pelted him with handballs, badminton birdies, medicine balls, and basketballs. They even fell to rolling a shot put at his feet, aiming for the arches. They were disturbed.
8.
The king fucked the queen on two successive nights, keeping the lights on throughout copulation on both occasions. He was obviously disturbed.
9.
âI like a plucky faggot, he breathlessly confided to the queen after each of her orgasms. After his own, however, he remained silent.
10.
The queen, pondering both his remark and the timing of his silences, had difficulty sleeping. At breakfast following their second night of love, she asked her husband,âHave you ever performed a sex act with a man? Or with a boy?
âMy dear, he answered.âI once caught and screwed a loon. Unforgettable! Jesus, I had an appetite! he bellowed, heading swiftly for court.
11.
The three princes were already there, waiting nervously for him to arrive. They wanted to know beforehand how the king was going to handle this one. In this matter, they each had a private ambition for the kingâs policy. The oldest son was named Orgone. He was a well-known wrestler and bachelor. The second son, Dread, drove sports cars and was a big-game hunter. The third prince was named Egress (the Wild), a bad drunk, melancholy, a favorite of those fallen from grace of any kind. He was rumored to be dying of consumption. He kept a brace of fighting cocks and a kennel of Staffordshire pit bull terriers and wrote very successful, leather-rock song lyrics.
12.
The story is about all these people, then: the queen, of course, and the king, the youth in the slick green suit, Orgone, Dread, young Egress, and the loon. The queenâs name was Naomi Ruth, the kingâs name was Egress (the Hearty, sometimes the Bluff). The youth in the slick green suit had many names, all, as it will later turn out, aliases. And the loon was called Loon, sometimes Lone, Lon, Lonnie, lâ Ange, Lawn, Lune.
2
1.
Naomi Ruth languished alone among the gin-and-tonics afternoon after afternoon. Oh, she knew she was a card, but who was there to enjoy it? Besides, she never hit her stride till after three P.M . and her fourth gin-and-tonic, and by then everyone else was at court. Except, of course, for the servants, whose rapt attention had thankfully been guaranteed by their station.
2.
She told the slender, hard-muscled wine steward everything she could recall of her childhoodâgazebos, cupolas, domesticated animals with names like Donkey, Fru-fru, Fluff, and Jingle, her friendly fatherâs ruddy face as he swung her over his white-haloed head, brushing her back against the cloudless sky, meadows strewn with dipping daisies, golden twilights, lemonade, Mamma, Dilsey, Bubberâ¦
âJesus, Your Majesty, youâre a card! the steward laughed, wiping away tears.âI mean it, he said, suddenly serious.
âDo you? Do you really ? she queried intently.âI mean, do you really think that?
âYeah. Youâre a right-on queen. Want another drink?
âWhy the hell not? she answered throatily.âPour.
3.
Sprawled naked across the wine steward, her white body splayed like a fallen birch, she asked him, in a detached, impersonal way, as if she were asking herselfâWhat if you were afraid that your husband was gay? Assuming you had a husband, of course. What would you do ? What would you feel ? she asked herself.
âWell, the steward answered.âYou just never know about these things. I mean, I once knew this rabbi who surprised everyone by going into his fatherâs business. A coat manufacturer. Itâs like that.
4.
The wine steward, lighting both their cigarettes with a single match, to Naomi Ruth, the two of them lying on their backs on the llama skins that covered the floor,âLots of men switch careers in mid-career, as it were. A lot depends on the manâs P-factor, the amount of pain he can endure, if you know what I mean. The important