June 12 , 2018
Shaneen’s
6:30 pm

βI lean back and study her. Whatβs in the bag is a π . βI just ran into your old man,β I say. βHe didnβt look so hot.β
βSince Iβve been a good boy and not started an argument, Meg offers me a bite of her π .

βIn the center of my blotter sit five π pits, a dark, wet spot radiating outward.β
βI can almost picture it, but not quite, probably because Iβm still staring at the π pits soaking my blotter. Can Meg Quigley have eaten all these π es? And what is she trying to say? Is she extending Eliotβs metaphor by suggesting that, unlike timid Prufrock, she dares to eat a half a dozen π es? What would that mean, in purely sexual terms? Or does she just want me to understand Iβm the pits?β


“Meg has apparently paid me another visit, because in the middle of my ruined blotter sits a single ripe π .β
βSee what you can do about getting me a new blotter,β I say, slipping the new π into my jacket pocket.β
βI shove my hands in my jacket pockets, find in one of them a tender π , quickly remove them again. The spasm of guilt I feel suggests that my father was right. You may as well eat the π if youβre going to feel guilty anyway.β

βIβve got a perfectly good π in my pocket, so I take a seat on the sofa and see how close to the ceiling I can toss it without its actually touching the acoustic tiles. Iβm doing pretty well until I have to lunge for one and brush a lamp. The door to Dickieβs office opens just as I grab the lamp by its shade and the π plops onto the rug. Three men emerge, and they all stare first at the lamp, then at me, then finally at the π . Whatβs wrong with this picture?β
βI pick up the π from the carpet and say, βHello, girls.β
βI offer to shake Louβs first, and when he grudgingly extends his hand I put the π in it.β
βThe lawyerβs hand is cool and dry, my own slightly sticky from the π , which appears to have ruptured when it fell.β
βBilly Quigley would regret that Iβm a peckerwood, his daughter Meg that I lack the courage to eat aπ .β
βNow, instead of being offered a bite of juicy π , Iβm being accused.β
Rating: πππ.5