Another Country

Vivaldo is troubled by cryptic nightmares in which he is chased through a dangerous, confusing world. He wakes up in Eric’s bed with Eric kissing his neck and tries to remember how their embrace began. Vivaldo gives himself up to the moment and they have sex. After, Vivaldo thanks Eric for showing him a new perspective on his own sexuality because he now feels “clear, washed, and empty, waiting to be filled” (242). Vivaldo is shaken from his reverie, but he remains certain that he loves Eric, even if they may never express their love for one another ever again. Their moment is interrupted by the telephone: Cass calls Eric, wanting to be with him after her argument with Richard. Eric agrees to meet Cass later in the afternoon. He discusses the “messy” (244) situation with Vivaldo, who insists he does not feel guilty about anything. As Vivaldo makes coffee, Eric thinks about everything that has happened until his thoughts are interrupted by a phone call from his agent. The agent has booked an audition for Eric, who he assures is “going to go right over the top” (247). Vivaldo and Eric toast Eric’s success with whisky then drink their coffee. As Eric thinks about his future, Vivaldo wonders aloud about his future with Ida.

Eric leaves to meet Cass while Vivaldo lingers in Eric’s apartment. He plans to call Ida when Eric leaves. She answers the telephone immediately and asks Vivaldo whether he has spoken to Cass, revealing that Richard visited her, looking for Vivaldo as he feels that Vivaldo has “betrayed” (250) him. Vivaldo agrees to return to his apartment, where Ida will meet him. Before he can leave Eric’s apartment, however, a telegram arrives for Eric from Europe. Vivaldo leaves the telegram on Eric’s table with a note, thanking Eric for “a great day” (251), and then exits the apartment.

Eric meets Cass at a museum. They walk among the exhibits as she describes her angry confrontation with Richard and the sleepless night that followed. Richard, she explains, has threatened to divorce her and take the children with him, but she believes that he is just trying to hurt her as she hurt him. As she talks and as Eric begins to pity her, he realizes that he cannot truly save her because he never truly loved her. Instead, he has “used her to find out something about himself” (253). Cass admits that she is afraid for the future. Now, she sees the world as a cold and lonely place. She predicts that she and Richard will try and “weather this, and stick together” (254) for the sake of their children. She does not know whether this will work, but she cannot see any other option than to try. Eric understands, though he regrets that he cannot help her. They exit the museum and bid farewell to each other as Cass enters a taxi. She promises to call Eric.

Vivaldo returns to his apartment where Ida is waiting for him. As she cooks for him, he watches her closely and notices “something sad and lonely in her whole aspect” (256). They talk about love, but Vivaldo detects that Ida is keeping something from him. Reluctantly, she explains that Rufus’s death affected her in a profound way. She did not want to be exploited or misunderstood in the same way that had happened to Rufus. Furthermore, she wanted to punish the people who she considered “too cowardly to even know what they had done” (261) to her brother. She liked Vivaldo, she tells him, but her plan ensured that she would use her sexuality to achieve something. She tells Vivaldo about Ellis, how he helped her singing career and treated her nicely. Ellis appreciated that she loved Vivaldo because it meant that their affair did not need to become messy or complicated and because the affair “gave him another kind of power” (263) over Ida and Vivaldo. Ida admits that by the time her revenge for Rufus was becoming real, she realized that Vivaldo was not the kind of person she wanted to target. But she did not know how to tell Vivaldo nor how to end her affair with Ellis. She had tried to endure Ellis for the sake of her career, but at the bar the previous evening, she reached the end of her ability to do so. The musicians in the bar knew Rufus and were disgusted by her relationship with Ellis. Rather than gain revenge on men like Ellis, Ida realized that she had become his victim. She explains to Vivaldo that she let Ellis take her home and have sex with her. As Ida cries, Vivaldo tries to comfort her though he feels reviled by the story she has told him. He makes coffee while she cleans her face in the bathroom; he feels “nothing” (267), but he comes to an understanding about a key element of life that is missing from his unfinished novel. Before he can write anything down, however, the telephone rings. Eric explains to Vivaldo that Cass plans to return home to New England for a short time and that Richard is still out, possibly with Ellis. Eric apologizes for not telling Vivaldo about Ellis and Ida. He invites Vivaldo and Ida to his house, where Yves will soon arrive. Vivaldo promises to call Eric later. Vivaldo returns to the kitchen where he and Ida drink coffee. She assures him that she loves him. However, Vivaldo struggles to return the sentiment. He thanks her for telling him the truth and asks for more time to process his emotions. They embrace “like two weary children” (269). Later, he works on his novel and she sleeps.