Woman by Richard Matheson Read Free Book Online Page A

his feet.
"Speaking of shit," he said, heading for the bathroom.
     
         "Let's hear what
Doctori has to say," Val said. He did his Groucho impression again.
"As crazy as it is."
     
         David's smile was uncomfortable.
"Maybe we should talk about this in the limo." He checked his watch.
"It should be here any moment now."
     
         "No, you've brought
this up," Liz told him.
     
         "I know but do we
really want to go into this right now?"
     
         "You're on, Doctor Harper," Liz told him
only half in humor.
     
         David blew out breath.
"Okay," he said then.
     
         "Let's have it,"
Max said.
     
         "All right," David
said, "The reason women have always been an oppressed minority is that men
regard them as a menace."
     
         "There I'm with ya, Doc," Max told him.
"They are a
menace."
     
         "Put 'em away!"
Val cried, "chain 'em to the wall!" He made a suggestive face.
"Naked, of course," he added.
     
         David ignored him. 'This
so-called 'alien' quality has always outweighed women's desirabilities."
     
         "All three of them,
including hands," Val said. "Or in Candy's case, four."
     
         "Shut up, Val,"
Liz told him casually.
     
         Val imitated Butterfly
McQueen. "Yaz'm, Miz Scarlett! Yaz'm!"
     
         "Go on, David,"
Barbara said, "I like what you're saying. Mostly."
     
         "You would," Max
said.
     
         "All right. Brace
yourselves, Max and Val," David continued. "Historically men have
always been afraid of falling under the power of women and becoming slaves to
them."
     
         "Oh, Jesus
Christ," Max muttered.
     
          "Ah, yes," Val said, imitating W.C. Fields, "The old S and M
syndrome. Know it well."
     
         "Val, shut-up," Liz said.
     
         Val looked hurt.
"Talking like that to the star," he moaned.
     
         "Let David speak,"
Barbara told him irritably.
     
         "Christ, they're all turning on me," Val said.
"Boo hoo times two. Okay—" his voice went guttural. " Speak, Doctor Harper. Speak."
     
         "Do we really want to —
?" David started.
     
          "Yes. We do," Liz
said. David wondered what she was thinking.
     
         He sighed. "All
right," he said. "This traditional fear ofwomen has engendered a
hostility which lurks behind a facade of domination. A façade which, hopefully,
intends — as Esther Harding put it—to overcome her (meaning woman) —with a
stroke."
     
         Val again, as W.C. Fields,
"Stroke me a stroke as fast as you can." He turned to Ganine.
"You haven't said a word," he told her. "What do you think of
all this?"
     
         "I think Doctor Harper
is always right," she answered.
     
         David saw how Liz stiffened
at Ganine's reply. Don't say anything to her, he thought with a sense of sudden
alarm. He really didn't know if what he'd said about Ganine was nonsense or
something to really be concerned about. He only knew that this was not the
moment to test it.
     
         "So what about you, Liz?" Val asked. "We
already know that Babs agrees with the Doc, Candy doesn't have the slightest
idea what he's talking about."
     
         "I do so," Candy pouted.
     
         "Yeah, yeah," Val
said. "Liz? You agree?"
     
         "More or less,"
she said.
     
         "How much more and how
much less?" Val asked.
     
         "Why don't we just let
David continue?" Barbara told him stiffly.
     
         Val raised both arms, bowed
to her twice in mock-abnegation, making East Indian chanting sounds of
humility.
     
         "Go on, David,"
Liz said. He had the feeling she was inviting him to say something she could
disagree with.
     
         "I don't like doing
this on an evening when—" he began.
     
         "Go on, David," She interrupted.
     
         "Please, David,"
Barbara said.
     
         "Let's hear more,"
Max told him.
     
         "The mandate of the people,"
Val