Tales of the City

At the party, Beauchamp steps into the men’s room with Peter Cipriani. Nervously, they snort cocaine. Beauchamp declines an invitation to leave early. A man named Ryan Hammond enters the room and enjoys a charged exchange with Cipriani. Later, when “the bathroom was empty again” (131), Edgar enters with Booter Manigault, who is listening to sports through a radio earpiece. As Edgar talks about hunting, Booter tells him that he looks “‘a little white’” (131). 

Michael adjusts his makeup in a mirror and gives himself a pep talk on the way to the party. Mary Ann arrives at the switchboard, where Vincent is caught in a bout of depression. She offers to listen to his troubles; he compliments her for being composed. Vincent’s problem is his partner, who is at a loss following the end of the Vietnam War as she no longer has a cause to fight for. She has run away to join the Israeli Army. Vincent locks himself in the bathroom. As Mary Ann shouts through the door, telling him not to “‘cut anything off’” (132), her phone rings.