In the next instant she let out a yell as he brought down the heavy medical volume on

her forearm. The lump had flattened out, almost.

"Did it hurt that much?" he asked.

"No," she said. She watched him completing her case history card. "Is that all?"

He nodded, not paying any more attention to her. She left.

A week later he saw her in the coffee shop and sat next to her at the counter. "How's

the arm?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "Fine," she said. "You're pretty unorthodox but you're pretty good."

He grinned at her. "You don't know how unorthodox I am. And I didn't know how rich

you were. The Vegas Sun just published the list of point owners in the hotel and Lucy

Mancini has a big ten points. I could have made a fortune on that little bump (опухоль,

шишка)."

She didn't answer him, suddenly reminded of Hagen's warnings. He grinned again.

"Don't worry, I know the score (я прекрасно понимаю ситуацию; score – зарубка,

метка), you're just one of the dummies (одна из дурочек; dummy – кукла, чучело;

манекен; марионетка; дурачок, дурочка), Vegas is full of them. How about seeing one

Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru

of the shows with me tonight and I'll buy you dinner. I'll even buy you some roulette

chips."

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She was a little doubtful. He urged her. Finally she said, "I'd like to come but I'm afraid

you might be disappointed by how the night ends. I'm not really a swinger like most of

the girls here in Vegas."

"That's why I asked you," Jules said cheerfully. "I've prescribed a night's rest for

myself."

Lucy smiled at him and said a little sadly, "Is it that obvious?" He shook his head and

she said, "OK, supper then, but I'll buy my own roulette chips."

They went to the supper show and Jules kept her amused by describing different

types of bare thighs and breasts in medical terms; but without sneering, all in good

humor. Afterward they played roulette together at the same wheel and won over a

hundred dollars. Still later they drove up to Boulder Dam in the moonlight and he tried to

make love to her but when she resisted after a few kisses he knew that she really meant

no and stopped. Again he took his defeat with great good humor. "I told you I wouldn't,"

Lucy said with half-guilty reproach.

"You would have been awfully insulted if I didn't even try," Jules said. And she had to

laugh because it was true.

The next few months they became best friends. It wasn't love because they didn't

make love, Lucy wouldn't let him. She could see he was puzzled by her refusal but not

hurt the way most men would be and that made her trust him even more. She found out

that beneath his professional doctor's exterior he was wildly fun-loving and reckless. On

weekends he drove a souped-up MG (to soup up – увеличивать мощность

/двигателя/ [su:p]) in the California races. When he took a vacation he went down into

the interior of Mexico, the real wild country, he told her, where strangers were murdered

for their shoes and life was as primitive as a thousand years ago. Quite accidentally she

learned that he was a surgeon and had been connected with a famous hospital in New

York.

All this made her more puzzled than ever at his having taken the job at the hotel.

When she asked him about it, Jules said, "You tell me your dark secret and I'll tell you

mine."

She blushed and let the matter drop. Jules didn't pursue it either and their relationship

continued, a warm friendship that she counted on more than she realized.

Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru

Now, sitting at the side of the pool with Jules' blond head in her lap, she felt an

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overwhelming tenderness for him. Her loins ached and without realizing it her fingers

sensuously stroked the skin of his neck. He seemed to be sleeping, not noticing, and

she became excited just by the feel of him against her. Suddenly he raised his head

from her lap and stood up. He took her by the hand and led her over the grass on to the

cement walk. She followed him dutifully even when he led her into one of the cottages

that held his private apartment. When they were inside he

fixed them both big drinks. After the blazing sun and her own sensuous thoughts the

drink went to her head and made her dizzy. Then Jules had his arms around her and

their bodies, naked except for scanty bathing suits, were pressed against each other.

Lucy was murmuring, "Don't," but there was no conviction in her voice and Jules paid no

attention to her. He quickly stripped her bathing bra off so that he could fondle her

heavy breasts, kissed them and then stripped off her bathing trunks and as he did so

kept kissing her body, her rounded belly and the insides of her thighs. He stood up,

struggling out of his own bathing shorts and embracing her, and then, naked in each

other's arms, they were lying on his bed and she could feel him entering her and it was

enough, just the slight touch, for her to reach her climax and then in the second

afterward she could read in the motions of his body, his surprise. She felt the

overwhelming shame she had felt before she knew Sonny, but Jules was twisting her

body over the edge of the bed, positioning her legs a certain way and she let him control

her limbs and her body, and then he was entering her again and kissing her and this

time she could feel him but more important she could tell that he was feeling something

too and coming to his climax.

When he rolled off her body, Lucy huddled into one corner of the bed and began to

cry. She felt so ashamed. And then she was shockingly surprised to hear Jules laugh

softly and say, "You poor benighted (застигнутый ночью; погруженный во мрак

/невежества/) Eye-talian girl, so that's why you kept refusing me all these months? You

dope (дурочка)." He said "you dope" with such friendly affection that she turned toward

him and he took her naked body against his saying, "You are medieval, you are

positively medieval." But the voice was soothingly comforting as she continued to weep.

Jules lit a cigarette and put it in her mouth so that she choked on the smoke and had

to stop crying. "Now listen to me," he said, "if you had had a decent modern raising with

a family culture that was part of the twentieth century your problem would have been

solved years ago. Now let me tell you what your problem is: it's not the equivalent of

being ugly, of having bad skin and squinty (косой, косоглазый; to squint – косить

Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru

138

глазами) eyes that facial surgery really doesn't solve. Your problem is like having a wart

(бородавка [wo:t]) or a mole (родинка) on your chin, or an improperly formed ear. Stop

thinking of it in sexual terms. Stop thinking in your head that you have a big box no man

can love because it won't give his penis the necessary friction. What you have is a

pelvic (тазовый) malformation (неправильное образование, порок развития) and

what we surgeons call a weakening of the pelvic floor. It usually comes after child-

bearing but it can be simply bad bone structure. It's a common condition and many

women live a life of misery because of it when a simple operation could fix them up.

Some women even commit suicide because of it. But I never figured you for that

condition because you have such a beautiful body. I thought it was psychological, since

I know your story, you told it to me often enough, you and Sonny. But let me give you a

thorough physical examination and I can tell you just exactly how much work will have

to be done. Now go in and take a shower."

Lucy went in and took her shower. Patiently and over her protests, Jules made her lie

on the bed, legs spread apart. He had an extra doctor's bag in his apartment and it was

open. He also had a small glass-topped table by the bed which held some other

instruments. He was all business now, examining her, sticking his fingers inside her and

moving them around. She was beginning to feel humiliated when he kissed her on the

navel and said, almost absent-mindedly, "First time I've enjoyed my work." Then he

flipped her over and thrust a finger in her rectum, feeling around, but his other hand was

stroking her neck affectionately. When he was finished he turned her right side up again,

kissed her tenderly on the mouth and said, "Baby, I'm going to build you a whole new

thing down there, and then I'll try it out personally. It will be a medical first, I'll be able to

write a paper on it for the official journals."

Jules did everything with such good-humored affection, he so obviously cared for her,

that Lucy got over her shame and embarrassment. He even had the medical textbook

down off its shelf to show her a case like her own and the surgical procedure to correct