Angels Are Supposed To Be Sexless

In the distance they look like three stick figures, surfing.

Proust squints, with the object of seeing them better.

It's not possible to see what Albertine is wearing. One thing is certain, she will have taken her sensible skirt off. And then.... all she had underneath was her knickers. Although he has never seen them they have conflated in his imagination with the colourful scarf she had tucked inside them and become like a rainbow filament floating about her like the phylacteries of angels in medieval paintings, covering who knows what since angels were always supposed to be sexless, whereas Albertine.... an unpleasant thought strikes him.....

He hears Constance say: Here, take this one.

And Gaius walks off down the beach with a towel.

Where's he going? asks Proust.

He's taking a towel to the girls. Weren't you listening?

No, I was thinking about Albertine.

But not in a practical way, I imagine, says Constance. Gaius thought a towel might be handy. Especially if the girls have gone in in their underwear. It can become quite transparent when one has been bathing.

Only one towel, did you say? asks Proust.

I only had one, replies Constance. Honestly. I must do some washing.

Are you staying in Neptun long? asks Proust.

Leaving tomorrow, says Constance. How about you?

I suppose I must go back to Paris, says Proust. I have had too much excitement.

So have I, says Daniel O'Connell. Too much excitement and not enough information.

Constance turns to look at Daniel O'Connell, who has just finished his ice cream.

Oh yes, I promised to tell you more about Daniel O'Connell, says Constance.

The Liberator, says Daniel O'Connell.

That's the one, says Constance. He was a campaigner for civil rights and economic betterment for the Irish majority. In 1829 he achieved Catholic Emancipation, so that Catholics could sit in the Parliament.

What did they sit in before? asks Daniel O'Connell.

Nothing, says Constance. They weren't allowed to.

Well that doesn't seem too bad to Daniel O'Connell. When does a spider sit down?

And what was he like as a person? asks Daniel O'Connell.

Well, says Constance. You might like to know he had quite a reputation. He was fearless in court, resourceful, ingenious, verbally witty, and the countryside teemed with his natural children.

Daniel O'Connell had not imagined such greatness!

He is so overwhelmed he sits down in the sticky patch.

Careful, says Constance.

Proust has been scanning the beach for approaching wet maidens.

He thinks he can see Arthur, yes it is Arthur, in his faded purple board shorts, followed by Gilberte in a towel, and then yes... he can see Gaius, walking behind Gilberte, looking as though he is shielding someone, and ......behind Gaius, it can only be....yes, it is Albertine.

She is wearing her sensible skirt, water still dripping from under it, down her smooth suntanned legs to her sandy ankles.

Hi, says Albertine. That was the best! You should have come with us.

I had nothing to swim in, says Proust.