Chapter 2
For a moment Eva stood motionless in the center of the room, her amused smile frozen in place. She listened to the hard footsteps on the walk outside and then the angry growl of a truck motor as it raced into life at full speed. Tires screamed on the pavement and the noise slowly vanished down the street.
Only then did the woman move. She picked up her bra and tried to snap it into place. But her breasts seemed too large. Eva shrugged and tossed it aside. It was always that way, she reflected, after love. She compromised by pulling on her blouse and tucking it beneath the skirt. The thin material hid little of her breasts.
Eva picked up the remaining clothing scattered about the room and moved to the bedroom, tossing them on the bed. Finished, she crossed to the bathroom and dashed cold water across her face. It felt good. Looking at herself in the mirror proved to be a shock. Eva sighed and ran a brush through her hair, carefully straightening out the rumpled strands until they fell into place in a golden cascade down across her shoulders. This done, she applied fresh lipstick, then stepped back, surveying the finished product. Eva didn't need anyone to tell her that she was beautiful. The mirror did that.
"Mirror, mirror on the wall...." she said out loud, laughing at the old fairy tale. "Who will love me most of all?" Eva left the bathroom, still chuckling.
Eva moved through the house into the kitchen and found a cup amongst the dirty dishes, filling it with the dredges of coffee kept hot over the pilot flame on the stove. Sipping the lukewarm brew, she went to the front door and opened it, stepping out onto the narrow concrete stoop.
Eva looked up and down the length of the street. The neatly kept lawns crawled with children at play. And each home stretching into the distance seemed to be a carbon copy of its neighbor. The view was deadly monotonous, relieved at best by the desperate efforts of an owner in planting a single, scrawny tree in front of his place.
Eva turned her head and looked in the other direction. It was more of the same.
And now, as she looked, the evening pattern of life in the suburbs began unfolding. Here and there a car pulled into the drive, to be met by a bunch of dirty faced, squealing kids with dirty hands. The provider had come home.
Eva felt her stomach turn over. How she hated this place. 'Suburbia,' they called it. She had another name...."living hell, peopled by idiots."
Eva brushed her hair back, well aware that every car passing her home slowed somewhat at the sight of the young, good-looking woman standing on the front step.
Even at this hour of the afternoon it was hot. The sun, now low over the bowl of the San Fernando Valley, still vented its fury on the crowded landscape below. Waves of heat reflected off the pavement, spraying the young woman standing by the door.
Eva looked down at her blouse. Perspiration had soaked the thin material, making it almost transparent.
Without the protection of a bra, the breasts showed up clearly in the strong; light. Eva smiled. No wonder the cars were slowing down. She took a last look at the street and moved back into the house.
Her hand shook as she found a cigarette on the coffee table and lighted it. Why? Eva pondered the question. Was she frightened that Ralph might find out about this afternoon? She shook her head. That wasn't it. He didn't know about the others. Why should he suddenly get smart?
Eva paced the room slowly, her mind deep in thought.
The truth was that she was miserable. She thought of a television show she had seen not too long ago called "The Unhappy Housewife." That was her, buried deep in a middle class community with monotony for company. Who could blame her if she sought relief in other men?
Eva moved back to the window and opened the blinds slightly, peering into the street again. Nothing had changed. It never did, not in the six years she and Ralph had lived here. The homes were a little older and the kids louder. But the habits were the same. There was no life out here ... just a clock. It said: get up, go to work, wash the dishes, fix dinner, wait at the front door for your husband, watch television, shake off your inhibitions so the old man can have some exercise.
Eva sighed and shook her head. Every day just like the last.
She snuffed out the cigarette and headed back towards the bedroom, stripping off her clothes as she went. It was getting late. Ralph would be home soon.
The shower felt good, ridding her of the memory Johnny had left behind. Eva let the water flow across her body in a series of stinging needles. Finished, she cut off the flow and stepped into the bedroom.
It took Eva a second to realize that she wasn't alone any more. "Where did you come from?" she snapped to the figure on the bed.
The newcomer bore a striking resemblance to Eva. Her hair was also blonde, but lacking the same luster. The features of the woman were older, not so perfect and slightly more stern. If she had a figure it was hidden beneath the tailored suit. "The front door was open," she explained. "I just walked in."
"Well, you can walk right out again," Eva snapped, reaching for a robe.
"That's no way to talk to your sister."
Eva found a cigarette and lighted it, noting that her hands were still shaking. At the moment she had no desire to listen to one of Ruth's lectures on morality. And that's what was coming. She could see it in the older woman's eyes. "I have to get ready for Ralph," she said. "He's due home any minute."
Ruth shook her head. "He'll be a little late. When I left the bank he still had an account to audit."
"Great," Eva stormed. "That's all I need."
"Is dinner ready?"
"No."
"Then why all the fuss?"
