“Was it fun?”
“It was wonderful. It was wonderful to be in bed with a Chinese girl who was just as smooth as the girl I knew, and much smoother, and who was both shy and shameless and not emancipated at all, and then multiply that by three, and have it in the dark. I had never held three girls in my arms before. But you can do it. They had been trained and they knew many things I did not know and it was all in the dark and I did not want ever to go to sleep. But I did finally and when I woke in the morning they were all asleep and as beautiful as they had looked when I first came in the room. They were the most beautiful girls I ever saw.”
“More beautiful than I was when you first knew me twenty-five years ago?”
“No, Lil. No puede ser. They were Chinese girls and you know how beautiful a Chinese girl can be. And I loved Chinese girls anyway.”
“No es pervertido.”
“No, it certainly isn’t a perversion.”
“But three.”
“Three is several. And love was made to be made with one, I grant you.”
“Anyway, I’m glad you had them. Don’t think I’m jealous. You didn’t seek it out and besides it was a present. I hate the police dog woman who wouldn’t go to bed. But, Tom, didn’t you feel hollow in the morning?”
“Of such hollowness you can’t imagine. Really hollow. And I felt debauched from the top of my head to between my toes and my back was dead and the root of my spine ached.”
“So you had a drink.”
“So I had a drink and I felt a little better and very happy.”
“So what did you do?”
“I looked at them all asleep and I wished I could take a picture of them. They would have made a wonderful picture asleep and I was so damned hungry and hollow feeling and I looked out through the curtains at the weather outside. It was raining. So I thought that was fine and we would stay in bed all day. But I had to have some breakfast and I had to figure out about breakfast for them. So I took a shower with the door shut and then dressed very quietly and went out, closing the door so it made no noise at all. Downstairs I had breakfast in the early morning dining room of the hotel and I had a big breakfast of kippers, rolls and marmalade, and some mushrooms and bacon. All very good. I drank a big pot of tea and had a double whisky and soda with breakfast and still felt hollow inside. I read the Hong Kong morning English paper and wondered how late they slept. Finally I went out to the front door of the hotel and looked outside and it was still raining hard. I went to the bar but it was not yet open. They had brought me my drink at breakfast from the service bar. Then I couldn’t wait any longer and I went back up to the room and unlocked the door. They were all gone.”
“How terrible.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“So what did you do? You had a drink I suppose.”
“Yes. I had a drink and then I went in and washed myself again very good with much soap and water and then I commenced to have double remorse.”
“¿Un doble remordimiento?”
“No. Two remorses. Remorse because I had slept with three girls. And remorse because they were gone.”
“I remember when you used to have remorse after you stayed with me. But you got over it.”
“I know. I always get over everything. I was always a man of big remorses. But this morning in the hotel was gigantic double remorse.”
“So you took another drink.”
“How did you guess it? And I called up my millionaire. But he wasn’t at his home. Nor in his office.”
“He must have been in his Sin House.”
“Undoubtedly. Where the girls had gone to join him and to tell him about the night.”
“But where did they get three such beautiful girls? You couldn’t get three really beautiful girls in all of Havana now. I know the trouble I had trying to get something even decent for Henry and Willie this morning. Though, naturally, it is a bad time of day.”