| Below is a short-short story, clipped from the | | | | frivolous, they are as hopeless as young animals, |
| novel manuscript still and occasionally under | | | | thoughtless and destructive. With their mercenary |
| construction called Grass Mats, the story is of the | | | | instincts awakened, the distant sea-roar of profit |
| Wallach family's translocation from Europe to the | | | | animates the stodgiest of merchants to new life |
| wilds of Oklahoma. The short-short is a vignette | | | | whose commercial ethic counsels them, good |
| of an Oklahoma University college girl's astonishing | | | | Christians, smilingly to tolerate anything that will |
| tour of the Campus Drug Store. She has a | | | | end in a sale. |
| milkshake glass in her hand. Nothing extraordinary | | | | Of all the places she might have gone the girl with |
| except this particular milk-shake glass seems to | | | | the exotic car bearing out-of-state license plates |
| have a life all its own! | | | | chose Campus Drugs! Noting this through the |
| A Strawberry Milkshake, Please! | | | | catatonic fog that had me, before curiosity |
| She tucked her sparkling Austin-Healey against the | | | | moved my feet across the road, firstly to admire |
| kerb (as its British manufacturers would have | | | | the machine she had so recently abandoned, it |
| described it) with a faint metallic sound. Satisfied, | | | | dawned on me - the thought flashed through me |
| and with no thought whatever for the keys she | | | | like a jolt of lightning, we are short of aspirin! No |
| left dangling in the ignition, the girl slid over the | | | | scratches either on the bumper, or on the |
| door's low curve, both feet together in trim white | | | | underside of the fender as far as I could see, and |
| tennis shoes into which she had tucked her bobby | | | | there it was! |
| socks all landing together in a whisper on the | | | | On its way in the wheel on the driver's side had |
| earth-red brick road. Every head, already having | | | | flattened a tin can! |
| witnessed the flamboyant parking job that by | | | | Pushing the glass-paned door of Campus Drugs |
| now was history, turned to regard the girl herself | | | | with as much confidence as I could muster, I |
| - white shorts, pastel turquoise halter top, her | | | | heard a chesty, vibrant voice say "A strawberry |
| body magnificently tanned, her skin as bright as | | | | milkshake, please - no malt!" |
| light, eyes wide open to the spectacular Oklahoma | | | | The mixer slowing after prolonged rotation, the |
| early autumn afternoon. | | | | cone-shaped glass In one hand now, with skin as |
| The parking spot she picked was unique. All the | | | | smooth as Michelangelo marble she carried her |
| other spots that were actual parking places were | | | | milkshake as though she were making fun of |
| taken - and where she had chosen to stick her | | | | gravity. The heavy cone-shaped glass slewed in all |
| car was no parking place at all: it was a fire | | | | directions. It had a life of its own such as would |
| department tow-away zone a shabby fire | | | | have moved any three-year-old to joy and |
| hydrant protected. Aslant on top of the concrete | | | | fountains of laughter. Immortally slender, curly |
| slab where it stood, it had a swagger to it like a | | | | dark hair cascading down shoulders smooth and |
| small watch-tower emphasizing the dangers | | | | strong, everything about her, starting with the |
| implicit in putting a car where the girl had so | | | | car, acknowledged "Yes, I'm lithe, rich, young and |
| insouciently put hers. The weathered hydrant | | | | beautiful and I know life is quite as wonderful as I |
| appeared all the more shabby and hopelessly futile | | | | am!" She was moving leisurely along Doc's isles, |
| compared with the stunning finish of the | | | | head turning from side to side like someone at |
| brand-new car, red leather seats making the | | | | the net watching a tennis match. She took |
| white convertible all the more wonderful. "There is | | | | semi-conscious pulls of the straw in her milkshake |
| red and there is red," bystanders were thinking | | | | as she carefully examined Doc's merchandise. |
| while the car gave off the little pings new cars | | | | Eyes twinkling, her face was luscious skin, |
| seem obliged to do when they cool. | | | | peaches-and-cream nourished by illimitable skies of |
| Hensley's Music Album was the building just behind | | | | sweet pure prairie air. Her fingernails and matching |
| the shabby red bulldog hydrant. Was she shopping | | | | ruby lips, her interest's intensity parted them |
| for records? No. Delicately tracing the curve of | | | | slightly, the promise of a dazzling smile her teeth |
| her car's front fender with the fingertips of her | | | | so bright they would make envy weep, she |
