Marge Piercy - Woman on the Edge of Time

Dont miss this novel from the author
of Braided Lives, The Longings of Women,
and Gone to Soldiers!

CITY OF DARKNESS,
CITY OF LIGHT

by
Marge Piercy

Paris is set to explode at the dawn of the
French Revolution, and three very different
women prepare for their roles in one of the
most tumultuous turning points in
European History.

CITY OF DARKNESS, CITY OF LIGHT

by Marge Piercy

Published by Ballantine Books.
Available in bookstores everywhere.

Connie got up from her kitchen table and walked slowly to the door. Either I saw him or I didnt and Im crazy for real this time, she thought.

Its meDolly! Her niece was screaming in the hall. Let me in! Hurry!

Momentito. Connie fumbled with the bolt, the police lock, finally swinging the door wide. Dolly fell in past her, her face bloody. Connie clutched at Dolly, trying to see how badly she was hurt. Qu pasa? Who did this?

Blood was oozing from Dollys bruised mouth and she grasped a wad of matted paper handkerchiefs brown with old blood and spotted bright red with fresh. Her left eye was swollen shut. Geraldo beat me. Dolly let her peel off the blue winter coat trimmed with fur and press her broad hips in pink pants back into the kitchen chair. There Dolly collapsed and began to weep. Awkwardly Connie embraced her shoulders, her hands slipping on the satin of the blouse.

The chairs warm, Dolly said after a few minutes. Get me a handkerchief.

Connie brought toilet paper from the hall bathroomshe had nothing elseand carefully locked the outside door again. Then she put some of the good Dominican coffee she saved for special into the drip pot and set water to boil in a kettle.

Its cold in here, Dolly whimpered.

Ill make it warmer. She lit the oven and turned on the burners. Soon itll be like that hothouse of yours . Geraldo beat you?

Dolly opened her mouth wide, gaping. Loo Loo

As gently as she could she poked into Dollys bloody mouth. Her own flesh cringed.

Dolly jerked away. He broke a tooth, didnt he? That dirty rotten pimp! Will I lose a tooth?

I think you have one broken and maybe another loose. But who am I to say? Im no dentist. Youre still bleeding!

Hes crazy, that pig! He wants to mess me up. Connie, how come you wouldnt let me in? I was screaming in the hall forever.

It wasnt five minutes .

I thought I heard voices. Is somebody here? Dolly looked toward the other room, the bedroom.

Who would be here? I had the TV on.

It hurts so much. Give me something to kill the pain.

Aspirin?

Oh, come on. It hurts!

Hija ma, how would I have anything? Connie lifted her hands to show them empty, always empty.

Those pills they made you take, from the State.

Let me give you ice. Dolly had heard her talking with Luciente: therefore he existed. Or Dolly had heard her talking to herself. Dolly had said the chair was warm: she had been sitting in the other chair, in front of the plate from her supper of eggs and beans. She must not think about it now, with Dolly suffering. His story was unbelievable! No, dont think about it. She wrapped ice cubes in a kitchen towel and brought them to Dolly. That prescription ran out a year ago. Not that she had taken the tranquilizers. She had sold the pills for a little extra money, for a piece of pork or chicken once a week, soap to wash with. She found it hard to believe anybody would take that poison intentionally, but you could peddle any kind of pill in El Barrio. Still, there had been the nuisance of going down to Bellevue, since she had been living near Dollys when she had been sent away and never could get her case transferred.

Consuelo! Dolly leaned her swollen cheek on Connies shoulder. Everything hurts! Im scared. He punched me in the belly, hard.

Why do you stay with him? What good is he? With your daughter, why have such a cabrn hanging around?

Dolly gave her the mocking glance that would greet any comment she might make for the rest of her life on the subject of the welfare of children; or did she imagine it? Consuelo, I feel so sick. I feel lousy through and through. I have to lie down. Oh, if he makes me lose this baby, Ill kill him!

As she supported her nieces weight into the bedroom she felt a flash of fear or perhaps of hope that Luciente would still be there. But the tiny room held only her swaybacked bed, the chair with her alarm clock on it, the dresser, the wine jug full of dried flowers, the airshaft window incompletely covered with old curtains from better days. She undressed Dolly tenderly as a baby, but her niece groaned and cursed and wept more. The satin polka dot shirt was streaked with blood and blood had soaked through her black satin brassiere with the nipples cut out. But it wont show on your nice bra, Connie promised as Dolly mourned her clothes, her body, her skin. Bruises had already clotted under the velvety skin of Dollys belly, her soft arms, her collarbone.

Mira! Is there blood on my panties? See if he made me bleed there.

You arent bleeding there, I promise. Get under the covers. Oye, Dolly, it isnt that easy to lose a baby! In the sixth month, if he beat you, maybe. But in the second month that baby is better protected than you are. She put the alarm on the floor and sat in the straight chair beside the bed to hold Dollys limp hand. Listen, I should take you to emergency. To Met.

Dont make me go anyplace. I hurt too much.

They can give you something for the pain. Ill get a gypsy cab to take us. Its only fifteen blocks.

Im ashamed. What happened to you? Oh, my pimp beat up on me. In the morning Ill go to my own dentist. You take me down to him in the morning. Otera on Canal. You call him up at nine-thirty in the morning and tell him to take me right away. Now hold the ice against my cheek.

Dolly, how do you know Geraldo wont come charging up here?

Consuelo! Dolly drawled her name in a long wail of pain. Be nice to me! Dont push me around too! I hurt, I want to rest. Be sweet to me. Give me a little yerbaits in my purse. At the bottom of the cigarette pack.

Dolly! Youre crazy to run around with your face bleeding and dope in your purse! Suppose the cops pick you up?

I had a lot of time to sort my purse when I was leaving! Come on, get it for me!

She was fumbling through Dollys big patent leather bag, clumsy prying in another womans purse, when she heard heavy steps climbing. Men in a hurry. She froze. Why? Men ran up and down the steps of the tenement all night. But she knew.