Snow White and Rose Red

She suddenly stopped talking.

“By what, Susan?”

“Inferior students,” she said.

“By ‘inferior,’ do you mean ‘C’ students? ‘D’ students? ‘F’ students?”

“I mean—”

“Black students?”

Silence.

“I wonder how a judge would react to that, Susan.”

“To what, Matthew?”

“To the fact that you want to take Joanna out of St. Mark’s because two black kids have been admitted. I just wonder what his reaction to that will be.”

“we’re in Florida,” Susan said. “Not that I’m in any way prejudiced.”

“I’m writing to this academy in the morning,” I said. “To tell them Joanna’s father objects to her admission there.”

“The school knows I have custody of the child,” Susan said.

“Damn it, Joanna doesn’t want to go there!”

“Children don’t always know What’s best for them.”

“Why are you doing this?” I said.

Silence again.

“You really are trying to keep me away from her, aren’t you?”

“I’m very sleepy, Matthew. Would you mind if we ended this?”

“I won’t let you do it,” I said.

“Good night, Matthew,” she said, and hung up.

I put the receiver back on the cradle.

“Wow,” Terry said.

I sighed heavily.

“Your ex, huh?”

I nodded.

“They can be real pains in the asses, can’t they?” she said.

I nodded again.

“Do you want me to go home?” she asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“’Cause there’s a game we could play, if you think you’d like to. What it does, it makes the second time around a little more interesting. And maybe it’ll take your mind off your wife, your ex-wife. If you’d like to.”

“You know something?” I said.

“What?”

I wanted to tell her that honesty was a tough thing to stumble across these days, and to find it in anyone was nothing short of a miracle. I wanted to tell her that the time we’d spent together tonight had been as valuable to me as diamonds and gold. I wanted to tell her that she was the most refreshing thing that had happened to me in as long as I could remember.

“You’re a very nice person,” I said.

And perhaps that was enough.

She smiled and said, “Yeah, you, too. Now here’s how this game goes, if You’re interested. What you do is you tease me, I’ll show you how in a minute, until you think I’m right on the brink — That’s what the game’s called, Brink — and then you stop, you just take your hand away or whatever, and then I start teasing you, and then I stop, and it goes on like that forever until we’re so crazy we can’t stand it anymore and we just have to do it or die. Brink. Do you think you’d like to play it?”

“I think You’re wonderful,” I said, and kissed her.

“Do you really?” she said.

Her voice was suddenly very soft, childlike. She looked up at me expectantly.

“I do,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said.

I kissed her again.

She smiled up at me.

“So do you think you’d like to try it?” she asked.