XXXV. GLADYS

Not only was he very hungry but much more humiliating—

 

12,000 meters above the mountains that divide Argentina from Chile

 

with their long white gouges tracing

 

the red sandstone like a meringue pie—Geryon felt himself becoming aroused.

 

He was sitting in between Herakles and Ancash.

 

The plane was cold and they had an Aeroperu blanket thrown over

 

the three of them. Geryon was trying to read.

 

He had not realized until he found himself stranded in it high above the Andes

 

halfway to Lima that the novel he’d bought

 

in the Buenos Aires airport was pornographic. It made him furious with himself

 

to be stirred by dull sentences like,

 

Gladys slid a hand under her nightgown and began to caress her own thighs. Gladys!

 

He loathed the name. But his thighs

 

under the Aeroperu blanket were very warm. He snapped off the light

 

and shoved the book deep out of sight

 

in the seat pocket ahead of him. Sat back in the dark. On his left side Herakles

 

stirred in sleep. Ancash was motionless

 

on the right. Geryon tried to cross his knees but could not, then shifted sideways

 

to the left. He would pretend to be asleep

 

so he could lean against Herakles’ shoulder. The smell of the leather jacket near

 

his face and the hard pressure of Herakles’

 

arm under the leather sent a wave of longing as strong as a color through Geryon.

 

It exploded at the bottom of his belly.

 

Then the blanket shifted. He felt Herakles’ hand move on his thigh and Geryon’s

 

head went back like a poppy in a breeze

 

as Herakles’ mouth came down on his and blackness sank through him. Herakles’

 

hand was on his zipper. Geryon gave himself up

 

to pleasure as the aeroplane moved at 978 kilometers per hour through clouds

 

registering −57 degrees centigrade.

 

Two women with toothbrushes stumbled up the aisle in the reddish dawn dark.

 

These are all very fine passengers,

 

thought Geryon dreamily as he and the plane began descent to Lima. It filled him

 

with tenderness to see many of the people

 

had little red flush marks on their cheeks where they had slept with faces

 

pressed to the seat cushion. Gladys!