Lancelot

height. Siobhan is with Tex, Lucy’s going back to school tomorrow.”
    She was silent.
    â€œThink of it. We could drive clear of the hurricane, make it to Atlanta by two o’clock.” I was thinking about the moment of entering a motel with her, the moment she always paused at the mirror and raised her hands to her hair. I was also trying to remember the last time I slept with her. How had it happened that we were not sleeping together? What was I doing living in an outhouse? I tried to remember.
    â€œNo.” I had to sit close to her to hear for she spoke without raising her voice, eyes staring unfocused and unblinking. “The company is leaving day after tomorrow. We—they—can’t afford to lose two or three days to a hurricane. And there’s no need really. The two or three interior Belle Isle scenes can be shot anywhere.”
    â€œI know. That’s why you can leave.”
    â€œNo.” Her noes tolled like a bell. Then she said in the same voice, eyes not moving: “Jan needs me to work with him on his screen treatment of A Doll’s House .”
    â€œA Doll’s House?”
    â€œIt’ll be Jan’s first big film—the first he can do exactly as he wants.”
    â€œAnd you? What’s your part in this?”
    She misunderstood me. I meant her part with Jacoby. What was he to her, she to him?
    â€œI’m Nora, Lance.” She looked at me for the first time. The storm was closer and the lightning flickered like a strobe light. Her eyes seemed to dart.
    â€œNora?”
    â€œThe lead, remember?”
    â€œYes, I remember.”
    She clapped her hands. “I’m good, Lance! I’m really good. I’m so happy. I’ve never known what it is to have a talent and to develop it. To function! To function like—a fine watch. Like Olivier or Hepburn.”
    â€œYou’re putting up the money.”
    â€œYes, and I’ll never make a better investment. Jan’s ideas are so exciting. For him cinema is not just another medium. You have to understand communication theory. Cinema is the medium par excellence for our times.”
    Cinema. Five years ago she’d have said, Let’s go to the movies. And we’d go see Steve McQueen. We’d eat popcorn and when I finished I’d put my buttery fingers between her legs.
    â€œWhy do you and Jacoby need to do a script? Isn’t Ibsen good enough?”
    â€œYou don’t understand. We’re not primarily interested in ideas as Ibsen was. It is Nora as a person and the narrative. Jan believes—”
    â€œLet’s leave right now, Margot. We could drive all night. Do you remember doing that and sleeping in a meadow by the Shenandoah River?”
    â€œNo. I owe this to myself. But let me explain. Jan’s theory is that by the very nature of the medium cinema should have nothing to do with ideas. The meaning of a film derives from the narrative itself. Narrative and person are everything. What’s more, the treatment has to be done before England.”
    â€œEngland?”
    â€œThat’s where we’re going to shoot it.”
    â€œYou mean you’re going to England?”
    â€œThat’s where he’s going to shoot it. It will cut costs by half.”
    â€œThen you’re going to England?”
    â€œDo you think I’d miss the chance to play Nora?”
    â€œAre you sure you’re going to?”
    â€œI just told you—Oh. You mean Jan’s going to take my money and kick me out.”
    â€œHow does Tex feel about it?” Surely that stupid-shrewd old man could see through this.
    â€œTex and Siobhan are beside themselves.”
    â€œThey’re going?”
    â€œCan you see Tex not going?”
    â€œI think you might have told me.”
    â€œHoney, I was going to. We only decided last night.” I was silent for a while. She said: “Don’t worry about me being cheated, Lance. You don’t know Jan. He’s so—”
    â€œDo you?”
    â€œI know him. I know him like a—” She paused.
    â€œA lover?”
    â€œLover. Of course I love him dearly. I love Bob Merlin. I love you. I love Siobhan. I love Tex. But it’s all different.”
    â€œThat’s not what I mean.”
    â€œOh boy oh boy oh boy. It’s not all that important, you know.”
    â€œWhat’s not?”
    â€œSex. You men set so much store by it. Well, you flatter