| right hand, she stepped from the level of the | | | | looked like a movie star, voluptuousness in a |
| road onto the high sidewalk, a storm-drain | | | | rhapsodic tug of war with coltish youth. Quick |
| elevating both walk and the fire-fighter perched | | | | clumsy jolts broke the rhythm of her body's flow |
| on it. Turning in an easy stride in the direction of | | | | of movement quite as naturally as water jetting |
| the "Campus Corner," she was obviously after | | | | over rocks, the bounce young animals share in an |
| bigger game than dawdling in Hensley's and | | | | immemorial joy of mutual admiration. |
| listening to records. | | | | She fixed Doc with a gaze unimaginably direct. |
| Campus Corner was for local merchants what | | | | "Can you get me som'a these slippahs lined with |
| Park Place and Boardwalk are on a Monopoly | | | | mink 'steada this fake silk?" She was holding |
| board: prime real estate. The wide welcoming | | | | bathroom slippers by a string that identified them |
| windows of the corner's shops afford a sweeping | | | | as a pair. "I seen some jus' like'm at |
| view of twin towers a pair that marks the | | | | Neiman-Marcus th'otha day when daddy took me |
| frontier between town and campus. It is all very | | | | out shoppin'. |
| stately, shops standing together in the manner of | | | | "'Hey, shuga' says he, 'Go own, git 'um if ya wont |
| close friends, their façades reminiscent of | | | | to! Hell, I just oahdud m' self three pair'a Justin |
| smiling faces mixing good will towards men with | | | | boots, so you deserve a lil' sup'm t'putcha y'own |
| the confidence success brings with it, all of this | | | | feet in; such sweet lil' feet, I swan!' |
| mystified a bit by the proximity of otherworldly | | | | "Then dumb me, I says, 'Oh Daddy, I'm so happy |
| goings on just across the road from the worldly | | | | with the cute lil' spoats cah yuh got me th'otha |
| Campus Corner. | | | | day I could just die! I love mah new Austin-Healey! |
| Good will towards men, most particularly young | | | | sooo white an' so pretty. Thank you, Daddy! I |
| affluent ones: fraternity and sorority members | | | | don' woant a single otha thing, not even sup'm as |
| most definitely welcome in specialty shops | | | | cute as these lil' slippahs ah!'" |
| conceived in their image. Coffee, cakes, burgers | | | | Doc's suffering was evident! Eyes glued to the |
| and fries, greeting cards and mannequins gotten | | | | milkshake his mind was far away: nothing audible, |
| up next door in penny loafers, plaid skirts, and | | | | yet you knew he was groaning. Will she pour her |
| cashmere sweaters; lonely for company behind | | | | strawberry milkshake all over my bath |
| their panoramic windows, they leaned in a static | | | | accessories, or not? His emotive concerns were |
| display of interest in the sporty slacks and | | | | like a banner in the wind, a Leitmotif in contention |
| jackets laid out tastefully all around them - | | | | with doc's jaw muscles pumping time in |
| everything in the new fall colors. | | | | high-speed calculation: Cannibalize the wife's mink |
| The town, without the university population is a | | | | stole? Could he think of someone competent |
| sleepy village, which doubles in size when the | | | | enough to sew the pieces in? Glue them? Should |
| students flock in from all over the world - a fact | | | | he phone Neiman-Marcus? A primal scream |
| the townspeople loathe and love. Their stern | | | | crossed his face and in its wake, a solemn prayer: |
| prairie religion tells them rich kids from | | | | "Help me, oh God help me, please!" Although his |
| everywhere but here, foreign professors too, are | | | | lips moved, no sound came through them. |
| misfits full of crazy ideas - subversives such as | | | | In a crash like thunder, I returned to |
| grovel on their bellies to strange gods. The | | | | consciousness for the first time since having seen |
| money, though, that some of these questionable | | | | her, the young woman's eyes locked onto mine; |
| young people shake off, like water freshly bathed | | | | in a miracle my sense of helplessness took wing |
| dogs spend - it fires the imaginations of the | | | | and I felt my body return to me in oblivion's |
| merchants until their greed - pitiless beast, | | | | wake, the awful numbness would have stunned |
| devours them. The contortions merchants go | | | | me had I noticed it - I felt myself smile and heard |
| through to make a sale is notoriously one of the | | | | my voice say, although it sounded like a stranger's |
| better shows in town. Their village sensibilities | | | | "Doc, we're out of aspirin. I'll take a bottle of |
| want the kids out of their shops - now! Messy, | | | | Bayer, please, a bottle of fifty! |
