larry lay, whispering,
“… something larger….”

.

“Why does this always have to happen in my
room?” asked Larry, as Ed, December, Lena and Tres filed in to the
foyer. Larry closed the door.

“Cuz you’re the one with da big suite,” said
December.

“To those to whom much is given, more is
expected back,” said Ed.

“… ‘much is expected,’ yes?” asked Lena.

“Huh?” said Ed.

“The quotation from President Kennedy,
yes?”

“Oh, I have no idea,” said Ed. “I thought it
was from ‘Wall Street.’ ”

Gina emerged from master bedroom, in a
flowing cotton dress, with a sunflower pattern, carrying a golden
yellow Dior bag.

“Good morning,” said Gina.

“You look beautiful, Gina,” said Ed.

“That is very kind of you to say,” said
Gina.

“Looks like you two are having fun playing
house,” said December.

Larry looked downward, slightly, and
smiled.

“Yeh,” said Ed, flatly. “He’ll find out
pretty quickly.”

“Oh, c’mon, Ed,” said December. “Be happy
for ‘em.”

“Where’s the camera?” asked Larry.

“Ralphie packed it,” said Lena. “He says to
arrive in Denver tonight, we should be on the road in exactly two
hour.

“Today, breakfast is on me,” said
December.

“She won $1,700 playing poker last night,”
said Tres. “Really amazing.”

“It helps that the table was full of dopey
men,” said December.

“What is the way for saying it? She… is
skilled.”

December laughed, as she studied the room
service menu.

“The girl’s got skills, fer sure,” said
Ed.

“… she’s got skills… fer sure,” repeated
Lena.

.

The Emperor’s Suite was well-appointed for
hosting banquet guests, with a main dining table that comfortably
sat eight, with ample space for platters, goblets, heavy cutlery
and tankards. Looking out from where I sat, next to December, near
the head of the table, to Larry, Gina and Ralphie, at the other
end, was to gaze upon mountains and plains of platters, plates,
pitchers and vases. Larry was surrounded by glasses of iced decaf,
milk, V8, and several juices, creating a wall around him, whereas
Gina had two small vases of daffodils on either side of her,
creating the aura of a sunrise, and Ralphie was where the valley
smoothed out, with his single cup of coffee and a thin pair of
motorcar gloves folded, resting atop a clean, dry saucer.

“December,” called out Larry, from across
the plains and mountain peaks. “I know this is your meal you are
sharing with all of us, but could I ask something?”

“Sure, hunny, what is it?”

“May Gina say ‘Grace?’ ”

“Dat would be beautiful, hunny,” said
December, looking then to Gina. “Do you want to say it now?” On
Gina’s nod, December asked, “wit’ da hands?” On a second nod,
December tapped a glass with a knife. “Hey, everyone, someone took
my spoon, but put out your hands and hold with the person across
from you... Ralphie, you come here with me, okay?”

Ralphie stood and walked, standing at
December’s shoulder, lightly resting both of his hands atop her
left hand, which she set on her right shoulder. “Okay, hunnies, you
go ahead.”

Larry extended his hands, palms up, and Gina
covered his lightly, as it was across the table; Lena and Tres, me
and Ed, and Ralphie holding December’s hand with both of his.

What seemed like a genuine sneeze — a deep,
retching, wet sneeze – sent Ed’s hand ripping out of mine, and
despite his effort to capture it in his hand and to turn his head,
instead, from his angle and hand placement, I caught a spewing mist
of droplets for several seconds after the sneeze.

“Quiet, my sweeties!” said December. “Okay,
hunnies, go ahead....”

“Merciful and compassionate God,” began
Gina, “we thank you, that you have blessed us with this beautiful
meal, for there are so many, God, who are wracked by hunger….”

“... got dat right,” whispered December.

“… and you have blessed us with one another,
God, when around us are so many good people, the displaced, whose
biggest desire is that they, too, can offer a meal like this to
friends and family.”

“... amen, sister...”

“… and God, as You alone know all destinies,
please, in Your mercy, God, give these good souls together tonight
more than houses in which to live, but homes where their lives are
full and rich, God; with family who hear them, love them, and
embrace them; and friends, true and caring… that You would hear us,
God, and comfort us, God, it is in Your glorious name that we ask
these things… Amen.”

On Larry’s whispered, “amen,” Gina looked up
to him and smiled warmly, before she delicately removed her hands
from the table.

Hands and arms across the table whipped and
returned, as Ralphie gently gripped December’s hand, with a smile,
as he returned to his chair, next to Gina and Larry.

“Dat was nice,” said December. “Okay, baby,
it’s time to eat!”

.

Larry and Gina each smiled warmly to
Ralphie, as he returned to his seat.

“Enjoyed your prayer words, miss,” said
Ralphie. “Well-spoken and heartfelt.”

“Thank you, Ralphie,” said Gina.

“Glad you came up to join us,” said
Larry.

“A kind invitation, and since they assigned
security to watch the Lincoln…,” said Ralphie.

.

Ed leaned forward and, as the two women on
either side of him engaged in a systematic survey of food on the
table, he drew his chair closer to mine. Spoons and serving forks
scooped and grazed the feast. Across the table, Larry was eating a
piece of fruit and staring into space.

“Man,” Ed whispered to me, leaning his chair
slightly towards December for better broadcast. “Dude!”

I moved slightly toward Ed and leaned
in.

“Dude,” said Ed. “Do you, like, figure it’s
like brainwashing?”