“Just be cool,” he said. “She’s such a dog your natural reaction to the way she looks will make you look cool. But don’t say anything intelligent; she’s also a dummy and can’t stand intelligence.”

“That’s all you got?”

“That’s it,” he said. “But it’s a sure thing. Take it or go horny all week.”

“It’s not the pussy, Gerald,” I said.

“Like hell,” said Gerald. “You can’t bullshit me. You just like to talk a lot before you get into it just to make yourself suffer.”

“You’re a real Freud,” I said.

“Like hell,” he said. “Freud knew the shit and went horny. I know it and don’t.”

“But it’s really not the pussy that matters.”

Gerald looked at his watch. “Do you want the dog or don’t you?” he said.

I thought about the weekend and some other things. “O.K.,” I said. “I’ll take the dog.”

Gerald smiled, and for a second his eyes and big teeth behind his moustache were laughing at me in the worst way. “Her name is Gloria,” he said. “I’m screwing her roommate Friday night so I’ll take you over when I go to pick her up.”

“Shouldn’t I call her myself?”

“Hell no,” said Gerald. “I told you she’s not that kind of girl. Look,” he said, eyeing me seriously for a moment, “this girl is a shortcoat. If you go over there longcoating you’ll fuck up and not get anything. Play it my way. Play it cool.”

“O.K.,” I said. “I’ll play it shortcoat.”

“Now you’re being hip,” said Gerald.

Certain people I do not know always speak to me on the street. They are very neat boys in tight pants and impeccable shirts; they are men who walk in fast, sometimes nervous steps, men with suggestive, sensitive mouths. They seem to recognize me or nod or stare, and know me; but I do not know them, although their eyes, passing over my face, say that I do. I make a point of not speaking to them, but I cannot help looking back whenever they recognize me. And whenever I do, I see that their eyes are frightened, always frightened, and I know that my own are. But I do not know why. Once, drinking beer in a bar with a friend, one of them comes over to our booth and ignores my friend and looks directly at me, and says: “What happened to you? They’re all waiting for you at the party.” I wink at my friend and he winks back and I begin to put the fellow on. “I stepped out for a while for a beer,” I say. “Tell them I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Take your time,” he says. “It’s been going on for days, it’ll last awhile longer.”

“Why did you leave?” I ask him.