Free Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy Page A

a dais to the right a string trio was
     playing.
    He walked to the far end of the bar. When he put his hand on the rail the barman was
     already there placing a napkin.
    Good evening sir, he said.
    Evenin. I'll have a Old Grandad and water back.
    Yessir.
    The barman moved away. John Grady put his boot on the polished brass footrail and he
     watched the whores in the glass of the backbar. The men at the bar were mostly welldressed
     Mexicans with a few Americans dressed in flowered shirts of an intemperately thin cloth. A
     tall woman in a diaphanous gown passed through the salon like the ghost of a whore. A
     cockroach that had been moving along the counter behind the bottles ascended to the glass
     where it encountered itself and froze.
    He ordered another drink. The barman poured. When he looked into the glass again she was
     sitting by herself on a dark velvet couch with her gown arranged about her and her hands
     composed in her lap. He reached for his hat, not taking his eyes from her. He called for
     the barman.
    La cuenta por favor.
    He looked down. He remembered that he'd left his hat with the hostess at the door. He took
     out his wallet and pushed a fivedollar bill across the mahogany and folded the rest of the
     bills and put them in his shirtpocket. The barman brought the change and he pushed a
     dollar back toward him and turned and looked across the room to where she sat. She looked
     small and lost. She sat with her eyes closed and he realized that she was listening to the
     music. He poured the shot of whiskey into the glass of water and set the shotglass on the
     bar and took his drink and set out across the room.
    His faint shadow under the lights of the great glass tiara above them may have brought her
     from her reveries. She looked up at him and smiled thinly with her painted child's mouth.
     He almost reached for his hatbrim.
    Hello, he said. Do you care if I set down?
    She recomposed herself and smoothed her skirt to make room on the couch beside her. A
     waiter moved out from the shadows along the walls and laid down two napkins on the low
     glass table before them and stood.
    Bring me a Old Grandad and water back. And whatever she's drinkin.
    He nodded and moved away. John Grady looked at the girl. She leaned forward and smoothed
     her skirt again.
    Lo siento, she said. Pero no hablo inglŽs.
    Est‡ bien. Podemos hablar espa–ol.
    Oh, she said. QuŽ bueno.
    QuŽ es su nombre?
    Magdalena. Y usted?
    He didnt answer. Magdalena, he said.
    She looked down. As if the sound of her name were troubling to her.
    Es su nombre de pila? he said.
    S’. Por supuesto.
    No es su nombre . . . su nombre profesional.
    She put her hand to her mouth. Oh, she said. No. Es mi nombre propio.
    He watched her. He told her that he had seen her at La Venada but she only nodded and did
     not seem surprised. The waiter arrived with the drinks and he paid for them and tipped the
     man a dollar. She did not pick up her drink then or later. She spoke so softly he had to
     lean to catch her words. She said that the other women were watching but that it was
     nothing. It was only that she was new to this place. He nodded. No importa, he said.
    She asked why he had not spoken to her at La Venada. He said that it was because he was
     with friends. She asked him if he had a sweetheart at La Venada but he said that he did
     not.
    No me recuerda? he said.
    She shook her head. She looked up. They sat in silence.
    Cu‡ntos a–os tiene? he said.
    Bastantes.
    He said it was all right if she did not wish to say but she didnt answer. She smiled
     wistfully. She touched his sleeve. Fue mentira, she said. Lo que dec’a.
    C—mo?
    She said that it was a lie that she did not remember him. She said that he was standing at
     the bar and she thought that he would come to talk to her but that he had not and when she
     looked again he was gone.
    Verdad?
    S’.
    He said that she had not really lied. He said she'd only