"But instead, if you're a midget, you have to join a circus."
"I never thought of it that way," he said again.
"Have you ever seen a midget working as a clerk in a department store?"
"Never," he said.
"Do you know why?"
"Because you can't see over the counter?"
"Well, that's one reason, of course. But the main reason is there's a lingering prejudice against little people."
"I'll bet there is."
"Short has become a dirty word," Alice said. "Have you ever seen a short movie star?"
"Well, Al Pacino is short."
"On my block, Al Pacino is agiant ," she said, and giggled.
Parker loved the way she giggled.
"Have you ever seen a movie where there are midgets makinglove ?" she asked.
"Never."
"Wedo make love, you know."
"Oh, I'll bet."
"Have you ever seen a midget fireman? Or a midget cop?"
He had not yet told her he was a cop. He wondered if he should tell her he was a cop.
"Well, they changed the requirements, you know," he said.
"What requirements?"
"The height requirements. It used to be five-eight."
"So what is it now?"
"You can be any height. I know cops you can fit them in your vest pocket."
"You mean a midget can become a cop?"
"Well, I don't know aboutmidgets. But I guess hellip;"
"Because I can shoot a gun as good as anybody else, you know. I used to do an Annie Oakley act in the circus. Little Annie Oakley, they called me. That was before I got to be Tiny Alice."
"Youare tiny," he said. "That's one of the things I find very sexually attractive about you."
"Well, thank you. But what I'm asking, if I applied to the police department hellip; to become a woman cop, you know hellip; would they accept me? Or would they thinkshort? Do you see what I mean?"
"I don't think of you as short," Parker said.
"Oh, I'm short, all right."
"I think of you as delicate."
"Well, thank you. There's this man Hans, he's one of the Flying Dutchmen, an aerial act, you know?"
"Uh-huh."
"He wrote me this very hot love letter, I memorized it. What made me think of it was your use of the word delicate."
"Well, you are delicate."
"Thank you. Would you like to hear the letter?"
"Well hellip; sure," Parker said, and glanced over his shoulder to see where Peaches was. She was nowhere in sight. "Go ahead," he said.
"He said he wanted to disrobe me."
"Take off your clothes, you mean."
"Yes. He said he wanted to discard my dainty delicate under things hellip; that's what made me think of it, delicate."
"Yes, I see."
"And pat my pubescent peaks hellip; this is him talking now, in the letter."
"Yes."
"And probe my pithy pussy, and manipulate my miniature mons veneris and Lilliputian labiae hellip;"
"Uh-huh."
"And caress my compact clitoris and crisp pauciloquent pubic patch. That was the letter."
"From one of the Flying Dutchmen, huh?"
"Yes."
"He speaks good English."
"Oh, yes."
"That isn't the guy you're with tonight, is it? The guy you came in with?"
"No, no. That's Quentin."
"He's not one of the Flying Dutchmen, huh?"
"No, he's a clown."
"Oh."
"A very good one, too."
"So how long have you been in town? I didn't even know the circus was here, I'll tell you the truth."
"Well, we're not here. We won't be here till the spring sometime. We go down to Florida next month to start rehearsing the new season."
"Oh, so you're just visiting then, is that it?"
"Yeah, sort of."