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sighed.
    “Mike? Honey? I wish you’d rub my legs. My legs hurt,” she said.
    “God,” he said softly. “I was sound asleep.”
    “Well, I wish you’d rub my legs and talk to me. My shoulders hurt, too. But my legs especially.”
    He turned over and began rubbing her legs, then fell asleep again with his hand on her hip.
    “Mike?”
    “What is it, Nan? Tell me what it is.”
    “I wish you’d rub me all over,” she said, turning onto her back. “My legs and arms both hurt tonight.”
    She raised her knees to make a tower with the covers.
    He opened his eyes briefly in the dark and then shut them. “Growing pains, huh?”
    “Oh God, yes,” she said, wiggling her toes, glad she had drawn him out. “When I was ten or eleven years old I was as big then as I am now. You should’ve seen me! I grew so fast in those days my legs and arms hurt me all the time. Didn’t you?”
    “Didn’t I what?”
    “Didn’t you ever feel yourself growing?”
    “Not that I remember,” he said.
    At last he raised up on his elbow, struck a match, and looked at the clock. He turned his pillow over to the cooler side and lay down again.
    She said, “You’re asleep, Mike. I wish you’d want to talk.”
    “All right,” he said, not moving.
    “Just hold me and get me off to sleep. I can’t go to sleep,” she said.
    He turned over and put his arm over her shoulder as she turned onto her side to face the wall.
    “Mike?”
    He tapped his toes against her foot.
    “Why don’t you tell me all the things you like and the things you don’t like.”
    “Don’t know any right now,” he said. “Tell me if you want,” he said.
    “If you promise to tell me. Is that a promise?
    He tapped her foot again.
    “Well…” she said and turned onto her back, pleased. “I like good foods, steaks and hash-brown potatoes, things like that. I like good books and magazines, riding on trains at night, and those times I flew in an airplane.” She stopped. “Of course none of this is in order of preference. I’d have to think about it if it was in the order of preference. But I like that, flying in airplanes. There’s a moment as you leave the ground you feel whatever happens is all right.” She put her leg across his ankle. “I like staying up late at night and then staying in bed the next morning. I wish we could do that all the time, not just once in a while. And I like sex. I like to be touched now and then when I’m not expecting it. I like going to movies and drinking beer with friends afterward. I like to have friends. I like Janice Hendricks very much. I’d like to go dancing at least once a week. I’d like to have nice clothes all the time. I’d like to be able to buy the kids nice clothes every time they need it without having to wait. Laurie needs a new little outfit right now for Easter. And I’d like to get Gary a little suit or something. He’s old enough. I’d like you to have a new suit, too. You really need a new suit more than he does. And I’d like us to have a place of our own. I’d like to stop moving around every year, or every other year. Most of all,” she said, “I’d like us both just to live a good honest life without having to worry about money and bills and things like that. You’re asleep,” she said.
    “I’m not,” he said.
    “I can’t think of anything else. You go now. Tell me what you’d like.”
    “I don’t know. Lots of things,” he mumbled.
    “Well, tell me. We’re just talking, aren’t we?”
    “I wish you’d leave me alone, Nan.” He turned over to his side of the bed again and let his arm rest off the edge. She turned too and pressed against him.
    “Mike?”
    “Jesus,” he said. Then: “All right. Let me stretch my legs a minute, then I’ll wake up.”
    In a while she said, “Mike? Are you asleep?” She shook his shoulder gently, but there was no response.
    She lay there for a time huddled against his body, trying to sleep. She lay quietly at first, without