All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers: A Novel by Larry McMurtry Page B

the mines.”
    Lorena was drunker than she looked. “I once measured the penis of Tony Luhan’s brother,” she said.
    We all looked blasé. So far as I could tell, Godwin had never come up. I was vaguely worried about him.
    “I can’t remember how long it was,” Lorena said. “It was at a party in Taos. We measured the penises of all the men. His was much the longest. I remember that much.”
    Godwin finally surfaced, in the vicinity of where Sally was floating, and all three women turned and went to the edge of the pool. I don’t know what they had against him. They stared at him. Sally swam over to the edge of the pool and got out and began to sun herself in what little was left of the sun. Godwin looked forlorn, treading water all by himself. I was through with my second drink. I got a third and sat down by the pool. Godwin had begun to swim laps. He was not in very good shape. Once he paused near where I was sitting. “In my youth I trained to swim the Channel,” he said.
    Soon he swam away. I didn’t feel like swimming. I became drunk. Razzy put a Fats Domino record on the phonograph. He must have asked Sally to dance, because I noticed them dancing. The Lesbians were chain-smoking as they watched. No one else had come to the party. Godwin looked waterlogged, but he kept swimming, doggedly. Sally danced in her red bikini. It grew dark as I drank, as Godwin swam, as Sally danced. Razzy Hutton was apparently only jointed at the hips. He never bent his arms or legs. When I was drunk I decided that if he insulted me once more I would hit him. I never wanted to be at a place where he was again, even if it meant leaving Rice with no degree. He kept playing Fats Domino records. I went over andstood by the phonograph. After a while he came over to change the record.
    “An extraordinary nigger,” Razzy said. “A primitive genius.”
    “I don’t ever want to be a master of English syntax, Dr. Hutton,” I said.
    “Well, you bloody well aren’t,” he said. “You don’t hold liquor well, either. Watch you don’t bump the phonograph.”
    “I’d rather you didn’t dance with my wife,” I said.
    Razzy looked amused. He walked back to Sally and I followed him.
    “You’re a beautiful child,” Sybil was saying.
    Sally shrugged and walked over to watch Godwin swim. It was hard to tell whether he was swimming or drowning. I could tell that Sally was bored with things. “You have interesting parties, Razzy,” Lorena said thickly. She was as drunk as I was.
    “Someone ought to propose a toast,” Sybil said. “We’ve had no toasts tonight.”
    I felt giddy and strange. Razzy was insulting me silently, somehow. I had a sense of fat being in the fire, of bridges about to be burned. Sally was trying to drag Godwin out of the swimming pool.
    “I think our young author should propose one,” Razzy said, deftly putting me on the spot.
    But I felt reckless, the way I had when I shot the squirrel out of Jenny Salomea’s tree.
    “To the penis of Tony Luhan,” I said. “However long it was. Or was it his brother’s?” I added, remembering the story better.
    “You crude little beast,” the sinister black-haired one said. Lorena slapped me and almost knocked me down. I wasn’t standing very steadily. Sally started laughing, I think at Godwin—he was beached like a small dying whale on thepoolside. Razzy stood before me ramrod straight. All he needed was a monocle.
    “We might excuse your odor,” he said, “but your conduct is quite unforgivable. Leave this company at once!”
    I punched him in the stomach. He took three steps backward, gasping. His mouth was open—I think it was the first time he’d opened it wide enough for me to see his teeth. It wasn’t as hard a punch as I meant it to be. I don’t know how to punch. I think it was the insult that left him breathless.
    “You’ll never—” he croaked. “You’ll never—”
    “You’ll never get your octopus back, either!” I yelled. “It’s a