She didn't have an answer for her sister. Eva kept silent and began dressing slowly. She watched her sister pick up the discarded clothing and inspect it closely.
"You had company this afternoon," Ruth said slowly, her face expressionless.
"How can you tell?"
Ruth tossed the garments aside. "There's grease on those. I can practically see a man's handprints."
Eva tossed her head defiantly, her blond hair rippling in the light. "So what if I did?"
Ruth leaned forward. Her dark eyes were worried. "What's happened to you, Eva?" she asked soberly.
Where's my sweet, younger sister gone." There were sudden tears in Ruth's eyes.
The emotion didn't effect Eva. On the contrary, it made her sick. Who did Ruth think she was coming snooping around like this? It had always been this way ... ever since they were kids living in the crummy slums of east Los Angeles. Ruth was the older sister. Although she was only two years older, she thought she had to look after poor little Eva.
Eva looked hard at the woman sitting on the bed. She lacked everything Eva had ... figure, looks, personality. In fact Ruth was a dull old maid. How could she know what it was to have a man ... any man ... take off his clothes and wrap his body around yours? Ruth would die a thousand deaths before she'd show as much as a peep of thigh to a stranger.
Eva remained silent. She walked the length of the room and stopped before the mirror, combing her hair, watching her sister's worried expression behind her. A plane flew low over the house, coming into the nearby Van Nuys airport, rattling the dishes in the kitchen. Eva smiled to herself, knowing that her behavour in the past few years thoroughly puzzled Ruth.
The older sister just couldn't get it through her head that Eva wasn't the same innocent flower she'd once been. No longer was she the sweet young bride who'd walked down that aisle so long ago, a virgin, a girl naive in the ways of the world.
As Eva watched her sister's reflection in the mirror, she had trouble keeping from laughing out loud. All of Ruth's life had been playing second fiddle to Eva. There had been the usual childhood romances that Eva regularly snatched away from her sister. All the best clothes went to the younger sister because they looked best on her.
And Ralph ... Eva enjoyed that, even today, seven years later. Ralph had been Ruth's beau ... until he'd seen Eva.
The woman before the mirror frowned suddenly, no longer amused by her memories. It had been a conquest to take Ralph away and marry him. But that was six years ago. Today? Eva shook her head. Now she wasn't so sure of the prize she'd won.
Eva turned suddenly, facing the older woman. "Nothing's happened to me, Ruth," she smiled.
"It has," Ruth insisted. "You're becoming a tramp."
Eva felt her face burn red at the insult. "Don't call me that" she snapped angrily.
"It's true isn't it?" Ruth persisted. "For the last two years you've done nothing but cheat on poor Ralph. You've let any man that was willing, romance you."
"I think you'd better go," Eva said coldly.
Ruth shook her head. "No, not yet." She got to her feet, attempting to put a hand on her sister's arm, only to have it brushed away. "I want to know," she said soberly. "Why have you changed so? What's gotten into you?"
Eva stalked to the other end of the room and turned to face her sister. "This is my house," she snapped. "What I do in it is my business."
"Including letting strange men make love to you?"
"That's none of your affair," Eva flared.
"But that's just it, Eva," Ruth said slowly. "It is my business. I'm your sister. I don't want to see you hurt."
Eva smiled suddenly. There was no mirth in the motion. "Are you certain you aren't more interested in Ralph's welfare than mine?"
"That isn't fair," Ruth said. "That was over years ago."
Eva could see that she had her sister on the defensive. "Was it?" she said, twisting the knife. "If that's the case why have you stayed at the bank all these years?
You could make better money."
"I like the work."
"Sure," Eva jeered. "That's the answer that I'd expect. Why did you move into the valley ... if it wasn't to be nearer the place where Ralph lives?"
"I wanted to be closer to you," Ruth said.
Eva smiled and lighted another cigarette. "Don't get excited, Ruth," she said slowly. "I really don't mind if you still have a crush on Ralph. It won't do you any good you know. He's deeply in love with me and always will be, regardless of what I do." Eva crossed to her sister, the smile on her face now cruel. "We know who of us is the prettiest, don't we?" She waved at the older woman's clothing. "Look at you, Ruth. You're a plain old maid. And that doesn't catch a man. It takes glamour, the kind I have."
Eva shrugged and dropped an ash into the oversized ashtray by the bed. "But don't worry.-Maybe some day I'll leave Ralph and give you your chance. I'm bored with this suburban living."
Ruth shook her head. Her mouth worked but it was seconds before any words came. When they did her shock showed. "You're mad, Eva," she said. "You certainly can't mean what you're saying."
"But I do," Eva countered. "Every word of it. Now if you'll leave I'll try and get some dinner ready for my beloved husband."
Ruth started to say more but instead she reached for her purse and stalked towards the front door. She paused with one hand on the knob, looking back at her sister who'd followed her into the front room. "I feel sorry for you, Eva," she said soberly. "I really do." With that she slammed the door behind her.