A Way With All Maidens // A Satyr's Romance — Barry N. Malzberg

A WAY WITH ALL MAIDENSDavid Perkins didn't intend to join S-'s acting troupe. He started out as a thief. But circumstances being what they are, he is forced to lay low for a while. And what better place to lay low than as an extra in the back of a theater production. Which is how Perkins finds himself a member of the cast of S-'s new play, The Tempest. All is well and good until S- decides that, against the better judgement of the director, he wants Perkins to be his Prospero. Now Perkins has all these nonsensical lines to learn for a part he doesn't really understand, rehearsed by a director who has absolutely no faith in him. Thank goodness he has Jane, who provides a most delightful distraction to all this theater business. Otherwise, he'd surely go mad. A SATYR'S ROMANCEIt all begins in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Harry Wheeler is ushering in 1970 with the crowds when someone lights a firecracker behind him. A young lady falls into his arms in a dead faint. What is he to do? Seizing the moment, he carries her off to his basement apartment. And there Harry's seeks to explain himself to this young actress, Rona Smith, whom he has so conveniently abducted. Sex is part of it, but Harry believes there is so much more here that needs to be said. He tells Rona the story of Idiom, his alter ego-his sexual history, his search for connection. But after the sex is over, Rona finds she has no patience for this man who barricades himself behind his words. Because Harry, she decides, is very likely crazy.