Colin piped in: “She must be a little cuckoo to let you put her in
that getup, though. Wait, is she retarded?”
“She’s not retarded,” Partment replied, “Just the opposite.
She’s…I don’t know. Have you spoken with her?”
The truth was, no one had spoken with her. Every time anyone
tried to engage her in conversation she would just smile, look deeply
in their eyes, and then look away. It did not come off as rude, though.
She seemed terribly shy—an attribute hard to reconcile with her
outfit.
Leona watched from behind the counter. As attention swirled
around the new woman, her breathing became labored, as if a great
weight were pushing air from her lungs. Bennie came over to help her
with the coffee. He was beaming about the way things were going,
confident that San Simon would bless them with good fortune after
such a fête.
“Four cappuccinos, mama,” Bennie said to her, putting his thin
arm around her thick waist, “Check it out! We’re in business!” But
Leona said nothing. Bennie saw that she was down.
“Don’t worry,” he said, “This will still be our special place. These
people ain’t gonna ruin it. If they do, we’ll throw them out. We don’t
need them. This is our neighborhood. This ain’t Disneyland.”
She watched attentively as Roy approached the beautiful woman
and said a few words. She replied immediately. It was the first time
she had opened her mouth all night. Leona could not take her eyes off
her.
“No, Bennie,” Leona said grimly, “It waslike Disneyland. Now
it’s real. There’s danger. The danger of loss.” Fixing the cappuccinos,
she opened the pressure valve too high on the milk steamer, and a
foamy whiteness sprayed out in all directions.
“Thar she blows!” Colin cheered.
Niles took Roy aside to ask him what he had said to the girl to get her
talking. He confessed that it had been a very strange conversation.
He walked up to her and joked that her belly was unbuttoned. She
looked amazed and asked him, quite seriously, how he knew that. He
explained that it was a joke—pointing at the simulated navel on her
clothing. At first he thought she might be a bit slow, especially when
she burst out with an odd and inappropriate laugh. But then she
plainly confessed that under her clothes she really did not have a
belly button.
ABYSSINIA
58
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