Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles Read Free Book Online Page A

minute you get to your hotel, stretch yourself out and rest. Don't let them drag you through the streets, no matter what kind of a wild time they promise you. Nothing but monkeys in the streets anyway. There isn't a fine-looking person in the whole town that isn't connected with the American Army, and the Americans stick pretty much in their own quarter. The American quarter is called Cristobal. It's separated from Colon. Colon is full of nothing but half-breeds and monkeys. Cristobal is nice. Everyone in Cristobal has got his own little screened-in porch. They'd never dream of screening themselves in, the monkeys in Colon. They don't know when a mosquito's biting them anyway, and even if they did know they wouldn't lift their arm up to shoo him off. Eat plenty of fruit and be careful of the stores. Most of them are owned by Hindus. They're just like Jews, you know. They'll gyp you right and left."
    "I'm not interested in buying anything," said Mrs. Copperfield, "but may I come and visit you while I'm in Colon?"
    "I love you, dear," answered the woman, "but I like to spend every minute with my boy while I'm here."
    "That's all right," said Mrs. Copperfield.
    "Of course it's all right. You've got that beautiful husband of yours."
    "That doesn't help," said Mrs. Copperfield, but no sooner had she said this than she was horrified at herself.
    "Well now, you've had a tussle?" said the woman.
    "No."
    "Then I think you're a terrible little woman talking that way about your husband," she said, walking away. Mrs. Copperfield hung her head and went back to stand beside Mr. Copperfield.
    "Why do you speak to such dopes?" he asked.
    She did not answer.
    "Well," he said, "for Heaven's sake, look at the scenery now, will you?"
    They got into a taxicab and Mr. Copperfield insisted on going to a hotel right in the center of town. Normally all tourists with even a small amount of money stayed at the Hotel Washington, overlooking the sea, a few miles out of Colon.
    "I don't believe," Mr. Copperfield said to his wife, "I don't believe in spending money on a luxury that can only be mine for a week at the most. I think it's more fun to buy objects which will last me perhaps a lifetime. We can certainly find a hotel in the town that will be comfortable. Then we will be free to spend our money on more exciting things."
    "The room in which I sleep is so important to me," Mrs. Copperfield said. She was nearly moaning.
    "My dear, a room is really only a place in which to sleep and dress. If it is quiet and the bed is comfortable, nothing more is necessary. Don't you agree with me?"
    "You know very well I don't agree with you."
    "If you are going to be miserable, we'll go to the Hotel Washington," said Mr. Copperfield. Suddenly he lost his dignity. His eyes clouded over and he pouted. "But I'll be wretched there, I can assure you. It's going to be so God-damned dull." He was like a baby and Mrs. Copperfield was obliged to comfort him. He had a trick way of making her feel responsible.
    "After all, it's mostly my money," she said to herself. "I'm footing the bulk of the expenditures for this trip." Nevertheless, she was unable to gain a sense of power by reminding herself of this. She was completely dominated by Mr. Copperfield, as she was by almost anyone with whom she came in contact. Still, certain people who knew her well affirmed that she was capable of suddenly making a very radical and independent move without a soul to back her up.
    She looked out the window of the taxicab and she noticed that there was a terrific amount of activity going on around her in the streets. The people, for the most part Negroes and uniformed men from the fleets of all nations, were running in and out and making so much noise that Mrs. Copperfield wondered if it was not a holiday of some kind.
    "It's like a city that is being constantly looted," said her husband.
    The houses were painted in bright colors and they had wide porches on the upper floors, supported beneath