_August 25--September 2, 1977_
_Dollars Dome--Thursday, August 25_
“Yeah. Sure. If it’s all right with Lee, it’s okay.” _Sure, what the
Hell? Why shouldn’t I leave my girl behind? Give the other boys a
chance._... That was idiocy. Or was it? You couldn’t say Chris had
failed to _notice_ Lee. _Well, who does? You want a babe nobody else
wants, find yourself some old bag. Plenty of girls who’ll be overjoyed
to marry the great Wendt._ Plenty of ’em. Sure. For all he knew, this
time might have torn it with Lee anyhow. He stood up. “I’ll go see if I
can round her up and see what she thinks, okay?”
“Right. See you in half an hour? I’ve got to get the changes cleared
through soon as possible.”
“Right.” He went out of Admin and across the mall to the guest
residence. The place had changed since--well, sure it had, he was
thinking four years back and more. He hadn’t really _seen_ it when he
came through on the way back from--
_All right, leave it lay.... Forget it!_
She wasn’t in the room. He found her finally in the dining room,
drinking a glass of milk with a tableful of awed young scientists. If
he could laugh today, it would be funny--the way their eyes swiveled
after her when she got up to come to him. _Plus_ the double-take when
the whispered word went round the table about who it was she’d gone to.
_The great Wendt!_
Well, the great Wendt was getting sent home for being bad. And he
couldn’t have mama’s hand to hold, this trip.
“Chris says he can swing one berth, but that’s all,” he said. “The way
I see it, I’m a heel no matter what I do. You rather stay alone till
next trip, or what?”
“Well--what do you think?”
“I think--never mind, babe, you don’t _want_ to know that. I guess
there’s nothing to do but go along with it? Unless you think you’d be--”
“What?”
“I don’t know. It’s that ole sou’then gennulman training coming out.
You know what I mean.”
“_Here?_ Don’t be an idiot, darling. I’ll keep my chastity.”
Damnedest part of it was: she would, too.
“Okay, babe. I’ll go let him know.” But he stayed where he was. “Babe?”
“Hmmm?”
“Hell, I--I’m sorry, that’s all. I don’t know what the Hell...!”
“It’s okay, Johnny. Let it ride, huh?”
“Sure.”
But there was something missing. After he talked to Chris, he wandered
out, thinking he’d find her and see if there was anything he could do,
in the three hours he had, to help things. Then he knew what he really
meant by “help things,” and made sure he _didn’t_ find her.
_She_ wouldn’t stop him. But it wasn’t what she wanted. Or what he had
any right to ask.
Be a good thing if she did find someone else, he thought. He swallowed
the fury in his throat, and found the bar.