Free Marry Me by John Updike

said, ‘My boyfriend liked Last Year at Marienbad but I thought it was terrible. The bushes didn’t have any shadows. “They call this art,” I said to him, and he said, “It is art.” ’
    The Avis girl called over, ‘There’s a new Doris Day and Rock Hudson downtown that everybody likes.’
    Jerry said, ‘I love Doris Day. Hollywood should let her sing more.’ It saddened Sally to see how easily he talked with women, any women.
    Gina put down the phone and said, ‘Alice, they have one just came in they’ll let go.’
    And Alice, sweet chinless Alice with her easily pleased boyfriend, smiled bucktoothed and said, ‘There you are, sir. She’ll take care of you.’
    ‘Don’t forget me,’ the man who had to go to Newark said.
    Jerry turned to the man, blushed, and explained, ‘My wife and I, I guess, would prefer to drive alone.’
    The man stepped forward and shook Jerry’s hand.‘My name’s Fancher. I make my home in Elizabeth, New Jersey and I’m in the chemical additives line. I don’t want to pressure you one way or another, but it would be a great kindness to me if I could ride along.’
    Jerry gracefully clapped his long hand to the top of his head and said, ‘Well, let’s think about it. Let me get the car first.’
    He dropped his Hertz credit card on Gina’s desk and she explained that since this was an Avis car she would need a cash deposit of twenty-five dollars.
    ‘But we don’t have twenty-five dollars, do we?’ Jerry asked Sally.
    ‘The tickets,’ she said.
    Fancher stepped forward. ‘You want twenty-five dollars?’
    She and Jerry studied each other, and the romance of driving together alone under moonlight, towards midnight and their fate, hung between them like a painted screen. ‘I’ll cash in the tickets,’ he said, ‘I’ll turn that girl’s hair really grey.’ To Gina he said, ‘I’ll be back in ten minutes.’ To Sally he said, ‘You wait here and guard the car.’ He winced apologetically in Fancher’s face and flew away.
    Long minutes passed. Mr Fancher stayed with her silently, touching his moustache, guarding her while she guarded the phantom automobile. The three girls, in the lull that had settled over their islands, chatted back and forth, about boyfriends and bathing suits. Sally felt dizzy. The acid taste kept rising in her throat; she felt sick of love. Love, love was what had clogged the world, it was love that refused to let the planes leave, love that hid her children from her, love that made her husbandlook senile in profile. Fancher hovered close to her; he was in the chemical additives line and should be in Newark, yet she had promised to love and obey this man till death did them part. Dear God, let go. She held herself very upright and quiet, wondering if she would throw up. The cement floor was littered with cigarette filters and heel marks. The green girl from National was saying that she didn’t think she had the right figure for a bikini, being so tall, but her boyfriend bought her one for a joke, and now she wouldn’t wear anything else, it felt so free.
    Red-faced from running, Jerry came back, Jerry with his sun-burned nose and elusive eyes and his beautiful look of being a kite. ‘Forget it,’ he announced, making a triumphant V with his arms, and including all four women in his emblematic embrace. To Fancher he said, ‘You can have the car. Good luck in Newark.’ He touched Sally’s arm and told her, ‘The girl at United says there’s going to be a section and to see a name she gave me.’ He showed her a slip of paper on which a hasty female hand had scribbled the one word ‘Cardomon’.
    ‘Have you seen him yet?’
    ‘No, he wasn’t there at the moment. Let’s go back and find him.’
    ‘Jerry your suitcase.’
    ‘Oh. Right. God, you’re so competent, Sally.’
    Fancher said, ‘You said there’s a section? Then I don’t want the car either.’ He knifed past them and, moving with a quickness surprising in a stout