Chapter 38 – Shim Screws up His Courage
Shim had tried to learn compartmentalization from Roger because he knew Roger was good at it. Instead he had learned a different, though no less important lesson, about how men are second class citizens when it comes to hanging out with sexy women. Knowing he is mush when it comes to resisting such a creature’s wishes (often devious though not always so) had taken the pressure off him and allowed him to concentrate on being the best pile of mush he could be. Shim wasn’t sure what percentage of this lesson he had learned from Roger and what percentage from the dog, but that didn’t matter; he had learned it.
From this point forward he could concentrate on Laleh’s other characteristics, knowing he had no control over the sex thing. In that department he would take what he was given. What were Laleh’s other characteristics? Surely there are things other than her silky straight hair, hooked behind her ears, and more than that spot high on her neck behind her right ear that he covets more than a novel twenty weeks on the NY Times best seller list. And there is more than watching the slightly asymmetrical jig and hitch that results when her femurs rotate in her hips which applies torque to both sides of her pelvis which articulates her glutes into that mesmerizing swing that is better than Duke Ellington playing his best stuff at The Cotton Club. There is something more than that, right? Yes, there is.
Laleh has that sacred combination of self-confidence and lack of self-consciousness that has been prized and praised by personality connoisseurs through the ages. How can someone have great faith in their judgments and actions while at the same time be oblivious to themselves as entities in space and time? Most people can’t, but Laleh can. Laleh does. When she decided to steal The Aya’s money and leave her family and native land and live a different life, she planned the theft, but not what was to happen afterwards. That's self-confidence. And when she stands and talks with people, she simply doesn’t see herself as separate from them and the environment that surrounds them. All of those pieces and parts of her existence then and there are melded into a flow of talk and being and thinking and feeling. She gives everything she has to those seconds and minutes and hours of her life in relation to the other people and things which are within her physical and psychological orbit. She is special, and Shimmey loves that about her. He feels the envelope of her around him and their friends and around the streets and houses and trees of the place where they live and breathe. He loves her ass, but he loves the rest of her, too.
Laleh was sipping her third glass of riesling in the June’s kitchen when her phone rang. “Hi.”
“Hi Laleh.”
“Hi Shim.”
“Will you be at The Hall tomorrow morning? I’d like to see you.”
“Yes. And I’d like to see you. I’ll be there. What time will you come?”
“Eleven. Is that ok? I want to write a little in the morning.”
“Yes. That’s ok. See you then.”
Gwen looked across the table at her, but didn’t say anything. She and Laleh did the telepathy thing, with Roger watching and wishing he could be part of that. He could do it with the dog, and with Gwen, but not with anyone else. Gwenny did it with a lot of people. Gwen vibed, “How’s he doing? Is he writing?”
Laleh vibed back, “Yes, the book is coming. He loves the story of your ballet production, all the people that were involved in addition to Pete Townshend, and the conflict with Stirg. He talks with Jinny and Gale about what happened almost as much as he does with you.”
“He talks with us, but we didn’t know if he was getting it down on paper. I’m glad. He was stuck there for a while.”
“The stuff he writes is very funny. It’s subtle and a little idiosyncratic and intellectual, which maybe is why he hasn’t sold millions of copies, but I like it. I never really know what’s going to come out of his mouth. The other day he wanted to talk about Plato, and I said, who? It's some Greek guy, and I asked if he was a chef, because I like Greek food, and he said, yeah, a chef, and he got his nickname yelling at his sous chefs all the time to plate the fucking food while it’s still hot and get it out the door to the customer. Later that night I looked him up on the internet and found out he’s a famous philosopher. That’s what I like about Shim; he’s a nice blend of serious and not serious. He knows when to be one and when to be the other.”
“He’s nice looking, too” vibed Gwen.
“Yes.”
“Have you two....?”
“No. He acted like he liked me, and then didn’t like me. Like he wanted to be around me, but after a while he always left. Before we could, you know, develop a feel for each other. But I think that’s changed. Ever since he started writing again he’s been looser. I kinda feel he’s interested in me in a different way.”
Gwen stopped the telepathy with Laleh and fired it up with Roger, who was feeling left out of the conversation. “What did you tell Shim when you went for the walk?”
He vibed back, “Nothing really. The dog told him the deal about being with good looking sexy women, that’s all.”
“What exactly did the dog tell him?”
“Lay off it Gwenny. It doesn’t become you, the innocent stuff. You babes do your thing and we get what's left. That’s what we told him; for his own good.”
Gwen turned off the communication with Roger and turned in back on with Laleh; sort of like changing stations. “They told Shim the truth about being with someone like you, which is good. Now he can be himself. That’s why he’s looser. He’ll be knocking at the door soon. Let him in.”
“Who’s they? Roger and who else?”
“The dog. He knows the score, has good judgment about things.”
“The dog talks?”
“He never did it with you, all those walks you’ve taken?”
Laleh got up from the table, went out the back door and down the steps to the walled garden where the dog was talking with the neighbor’s cat sitting on the wall. After a few minutes she came back into the kitchen and said, “He didn’t know I could do it and thought it would be impolite to just start up with me that way. We didn’t really need it. We made friends the old fashion way. But now we both know.”
Gwen said, “You going to see Shim tomorrow morning?”
“Yes, at The Hall. He wants to talk about something.”
“I’ll bet he does.”
The Ayatollah's Money Page 38