When Grace went down to the swimming pool a few minutes later, Judi was already in the water cavorting with 50 year-old Ricky Karl. She really didn't know how the girl stood him. Although once allegedly a professional basketball player, the man's muscles had long since turned to fat. He was gross, insulting, crude and vulgar, and had an air about him which implied he could buy anyone or anything. As far as Grace was concerned, he was a criminal and should be in jail. It was common knowledge that, among other things, he was one of the area's biggest bookmakers. And it was also common knowledge that he carried a reserve policeman's badge from a nearby city and thus, presumably, was untouchable. He ingratiated himself with the police, giving them gifts of expensive shirts and sweaters taken from one of the warehouses that he rented to a major men's chain store. It was rumoured that he could fix anything, also rumoured that he had staged a burglary of one of his own warehouses in order to collect insurance. He was, in fact, a symbol of everything bad… something diametrically opposed to what Stan was fighting for in Vietnam.
But what Grace hated most about him was his arrogant assumption that all he had to do was crook a finger at a woman, and she would jump into bed with him. Some women, maybe, but not her! She would die first! He had come oozing up to her like some slimy animal in the pool and put his fat arm proprietarily around her shoulders. When she gave him a piece of her mind, he had laughed sardonically and called her, "Miss Frigidaire".
She had struck back the only way she knew, verbally wounding him by saying, "I'm not frigid… it's just that I think you're a fat, dirty old man. You just disgust me and you make my stomach turn."
His face had turned almost black in fury, then abruptly his demeanor changed and he became his oily ingratiating self again. Grace, though, had caught the look on his face. She knew she had made an enemy of him, and at first it had frightened her. Since then he had ignored her, but she could feel his stare burning holes in her back each time she went down to the pool.
Now she saw him look up as she walked down the steps into the water. His hooded eyes moved up and down her figure, locking themselves on the vee of her swim suit panties. He made a parody of licking his lips, then turned his back to her. A moment later he climbed out of the pool, leaned down to Judi and said something, then picked up his towel and waddled across the green toward his penthouse suite.
When he reached the edge of the grass, he was greeted boisterously by two men who had just walked through the portico. Both looked like criminals to Grace. One of them was obviously an ex-jockey, a little man with a sneaky, mean face. The other male was about medium height, pot-bellied, and smoked a long black cigar. He wore rings on three fingers of each hand. On a leash between them, a powerful looking German Shepherd dog sniffed once at Ricky Karl and then dismissed him as being not important.
Grace caught the dog's action and smiled knowingly, "That's just exactly how I feel about him, too, Pup."
Judi swam over to her. "Ricky heard about our office party at Bay Meadows Race Track on Thursday night. He offered to buy all of us a drink. Isn't that sweet of him?"
"He can keep his liquor," Grace answered.
The two girls floated quietly side by side in the water. Judi broke the silence. "What are you going to wear tomorrow night?"
"I really haven't thought about it." If the truth be known, she wasn't too eager to go to the track with the rest of the staff. The management was picking up the tab for admission and meals and drinks, but the entire affair seemed such a waste of time. Grace didn't intend to bet any of her hard-earned money. A more boring evening she couldn't imagine. But, as newly appointed Office Manager, she felt the obligation to attend.
Judi began chattering away about the various merits of the different dresses she had, their effects on men, how women reacted to them (usually jealously), and how much each of them had cost.
Grace listened with only about a quarter of her mind's attention. She day-dreamed, thinking of how nice it would be to suddenly inherit a lot of money from a previously unheard-of uncle or aunt… or win one of the soap company sweepstakes which would pay $50,000 cash or $400 each month for the rest of her life. She could imagine the happy look on Stan's face when he came home and discovered she had purchased a house and furnished it just the way they had always dreamed – with a nursery and a big formal dining room and an all-electric modern kitchen…
"… and so I told her, 'Well, lady, he's your husband. Why don't you tie a bell around his neck so you'll know where he is?' And she says to me, 'If I catch you again with my husband, I'll…'" Judi continued yapping happily away about her uncomplicated life.
Grace, feeling the buoyancy of the water holding her effortlessly up simply let her body and mind drift. In the house, there would be a bathroom with a sunken tub, a huge fireplace with lots of cushions tossed about so guests could lie on the floor in comfort if they chose. Of course, it's all just a wonderful dream, she thought, but there's no harm in dreaming.
She was too young, too innocent to know yet that some dreams can be treacherous – especially those where one wants something for nothing, with no effort or will power expended. Dreams like these should be handled carefully – like a rattlesnake – and not be cuddled too close to the heart.