Into the Night

...very tired from the trip. And of course a little homesick. Missed you and the town I grew up in. The first night in a new city you always feel strange...

...getting used to it now. Getting to feel at home...

...girl I work with insisted on dragging me to this party with her. I really didn’t want to go, but I gave in so that she wouldn’t think I was unfriendly and standoffish. There was a man named Herrick there. Seemed like a very nice person. Brought me home afterward, just to the door. Asked if he could give me a ring. I lied and said I had no phone. I don’t want to become involved with anyone yet, that can wait...

...I nearly fell over when I answered it and it turned out to be he. That girl where I work gave him my number, it seems. Wait’ll I get hold of her, I’ll give her a good talking to...

...the more I try to discourage him, the less I seem to succeed. The situation is becoming more than I can handle...

...It turns out he’s married. It’s true, he told it to me of his own free will, but that doesn’t make it any better. I said a firm goodbye to him, and told him not to try to see me anymore...

...It hurt more than I realized it would. I must have gotten in far deeper than I was aware of...

...when he said who it was, I wouldn’t open the door, so he slid a paper underneath it. I picked it up and looked at it, and it was a copy of the final divorce decree, his and hers. Uncontested. I thought it over for a while. Then I opened the door. Suddenly we were in each other’s arms. I’d never realized it until that minute, but I’d been in love with him for a long time past...

...We were married yesterday...

...The longer I know him, the more I love him. It’s like a dream come true. I love him so much that sometimes I’m afraid something will happen, some unkind fate will punish us for daring to be so happy. It seems too good to last...

...A year and a half yesterday. Eighteen months. Our yearly-and-a-half anniversary, is that how you say it? He gave me a gold charm bracelet. Each year you’re supposed to add another charm, until it’s all complete. The first one says “I love you” How can the ones that are to be added improve on that? I gave him a lighter with his initials on it. We had champagne cocktails in the apartment, just the two of us alone by ourselves. Then we went out and had a Chinese dinner. Then afterward we went to a big musical show. As we were working our way out through the crowded lobby after the curtain came down, he wanted to take me to one of these big nightclub places, for a windup. I said, “Vick, don’t use up all our money in one night. I know you love me. You don’t have to prove it this expensively.” All he said was — and he gave me that look that just melts my heart like a snowball in an oven — “Won’t you let me prove it? Just this one night. Won’t you let me prove it? Please, huh?” That little-boy look, that husband look, that lover look. I couldn’t hold out, I couldn’t. I threw my arms around him right there in all the crowd, and hung from his neck with my feet lifted clear of the ground, and kissed him about eighteen times. “There’s only one Vick, there’s only one you,” I said close to his ear. “And that,” he said, “is because there’s only one Starr...”