The Evening Star Read Online Free PDF Page A

you’d find a better class of old soldier in some of the nicer military homes,” Aurora said, wondering why she was bothering to keep such an unedifying conversation going. Hector clearly wasn’t eager to commence negotiations with a military home.
    “You aren’t listening,” the General said. “The point I’m making is that there are no old soldiers in military homes. The old soldiers have all died. There are only old soldiers’ widows —talk about living forever. Some of those old biddies look like they’re three hundred years old. I’ve seen them with my own eyes. Battle of the Somme, nothing—some of those widows probably knew Napoleon.”
    “Hector, I’m sure that’s not possible,” Aurora said. However, her vision of Hector playing golf with a number of trim ex-officers blurred suddenly, to be replaced with the less appealing vision of Hector playing bridge with a number of vivacious widows.
    “Besides that, they’re the horniest women in the world,” the General said. “Their husbands were never around much to begin with, and then they died—those women are looking to make up for lost time. They’d be on me like sharks—I wouldn’t last a month.”
    Then the General remembered a particular widow he had once encountered in Washington, and his own vision of aged biddies dissolved. This widow, a lively Southern blonde, had seduced him immediately, without even suggesting that he leave his wife and marry her. “What the heck, Hec,” she said, the minute they entered her apartment. “Let’s have a little fun.”
    The General had not thought of the woman in years—her name had been Lily something. A lot of time had passed, but it seemed to him that they had had quite a bit of fun. It had been the only easy seduction of his entire life; he hadn’t hadto do a thing except undress. Seducing Aurora, on the other hand, had taken the better part of five years, and what had it got him, other than constant harassment?
    The General’s vision of life in a military home came back into focus, only this time it was a much more pleasant vision, with Lily in it. She hadn’t been especially old, then. Perhaps she was still around; perhaps she was even still interested in fun. And if she wasn’t, so what? There must be other attractive widows in some of those homes.
    The thought made him smile, and Aurora saw the smile. She realized she had been a little dense in allowing her own imagination to people the military homes of America entirely with trim colonels—the only kind of colonels she herself would have been likely to take an interest in. There would also be widows, a few of whom might also have remained trim themselves. Some might even have remained quite attractive. Hector obviously thought so, or he wouldn’t be grinning like an idiot. Her spirits began to slide, and the General noticed.
    “Ha,” he said. “Hoist on your own petard, am I right? You were ready to pack me off, but you overlooked one big fact: women live longer than men.”
    “Normally, I suppose you’re right, although any number have failed to live longer than you,” Aurora said, “Your dear wife, for example. She didn’t live longer than you, and it’s unlikely I shall myself, considering how much you enjoy breaking my heart.”
    “The sledgehammer has yet to be forged that could break your goddamn heart,” the General said crisply. “I had an affair in a military home once, if you must know. I tell you that so you’ll realize I won’t just be drooling on golf courses if you pack me off. I intend to find a girlfriend within a week if you carry out that threat.”
    It had been, Aurora reflected, a highly unsuccessful conversation. The bitterest cut had been Hector’s smile. Every day she flashed him her best lights, offered him her gaiety, her optimism, her mischief, her fun. It seemed to her no small thing that she could continue to summon any mischiefor any fun at her age, considering all the grief she’d had with