"SUSANNA SAYS..."

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Scene: The porch in the main house at the Chevalier D'Eon- -- Our resort in the Catskill Mountains. The time: about 4 o'clock in the morning as Labor Day is ready to awaken in the distant darkness. The cast, four girls just making small talk and getting to know each other Jacqueline, a superb blonde who has recently left the locked room stage and is now beginning to enjoy the company of others like herself. She is happily married and we all agree that those two make a wonder- ful couple...there's understanding, tolerance and wholesome enjoy- ment of life as it is. We all agree that it'd be nice if there were more wives like Bonnie. She has just gone to bed, dead tired. it's been a stre nous day for everybody. but we are greedy.. .we don't want to say goodnight yet. and we squeeze a few more hours from a day that's already gone...it's dark in the porch...just a row of lights illuminate part of the property at intervals...perhaps a bit chilly in those 2.400 feet of altitude, but we don't seem to care bare should ers, bare arms...the feel of that long hair that strangely has become part of our own selves...an occasional flame lighting a cigarette throws a glow on feminine faces...smiling, serene, relaxed, happy faces. Jessica, a new friend, is with us...another Spanish speaking girl to team up with Susanna... we discover that Spanish should be made the official language for all TVs...why? It enhances, under- scores, punctuates in every sentence the feminine personality of the speaker... let's try a sample: "I'm happy" or "What a silly fool I am!" two sentences which don't tell anything about the gender of the speak- ..if a man says them, or a woman says them... they are still the very same, identical expressions. Let's turn them into Spanish (and for that matter into a few other Romance Languages) and what do we get? A man has to say: "Estoy contento" or "Que tonto soy!) -- a woman must say; "Estoy contenta" or "Que tontą soy!' Spanish adeject- ives (most of them) change endings according to the speaker's gender. So we talk...every phrase is a reminder (as if we needed a reminder!) that it us girls speaking...the language itself has changed to conform to our feminine personality, now openly herself, openly on her own. Jessica smiles with a mysterious smile- the enigmatic smile of the so- phisticated woman, who has traveled in foreign lands, who has learned the value of being coquettish and ladylike at the same time...of the woman who knows her charms without being condescending to others.. we like her company...and we hope she'll be a faithful friend.. With her looks she could go wild, but she seems too smart for that..we

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