Tales of the City

Michael adjusts his makeup in a mirror and gives himself a pep talk on the way to the party. Mary Ann arrives at the switchboard, where Vincent is caught in a bout of depression. She offers to listen to his troubles; he compliments her for being composed. Vincent’s problem is his partner, who is at a loss following the end of the Vietnam War as she no longer has a cause to fight for. She has run away to join the Israeli Army. Vincent locks himself in the bathroom. As Mary Ann shouts through the door, telling him not to “‘cut anything off’” (132), her phone rings. 

Mrs. Madrigal asks Mona about Michael and reminds her that Brian is probably at home that very night. Mona declares Brian to be a “‘womanizer’” (133). Mrs. Madrigal and Mona go out to see Beach Blanket Babylon. They drink wine at the show and then go for coffee. Mrs. Madrigal reveals with a toast that it is the three-year anniversary of Mona moving into the apartment. 

The phone rings while Mary Ann pounds on the bathroom door, pleading for Vincent not to harm himself. Finally, she picks up the phone; a person asks to talk to Rebecca. Vincent replies at last and tells Mary Ann that she is Rebecca’s replacement. When the man doesn’t believe her, Mary Ann insists, right up until the caller starts making sexually explicit comments. Vincent apologizes and reveals that the caller is known as “Randy,” and that Rebecca overdosed. 

Mona asks Mrs. Madrigal what she meant by her cryptic comment. Mrs. Madrigal reveals that their meeting was “‘engineered […] rather magnificently, I think’” (137). Mrs. Madrigal appeared one evening at Mona’s table with brownies, and the two had talked for hours. Mona moved in two days later. At the time, Mrs. Madrigal had read about Mona’s work on a swimwear campaign in New York.

At Barbary Lane, Mary Ann is doing housework to take her mind off her time at the switchboard. Mona and Michael stop by and talk to her. 

DeDe is in a limousine heading to the Golden Door, “America’s most sumptuous and blue-blooded fat farm” (139). She is sick of the city, Beauchamp, and her guilt. She chats to the driver about the famous faces who have attended the Golden Door. She arrives at the spa and checks in before being invited to the weigh-in room. 

Mona and Michael eat lunch. They discuss their pressing need for money as they are “‘already a month behind on the rent’” (141). Michael’s plan is to enter the jockey-shorts dance contest at The Endup.

Across town, Edgar calls Beauchamp into his office. They discuss Beauchamp’s future career before Edgar invites his son-in-law for drinks that night while DeDe is out of town. This upcoming conversation with Beauchamp will be in the “‘strictest confidence’” (142). 

Edgar meets Anna after his drinks with Beauchamp. That night, he tells her that he loves her. She tells him the legend of his name, and Edgar concedes that his father had “‘more imagination than I give him credit for’” (144). 

DeDe exercises at the Golden Door and is beginning to feel “like a girl again, placid and simple and whole” (145). Standing on the scales, she finds out that she has lost 18 pounds and embraces her new friend, a movie star. As she flies home, she realizes that she has missed her period. 

Mary Ann lies in bed and plays with a cat named Boris. She is “sick and tired of being dumped on” (147) but decides to seize the initiative in her life. Michael serves Mona breakfast in bed and tells her about his date with Jon the previous night. He still plans to dance in the jockey-shorts dance contest and has been “‘practicing all week’” (148). 

Beauchamp meets DeDe at the airport. When he tells her that she looks like a new person, DeDe thinks that it’s possible that she is “two new people” (149). His beaming reaction pleases her. Beauchamp recounts what DeDe has missed, including that her father invited him for drinks on several occasions. He talks about how much (and when) he missed DeDe and promises to make things better between them.

Frannie walks through the garden confiding in Faust, her dog, about how she worries over her husband. 

Mary Ann chases Boris up on to the roof. She finds herself confronted by the tenant who has taken the small room up on the top of the building. The tenant is a middle-aged man named Norman. He invites her for coffee, and she accepts, keen to see the view from the roof. Because Norman is a vitamin salesman, he is not in the small apartment very often.