The Bitch in Heat

The Noisy Restaurant was the duplicate of all the other coffee shops on campus: groups of bespectacled, untidy male students blew crumbs at each other in an excited exchange of moist ideas; young lovers in sweaters bent heads together, their cups and plates pushed away untouched; lone graduate students chewed food and read solemnly from big books.

The boy who shared his booth with the most beautiful girl in the room--a thin dark girl with perfect lips and large calm eyes--knew she was bored with him. Disinterestedly she had watched him make his play: he had taken her out five times; he had borrowed and begged money from fraternity brothers so that she might eat and drink and dance with him in the finest places. He was a lover (continued on page 40)Bitch In Heat(continued from page 37) with imagination, so he had taken her too to the small dark romantic spots, where candles and violins were absolutely guaranteed to warm the coldest blood.

And this, he knew, was the last time she would consent to even sit with him. He had failed, as those others he knew had failed before him.

She sat there quietly as the boy watched her, his paint stained hands resting uncertainly on the edge of the table. The story he had just finished telling her had exhausted his carefully researched small talk. Now he had nothing but himself to hold her interest, and he was hard put to it.

The flow of students in and out of the double doors was interrupted momentarily when the restaurant doors were pushed open just wide enough for a young woman to enter sideways. Her dress was tight and of a cut and shade of red that set her apart from the student group. She wore bangs, and her brown hair was lank about her full face.

"Hey, Willie," the boy said, relief shading his voice, "that's her, up there now."

The girl turned her head to stare at the door. "Which one?" she said. "Which one is she?"

The young woman's fixed smile was uncertain as she stopped to survey the restaurant. When she saw Lew looking at her over the top of his booth she moved directly toward him, brushing against a waitress on the way.

"Murphy," she said, "Murphy, you old bat."

"Sit here with us," Lew said to her. "Willie, this is Doll. She works up in Fine Arts with us."

Doll concentrated on arranging her skirt as she sat down. It was her unconscious habit to rub her nose briskly with her forefinger, and she did this as she looked first at Lew and then Wilhelmina.

"Hi," Wilhelmina said. "Lew's spoken of you."

"I bet it's nothing good," she said, laughing and rubbing her nose. "I bet that old bat hasn't been telling you nothing good."

"Not at all," Wilhelmina said earnestly. "Of the best."

"Naturally," Lew said, handing his notebook and books across the table to Wilhelmina, to make more room on his side of the booth.

Doll leaned her elbows on the table and looked around the room, studying the occupants of the surrounding booths. The dark girl had lost her indifference. She sat upright now, her head lifted, emphasizing the fine beautiful lines of her thin neck.

Lew signaled the waitress. "What do you want with your coffee?" he asked Doll.

She looked to see what they were eating, but their plates were empty. "Oh, just coffee," she said, fumbling with her purse. She took out a pack of cigarettes and Lew lit one of his kitchen matches for her.

"I don't get out for coffee very much," she said to Wilhelmina, "but right now I really need some. I started early today. I suppose Murphy told you I'm a model?"

(Good body, Lew had said. But we don't fool around with her because we're not sure she can be trusted.)

"How do you like the work?" Wilhelmina asked her, leaning forward with a look of mock interest. Under the table Lew kicked her foot.

"It's all right," Doll said. "They pay good. Well, they pay fairly good; twofifty an hour."

(We all complained to her, Lew had said, that she hadn't wished any of us Merry Christmas. Well, after the holidays, when she took off her kimono to pose, we saw that she had painted "Merry" on her stomach in red, and "Xmas" on her buttocks.)

Doll's coffee came and she looked down, watching the waitress clear a place for it. She helped her, lifting her cigarette package and sweeping tobacco grains off the table with the flat of her hand.

"I know what I wanted to tell you," Lew said to Wilhelmina. "You remember that guy in our house who never wears socks? You know, Art Allen?"

Wilhelmina was watching Doll who was studying the coeds in the other booths again. She stared at the booths across from her, eyes moving down and up, memorizing costumes, learning gestures.

