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screwed up, most likely she turns out frigid when she gets married, because inside she’s got this barrier, they’ve made her put up a kind of barrier, or wall, and not even bullets get through.
    —Not to mention other things.
    —Now that I’m serious, you’re the one who’s making jokes, see how it is, you too?
    —Go ahead, O voice of wisdom.
    —That’s all. Go on with the panther woman.
    —Okay, the problem is how’s he going to convince her she’s got to have faith and go back and see the doctor again.
    —Me, you mean.
    —Right, but then she tells him there’s something about the doctor she doesn’t like.
    —Sure, because if he cures her, she’ll have to give in to marital life, to sex.
    —But her husband convinces her to go back. And she does, even though she’s afraid to.
    —Know what scares her most of all?
    —What?
    —Doctor’s the sensual type—you said so yourself.
    —Mmm-hmm.
    —And that’s just the problem, because he turns her on, and on account of that she won’t give in to any treatment.
    —Fine, so she goes to the doctor’s office. And she confides to him in all sincerity, tells him her greatest fear is of kissing a man and turning into a panther. And here’s where the doctor makes a mistake and tries to remove her fear by showing how unafraid he is himself, how sure he is she’s an enchanting woman, an adorable woman and that’s all. I mean the guy chooses a somewhat dubious treatment, letting his desires get the best of him because he’s actually looking for some way to kiss her, that’s what he’s looking for. But she doesn’t fall for it; she has just the opposite response, that yes, the doctor’s right and she’s normal and so she leaves his office right then and goes away satisfied, goes straight to the architect’s studio, as if with the intention, the decision already made, of giving herself to her husband that very night. She’s happy, and runs all the way, and gets there almost out of breath. But in the doorway she’s suddenly paralyzed. It’s late already and everyone’s gone home, except her husband and the assistant, and they seem to be talking, holding hands, but you can’t tell if it’s a friendly gesture or what. He’s talking, with his eyes lowered, while the assistant listens to him knowingly. They have no idea someone’s walked in. And here my memory’s foggy.
    —Wait a second, it’ll come back to you.
    —I remember there’s a scene in a swimming pool, and another right there in the architect’s studio, and still another, the last, with the psychiatrist.
    —Don’t tell me that at the end the panther woman winds up with me.
    —No. Don’t rush. Anyway, I can tell you this whole last part in a very sketchy way if you want, as much as I remember of it.
    —Sure.
    —So, he and the other one are busy talking there in the studio, and they stop talking because they hear a door creak. They look up and nobody’s there; it’s dark in the studio, there’s no other light than the table they’re at, with that slightly sinister glare coming from below. And you hear an animal’s footsteps, rustling papers underfoot and, yes, now I remember, there’s a wastepaper basket in a dark corner and the basket tumbles over and the footsteps crumple some papers. The assistant screams out and hides behind him. He yells, “Who’s there? Who is it?” and now, for the first time, you hear an animal’s heavy breathing, like a snarl with the teeth clenched, you see? The architect has no idea what to defend himself with and grabs one of those big rulers. And you realize that unconsciously or whatever, he remembers what Irena’s told him, how the sign of the cross can frighten both the Devil and the panther woman, and the light from under the table casts gigantic shadows on the wall, of him with the assistant hanging onto him, and a few feet away the shadow of a beast with a long tail, and it looks like the architect’s holding up a cross in his