The Desert Rose

by Larry McMurtry

  “You don’t have to give me money, I’m not a hooker,” she said.

  He gave her one of the little corner of the mouth kisses. He didn’t seem mad, just a little sad, maybe he had been building up to a different effect or something.

  “So why are you giving me this?” she said. “I don’t understand you.”

  “No, you don’t, it’s the very thing that may save us,” he said and felt her cunt for a moment, she would have stayed but it wasn’t what he had in mind, what he had in mind was a light feel and a few kisses.

  Getting the money made her feel slightly cautious, she wanted to know if she was suddenly going to have to earn it some way. Mel had nice skin, actually, he kept himself in good shape which was a trait she admired. It had been the big barrier with Woods, he just would not take any kind of care of himself, ate junk food and anything gross he could find and hit the arcades all night, he was definitely a mess.

  But Mel’s skin was very smooth, she sort of felt weird and would have liked to stay, which he sensed, he put his arm around her and held her a minute, that he had never done.

  “The more I give you the more you’ll have,” he said. “I could always get hit on the head by a brick or something. Of course the probabilities are against it, but the principle is important.”

  She started to ask why can’t I stay, she really wanted to but then she got scared to push him. After all he had fucked her, maybe she just better not push it.

  “Do you really want to marry me?” she asked. At times it seemed a little hard to believe although she was right there and it was happening.

  “Oh yes, Pepper,” Mel said. “I would be very unhappy if you said no.”

  “Do you know my mother?” she asked, it was something she had built up a curiosity about and she always meant to ask him but she kept letting it slip her mind. Her mother had had this army of boyfriends, there was a chance Mel was back there in the ranks somewhere, after all he was about her mother’s age.

  Mel laughed, he thought it was amusing that she was so interested in that question.

  “Well, everybody in Las Vegas knows who your mother is,” he said. “I see her in the Safeway once in a while but I’ve never been introduced to her.”

  The weird part of that one was that he would be in the Safeway, she assumed he just sent the Japs to do everything.

  “Oh, I go to the Safeway,” he said, reading her mind again. “I love it, it’s the one place I still go.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I go to see the styles,” he said. “It’s the great American style show, the Safeway. The combinations women wear when they’re just shlepping around buying eggs delight me. They wander around buying food and I wander around watching them in their outfits.”

  That was definitely on the outside edge of weird, as Woods would put it, going to the Safeway to see outfits.

  “You must vomit when you see Momma’s,” Pepper said, he was a guy with very peculiar inclinations, in her book. “Everything she puts on is tacky.”

  “No, she doesn’t exactly have your purity, when it comes to fashion,” he said. “I will say you can’t miss her though.”

  Of course not, she’d dress in neon if she could, Pepper thought. She watched Mel, but he didn’t seem that interested in the question of her mother, just a little amused that she brought it up.

  “I think we chatted at the checkout counter once,” Mel said. “She seemed very friendly but I guess that’s the only time I’ve spoken to her.”

  Sure, friendly, she would have fucked you in the grocery cart Pepper thought, but she let it go, he wasn’t really interested.

  “I really do want you to marry me,” he said. “I don’t want you to say no.”

  No way she was gonna say no, after all he himself said if it changed it changed and she would end up with a lot of his money.

  “Okay, I will,” she said, feeling let’s just get it settled. She gave him a real hard kiss, thinking that would turn the tide so far as staying the night was concerned, but it didn’t, though he did stop looking depressed, he looked glad and said maybe she could come by tomorrow and they could work it out. Then he walked her to one of the Mercedes and told the Jap driver to take her home. The last thing he said was you know I’m crazy about your looks. That was probably the whole story, he couldn’t get enough of looking at her.

  She was hoping Myrtle was up, though who she would really have liked was Gary, he would definitely have something to say about Mel, and probably some information. Plus Gary was discreet, even if he was hopelessly crazy about her mother he could still keep a secret, and so could Myrtle, both of them knew ten times more about her than her mother did, she had told Myrtle all sorts of things about fucking and drugs and stuff and Myrtle had never leaked. In fact, Myrtle had shared a secret or two of her own, one of which was that she was two-timing Wendell once in a while. Wendell had a big rival he didn’t know about, an air-conditioning repairman who lived across town. According to Myrtle he was better-looking than Wendell but un-dependable. It was hard for Pepper to believe that Myrtle actually still fucked guys, that thought was definitely on the outside edge of weird, but maybe it was possible.

