V.V.(8) Chapter Six - summary

[Michael Perez]

   Having survived and even been somewhat successful in the
sewer, Benny is dragged into several other alternate worlds.  In
each of these visits, he does not fair nearly as well.  In the sewer,
things made sense to Benny, he understood and had a great deal in
common with the castaways there: alligators that had been flushed
breed and hunt, but otherwise no longer resemble the surface
beings to which they are related; the waste itself flushed
continually down there which has served its purpose of
perpetuating animate existence and is no longer necessary for this
purpose; Father Fairing who concedes the battle for animate
hierarchy and lives among the “inheritors of the earth” [118.21] in
order to give them “spiritual nourishment” [118.23] in exchange
for “three of their own per day for physical sustenance” [118.22]. 
In some way, it seemed like Benny belonged.
    Not so in the world above.  First, he is told he is being taken to
look for sexual opportunities, but when Josefina decides she is
taking a sick day and joining them, the plan changes to include
“two girls they knew” [135.9] rather than mere *coño* [“cunt”]. 
Then they visit some after hours clubs and bars.  Benny wears a
suit that is not his own, tries to speak Italian among those who are
speaking only in Spanish, gets yanked onto the dance floor when
he cannot dance, and is engaged in discussions about romantic
relationships about which he knows nothing.  At the end of these
excursions, he ends up being carried down Amsterdam Avenue
having been transformed into *mierda* [“shit”].  It seems that he
also has said something to Fina that has had an effect on their
relationship, such as it is, but he does not remember what he said.
   Benny “knew that one wrong word would put him closer than
he cared to be to street level” [137.2] and his “vocabulary it
seemed was made up of nothing but wrong words” [137.3].  He
had his own vision of their relationship, of what he wanted to be to
her.  He was content to remain “the disembodied object of a
corporal work of mercy” [134.3], “another means of grace or
indulgence” [134.6], “an object of mercy” [137.12].  Fina also has
other projects. She is the “spiritual leader or Den Mother” [137.26]
to the Playboys, a mercenary gang with no turf of their own, no
neighborhood ties to one another, and no good in a rumble because
they were chicken.  All they had was a look.  They padded the
ranks of any other gang that had need of the psychological
advantage.  They are assumed to have had only a spiritual interest in
Fina.  Benny becomes, however, more than just another project and
whatever he said in the phone booth has inspired Fina to believe that
their relationship is different than the motherly one she has with her
family and the Playboys.
   The next alternate world to which Benny is taken is Little Italy
for the Feast of Saint Hercules of the Rhinoceroses [Grant 75]. 
Here though Benny speaks some of the language, but after that he
is lost.  When they approach three “jailbait” Italian girls at the
Wheel of Fortune, Angel goads Benny to say something in Italian
and Benny says *sfacim* [see notes for explanation of the possible
meanings for this word], which offends the girls.  Benny explains
he meant to say *sfacimento*, which means “destruction or decay”
[140.22], which was “all right then” [140.24].  Apparently, in this
alternate world, when a girl takes off and runs away, the custom is
to chase her.  Angel, Geronimo, and Benny are led to a Social Club
that turns out to be a Playboy hangout.  Benny finds Lucille, the
girl he had been chasing, and she sprawls out on the pool table
provocatively.  Just as Benny prepares to have his way with her, a
rumble between the Playboys and the Bop Kings, an
African-American gang, is about to begin.  However, it is halted by
none other than Josefina, who merely strolls between the rumblers
and everything is peaceful.
   Following this miraculous imposition of peace, however, Fina
seems to want to put and end to the image saintliness and
motherliness she has cultivated, and appears naked in Benny’s
bathtub/bed and tells him she wants him to be the first to make
love with her.  He dismisses her rather ungraciously and asks if she
wants to have all her good deeds “scratched off the books”
[145.27] by her desire to be deflowered before she is married.  She
leaves apologetically.
   With the arrival of spring, Benny’s relationship with the lower
regions changes.  The amount of alligators dwindles to the point
where there will be bound to be lay-offs among the Patrol.  Fina
insists that Benny look for other work and told him her boss, 
Roony Winsome, was looking for a clerk.  Her comment that “he’d
have a chance to move, make something of himself” [147.29]
strikes a nerve, but he is having an attack of “acute optimism”
[147.34] and agrees to try it.  He also begins to be more receptive
to her ideas of passion.  However, as he arrives for his interview at
Outlandish Records, he changes his mind and leaves.  The Patrol is
cut down to two days a week and on their way home from a
neighborhood bar they visit on the day this is announced, they
meet up with Fina and Angels mother.  Fina is missing and they are
worried because Dolores told Mrs. Mendoza that Fina was with the
Playboys and “she sounded funny” [150.6].
   They roam the city through the night looking for Fina and while
walking down their home street, Amsterdam Avenue, they run into
a “full-scale rumble” [150.21] and Roony Winsome doing one of
his infamous remote recordings, this time of the rumble.  Benny,
Angel, and Geronimo find chalk marks on the sidewalk and on a
door inside the indicated brownstone building, behind which they
find Fina - naked, obviously deflowered, and *smiling*.  Angel
goes into the room alone and tells the others to wait.  Benny hears
signs of Angel hitting Fina.  Fina no longer had a hold of Benny’s
yo-yo string and he is off again wandering around for his next
adventure.


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