The Garden of Eden

David and Catherine buy a car and drive to the Basque country on the Spanish border. They find a place to stay near the beach and visit a café. David plans to begin writing again and, as they lay in bed at night, Catherine assures him that she will find something to do while he works. The next morning, David writes in the hotel room while Catherine goes out to explore the village despite the inclement weather.

After he finishes writing, David ventures out to find Catherine at the café. They sit and sip absinthe, a strong and illegal liquor, which must be prepared in a specific manner. As she drinks, Catherine chides David for reading his reviews. He tells her to “shut up about the clippings” (30), but she continues to criticize him. David threatens to leave, but Catherine backs down. She thinks about how the brief argument was their first “sordid quarrel” (31). She assures David that she was just making a joke which backfired.

David wakes before Catherine. Although he is hungry, he writes while she sleeps. When he is finished and packing his things away, Catherine wakes and tells him that she will meet him at the café. David arrives at the café and orders breakfast for both of them. Catherine arrives at the café and tells David that she plans to drive into the nearby town of Biarritz alone but intends to bring back “a surprise” (34). David tells her that this is not necessary.

David explores the town, searching for possible homes to rent. He chastises himself because “everything’s going too fast” (35). He returns to his room to read. Catherine arrives with her hair cut even shorter. She likes her new hair as it “feels like an animal” (36). David tells her that it is wonderful; they go to bed together and have sex. Afterward, she rubs her head against his chest and thanks him for being “so loyal to me” (37). The next morning, they order breakfast in bed with champagne. While they wait for it to arrive, Catherine tearfully apologizes for their previous argument. She convinces David that they should continue their journey to the next town.

David and Catherine cross the border into Spain. They eat lunch while Catherine repeats phrases from a “Spanish-English Method book” (41). They eat gazpacho and drink wine. They talk about art, inspiration, and death. Later, in their hotel room, Catherine asks David whether she should go “back to being a boy again” (43). David says that he likes her as she is. She repeatedly tells David that she loves him and that he is “such a good husband” (43). After they have sex, she begs David to let her “be a boy again” (44). She promises him that she will do so only at night so as not to embarrass him. She wants David to change as well, to become Catherine, so that they can switch roles. When Catherine says that she plans to visit the museum as a boy, David says that he gives up.

The next morning, David wakes before Catherine and leaves her sleeping in the hotel room. He eats breakfast at a café, cashes a check, and then reads his forwarded mail. David returns to the hotel, assuming Catherine has gone to the museum as planned. With his newspapers and mail, he sits in the hotel bar to wait for her. He reads more reviews and a letter from his publisher.

As David sits at the bar, he meets a friend named John Boyle. As they talk, John reveals that he knew Catherine’s father. He mentions that her father and mother died in a car accident, then praises David’s book. Catherine arrives and sits down with the two men. John recognizes Catherine from the museum. She drinks absinthe as John discusses her father, whom he describes as “a very difficult and charming man” (49). He assures Catherine that she does not remind him of her father, nor does David. Catherine mentions that she started to be a boy again last evening after spending almost a month as a girl. John accepts her reasoning but insists that she remains a girl. Catherine agrees to join the men for lunch and returns to her hotel room to change clothes. John praises Catherine’s suntan.

Later, as David and Catherine lay in bed, Catherine remarks that she does not want to lose her suntan and mentions that she “didn’t change back to be a girl for lunch” (51). She claims that this approach is simpler, but David disagrees. He would rather she did not tell people about her occasional transformations into a boy.

David wakes the next morning and goes to breakfast alone. By the time Catherine arrives, he is drinking his second glass of absinthe. He greets her with her nickname, Devil. (53). He lies to her, saying that he feels fine. He does not want to talk about the next stage of their journey and mentions that his absinthe tastes exactly like remorse. Catherine complains that being a girl is a “god damned bore” (53). As their conversation turns into an argument, she insists that–if David wants her to be a girl–then he must accept the “scenes, hysteria, false accusations, temperament” (54) that she associates with girls. Catherine finishes the argument and agrees to return to their role as “good intelligent American tourists who are disappointed that they came to Madrid at the wrong time of year” (54).