Chapter 15C

During the week, Ronnie set me up with two posing assignments. They went well, although I found myself very restless while trying to hold a single pose for more than fifteen minutes. I posed twice for the same artist, a middle-aged woman in Greenwich Village whose apartment walls were literally flooded with drawings, paintings, and photographs by herself and others. She seemed quite pleased with me, and she gave me some pointers on how to promote myself and register with various services. I didn't tell her I wasn't quite sixteen years old yet.

I saw Anita a couple of times at Fiore's, and recognized a couple of her friends there. One of them asked me out for a snack after the workout, but I politely declined. I was not in a mood for superficial socializing. I began to recognize this withdrawal as a habit of mine, and not a very constructive one. Somehow I was getting into another funk, a slow downward mood slide. Although I was still attentive to Martha and Ronnie, I was less talkative, and definitely less frolicsome with Ronnie at lunch on Tuesday.

As Ronnie dug into her food Tuesday I gazed out the window, chewing slowly and absently.

Ronnie said, "Hey, you. Knock knock."

I turned to her.

She wiped her lips with her napkin. "Remember me?"

I said, "Sorry. I was thinking."

"Mm, Steven's thinking. I've always wondered what goes on in that strange little mind of yours. Come on. Tell Aunt Ronnie."

I said dryly, "Aunt Ronnie would be bored to death."

"Oh, I don't know. I know I kid around a lot and talk people's head off. But Martha knows I can be a serious listener." She lifted her glass to her lips. "And I'm sure you don't have any aunts back home like me that you could talk to."

I smiled. "No aunts at home like you, period." I stretched my arms and straightened up in my chair. "Just tired, I guess."

"These things go in cycles, you know? The moon. Natural body rhythms. Ever have anybody do your horoscope?"

"Horoscope? You mean astrology, planets and all that?"

"Yeah."

"You know about that?"

"Oh, Ronnie knows everything about all the stuff nobody wants to know about. My former lunch buddy taught me all about it. She even left her astrology library with me when she moved out. But she's the only one who ever showed any interest. Most people just get bored when I mention it."

But the subject stirred my interest. I asked her about astrology and what it entailed, but Ronnie didn't want to get into a lot of detail over lunch.

I asked, "Martha doesn't talk about this with you?"

Ronnie said, "Oh, she just laughs. But Martha, you know, believes she's reincarnated. She ever mention that?"

I remembered a time when Martha and I were in the Memphis State library and Martha had shown me the photograph of the mother and child in the National Geographic. I said, "Yeah, she did. A long time ago."

Ronnie nodded, chewing another mouthful. She said, "She has this sacrificial parent thing." Suddenly her eyes popped open and she said "Mm!' and swallowed and wiped her lips. She said excitedly, "Hey, I could do your horoscope, and you and Martha together, and you and me together! God, why didn't I think of that before?"

"Yeah? You can do a horoscope for two people at once?"

"Sure. The call it synastry."

"Sounds pretty technical."

"Well, there's a lot of math. That's the part that gets me, the math. I'm such a klutz with that."

"I could do that part."

"Really? You'd help me with it?" She stopped and said, "Oh, but it takes forever. All those numbers."

"I could buy a calculator."

"No, don't spend your money on that. Mmm, I could borrow one from the office. Just for a day, they wouldn't miss it. It's just one of these new Japanese calculating machines, you plug it in the wall. You saw my television set, so you know how creative I am with electronics."

I said, "Get the calculator and I'll work up the figures."

"Hey, that's great. You can pose for me tomorrow, if you still want to, and then we can work on the charts." She dabbed at her food with her fork. "You're serious, right? You're not just humoring your crazy Aunt Ronnie."

"No. I'd like to see what it's about."

She chewed and said with her mouth half full, "Hey, aren't you gonna eat?"

I looked down at my food and joked, "Don't say eat to somebody who's always horny."

She held back a laugh, her mouth still full. She wiped her lips and swallowed and eyed me naughtily. "That's amazing, I was just thinking the same thing." She swallowed again and said, "I really like the way you eat me. You treat me like a really nice meal."

I blushed, and quickly looked around.

Ronnie grinned and said, "No one's listening. This time, I looked first." She stuck her fork into her food. "Steven, when are you going to stop being so embarrassed about sex?"

Tuesday evening, while Martha worked on papers in the dining room, I called Anita at her home. We stayed on the phone for almost an hour. It was a difficult conversation. I knew Martha could hear everything I said, so I kept things very tame. We talked mostly about the reading I would perform on Saturday and my "illustrious theater experience" to date.

I said over the phone, trying very hard to sound casual and sneaking a look at Martha to see if she were consciously listening, "So what happens in your life after Saturday? You, uh, have any plans for the week after? I'll be around all week, every day."

Anita said, "Oh, but I can't make plans for anything after Saturday."

"Really? You're that busy?"

Anita's end of the line was quiet for a moment before she said, "Well... I didn't tell you yet. I guess I was avoiding it, but now... I guess I have to tell you. I was going to wait until Saturday."