Years agine and I both worked as interviewers; for a while we even worked together. I remember oernoon when she spent a whole hour asking me all about facial tissues, and afterward I quizzed her on plastic suitcases. Unfortuhe agency did away with the long interviews and replaced them with street polls. We were expected to stand outside schools, department stores, and gover offices and survey people about tax polid TV guides. her of us wao do that, and so we went our separate ways.
Are you w these days? I ask.
Im taking a course to be a death panion, says Regine.
Oh, I say, uo suppress a laugh.
Its a serious matter, says Regine.
Id like to ask her what they tea such a course, but dont dare.
Is it going well? I ask instead.
Retly they wao se for the first time to apany a woman who was y-one years old, but she sent me away after half an hour.
Now we both laugh, avoiding each others eyes.
She probably thought you were death in person e to take her away, I say.
I did that way.
After all, someone whos dyis everybody whos going on living, I say.
You talk, says Regine, as if youd already died once.
Of course I have, many times, havent you?
We laugh, and I dont know if Regine fully uands my last remark. She holds out her hand and says goodbye.
Give me a call, she says in parting.
I dont need a death panion, I want to call out after her, but at the last moment I hold my tongue.
A little later it occurs to me that Regine and I actually died oogether. First I had interviewed her about vacations and long distaravel, theerviewed me about ed food and ready-made dinners. After that we were pletely exhausted and lay down on her carpet. We drank half a bottle of wine and goofed around until our eyelids started to droop. When we woke up we undressed and slept together. Then a strahing happened. Regine was lyio me, studying her orso. Shed turned quiet and sad, but it took me a while to cat. She asked me to look at her breasts. Thats all Ive been doing the whole time, is what I think I replied. Well evidently you werent paying enough attention, she said. What are you getting at? I asked. Didnt you notice that my nipples arent doing what theyre supposed tine roud of her big long nipples. Duriiterludes they would grow erect, which she always sidered to be a sign of her vitality. Now they were bent to the side or folded over or pressed into her areolas. I had noticed the ge but didnt think it meant anything. Only gradually did it dawn ohat Regine hysically distressed. I went so far as to say she shouldnt take her nipples so seriously. And at that point we first fell silent and theogether as a couple.
Inside my apartment I open the windows, lie down on the floor and swit the TV. I catch a film about blue-footed boobies in the Galapagos Islands. These are large, white-feathered birds with blue feet. They resemble geese and move in a similarly clumsy manner. On the Galapagos Islands they find ideal breeding grounds, says the speaker. The birds on the ground, the surrounding water is and ri fish. The birds are called boobies because of how they have to move their luxurious bodies during the long run-up required for takeoff. The blue-footed boobies appeal to me; at the moment Id like to be one myself. I wouldnt mind being called a booby on TV, either, since as a blue-footed booby Id finally have nothing more to do with words and their meanings. Or perh