2.(48-49) Is It - 2 Blondes? - More Fun in One Bed?

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48. Penny

Kimura stands and delivers his chair to the white-gowned blonde and takes one to her left. He suggests coffee or tea but Miss Kane shakes head No.
   She turns to Ali: “Pardon me, I hope you don’t mind the familiarity but I feel I know you.”

   Ali smiles: “I understand Miss Kane, uh, Kandy.”

   The singer extends her right hand. “Kandy Kane is not my real name. You may call me Penelope or Penny. Family name is Nicholls – two els.”

   “I’m Alison Le Beau but call me Ali, Penny.” Ali indicates Kimura: “And him Kim, ha, ha, ha!”

   Penny smiles at the failed joke and Kimura shakes her hand musing to himself, Penny Nicholls is a quaint name combination; her parents must have a sense of humor. 
   Penny glances back and forth, concentrating on Ali. “I don’t come to tables but frankly I am filled with curiosity and was worried you’d leave before I finished.  I want to call you ‘Sis.’ How old are you?”

   “Twenty last December. You?”

   “Twenty one last October. We could be sisters but if so it must’ve been a tight squeeze. I’m adopted and don’t know of my birth.”

   Kimura interrupts. He does not desire to waste this brief encounter discussing genealogy. He is filled with collector's lust to identify a beautiful but unfamiliar stamp. He hands her his card. “Penny, whence that expressive vocal style and body language? You are the best band vocalist I have heard or seen.”

   She smiles. “Thanks, Kim. I am not above enjoying praise but I'm amateur; I don’t do this for a living. Actually I’m first-year at Barnard and my dad is Professor of Greek and Chairman of the Classical Language Department across the street at Columbia.”

   Ali perks up, “Ah, that Penelope! Wasn’t she whozit's wife? The one who kept putting off all the suitors while he was away at war and said, dead?”

   “Ulysses, also known as Odysseus,” chimes in Kimura. “Hence, the Odyssey by Homer.”

   “Yes, I am named for that Penelope. I choose to be called Kandy Kane. because of the attention a Penny Nicholls would draw to my family.”

   Kimura thinks Penny speaks with originality and guesses she could be a good writer from her choice of words which make one enjoy listening to her regardless of content.

   “My mother is what some call education mom; she has a master’s in education theory but prefers housewifery. Mum educated me. Mum is an amateur singer and a member of Ethical Culture, and they have concerts and she was the fancy soprano that does the high notes and the flourishes. That’s how she met Papa; he’s an amateur singer too. They brought me up on music and I took to vocal styling of popular swing. I’ve studied Billie and Ella: I know them and have taken some of the mannerisms. Eddy Duchin is friend of family. He gets around much on campuses and when I was fifteen he heard me in recital and after a year of pestering my parents I was allowed to do limited work for him and I love it but I also know it is not something to have a life in. It is part of my young time, like sports. This kind of work has no depth; the entertainment people are in it to get out of a bad social situation, they lack education and their lives are not fulfilling despite talent and money success. So not for me!  I want to do my personal best and retire next year. I am most interested in the search for intelligent life in Universe. And space exploration, … .”
   Penny had gotten carried away but the overhead lights brighten signaling her back for the next set. Excusing self she leaves for the bandstand.
   “Gee, I like Penny, I hope she is my sis.”

    Kimura smiles.

Later, back in the room, Ali looks out window to the street bright with snow swirling down in a white mist. The radio says the snow will stop momentarily and a clear but unseasonably cold sunny day is forecast. She drops onto bed, naked thighs wide.

   “C’mon and git it while it’s hot, Hon!”

49. Life Time

Something increasingly disturbs Kimura; someone shaking him by shoulders:     
   “Y’gotta get up! Y’gotta get up! Y’gotta get up! It’s mawnin!” He opens eyes and sees Ali, already dressed, sitting on his edge of bed. “You’ll never be bored with yo’ baby beside ya, Hon!” She bends and kisses him on lips lingeringly. “You mountingly mastered me in bed; um yum yum! But it’s Ye Olde Sto – dontchya’know? Like Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe! Nuthin’ better for stimulatin’ a humpety bumpetyin’ of one’s regular than her Imago – some other same lookin' sexy pardner in bed, and also in head, and gettin' and givin' head too. I bet when you were a jazz-a-doin’ me last night you had another blondie in your minds hands. A Penny for your thoughts, Hon, an’ I’ll bet five’ll make Miss Nicholls. An’ I mean – make!”

   He sits silent because Ali hit nail on head. Back in bed after Café Carlyle, he went into Ali in a furiously frenzied four-in-an hour. She had been a stand in, proving that blondes do have more fun, especially when they come as lookalikes.

He laughs to himself mentally, thinking of the word play and in a silent reply, thinks: And I mean 'come'.

   Ali continues: “I’m not jealous ‘cuz, as you said, Penny is my doppelganger.  Sounds like what you nail me with in bed, but as you explained it’s my double, my stand in, my spittin' Imago, an’ I don’t mean Shakey’s Iago. She, I; and I, she; so how can I get green eyed monsterish? Not me! It's like marryin’ twins and not knowin’ which is switch in the dark. ‘Tain’t unquaint.” 
   She kisses him again. “OK, Kim. Nuff a that! Today I’m gonna be your girl guide to da Bronx. 'Girl guide' you say?” Mimicking a little girl’s voice she continues as if reciting, “Granpa, what’s a girl guide?” then switching to grumpy old man, “Shut up an’ …!”

   Kimura now feels alert, a tingle, aglow. He gets up and showers.
  Ali sketches the day. They will see the Bronx. The snow has stopped and a marvelous moon promises sunny sky.

   As Kimura dresses, Ali gives a mini lecture: One who sleeps two hours less per day will have gained by age fifty, 36,525 more hours of consciousness to enjoy life. It computes to 1,521 days and 21 hours, or 4 years and 2 months of lovely life. She is stealing his Dr Fact. Familiarity breeds attempt, he muses.
   Then away they go.  Bronx ho!
To read next, click 2.(50-52) The Bronx from the Subway El

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