"Well, he was taking that rich Marianne Logan to a formal the other night, so he came in and borrowed some India ink from me to paint his ankles black."

"How's business?" Wilhelmina said to Doll. "Your classes pretty crowded?"

(It's against the rules, Lew had said, but everyone brings his friends to the life classes. One way to make sure you're pledged is to sign up for that life class.)

"Yes," Doll said, "we're awfully busy. Seems like there are always more students than the day before."

Wilhelmina chuckled sympathetically and lifted her eyebrows at Lew. Then she resumed her interested look. "Don't you ever get cold?" she asked, politely solicitous. "I should think you'd catch cold."

"Oh, no," Doll said professionally. "We stop and rest every twenty minutes. And I wear a kimono from the dressing room to the class." She laughed. "I never caught cold yet."

Lew felt for Wilhelmina's foot again as he signaled the waitress for more coffee.

"No," Wilhelmina said, putting her chin in her hand, "but how does it feel? How does it feel, not to have any clothes on and all those people looking at you?"

Doll lifted her cup with both hands. She looked at Lew and then Wilhelmina. "Why, I don't know," she said.

"Have you read that play Judkins assigned?" Lew asked Wilhelmina.

"I'd hate it, I think," Wilhelmina said, leaning back and hugging herself. "I'd hate it, all those men staring at me naked."

"You've got the wrong idea," Lew said. He winked at Doll. "The men who paint wear plenty of clothes."

They all laughed. Doll chuckled loudly, and made as if to slap herself on the thigh. "Ha, ha," she said. "Cliché--you got her there, all right."

Wilhelmina looked up quickly. "Oh," she said. There was a pause. "Oh, you speak French?"

Doll put an uneasy hand to her straight hair.

"Willie," Lew said, "die with that, will you?"

Wilhelmina leaned over to Doll confidingly. "Tell me," she said, darting an impersonal glance at Lew, as if he were sitting across the room, out of earshot, "tell me, Doll. Do they ever make passes at you?"

Doll laughed. "They better not," she said. "Those college boys better not get fresh with me."

Lew stood up. "We're going to be late for Judkins' class," he said to Wilhelmina. "We've only got five minutes to get up there."

"Oh, I want to talk to Doll," she said. "You go along, Lew. I think I'll cut today."

He sat down.

"Doll," Wilhelmina said, "don't you do anything else? I mean, do you work or anything?"

"Well," Doll said, pausing to puff on her cigarette, "confidentially, I'm just doing this temporarily." She and Wilhelmina were wonderful friends. "I'm just posing until I get an office job. I got an office job coming up with an insurance company." She rubbed her nose. "I got my application in."

"What color is that?" Wilhelmina said to her, pointing to her fingernails. Wilhelmina pointed with her little finger, the nail of which was polished and shaded a clear pink.

Doll held one chapped hand over the table, palm down, then put it in her lap. "Oh, I don't know." She laughed. "Isn't it awful? I put it on last night to go to a dance. That's one thing about this job, you get a lot of dates. I'm out almost every night. Last night I went to the Ballroom with Phil Barone. He belongs (concluded on page 74)Bitch In Heat(continued from page 40) to a fraternity. Do you know him, Phil Barone?"

"No, I don't. But don't you find they get awfully fresh when you let them take you out, Doll?" Wilhelmina asked. "Don't they try to----" She acted again as if Lew were not there.

"Oh, no," Doll said laughing. "We're all just like brothers and sisters."

"Well," Wilhelmina said, "at least they don't pester you for your picture."

"What?" Doll asked.

"I mean, they probably all have one."

Doll chuckled again, stopping quickly when she saw she was laughing alone.

"Willie," Lew said, "did I tell you the one about the man with the banana in his ear?"

"Yes," Wilhelmina said. "Honestly, Doll, he tells the awfulest jokes."

"It's terrible," Doll said, leaning forward. "Sometimes these college boys talk terrible."

"I'd like to have you come up to the house sometime," Wilhelmina said to her. "I'd like to have you come up to the sorority sometime and meet the girls. We have a wonderful bunch there."

"That'd be lovely," Doll said. "I'd like to fine."

