In the center, facing us, stood a magnificent blonde -- stark felt a wave of irrational guilt and i wanted at one and the same time to run from the room, to sink through the floor, or to go to her and cover her from my eyes and the eyes of the others with my body; to feel the soft thighs, to caress her and destroy her, to love her and murder her, to hide from her, and yet to stroke where below the small american flag tattooed upon her belly her thighs formed a capital v. i had a notion that of all in the room she saw only me with her impersonal eyes