Atdtda31: No choice, pardner, 883-886

[Paul Nightingale]

The narrative continues from Cyprian's pov, as he and Reef discuss Yashmeen,
again absent. For Cyprian, "a miracle" and "this condition" become, for
Reef, "[l]ove". Reef thinks he is "just" a tourist, and Yashmeen--briefly
'present' to Cyprian in a flashback he conjures up to triangulate Reef's
viewpoint--in turn insists that in fact she is the tourist, Reef "in the
nature of a holiday ... from all you complexos" (883-884). For each, the
relationship is a temporary alternative to another, perhaps more
substantial, reality, invoked by Reef when he speaks of his son (886).

Yashmeen's only appearance here is courtesy of Cyprian's recollection ("she
had admitted"); later he muses on his own experiences "out 'in the field'"
(885), and then "[finds] himself more and more an audience for Reef's
confidences", tales of other all-male gatherings. Reef talks and talks, and
Cyprian has "[n]o choice" (886) but to listen. Cyprian notes Yashmeen's
absence at the top of 884 before Reef goes "off on one of his rodeo rides";
and then again at the end of the section following Reef's reminiscence
(886). Having fucked Cyprian Reef insists he'd "want to kill anybody tried
that on me" (884); it's nothing to do with "pain" but "honour" (885). And
then, as the section ends, he asks if Cyprian is "fixin to go run and rat on
me now" (886). This concluding comment emphasises the bond between the two
men, one established it seems on Reef's conditions. Cyprian's "strong desire
to be taken" (885) is played out in two ways: with him "screaming into a
lace pillow" (884) and then silent, "just sit[ting] and listen[ing]" (886).

He is silent in both the narrative's here/now and Reef's there/then, where
Cyprian takes the role previously played by Reef himself. However, a page
earlier, contemplating those who "confuse submissiveness with sympathy ..."
etc (885), he has already put Reef into his own narrative of life "out 'in
the field'", an account that frames Reef's own recollection of "days when I
used to see em on the trains". Cyprian's introspection interrupts the
exchange about sex and honour, active and passive roles; he is
"[d]isingenuous as always" in order to beguile Reef with a pose of
passivity.