This part begins with Gary and Nicole's life together then segues into Nicole's life before she meet Gary. Mailer is slick; he knows that the reader will see Gary and Nicole's relationship as another pattern of her history if the story lines are swapped.
While visiting Sterling with Ricki's wife Sue one Saturday night, Nicole and Gary met. Nicole was immediately fascinated by him, but didn't want to let him know it, so she and Sue told Sterling they used to have crushes on him while Gary sat silently.
One thing lead to another and Nicole agreed to go out with Gary to buy some beer, taking her son Jeremy "for protection." Instead, things go well between them, and they kiss. Not wanting to seem like she "dates too much" in front of Sue, Nicole refuses Gary's inquiry for her phone number.
But she can't resist. She drives back to Sterling's house after dropping Sue at home and spends the night, putting her daughter Sunny and son Jeremy to bed. When Gary tells her that he spent half of his life in jail, she questions his status as "another loser." She didn't want to be with somebody "who didn't think enough of himself to make something of himself."
This time, Sterling sat there silently; Nicole and Gary talked for hours as if Sterling was not even in the room! This was the best conversation Nicole ever had, and when Gary came on to her she couldn't refuse. Gary blamed his lack of a hard-on on the beer and Fiorinal, but Nicole didn't want him to worry too much about it.
Gary didn't move in with Nicole completely for a week.
They got along very well with each other and Gary got along well with Nicole's children. It was the honeymoon period, after all. This is when the relationship is supposed to be perfect. The only time Gary seemed off was when Nicole found out--by snooping--that Gary had fake teeth. He acted like "someone had turned out the lights." She already knew that he had fake teeth when she kissed him, and teased him a little bit because she she wanted him to know that it didn't bother her. Gary still didn't take it well, but when they made love he told her it felt like he was "breathing into her soul."
Gary mentioned his mother to Nicole and it made him cry to mention her arthritis. This moves Nicole,who normally views a man crying as "disgusting" especially when they've cried over her. But they make plans to go to Portland to see her. For the time being money is very tight; they can barely afford to put gas in the car.
Nicole doesn't want to spook Gary and make him uncomfortable, so she tells him eventually her history. She is completely driven by sexual desire and has a problem controlling herself around men. She seems to sleep/marry men like a normal woman greets one. This is why she has had 2 children and 4 husbands by age 19.
Her history and habits make Gary look like just another fling. This was a good reason for her caution when telling Gary about her life.
Two major factors contributed to Nicole's history of deviant sexual behavior: her looks and her Uncle Lee.
Her "Uncle" Lee was her father's army buddy that lived with her family on and off since she was 6. Before he was shipped off, and killed, in Vietnam, he touched her inappropriately and made her touch him. When she was old enough to know better Nicole slept with her sister to protect herself from his advances but the damage had already been done.
Nicole was targeted by this man because of her looks, and she received attention from the boys at school because she had the biggest boobs in elementary school. She would let the boys touch her, but "no one could put it in her before she was 11."
Like most kids at that age, Nicole got into a bad habit and could not see any problem with it. Her mother tried to discipline her, but Nicole was caught stealing and sent to a reform school/nut house when she was 13. It was there that she met her second husband. (When she escaped reform school and went to an orgy at a party, she met her first.)
Nicole's life was very messy: she married multiple men, all of them a different kind of loser: dumb/drug dealer/paranoid/abusive. She mothers two children by two different men because she doesn't understand methods of successful birth control, and won't get an abortion because she can't fathom killing a baby.
Eventually Nicole keeps the good memories away from Gary because she was afraid that it would "bring down more spooks".
From the little we know about Gary's past and the reasons he went to jail/reform school, Nicole and Gary are the male and female equivalent of one another. Gary is violent and Nicole is sexual.
Lesson: Being a looker with big boobs is a curse for a young girl with a bad father.
Prediction: Gary's wish for "no unnecessary tragedies" goes unheeded.
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