“I told you,” Mr. Halprin shouted, “do not take any money off my night table, you damn thief! Every week … every Monday I give you two hundred dollars … and I pay all your damn department store bills … two-thousand dollars every month in Gimbels and Hornes for all your personal baubles, cosmetics, and other trash and piss-water to make you smell intoxicating and soften that sunburnt crinkled skin of yours … all burnt up in the sun … so you can imagine that you look young and beautiful again. And then … all you really need to buy are groceries and household things … some clothes for Laura … and you still persist in robbing me each morning of fifty dollars,” Mr. Halprin thundered at his wife.

He was a lawyer and superb at tongue-lashings, often becoming foul-mouthed at times when he believed it necessary. He would become red in the face and wave his hands wildly in the air, pointing to Amelia’s dressing table where sat all her perfumes, powders, and jewelry boxes.

So, although still able to pursue her interests in some minimal fashion, Amelia Halprin was often disconsolate and depressed—exhibiting a deep-seated resentment toward her deceased father, her child, her husband, and the circumstances of her life—being born into an environment and conditions inimical to achieving that which had most interested her in life. As a child and young girl, she had lived in a stifling, austere environment with her mom, dad, and only brother, and had been continually thwarted in pursuing any activities her family believed were outside the bounds of those for a respectable and proper young lady. Her strict German parents thought that a woman was meant to marry and raise a family—be a good mother and wife. Amelia rebelled.

Now, she could often be heard pitifully professing to anyone who would listen, “I could have been a great concert pianist … gone on to perform on the concert stage.” In fact, she seemed to be obsessed with the idea that she could have done this or that great thing, and that she just hadn’t been given the chance. Much of her emotional energy was bound up in smoldering rancor and self-pity—a repressed hatred of her current, circumscribed and restrictive circumstances. 

But, even before Laura could get up from the couch, a car was heard slowly coming up the long driveway. Everyone bolted to the window to see Mrs. Halprin pulling up in the car. Mr. Halprin’s face glowed scarlet as he turned to his daughter and literally shoved her away from the window.

“Get out of here I told you! Now! I’m not kidding! Get out!” her father furiously screamed for the second time.

Laura was bewildered. It was apparent that her father didn’t want her to see … something. As she reluctantly obeyed and began to scurry across the room, she saw Granny Schmidt back away from the front door to the far end of the room as if fearful that a fiend was about to enter. Mr. Halprin, looking like a tiger waiting to pounce on his victim, had paced to the center of the room. Although Laura left them, she went only half-way up the stairs to her bedroom and then stopped. She was determined to find out what was going on with her mother. She quietly stood there and waited to hear whatever and see whatever she could.

Story 2: Alliance of Affliction

“You … tall girl … too tense! Too much force!” screamed one of her distinguished Russian ballet masters.

“No stopping in class! You must complete exercise!” cried out another of her French ballet mistresses, wagging her finger at Lilly as she stumbled off the floor toward an opened window to gasp for air.

“Your feet … too turned out, Lilly … rolling over on your arches! You’ll hurt your knees!” warned her eminent British teacher.

Naturally, every woman with whom Peter had become seriously involved had been athletic and looked the part. They almost had to be, since one of his favorite pastimes was taking very lengthy walks—sometimes five miles or more. Often, he would start from his apartment far uptown and walk down to the very tip of Manhattan and then back again. Or, he spent hours each day roving about the city, taking in the sights but also getting his three to four hours of walk-time. Any woman who could not keep up was eventually dumped.

Now, however, with the persistent agony throughout his lower body, Peter sometimes hesitated before setting out on one of these long excursions. Often, midway, the pain would become so severe, he would be forced to turn around and return to his apartment. And oh! … how this crushed him even more than the actual physical pain. He couldn’t accept the fact that his body was deteriorating and rebelling … and at the young age of twenty-seven!

“Wow … you sound like you’re really into working out.”

Actually, until now, they had only spoken in trite generalities and knew nothing of one another. This nugget of information about Peter’s workout schedule was Lilly’s first glimpse into his personal life. Even with knowing nothing about one another, there was some, as of yet, unrecognized connection and attraction between them.

“Yes,” Peter exclaimed, “I am into working out. You guessed it. But you seem to be in great shape too. Do you go to the gym?”

“No … I take ballet classes … to dance professionally.”

“Really! I kind of figured you were into physical!”

“Shall we talk about all this when we meet again, Peter. It’s so late now. You’re going to call me, aren’t you?”

And with this hint of why the two were drawn to each other, Peter took his leave. There was now a possible connection between them, and each was eager to see the other again.