After dinner we came back and we talked. She was a health food addict and didn’t eat meat except for chicken and fish. It certainly worked for her.

“Hank,” she said, “tomorrow I’m going to clean your bathroom.” “All right,” I said over my drink.

“And I must do my exercises every day. Will that bother you?” “No, no.”

“Will you be able to write while I’m fussing around here?” “No problem.”

“I can go for walks.”

“No, not alone, not in this neighborhood.”

“I don’t want to interfere with your writing.”

“There’s no way I can stop writing, it’s a form of insanity.”

Katherine came over and sat by me on the couch. She seemed more a girl than a woman. I put down my drink and kissed her, a long, slow kiss. Her lips were cool and soft. I was very conscious of her long red-brown hair. I pulled away and had another drink. She confused me. I was used to vile drunken wenches.

We talked for another hour. “Let’s go to sleep,” I told her, “I’m tired.” “Fine. I’ll get ready first,” she said.

I sat drinking. I needed more to drink. She simply was too much. “Hank,” she said, “I’m in bed.”

“All right.”

I went into the bathroom and undressed, brushed my teeth, washed my face and hands. She came all the way from Texas, I thought, she came on a plane just to see me and now she’s in my bed, waiting.

I didn’t have any pyjamas. I walked toward the bed. She was in a nightie. “Hank,” she said, "we have about 6 days when it’s safe, then we’ll have to think of something else.”

I got into bed with her. The little girl-woman was ready. I pulled her towards me. Luck was mine again, the gods were smiling. The kisses became more intense. I placed her hand on my cock and then pulled up her nightie. I began to play with her cunt. Katherine with a cunt? The clit came out and I touched it gently, again and again. Finally, I mounted. My cock entered halfway. It was very tight. I moved it back and forth, then pushed. The remainder of my cock slid in. It was glorious. She gripped me. I moved and her grip held. I tried to control myself. I stopped stroking and waited to cool off. I kissed her, working her lips apart, sucking at the upper lip. I saw her hair spread wide across the pillow. Then I gave up trying to please her and simply fucked her, ripping viciously. It was like murder. I didn’t care; my cock had gone crazy. All that hair, her young and beautiful face. It was like raping the Virgin Mary. I came. I came inside of her, agonizing, feeling my sperm enter her body, she was helpless, and I shot my come deep into her ultimate core—body and soul—again and again. . . .

Later on, we slept. Or Katherine slept. I held her from the back. For the first time I thought of marriage. I knew that there certainly were flaws in her that had not surfaced. The beginning of a relationship was always the easiest. After that the unveiling began, never to stop. Still, I thought of marriage. I thought of a house, a dog and a cat, of shopping in supermarkets. Henry Chinaski was losing his balls. And didn’t care.

At last I slept. When I awakened in the morning Katherine was sitting on the edge of the bed brushing those yards of red– brown hair. Her large dark eyes looked at me as I awakened. “Hello, Katherine,” I said, “will you marry me?”

“Please don’t,” she said, “I don’t like it.” “I mean it.”

“Oh, shit, Hank!”

“What?”

“I said, ‘shit,’ and if you talk that way I’m taking the first plane out.” “All right.”

“Hank?”

“Yes?”

I looked at Katherine. She kept brushing her long hair. Her large brown eyes looked at me, and she was smiling. She said, “It’s just sex, Hank, it’s just sex!” Then she laughed. It wasn’t a sardonic laugh, it was really joyful. She brushed her hair and I put my arm around her waist and rested my head against her leg. I wasn’t quite sure of anything.