Lew watched Wilhelmina.

"A couple of the girls paint," Wilhelmina said. "just amateurs, you know. Maybe you'd like to----"

Doll looked at Lew uncertainly, then back at Wilhelmina. "Oh----"

"This boy was walking down the street, see," Lew said, "and he saw a man who had a banana sticking out of his ear."

"I'll tell you," Wilhelmina said, bending close to Doll, "the only trouble with our sorority is that there's a fraternity right next door, and the boys are always looking in our windows. It's terrible."

Doll was indignant. "Why, that's awful."

"But you wouldn't mind," Wilhelmina said.

" 'Excuse me, Mister,' the boy said," Lew spoke loudly. " 'But you've got a banana in your ear.' 'Speak up, Sonny,' the man said. 'Can't you see I've got a banana in my ear?' "

"That's good," Doll shouted. "A banana in my ear. That's good." She laughed and looked around at the other booths, holding her cigarette in a slanted, extended hand.

"Some people are awfully narrow minded," Wilhelmina said to Doll. "I suppose some people don't approve of what you do. Posing in the nude, I mean."

Doll stopped looking around the room and turned troubled eyes on Lew.

Lew smiled at her. "That's a nice dress, Doll," he said. "Red is your color."

She looked down at herself. "It's awful warm, though. Wool is pretty hot this warm weather."

Wilhelmina studied Doll's dress. "I suppose you save money, not having to buy clothes for work," she said.

"Yes," Lew said, "it's a good color with your hair, Doll."

"This isn't a good dress," Doll said. "I don't wear my best clothes up here." She looked from one to the other, smiling brightly. "My birthday dress," she said. "I wear my birthday dress."

They all laughed together. Wilhelmina's laugh rose above the others, a clear crystal sound.

"My, that's wonderful, Doll," she said.

"Your birthday dress. Did you make that up?"

Doll looked pleased. "No," she said, "lots of people say that. You know--your birthday suit. It means naked."

"Oh," Wilhelmina said, "that's good That's funny. I hope I remember that." It seemed as if she couldn't stop laughing, and after a while Doll laughed with her. Lew laughed too, watching Doll.

Doll stopped laughing first. She looked at the two, moving her eyes quickly "What time have you got?" she asked Lew.

He looked at his watch. "11:15."

"Oh, I have to go," Doll said, putting out her cigarette. "I have to dress for a class."

Wilhelmina stopped laughing. "Dress?' she said.

Sliding out of the booth with abrupt clumsy movements, Doll turned her head to look with brief impersonality at Wilhelmina. Standing she leaned over and picked up her purse. "Well, I certainly enjoyed talking to you kids," she said. She put her cigarettes into the purse and clicked it shut.

Lew slid her check under his. "I'll see you up there, Doll," he said.

"I'll say," Wilhelmina said. She was painting her lips with a little silver tube. Doll looked at it absent mindedly, rubbing her nose.

"Well, goodbye," she said. Just before she reached the door she dropped her purse. She bent her knees, and squatting, picked it up. Then she turned to smile at them, her fixed wide-mouthed smile, and waving, pushed out of the door.

Lew watched with troubled eyes as Doll left the restaurant. Wilhelmina didn't even turn her head. "You know, Lew," she said thoughtfully, "I think I'd like to go out with you tonight after all. In fact, I'll get a late permission. Why don't you pick me up about eight?"

Lew studied the door through which Doll had gone before he turned to look at Wilhelmina. "Gee, Willie," he said, "I think I'm tied up."

She looked at him warmly, her large eyes beautiful under curved black brows, promise in their gaze. "We could go dancing," she said. "Then maybe we could park up by the water tower. You know, I've never been up there before."

Lew said nothing.

"I think I'll wear my white sheath to night. It's cut very low. You'll like it."

Lew picked up his books and began to slide out of the booth. "Yes," he said. "Well, I'm sorry, Willie, but I won't be able to make it tonight. I've got to start hitting the books."

He stood up. "I'll see you around," he said. "I want to get to the life class early today."

"Is that the girl?" she asked.