Garden of Eden (2 page)

Several
men were pounding the young man on the back and putting their arms around him
and a woman from the fish market kissed him. Then the girl had her arms around
him and kissed him and he said, "Did you see him?"

Then
they all went over to see him laid out on the side of the road silver as a
salmon and dark gunmetal shining on his back. He was a handsome beautifully
built fish with great live eyes and he breathed slowly and brokenly.

"What
is he?"

"A
loup," he said. "That's a sea bass. They call them bar too. They're a
wonderful fish. This is the biggest one I've ever seen.

The
waiter, whose name was Andre, came over and put his arms around David and
kissed him and then he kissed the girl.

"Madame,
it is necessary," he said. "It is truly necessary. No one ever caught
such a fish on such tackle."

"We
better have him weighed," David said.

They
were at the cafe now. The young man had put the tackle away, after the
weighing, and washed up and the fish was on a block of ice that had come in the
camion from Nimes to ice the mackerel catch. The fish had weighed a little over
fifteen pounds. On the ice he was still silver and beautiful but the color on
his back had changed to gray. Only his eyes still looked alive. The mackerel
fishing boats were coming in now and the women were unloading the shining blue
and green and silver mackerel from the boats into baskets and carrying the heavy
baskets on their heads to the fish house. It was a very good catch and the town
was busy and happy.

"What
are we going to do with the big fish?" the girl asked.

"They're
going to take him in and sell him," the young man said. "He's too big
to cook here and they say it would be wicked to cut him up. Maybe he'll go
right up to Paris. He'll end in some big restaurant. Or somebody very rich will
buy him."

"He
was so beautiful in the water," she said. "And when Andre held him
up. I couldn't believe him when I saw him out of the window and you with your
mob following you."

"We'll
get a small one for us to eat. They're really wonderful. A small one ought to
be grilled with butter and with herbs. They're like striped bass at home."

"I'm
excited about the fish," she said. "Don't we have wonderful simple
fun?"

They
were hungry for lunch and the bottle of white wine was cold and they drank it
as they ate the celery remoulade and the small radishes and the home pickled
mushrooms from the big glass jar. The bass was grilled and the grill marks
showed on the silver skin and the butter melted on the hot plate. There was
sliced lemon to press on the bass and fresh bread from the bakery and the wine
cooled their tongues of the heat of the fried potatoes. It was good light, dry,
cheerful unknown white wine and the restaurant was proud of it.

"We're
not great conversationalists at meals," the girl said. "Do I bore
you, darling?"

The
young man laughed.

"Don't
laugh at me, David."

"I
wasn't. No. You don't bore me. I'd be happy looking at you if you never said a
word."

He
poured her another small glass of the wine and filled his own.

"I
have a big surprise. I didn't tell you, did I?" the girl said.

"What
sort of surprise?"

"Oh
it's very simple but it's very complicated."

"Tell
me."

"No.
You might like it and maybe you couldn't stand it."

"It
sounds too dangerous."

"It's
dangerous," she said. "But don't ask me. I'm going up to the room if
I may.

The
young man paid for the lunch and drank the wine that was left in the bottle.
Then he went upstairs. The girl's clothes were folded on one of the Van Gogh
chairs and she was waiting for him in the bed with the sheet over her. Her hair
was spread out over the pillow and her eyes were laughing and he lifted the
sheet and she said, "Hello, darling. Did you have a nice lunch?"

Afterwards
they lay together with his arm under her head and were happy and lazy and he
felt her turn her head from side to side and stroke it against his cheek. It
felt silky and barely roughened from the sun and the sea. Then with her hair
all forward over her face so it touched him as her head moved she started to
play with him lightly and exploringly and then with delight and she said,
"You do love me, don't you?"

He
nodded and kissed the top of her head and then turned her head and held it and
kissed her lips.

"Oh,"
she said. "Oh."

A
long time later they were lying each holding the other close and she said,
"And you love me just the way I am? You're sure.

"Yes,"
he said. "So much yes."

"Because
I'm going to be changed."

"No,"
he said. "No. Not changed."

"I'm
going to," she said. "It's for you. It's for me too. I won't pretend
it's not. But it will do something to you. I'm sure but I shouldn't say it."

"I
like surprises but I like everything the way it is just now at this
minute."

"Then
maybe I shouldn't do it," she said. "Oh I'm sad. It was such a
wonderful dangerous surprise. I thought about it for days and I didn't decide
until this morning."

"If
it's something you really want."

"It
is," she said. "And I'm going to do it. You've liked everything we've
done so far haven't you?"

"Yes."