  When the Jap drove up with her in the car Myrtle was sitting in the lawn chair totally sloshed. She had some bizarre habits, such as propping her little TV set in the window by the driveway so if she happened to glance over and see something she liked she would go in and turn the sound up and then come back out and watch it through the screen. She never bothered to watch TV except from out in the driveway, she practically lived in that lawn chair.

  Meanwhile Maude was eating some Cheerios that had once had milk in them but it had dried up and the Cheerios were stuck to the plate. So Maude was slowly moving the saucer down the driveway trying to get the Cheerios off. Didn’t bother the Jap, he got out and opened the door for Pepper as if he were delivering her to the Riviera or somewhere. He totally ignored Myrtle and Maude and they totally ignored him. Pepper sort of wished Woods were there to see that sight, he would appreciate it whereas Buddy would be lucky even to notice it was going on.

  Myrtle considered herself an honorary grandmother and demanded lots of affection so Pepper gave her a kiss, which was okay, besides keeping secrets Myrtle had always been good about slipping her money if she suddenly saw a blouse or something she couldn’t live without.

  “Pepper, do you think an all-night garage sale, would work in this town?” Myrtle asked. “Maybe that would be one of them ideas whose time has come.”

  “Forget it, nobody’s gonna leave the casinos and drive out here at night,” Pepper said.

  By this time Maude had pushed the Cheerios bowl all the way out to the road.

  “Oh, Pepper, you won’t never let me have my illusions,” Myrtle said. “I guess I’m just a dreamer, that’s what Wendell says.”

  “You wanta keep a big secret?” Pepper asked. It was kind of peculiar she was feeling so good about being engaged, since she had always considered marriage a definite yuk. She had thought maybe she’d try it at about fifty if she got bored, and then Mel had just immediately changed her mind. She didn’t know any kids who had a chance at a guy that rich. It left her mind feeling sort of crowded, since there was also the chance she’d be dancing the lead at the Stardust. At least that meant the end of school, why bother with it any longer?

  “I’m engaged,” Pepper said, which gave Myrtle such a start that she sloshed half her vodka onto the driveway. Naturally she assumed it was Buddy, she was on the same wave length as Madonna on that one.

  “Forget Buddy, this guy is older, he’s about Momma’s age,” she said. “What do you think?”

  “Well, if he’s rich enough to hire a Jap to drive you around, why go to it,” Myrtle said. “Maybe you can loan me your chauffeur once in a while if my car breaks down.”

  Then Myrtle suddenly started to cry, she just sat there and cried, which was slightly disgusting, after all she had never even met Mel and there was nothing
to cry about.

  “Come on, cut it out,” Pepper said. “He’s a real nice guy, I wouldn’t marry some asshole.”

  “Oh well, I get sentimental when I’m shit-faced,” Myrtle said. “I remember the day your daddy left, I’ve known you all that time. Besides, I was watching a sad TV show before you come home. It’s one of them days. Your momma went off crying because Denny stole the insurance check.”

  That was infuriating, it meant no car. Maybe she should just ask Mel to buy her one, undoubtedly he would if she asked. Which didn’t make it any less revolting that her mother would bring home some prick who was virtually a criminal, it was hard to have any sympathy for somebody with judgment that bad.

  “So is she gonna have him arrested or is she just gonna let him get away with it?” Pepper asked.

  “I don’t know, she left while I was taking a nap,” Myrtle said. “So when’s the wedding?”

  Actually that part was sort of hard to imagine, a wedding, she couldn’t see Mel being into much of a production, so far as that went. Maybe he’d just get some preacher from the Strip to come out and marry them and that would be that.

