“Any thoughts?” Win asked.
“She'll talk to me,” Myron said. “Count on it.”
“I just tried to call her.”
“And?”
“No answer.”
“Did you try Big Cyndi?”
“She now rooms with Esperanza.”
No surprise. “What's today?” Myron asked.
“Tuesday.”
“Big Cyndi still bounces at Leather-N-Lust. She might be there.”
“During the day?”
Myron shrugged. “Sexual deviancy has no off hours.”
“Thank God,” Win said.
They fell into silence, the ship gently rocking them.
Win squinted into the sun. “Beautiful, no?”
Myron nodded.
“Must be sick of it after all this time.”
“Very,” Myron said.
“Come below deck. I think you'll be pleased.”
CHAPTER 3
Win had stocked the yacht with videos. They watched episodes of the old Batman show (the one with Julie Newmar as Cat Woman and Lesley Gore as Pussycat- double meow!), the Odd Couple (Oscar and Felix on Password), a Twilight Zone (“To Serve Man”), and for something more current, Seinfeld (Jerry and Elaine visit Jerry's parents in Florida). Forget pot roast. This was comfort food. But on the off chance that it wasn't substantial enough, there were also Doritos and Cheez Doodles and more Yoo-Hoos and even rewarmed pizza from Calabria's Pizzeria on Livingston Avenue.
Win. He might be a sociopath, but what a guy.
The effect of all this was beyond therapeutic, the time spent at sea and later in the air an emotional pressure chamber of sorts, a chance for Myron's soul to adjust to the bends, to the sudden reemergence into the real world.
The two friends barely spoke, except to sigh over Julie Newmar as Cat Woman (whenever she came on the screen in her tight black cat suit, Win said, “Puuuurrrrfect”). They'd both been five or six years old when the show first aired, but something about Julie Newmar as Cat Woman completely blew away any Freudian notions of latency.