Page:The Blacker the Berry - Thurman - 1929.djvu/179

 bulb. “Oh, play it you dirty no-gooder.” A room full of dancing couples, scarcely moving their feet, arms completely encircling one another’s bodies cheeks being warmed by one another’s breath eyes closed animal ecstasy agitating their perspiring faces. There was much panting, much hip movement, much shaking of the buttocks “Do it twice in the same place.” “Git off that dime.” Now somebody was singing, “I ask you very confidentially” “Sing it man, sing it.” Piano treble moaning, bass rumbling like thunder. A swarm of people, motivating their bodies to express in suggestive movements the ultimate consummation of desire.

The music stopped, the room was suffocatingly hot, and Emma Lou was disturbingly dizzy. She clung fast to Alva, and let the room and its occupants whirl around her. Bodies and faces glided by. Leering faces and lewd bodies. Anxious faces and angular bodies. Sad faces and obese bodies. All mixed up together. She began to wonder how such a small room could hold so many people. “Oh, play it again ” She saw the pianist now, silhouetted against the dark mahogany piano, saw him bend his long, slick-haired head, until it hung low on his chest, then lift his hands high in the air, and as quickly let them descend upon the keyboard. There was one moment of caco-