  Once Myrtle started asking questions she realized she didn’t know that much about Mel. She knew his father was a swim coach, he had been a photographer, he had lived in Japan several years, that was about all she knew. In his house whatever he did seemed to sort of make sense, even not trying to fuck her until she sort of forced the issue, he had his own notions of when he wanted to do things, so why not? He did give you the sense he knew what he was doing, even just proposing hadn’t seemed particularly weird, not while she was there in his house, anyway.

  But being back home with Myrtle and the goats made it seem a little peculiar that he wanted to marry her. After all, he could have just asked her to move in, she would have probably gone right home and packed. At the very least there would be servants to drive her to school so she wouldn’t have had to worry about hitching if both the stupid cars broke down. Her mother had lived with more guys than she could remember and the question of marriage had never come up—why Mel wanted to make such a big deal right away was a puzzler. Truly a puzzler.

  “Hey, I got a job offer too, I guess this is my week to fly,” she said, though Myrtle was looking kind of around the bend, it was late and she had probably been belting it all day.

  “I know, Harmony told me,” Myrtle said. “She thought that was crazy, wait till she hears you’re engaged.”

  “Don’t you tell her, I’ll tell her,” Pepper said. “Don’t get drunk and forget, either. I don’t want her bothering Mel or anything.”

  “Okay, but if he’s gonna be her son-in-law he’s got to get used to it sometime,” Myrtle said. “Poor Harmony, nobody tells her nothing. She don’t even know about me and Bobby”—Bobby being the guy who fixed air conditioners.

  As a favor Pepper went out and got the cereal bowl Maude had nosed out into the road, but Myrtle hardly noticed, somebody was on the “Tonight” show that she wanted to hear and she had gone in to turn up the sound. Pepper went on in and brushed her teeth, she sort of expected Buddy to show up, he often did after she’d been to Mel’s. He would show up hoping maybe to get fucked. Little did he know that was the end of that, as she would cheerfully tell him, he had been a total asshole about loaning her the car. It was too bad, too: If she had the Mustang she might hit the arcades and maybe find Woods, if anything would freak Woods out it was being told she was about to sort of become his godmother-in-law. Even Woods, Mr. Supercool, would have to admit that was sort of weird. She should have had the Jap take her, was sort of annoyed she hadn’t thought of it. Of course she could call Mel and tell him to send the Jap back, but then she had already brushed her teeth, she decided why bother? she could always hit Woods with it another time. She cleaned her face then went to bed and listened to the radio for a while, remembering how surprised Bonventre was to get a little scorn instead of his ass kissed. Maybe when she went to audition she’d just mention that Mel was her fiance, she had never even expected to have one much less the very one that could make the famous Jackie Bonventre behave for a few minutes.

  That would certainly put her one up on her mother, she had worked for the man nearly twenty years and had not managed to get herself ten seconds of respect. Pepper figured she wouldn’t sleep, too much to think about, but then she yawned and the last thing she heard was Maude tipping around on the driveway looking for the bowl of Cheerios.

  III

  1.

  AFTER THE first show Harmony was feeling pretty good, after all nothing fatal had happened. She was hungry and tried to get Jessie or Gary in the mood to go eat, but Gary was in the process of arguing with Rodney, some of the changes hadn’t gone too smoothly and Gary was upset, he liked things smooth, plus Jessie had lost her appetite from worrying about braces. She didn’t feel like even leaving the dressing room, so Harmony asked Cherri to come, Cherri was very sweet and a lot more childlike than Pepper. Sometimes Harmony felt a little motherly toward her and Cherri appreciated it, she had only been away from home a few months and missed her family.

  They decided to walk over to the Taco Belle, Harmony was in the mood for a taco, but first they had to stop at one of the craps tables, it was something she did every night between shows, a sweet kid named Gene from somewhere in Arkansas was managing the dice during her break and he loved for her to come by, he always saw she got to roll. Gene had very sweet eyes. He was not much older than Cherri but he was quite good at managing the dice, he always sort of took care of her and would never let her get in too deep, not that there was much danger, it was only the two-dollar table. Harmony was sort of hoping for a run, maybe she would get wildly lucky and win back all the money Denny had stolen, but it didn’t happen, she crapped out on only the third roll and lost seven dollars.

