A series by November
A series by November
Chapter 73: Openings
“My reflection
Marie woke to see his face. He watched her as she woke up. She smiled. “Love you.”
“Me too.” He pushed her hair back gently. “Teach me to swim?”
“For real?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.”
They walked right out of bed into the ocean. He walked out until it was chest-deep. It was up to her shoulders. “Aren’t you afraid?” he asked her.
“No. Are you?”
“Yeah.”
“I won’t let you fall,” she said. “C’mere, lay back. Let’s see if you can float.”
He didn’t move for a second. Then he did, lying back in the water. He felt her hands under him. He felt the rise and fall of the waves and it was sort of dizzy, not altogether unpleasant.
She moved her hands, and he immediately sank. She cradled his neck so his head wouldn’t go under.
“Doesn’t look like you can float. Too much metal and you don’t have an ounce of fat on you.”
He nodded, getting his feet under him. His heart was pounding.
“That’s not to say you can’t swim. You still wanna try?”
He nodded, though he wasn’t altogether sure.
Yesterday we went into town and she dragged me into this tattoo shop. She said that she wanted to get one like mine but never did. I didn’t ask her about it because even though she married me three amazing days ago I was afraid it was too much permanence for her, that she didn‘t really want it. So when she lifted up my shirt and told some stranger that she wanted one just like it, with our wedding date in the middle, I felt this sense of things being too good to be true. The 7-11 thing seems like a long time ago, though it wasn’t.
She actually tried to teach me to swim. Sometimes the hugeness of how fucked up I am just overwhelms me. I hate myself for having so much baggage when she still has this wonderful little-girl joy to her. Even when she’s grieving, even when she’s angry, it’s still there. And I have nothing. Though I know it isn’t true I feel like I have nothing to offer her.
She makes it so easy though. I actually let her drag me into shoulder-deep water and damned if she didn’t make love to me, right then and there in the ocean. The woman forced me to forget I was in water.
So it’s day three of an amazing honeymoon and I miss Magster. But this has been the best four days of my life, probably all of my life. I’m almost starting to believe, deep down, that this amazing woman-girl loves me.
Marie just moved into this wonderful sleeping position, and I just gotta sketch her. Later.
Soon after he felt her behind him and smelled the sun and sweat on her skin. He put down the knife and turned.
“Darlin, you smell so good.”
“I’m all sweaty.” she wrinkled her nose and it was adorable.
“Yeah. You smell amazing.” She gave him a doubting look, so he just had to let dinner wait and lay her down on the kitchen table and show her just how good she smelled and tasted. He touched and licked and sucked her all over until she screamed.
After she lay limply, the occasional aftershock causing her to tremble in the most adorable way.
“Think Scooter and Jeannie have fucked on this table?” she asked.
“I didn’t need that mental imagery, Marie.” he grinned.
She giggled and got up. “I know for a fact they have.”
“Marie, I don’t need to think of Scott’s sweaty hairy ass rooting around. Stop.”
She giggled. “Sorry. I’m gonna go shower.”
“Okay. I’ll finish dinner. Then I'm gonna disinfect the fucking table.”
She came back, naked, and helped him peel shrimp. They hadn’t worn clothes since the night before. That night they stayed in, eating the light pasta dish he’d made, drinking wine from the well-stocked cellar.
She had sunburned herself that day and her back, especially the tattoo, was sore. He went outside into the undergrowth and ripped off a succulent aloe vera leaf. He cut it in two and rubbed the soothing green gel over her skin. She made happy, content noises and he whispered to her as he lulled her to sleep. “Love you baby, sleep tight.” She did and soon after he followed her.
wraps and pulls me under,
healing waters to be
bathed in brena....”
--A Perfect Circle
8/11/05
Marie slept for another hour. He got bored with sketching and went inside. He started cooking. They had planned to cook almost every night but thus far they had been busy making love and getting drunk and getting tattoos. He started chopping vegetables.
We’re in Aruba now. It’s beautiful and so peaceful. Marie is sleeping on the deck, her arms spread wide to take in the sun, like some kind of naked goddess. I’ve been painting a lot. The red one turned out great.
