25.5.2009
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5
Violet listened to what John said about Merilyn. "Did you love her?" she asked.
"Yes, in a way."
She looked at him and asked, sounding a little childlike: "What did she have?"
John smiled. "I think she had what every healthy person does."
"What?"
Although John was usually quick to answer, this time the answer seemed stuck inside. He had told Violet about Merilyn, and she understood that Merilyn was a perfect lover. She also wanted to be a perfect lover. She looked up to John, and she liked how strongly he felt about her. Of course, she had told Solla friend about this, and Solla had turned this over and over in her mind: "It's as I've always told you, Violet. I don't understand?I've never understood?this power you have over men. What do you really get out of this? They are all crazy about you; they hardly get a whiff of you, and they fall like flies. Happily married men, youths on the cusp of puberty? it's all the same. Yet you haven't slept with one of them."
Solla friend continued her outpouring: "It's no wonder that you're screwed up when you finally marry and get a steady supply."
Solla friend was dead right. All men had gone for her, and really had given it their best shot; but when they began to grope between her legs, she reacted strongly: this far and no farther. Two or three times furniture had been overturned, paintings fell off the walls, and people in the next rooms were disturbed.