"Yeah," she said. She bobbed her head up and down absently as she talked.
I watched the braids of black hair sway back and forth. "This is the last time," I said. "After this, no more."
She stood up, and I held out a hand. She pulled me up, and we stood there on the steps of the porch. I glanced down at the painted wood beneath my feet, a faded and peeling red. My arm reached out to curl around her back. She wriggled in that way she had, and I stood there for a moment. Then she pulled, and we walked down the steps to lie in the grass.
"Tell me about what you're going to do when you leave," she asked. "Get a job, I guess .. I *did* complete college, after all. There's gotta be someone who'll hire me."
"Oh yeah .. I keep forgetting." She grinned at me.
"C'mon .. I'm serious .." I put that hurt look on my face, then went ahead with the rest of the line. "I'm a smart guy, reasonably competent, know my shit, and besides, people like me."
"Uh-huh, suuure they do." This was all so easy by this point. Simple. Her eyes were smiling as she turned to watch me. "And who would like *you*, anyway?"
"I can think of at least one person .. "
"Really? I can't." Then she let the smile wander lazily down to her mouth, and we kissed just as lazily for a while.
Eventually she was standing and going into the kitchen. "You want a beer?" she called from inside.
"You know that I don't drink," I called back.
"Ah, yeah," she said, coming out with two. She started to sit down next to me, then shifted over onto my lap. I rubbed her shoulders vaguely as we talked. I was looking at her arms again. She had long curled ivy drawn in black, running along her right arm. I let my finger trace the leaves and stems. The ivy moved as her muscles flexed under the skin, like it was swaying in the wind. I think I gave it to her. I don't remember. If I didn't, I don't really want to ask who did.
I twisted my neck around to nibble on her right ear, then let my mouth wander over across her neck to the other ear, kissing the four little silver hoops she had. It's weird when your tongue tastes metal and flesh so close together. My fingers had followed the ivy all the way down to her wrist. I flipped her wrist over for a sec. The cross-shaped scar from the razor was still there, of course. But it made me hold her wrist tighter anyway.
I sipped from the beer again, and put it down on the grass beside me. I leaned back, and felt around behind me for my coat, so I could grab the cigs from the inside pocket. I removed one from the pack, and stuck it in her mouth. She giggled -- I could feel her whole body rustle -- and pulled her hand free to reach up and pull the cigarette from her mouth. She inspected it with a critical eye.
"You're smoking Planets now?" she asked.
I nodded. "Notice the cool Earth logo. This shows how eco-friendly they are."
Even from behind, I saw the smile. She started to hum the Planets jingle, and I joined in with the words "Everyone the whole world 'round loves Planets, Planets .. don't matter if you're French German or Spanish, Spanish .. all you gotta do, to make a better you, is plan it, Planets .." My voice trailed off, and my hand was reaching for a cigarette of my own.
She lit us both, then we spent some time trying to make smoke rings again. Or, rather, me trying to make them and she trying to give advice, but mostly just giving distraction.
"No, look," she explained. "You inhale it, and then you put your tongue like *this* and open your mouth like *this* .. " The smoke puffed out and drifted apart.
I smirked. "Don't look so circular to me, Miss Expert."
She put on her annoyed face. "So you do better then, if you're so smart, wise guy."
"Fine, I will." I inhaled properly, held it in my mouth, and was just breathing out when she poked me in the stomach. The smoke exploded out, getting her full in the face. After we both stopped coughing and laughing, we were lying on the grass again.
"How's the book coming," she wanted to know.
"Which?" I shrugged my shoulders. "The usual." I told her about the sci-fi one anyway, and she made fun of the main character's name, as usual. "I *told* you I'm bad at thinking up names," I complained. "But your mystery one, that's doing ok, isn't it?"
"I've got it about half done," I said. "The last guy I showed it to really liked it, he said. I just don't know where to go next. The hero's on the streets of London, lost in the fog, with no place to run, there's a killer on the loose, and they're gonna meet and they both know it." I paused thoughtfully. "Maybe I should send Superman in to save him."
She grinned, and pushed me over, and lay on top. So we were like that for a while, looking up at the stars and whispering, and then my watch beeped.
"Shit," she said. "Shit."
"It's only midnight," I said. But then I remembered this was my last time. "Shit," I said.
She rolled off me and lay on her back. She was singing. I couldn't hear the words, but I knew them anyway. "Getting rid of Monday .. stepping high to Tuesday .. laughing into Wednesday .. sighing on to Thursday .. crying on to Friday .. " Her voice got too soft to hear anything, and she quit singing and stood up.
"Let's play some pool."
"Last time," I said.
So we racked up, and played a few games, and she won all the time, like she always does. I didn't sink the cue ball too many times, so I was happy with it.
And eventually it was time to go. So I walked to the door, and out the door, and looked back at her sitting in the chair. I had to go back and kiss her forehead, and then down, and so on, and then I stayed for a while longer.
But eventually it was really time to go. So I walked out the door, not looking back this time, and kept going. And there was a song for my lips as I went, and it was, of course, this: "Getting rid of Monday .. stepping high to Tuesday .. laughing into Wednesday .. sighing on to Thursday .. crying on to Friday .. lying on to Sat-ur-a-day .. sleeping until Sunday .." I paused, took a breath, saw the stars, didn't turn around. "Then coming back to Monday ..."
Copyright (c) 1997 by Dan Shiovitz