  Cherri tried to figure it out but she was having no luck, craps was beyond her. Even though Gene tried to quickly explain to her what all the lines meant it happened too quickly for Cherri, she didn’t get it. But at least she got it that Gene was sweet. Harmony didn’t see any reason why there couldn’t be a romance there, Gene actually had a big crush on her but she had controlled herself for once and not encouraged it, just a little light flirting at the craps table between shows was all she allowed herself. She had a feeling that Gene was too young, he might get overwhelmed, after all he was not all that much older than Pepper’s boyfriend. Pepper would definitely be annoyed if she brought home a guy that young.

  Still, it was fun to hit the casino for a few minutes, she did it every night between shows and the guys at the two-dollar craps table definitely expected her. She wheeled in bringing a little glamour, which they seemed to appreciate, they all rooted for her when she got the dice and kept telling her she was due for a run any time although she had been doing it for a year or two and the most she had ever won was about seventy-five dollars, she was just not lucky at the tables.

  Actually it was where she had met Denny, he had noticed that she kept showing up so one night he intercepted her. Now that he had taken off the news had quickly got around. In particular there was a slot-machine mechanic named Dave who had begun taking his break just when she did. They had exchanged a few words a time or two, Dave had been a marine then a cowboy up in Montana but said the winters were too long so now he was fixing slot machines at the casino. He had a gray streak in his hair, kind of attractive. Harmony was just sort of keeping him on hold because she hadn’t actually quite given up on Denny, although it was kind of nice to know Dave took the trouble to hit the table just when she was due.

  Gene had figured that much out, he had a sizable crush and didn’t look too happy to see Dave, although he tried to be friendly. This time Harmony hung around a little longer, to give Gene time to notice Cherri, who was quite beautiful and a lot closer to his age. Harmony did let Dave put his arm around her as he was walking them out of the casino. He deserved that much reward for rearranging his break, plus she could use a tiny bit of comfort,
it had not exactly been one of her better days.

  At the Taco Belle Harmony used the pay phone to call Pepper, who of course wasn’t home—checking on Pepper was a good way to waste twenty cents. So she called Madonna to check on the Bonventre business and Madonna said, “Harmony, I’m worried, has she told you she’s engaged?”

  “What are you talking about?” Harmony said. “Pepper’s not engaged, she’s just going steady with Buddy.” Madonna said maybe it was all a joke then, Pepper was secretive and got angry if you asked her anything, she sounded quite disturbed, after all she had worked with Pepper since Pepper was five.

  “Bonventre still hates me, he criticized my ass,” Madonna said. She sounded like she had been crying.

  “Come on, cheer up, your ass is better than mine and I’m younger,” Harmony said. She went back and had her taco, feeling a little distracted, though she tried to listen to Cherri talk about her family. It seemed she had a little sister named Patti who had an equally good bosom and might be coming out to try and get in a show. Harmony thought it would be good for Cherri to have her sister for company, but the fact was she couldn’t keep her mind on what she was hearing, it was a little disturbing that there was a rumor going around that Pepper was engaged. She wasn’t really enjoying her taco, though she had been hungry when she ordered it. Too many things were happening at once, none of which she could honestly say she understood, such as Denny stealing the check. Why would he do that? What had she ever done but love him and actually try to do practically everything he had asked her to do, up to and including making love in a motorboat in her sleep goggles when she was basically scared out of her mind.

  Harmony did notice though while Cherri was going on about her family that a bunch of guys were sort of giving Cherri the eye, there were about five of them. They looked like they had maybe saved their money and rolled in from Texas or maybe New Mexico or somewhere for a little high life. They were taking time out to eat a little Mexican food and it was easy to see they were smitten by Cherri, they kept stealing looks which Cherri didn’t even notice in her homesickness. Harmony had noticed because at first she thought the looks were for her, that was usually the case if it was four or five guys. She was about to give them a nice smile, she had never seen anything wrong with guys looking, she liked to sort of repay them with a nice smile, not flirting exactly just a smile to be friendly, but then she did smile at one of them and he looked very startled, which was when she noticed it was Cherri they were interested in.