RANSVESTIA

dog." She smiled and began to dance off down the path. She looked like a young girl of eighteen while I felt positively ancient.

Valerie flirted outrageously with the young university and high school boys who run the cafeteria in the gardens. "Not really enough for us," she said with a grin as we skpped along through the brown carpet of grass. "But it's nice to practice once in a while."

I nodded of course. I just wasn't used to all the attention that Valerie attracted. Almost everywhere we walked we found men who smiled and winked at us. It was so exhilirating I could have stayed in those gardens for the rest of the day. But then Valerie told me she had to go out on a job that night, a dancing job, so we had to get back to the apartment. I tried to pump her about the job, but she was very non-commital and so I dropped it.

As we got out of her yellow sports car, the high-rise looming over us, she said in a most grateful voice. "You know, I'm really glad to be living here with you, Dot."

"Why?" I was pretty curious.

"Well, you know about me," she said, slipping her arm through mine as we walked in. "But you don't push me to tell you more about myself than I want to tell you. Oh, I suppose I'll tell you every nook and cranny of my life some day, but for now, I'm happy to be here."

"Didn't you like where you were before?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Non," she said. "Other models are really frustrating to be around. They're quite selfish and inconsiderate, believe me. And then, of course, there were the one or two people who know about me," the light had gone from her face. "They make too many demands on me."

Questions were on the tip of my tongue, but I held them back. Later, I thought, later. But it was quite a while before we broached that topic again.

Valerie tried to stay out of my life and she was as cautious as could be in what she said to me, but her influence was soon seen in me. She loved to experiment with different "looks." She looked great in her

25