《Walks With Men》Ann Beattie

Well: better someone be mysterious than that the mystery be solved, because you might be stuck with an answer you didn't want.


I was trying to breathe normally.  Had I known without knowing?  Would she ever go away? "He washed your hands, didn't he? You couldn't lie about that.  You'd be standing at the sink and he'd come up behind you and pick up the soap and lather his own hands, clasp your little hands in his, and rub them while you laughed.  It was a turn-on, wasn't it?"

"You can have him," I said again. "He's all yours."


Neil and I stood at the red light.

"Negative Capability: 'When a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after face and reason.' You've got to love Keats.  Forget his figures on ethe urn.  He's using the word irritable, as if facts should make a person irritable.

Rollerina streaked by, curving into Washington Square Park: a guy on skates, in a ballgown.

The light turned green.