Three Women
“An archetypal lesbian pulp fiction novel of the ‘50s, dynamic and compelling, a top pick classic.” —Katherine Forrest, author, Lesbian Pulp FictionUnconventional, even immoral, behavior certainly is not rare in Manhattan art circles. But what was going on in the menage of the Byrne woman raised eyebrows even of the most broadminded… “Someday,” Paula said, “perhaps we can live together and share this every night.” “Like a married couple?” Byrne laughed. “See me off to work? Have supper ready when I come home?” “You’re teasing me.” “Not at all. I hadn’t realized just how conventional you really are.” She rolled Paula to one side of the bed and nipped her earlobe playfully. “It’s not convention.” “Maybe not. What would you call it?” “Love.” “I thought you hated the way your folks lived. Isn’t that what you told me?” “It isn’t like that,” Paula said with distaste. “First of all, you’re not poor.”
Читать Three Women онлайн беплатно
In 1950, Fawcett founded the Gold Medal imprint, inaugurating the era of lesbian pulp fiction. These were the books that small town lesbians and prurient men bought by the millionsâcheap, easy to find in drugstores, and immediately recognizable by their lurid covers. For lesbians, here was the confirmation that they were not alone and that darkly glamorous, âgayâ places like Greenwich Village existed. In the over-heated prose typical of the genre, these books document the emergence of a lesbian subculture in postwar America.
Table of Contents
He lurched at her from the doorway. Flakes of snow glistened on his straggled eyebrows. She smelled the stench of whiskey in his clothes.
âGo on, mister. Keep moving.â Paula jostled him away with her free hand and hurried along First Avenue. The freezing streets were slippery beneath her boots but she plunged forward, splashing into lakes of snow and ice gathered at the curb. She hated these winter nights worse than the steaming nights of summer. The wind tore savagely at her face. It seeped in past the woolen scarf and settled bitterly around her neck beneath the chestnut hair. As far as she could see the Avenue was black and lonely. But she knew that men huddled in corners, some asleep and not feeling the cold, others alerted by wild visions more fantastic than the freezing, howling night around her.
With the container of milk hugged close, she hurried into the entrance of the tenement and through the narrow hall strewn with garbage the kids had pulled out of cans. She clomped up the three flights lighted by weak bulbs and let herself into the apartment. This wasnât home to her. It was the place where Ma and Pa and Mike and she happened to live because it was cheaper for everyone to live together there.
She set the package on the small table in the foyer and hung up her coat and scarf on the hook beside Mikeâs leather jacket.
âThat you, Paula?â Her mother called from where she stood at the stove, moving a big wooden spoon in a pot of rice.
You could see the kitchen from the foyer. You could see the bedroom beyond the kitchen where Mike sat cross-legged, reading an airplane magazine like he was in his own private library on Fifth Avenue.
âI just made it,â Paula said, breathing on the tips of her fingers to get out the sting. âHe was just about closing when I got there.â She brought in the paper bag and pulled out the container of milk.
Why did her Pa always have to get his attacks late at night? Why didnât he stop drinking so he could eat meals like a normal person? She wanted to respect him but it was hard not to get angry at a man who insisted on killing himself, eating away his stomach with poison that didnât even give him pleasure anymore. She poured milk into a saucepan and set it on the stove beside the rice.
âI wish we could keep some extra around for times like this,â Paula said. She didnât want to tell her mother about the nastiness with that man outside. When a girl gets to be eighteen, thereâs no excuse for being afraid. You comb your hair down long around your shoulders and wear the kind of clothes that show off your body so that men will look at you. And you just hope theyâre the right kind of men. If it happens to be the other kind, you fight your way through and hope for better next time. Because, she guessed, thatâs life.
Paula took a bowl from the cabinet on the wall and held it while her mother spooned in a mushy helping of rice, straining the starchy water out against the side of the dented pot. Then she spilled the warm milk on top and set the bowl on the checked oilcloth that covered the kitchen table.
âYour fatherâs in the bedroom. Why donât you go see if he wants to eat?â
For the first time, Paula smiled. She knew her mother was thinking the same thing she was thinking. But Ma was the kind of woman who never told her husband what to do.
âSure, Ma,â she murmured with sudden softness. Her mother had black hair that she wore braided and coiled on the back of her head. It was the one really neat thing in the whole place and Paula liked to look at it sometimes. It made her feel ladylike and uncluttered and gentle to look at her motherâs shining hair.
In the bedroom her father lay on his side, knees pulled up almost to his chin. He bit his lip and squinted at the wall, mute with pain. Heavy flowered curtains at the window made the room seem smaller and warmer. The silver crucifix above the bed glowed with half-reflections from other rooms. Paula sat down beside her father and put a hand lightly on his arm.
âPa,â she said softly. âPa, you want to come in and have something? Youâll feel better.â She didnât know why she should feel sorry for him. For that matter, Paula didnât know how she could hate and love him at the same time, but she did.
