Ed suggested they take a walk in Central Park to ease the tension they both had felt on Frank’s behalf. Sarah put her arm through Ed’s and told him how busy she had been at NBC.
“Is that bad?” he asked.
“I guess not. When it’s over, I’ll get back to normal living.”
“You’ll have lost nothing?”
“Some afternoons with you.”
He smiled. “We can catch up. How about the more important things, like your research?”
“That’s okay. Jerry’s being very sweet.”
“He has a stake in this, of course. How about the gliding? Last I heard, you were giving lessons to Don Rigden.”
“He had to take a raincheck.”
“You’re not seeing him at all?” Ed looked concerned.
“We’ll pick up again.” She added, because Ed obviously was angling to know if the friendship had died, “He’s not a quitter.”
“But there’s still a note of reservation in your voice.”
“About Don?”
“Maybe about the whole project.”
“You can read me, can’t you?” She held his arm tighter. “I wish you were part of it.”
“I wouldn’t be much help with this one. It’s not my field at all. Have you been watching Greg’s series?”
“I saw the first two. It’s a lot better than I expected.”
“You saw the clip of our interview in the first program?”
She smiled. “That’s the second time I’ve seen it and I’m still embarrassed by it. I tried so hard to make an impression on you.”
“It didn’t show. You were as cool as any professional, yet totally natural. Haven’t you noticed how people act up when a TV camera is turned on them? I know that I do. And so do the giants of the industry. Carson, Frost — they all have their TV manner. You don’t. You’re totally unaffected, and that’s so rare it could even be unique.”
“It was the circumstances. It all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to gear up for a performance.”
“Whatever it was, it was hypnotic.”
She laughed. “Ed, that’s exaggerating it. Me in my lab coat talking about spiders wouldn’t have that effect on anyone.”
“No? How about Havelock Sloane?”
“Him?” Sarah shrugged. “He’s crazy.”
“Really? Why?”
They turned off the path and down a slope through trees to the lake, where it was quiet, and they sat on a rock and looked at the colors in the water. She told Ed about Havelock’s production. She described the sets and the costumes and the plan to present people as spiders.
“It’s exciting and original and I’m sure it has popular appeal,’ she said, “but, Ed, it isn’t working. And the reason is me. I’m no good at playing a spider. I can’t do it.”
“He wants you to act — is that it?”
“He says it isn’t acting. It’s a matter of learning to identify, and I have an advantage over any actress because I know what motivates spiders and I’ve studied their behavior.”
“So?”
“So I go up on the web each day and try to imagine I’m a spider. They say I’m getting better at it, but I know I’m not. The whole thing is crazy to me. I can’t think myself into the character of a spider, because spiders don’t think. There’s no scientific evidence that they have the power to reason. If a fly hits the web, the spider doesn’t think, ‘Good, that’s my lunch. I’ll wind some silk around it to stop it from escaping and then sink my fangs into it.’ It simply responds to the vibrations on the web. Its behavior is automatic. My problem is that I don’t have that automatic reaction, and never will. But anything else is phony. Does it make sense, or am I crazy?”
“It makes sense,” said Ed. He picked up a stone and tossed it gently into the water. They watched the rings multiply. “Like I said, you’re a totally natural person, Sarah. That was a bonus in Greg’s kind of program. Here, it’s a handicap. Sloane is asking you to do something that conflicts with nature. It’s a problem.”
“It’s impossible.”
“Hold on — I wouldn’t say that. Just for the record, let’s get this clear: you don’t object to playing a spider because it’s a creature people despise?”
“No, that doesn’t bother me.”
“You want to do this program if you can?”
“Only if I can do it convincingly.”
“Okay. See if this helps. Have you considered whether you have anything in common with a spider?”
Sarah frowned. “How do you mean?”
“Seems to me we have to find a starting point. Up to now you’ve gotten nowhere because each time you hit this problem that spiders are motivated by instinct. Let’s forget that and approach it another way. Will you try?”
She could not see how this would help, but she wanted to cooperate. “I guess we have certain instincts in common with them — survival, the sex drive, protection of the young. Is this what you have in mind?”
“No. I wasn’t thinking in general terms. I was thinking of you in particular.”
“You mean I have something in common with spiders? They interest me, yes, but as for what you’re saying ... ” Her voice trailed away as she tried to imagine what he meant. “Like my hang-gliding?”
Now he looked mystified.
“When spiders are young, they spin threads long enough to catch the breeze, which lifts them in the air,” she explained. “They travel miles that way. Very high, too. That’s how they migrate. As a form of flight, it’s unique to spiders. Sloane is using some hang-gliding sequences in his film to illustrate how it works. So I guess that’s one experience I share with spiders.”
“It hadn’t occurred to me, but you’re right. My thoughts don’t fit as neatly as that.” He threw another stone in the water. “I’m no authority on spiders, but would you say they’re self-sufficient, for the most part? They make their own way in the world without relying too much on help from their own kind?”
“I see.” Sarah smiled. “You figure I’m a loner?”
“Circumstances made you one, little lady. Am I wrong — or do you keep most people at a distance?”
“Not wrong. It’s a fair parallel. Anything else?”
‘Well, there’s the web.”
She laughed out loud. “Come off it, Ed. That’s too much! I live in one room in a brownstone on West Eighty-eighth.”
“Sure. Don’t be so literal. Your web isn’t like the ones in Sloane’s studio. It’s invisible, but it works better than his.”
Still smiling, she took off her shoes and walked to the water to dip her feet in. “Okay, I’m interested. Tell me about my web.”
“As I see it, it’s like this. There’s an area around you — I’m speaking figuratively — that you make damn sure you cover pretty thoroughly. Anything happens, you want to know about it, right? You told me there are girls you meet for lunch, not friends but people who update you on what’s happening around the university. Those are your lines out. You have this network of information. It cross-checks, so you get strong signals if anything comes your way.”
“Like men?” said Sarah, enjoying the game. “All girls make it their business to check out the local talent.”
“Right, but not with your thoroughness. Yours is as tidy as an orb web. Your meetings are regular.”
“They were till I got caught up in TV,” said Sarah.