"All
right."

She
slipped out of bed and stood straight with her long brown legs and her
beautiful body tanned evenly from the far beach where they swam without suits.
She held her shoulders back and her chin up and she shook her head so her heavy
tawny hair slapped around her cheeks and then bowed forward so it all fell
forward and covered her face. She pulled the striped shirt over her head and
then shook her hair back and then sat in the chair in front of the mirror on
the dresser and brushed it back looking at it critically. It fell to the top of
her shoulders. She shook her head at the mirror. Then she pulled on her slacks
and belted them and put on her faded blue rope-soled shoes.

"I
have to ride up to Aigues Mortes," she said.

"Good,"
he said. "I'll come too."

"No.
I have to go alone. It's about the surprise."

She
kissed him goodbye and went down and he watched her mount her bicycle and go up
the road riding smoothly and easily, her hair blowing in the wind.

The
afternoon sun was in the window now and the room was too warm. The young man
washed and put on his clothes and went down to walk on the beach. He knew he
should swim but he was tired and after he had walked along the beach and then
along a path through the salt grass that led inland for a way he went back
along the beach to the port and climbed up to the cafe. In the cafe he found
the paper and ordered himself a fine
á l'eau because he felt empty and hollow
from making love.

They
had been married three weeks and had come down on the train from Paris to
Avignon with their bicycles, a suitcase with their town clothes, and a rucksack
and a musette bag. They stayed at a good hotel in Avignon and left the suitcase
there and had thought that they would ride to the Pont du Gard. But the mistral
was blowing so they rode with the mistral down to Nimes and stayed there at the
Imperator and then had ridden down to Aigues Mortes still with the heavy wind
behind them and then on to le Grau du Roi. They had been there ever since.

It
had been wonderful and they had been truly happy and he had not known that you
could love anyone so much that you cared about nothing else and other things
seemed inexistent. He had many problems when he married but he had thought of
none of them here nor of writing nor of anything but being with this girl whom
he loved and was married to and he did not have the sudden deadly clarity that
had always come after intercourse.

That
was gone. Now when they had made love they would eat and drink and make love
again. It was a very simple world and he had never been truly happy in any
other. He thought that it must be the same with her and certainly she acted in
that way but today there had been this thing about the change and the surprise.
But maybe it would be a happy change and a good surprise. The brandy and water
as he drank it and read the local paper made him look forward to whatever it
was.

This
was the first time since they had come on the wedding trip that he had taken a
drink of brandy or whiskey when they were not together. But he was not working
and his only rules about drinking were never to drink before or while he was
working. It would be good to work again but that would come soon enough as he
well knew and he must remember to be unselfish about it and make it as clear as
he could that the enforced loneliness was regrettable and that he was not proud
of it. He was sure she would be fine about it and she had her own resources but
he hated to think of it, the work, starting when they were as they were now. It
never could start of course without the clarity and he wondered if she knew
that and if that was why she drove beyond what they had for something new that
nothing could break. But what could it be? They could not be held tighter
together than they were now and there was no bad ness afterwards. There was
only happiness and loving each other and then hunger and replenishing and
starting over.

He
found that he had drunk the fine l'eau and that it was getting late in the
afternoon. He ordered another and started to concentrate on the paper. But the
paper did not interest him as it should and he was looking out at the sea with
late afternoon sun heavy on it when he heard her come into the cafe and say in
her throaty voice, "Hello darling."

She
came quickly to the table and sat down and lifted her chin and looked at him
with the laughing eyes and the golden face with the tiny freckles. Her hair was
cropped as short as a boy's. It was cut with no compromises. It was brushed
back, heavy as always, but the sides were cut short and the ears that grew
close to her head were clear and the tawny line of her hair was cropped close
to her head and smooth and sweeping back. She turned her head and lifted her
breasts and said, "Kiss me please."

He
kissed her and looked at her face and at her hair and he kissed her again.

"Do
you like it? Feel it how smooth. Feel it in back," she said.

He
felt it in back.

"Feel
on my cheek and feel in front of my ear. Run your fingers up at the
sides."

"You
see," she said. "That's the surprise. I'm a girl. But now I'm a boy
too and I can do anything and anything and anything."

"Sit
here by me," he said. "What do you want, brother."

"Oh
thank you," she said. "I'll take what you're having. You see why it's
dangerous, don't you?"

"Yes.
I see.

"But
wasn't I good to do it?"

"Maybe."

"Not
maybe. No. I thought about it. I've thought all about it. Why do we have to go
by everyone else's rules? We're us.

"We
were having a good time and I didn't feel any rules."