The Price of Salt

by Patricia Highsmith

I feel I stand in a desert with my hands outstretched, and you are raining down upon me.

Her arms were tight around Carol, and she was conscious of Carol and nothing else,

And she did not have to ask if this were right, no one had to tell her, because this could not have been more right or perfect.

“My angel,” Carol said. “Flung out of space.”

the bend of Carol’s body in-the black sweater seemed the only solid thing in the world.

at last Therese saw a smile rising slowly in her eyes, bringing Carol with it.

“I mean—what was I ever trying to do but this? I’m happy.”

“What’s going to happen when we get back to New York? It can’t be the same, can it?” “Yes,” Carol said. “Till you get tired of me.”

How was it possible to be afraid, when the two of them grew stronger together every day? And every night. Every night was different, and every morning. Together they possessed a miracle.

But when they kissed good night in bed, Therese felt their sudden release, that leap of response in both of them, as if their bodies were of some materials which put together inevitably created desire.

“I don’t see why it should mean this forever. I don’t see how this can destroy anything,” she said earnestly.

Carol drove slowly. Her eyes were different now. They had come alive, like her voice.

In the mirror, she saw Carol come up behind her, and there was no answer but the pleasure of Carol’s arms sliding around her, that made it impossible to think,

You ask if I miss you. I think of your voice, your hands, and your eyes when you look straight into mine. I remember your courage that I hadn’t suspected, and it gives me courage. Will you call me, darling?

There were simply the mornings, mornings anywhere, when she could lift her head from a pillow and see Carol’s

face, and know that the day was theirs and that nothing would separate them.

I say I love you always, the person you are and the person you will become. I would say it in a court if it would mean anything to those people or possibly change anything, because those are not the words I am afraid of.

What right had he to talk about whom she loved or how? What did he know about her? What had he ever known?

that the rapport between two men or two women can be absolute and perfect, as it can never be between man and woman, and perhaps some people want just this, as others want that more shifting and uncertain thing that happens between men and women.

Yes, I have sunk a good deal since they took you from me.

Your plants are still thriving on the back porch. I water them every day. . . .

And the song would die one day, she thought, but how would the world come back to life? How would its salt come back?