Goldengirl

‘It seems to have crept into the training sessions lately. Pete used to be patient with me if I fell down on something. Say I run an interval in twenty-six instead of twenty-five. Not so long ago he would say something to encourage me, tell me where I could pick up a little more speed. These last few weeks if something goes wrong, he just lays into me, calls me a lazy cow and worse things, real ugly things, all in front of his assistants. Some days he gets them to bawl at me as I run by. ‘Get your ass moving!’ they shout. ‘That was only twenty-six.’ It’s supposed to get my spirit up — I’ve discussed it with Sammy — provoke some anger that raises the adrenalin. Sometimes it does, that’s true. Other times it’s plain dispiriting. He sets me goals we both know I can’t reach, and then gives me a verbal larruping while the others look on.’

‘Have you complained to Dr. Serafin?’

‘I’ve tried. He’s sympathetic, but he won’t alter anything. It’s necessary to my preparation, he says. Light and shade. If I have it rough from Pete, that makes the sessions with Sammy nicer.’

‘And are they?’

The answer was in her eyes. ‘You bet. I’m Goldengirl already to him. He gives me stimulating things to do, like listening to tapes and watching films. Jack, I’ve seen so many films of Moscow, I know it like you must know L.A. And I’ve seen all the great sprinters in action from Jesse Owens on. Shall we sit down now? You’ve carried my bag a long way.’

They had reached a wooden breakwater. They sat in the sand, protected from the slight breeze that had driven other people from the beach. From below the horizon, the sun coloured the underside of a solitary cloud, but it would not be long before darkness set in.

‘You say you enjoy the sessions with Dr. Lee,’ said Dryden, ‘but it isn’t all films and conversations. You must have got through some hard work on the question sessions from the way you handled the press conference yesterday.’

‘Practice,’ said Goldine, smiling.

‘But just as hard as running intervals, I should think,’ said Dryden.

She shook her head emphatically. ‘Sammy’s methods are different. He never humiliates me. He’s taught me how to treat the questions as a pleasurable experience.’

‘Most people regard that kind of experience as an ordeal,’ said Dryden. ‘What’s your secret?’

She gave him a piercing look, and said, ‘Something anyone can buy for a few dollars. It wouldn’t be much help to you, though.’ She turned away and shied a stone at the water. ‘You know about vibrators? Lonely women sometimes have a use for them. Sammy started me off with one. I wasn’t embarrassed; I was raised to have no inhibitions about my body and its needs. We used it in the stimulus-response sessions — privately, not with all that jazz we had in the press-conference simulation yesterday. It was wired up so that each time I gave a good response I got good vibes — literally. I made a lot of progress that way. Now I don’t need the vibrator. I get the same turn-on just from hearing the question and knowing I have the answer ready.’

‘We’ve come a long way since Pavlov.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Goldine.

‘I was recollecting something your Sammy said about learning theory. He’s no fool. He knows about people, how to win their confidence, make them more efficient.’

‘You don’t like him?’

‘I’m impressed by him,’ said Dryden. ‘I don’t know whether it matters if I like him.’

She turned to face him, her hair flame-coloured in the freakish light. ‘How about me? Are you impressed by me?’

He wasn’t used to such directness. ‘By your running — dazzled.’

‘And do you like me?’

‘Too much,’ said Dryden.

She fingered her neck. ‘What does that mean, Jack?’

‘I find it difficult to be objective about you, as a businessman should.’

‘You don’t have to be objective.’

‘Sorry, but I do. If I’m to reach a decision about acting as your agent, I must make an informed estimate of your potential, both athletically and commercially. I’d be crazy to allow likes or dislikes to blur my judgment. I didn’t build my agency by signing up all the nice people I know.’

‘Do you have any girls among your clients?’

‘A few.’

‘And if one of them got to like you, I figure you’d just tell her to knock off the romance and sign the contracts.’

‘That’s speculation,’ said Dryden. ‘It hasn’t happened, I’m glad to report. Can you imagine telling a two-hundred-pound soprano from the Metropolitan Opera to knock off the romance?’

Goldine laughed, and flopped back on the sand. ‘We’d better not lose any time, then.’

‘What is that supposed to mean?’

‘Tomorrow you make your decision, right? You sign me up, or walk right out of my life. From what you say, the upshot is the same so far as romance is concerned. If I want you, I must make it now. You said you like me.’