Sunday, June 30, 2002

 

The air was hazey and the cab ride was a dream. Cabbie behind the wheel had a beret on and the stereo was playing something in French. We crammed ourselves into the car with five of us in the back seat and two in the front. Cab drivers dont like to take fares like that, and we had to con our man with extra cash. Our cups were filled. We'd settled into a fine buzz. I was lucky enough to be seated beside C____, who had a set of legs I'd eyed for years and here she was wrapping them around mine in this orgy of drunken hipsters trying to save some money sharing one cab when we should have taken three. Her frame pressed against me as the car turned tight corners. "Sorry, about that," she said, wincing as we came face to face. Her hair fell into my eyes from a set of bobby pins and I had to keep myself from admitting to her my unadultered obsessions. Good God! Did she realize how many times I'd seen her at a grocery store, on a train, even at the bookstore, without finding the courage to even say hello? Did she begin wearing that particular scarf because it drove me mad, or have I been going mad since seeing her in it? And how many times had I caught glimpses of that scarf in a crowd, only to realize that she wasn't the only woman owning one?

Careening through the city, each turn of the wheel caused us to lose our balance, until her hands rested against my chest keeping her from falling straight into me. Laughing along the way, her toothy smile could have disfigured me for life if we had hit the right bumps, but I wouldn't have cared. This steadying herself, though, was too much for me to take. My heart was beating a million miles a minute, and I started to shake. It would have been hardly noticable, except for these tight confines. This cab ride was holding so few secrets, I could tell how much change she had in her pocket. "Are you cold?" she asked me, "or am I making you uncomfortable?" I was silent as she stroked the crown of my head, hoping to calm me down, but I couldn't help myself from fidgeting. The cab driver rolled down a window to give us some air, and I made an idle excuse about the fog being colder than I was used to. She stared me down until the shaking quit.

posted by Hog 12:39 AM