So I wait 40 minutes past 10:00. I had gone out in the
hall, seen her door open, knew she was there now, but not before. It wasn't too
long before she finally came in. Asked if she wanted to go for a walk, it was
my job to decide what to do, it was hers to show up. Said she didn't want to,
too cold. Went to her room. Sat. Got back up. sat again. Talked about her
night. Made mention to mine. Trivial conversation back and forth, I can't
recall. All of the strain I had put as to the importance of these moments made
me focus intently, and in turn I have a diminutive recollection over what was
said. Talked about her family, her Mom's side are Harvard graduates. Dad is an
alcoholic, she says, and she has multiple little brothers. One is considered
mediocre, one is a good athlete, but she bears burden of proof. Told early on
that she was too fat, pointing out her arms, her hips (which of course is
ridiculous, she has the best hips I've run my hands across), told she needs to
fit into a size 2 dress for modeling. Her Dad tells her she'll look good twenty
pounds from now. Tries committing suicide three times, obviously no success.
Went to college for a year at a Hawaiian University, she says 'Hawaiian' like
Hawaiians do. She is photographer, tour booker, coffee shop barista, and full
time student, always busy, always over worked. Had an abusive pot-smoking
boyfriend, and at 14 she was more like 20, though she has always had low
self-esteem (despite my pointing out that all her wrongs were being made right
and she's beautiful). Likes corsets but doesn't wear or own them. She has a
MySpace for networking, she knows about Buddhist monks being killed in Nepal,
she is an English major and won't let me speak in grammar improperly, almost
had me when she made me spell 'all right', and I guessed correctly. We talked
about other things, of which I can't exactly remember, of which I can't even
recall, either they were pointless or didn't stand out. She spent a summer in
London and traveled many other places on tour with death metal bands, didn't
rush a sorority because she's afraid of being around too many girls, and I said
she'd never be happy--happy implies a satisfaction and she's not wired for that
kind of feeling. Maybe not-not happy but she'd never be content because she does
so much already and always strives for more. She will get tattoos on her feet,
a swallow for her best friend on her left foot and latin banner behind her
right ear saying something about dust and shadow and it will memorialize her
grandfather, along with the logo to her own company, 'Surfer Fairy', on her on
her back, and also a tree branch that traces her nerves to her fingertips. All
of this planned is out, just not done it yet, and this pulled her out of the
back alleys of her mind back into the now where she has much to do, so we'd
have to stop hanging out, but I wanted to make a last minute impression (I
asked why she let me stay in her bed), and she said because she just did, when
I asked her to clarify she wouldn't.
I
got my hand in hers and started rattling off some things I thought sounded
good, I really wish I could remember, they were actually really good, or if
nothing else they were in the good in the moment. They got her eyes to be
unblinking. I spoke of how I believe she will be a success, how she will follow
what she wants to do until she gets it, and I more than hinted to how beautiful
I believed her to be, inside and out, how many others say they will do things,
how she actually does things, viable things, and is already a success, how she
has the mental conviction and drive to always do anything and stay herself, and
she should, she should stay herself, because I've never met anyone like this
and--the whole time she looked and at me and she has the most beautiful soft
blue-to-green eyes with little pores of black where the color fades, and I
could tell I was getting somewhere by the look on her face. Mr. Fixit at work.
I said more things because I could feel the moment, and I drew it up to a
conclusion, my hands are wrapped at her sides--but I can feel a resistance, and
she doesn't wrap back at all, she stands completely still, arms at her side,
but doesn't rebuff me when I move in, touch my nose to her (and say that if I
didn't know better, this would be when I kiss you). No real response, and I
can't remember what happened in the middle, but she looked over and asked me if
those pictures meant anything to me, indicating the ones of Nathan, her man, in
her mind, who she had plastered over the wall with her in his arms, and I said
that they did because that was one of the reasons primarily things were
confusing, and sometime later after talking about him, and his band, the horse
band, not Band of Horses, I asked again why she let me sleep alongside her, and
she wouldn't tell, she said it would be cruel and selfish, I said tell anyways,
she said because I cared, at the time, and I was placeholder (not going to lie,
that's not wonderful to be told). I asked her why she let me be so close to her
and why she told me all this if I was merely placeholding, she said I seemed
harmless, and by now she's crying, let soft tears stream down, talking about
the man she couldn't be with, though remained dedicated while he was away doing
whatever-wherever, I hugged her gently, arms encompassing, she stood completely
still, showing no opposition but still no reciprocation, asked my why I hugged
her, I said it was the same reason she let me in her bed, I pointed out how she
considers herself completely single. Said she made him get on that tour bus,
that she wouldn't let him quit the band, and that they would both follow their
dreams separate basically, but she was, she is, so attached to him, in love,
her heart is his, though she won't be chained down. I said there are no chains
in my hand. Before all of this but during this moment I said I was the center
of the universe, jokingly, she said no she was, I brought up the poem I had
written about geometry and how everyone's a center and we just can't connect,
but we stay on the edges flirting with one another's perimeters. I said I love
a good mosh, but otherwise kept to the edges, watched, like on top of a
building during the zombpacolypse I had talked about previously, and how most
are in the center of the ocean, she says she loved it there, I say that's
because she's the center, I'm on the shore, watching the waves hit (and it went
over better in my mind than out loud). She commented about caring, asking me
why I cared again, because everyone wants something for nothing, and no one
does something for nothing. I said I had never asked for anything. Things get
hazy, not sure where I was going now, can't convey feelings into words here,
not sure what I was going for then, but the connection was so definite, even we
were still oceans apart because she said how she won't let me chain her, and I
ask why she stands the way she does, very straight, arched back, hands nailed
to her sides, feet together. I can't remember what she says back, something
about feeling safe, I wish I could recall, but I can't, I lose it here, but she
keeps that pose, I can't stop her, but I wish she would feel the want and act
to wrap her arms back when I pull and hold her close, but it's like hugging
someone who is undergoing a willing paralysis, just accepting it, but it
relates to him, and how she won't let herself be chained down, even in the
dialogue this point remains unclear. I say she is chained, chained to him, not
too him, to the idea of him, how she shackled her own wrists, she says the
weight is bearable and she doesn't know if they'll be together, he gets off of
tour two years from now, and she plans to wait until then to find out. From the
very beginning of this moment happening a warning was spoken that I will not
find what I'm looking for in her. Seconds stretch in silence, I put a finger under
her chin as I have done before, so she has to look into my eyes but it seems
she moves without the motion as if anticipating the end result and asking
"what?" I tell her to smile, she says she won't, not now, she'll
smile when she wants to smile, I say how smiling makes you better on a chemical
level, she says she will go through pain to make herself stronger (I need to
make her smile now, it is of utmost importance), I say that I've already said
the banana and how many na's joke, [I hate having to write the word 'banana'
'cause I can never remember how many na's it has, like ready, go: Bana. Nope.
Bananana. Dang. (Thanks, Demetri)]. So instead I quote "I saw a wino
eating grapes, and I said, 'No man, you have to wait." It works (Thanks,
Mitch), she smiles and remembers the duck in Subways, I say she's smiling, she
acknowledges that, I say in opportunities like this, moments in need of
celebration (her smiling, sarcasm), I would recite slam poetry for her, and
maybe someday she can book me on a tour, but she only books who she likes, so
she better like me (this is much more lighthearted), I hold her close, she
accepts but does not return, but I understand, I say that there aren't enough
syllables in the word 'understand' to make her believe me, she asks why I am
trembling, I say my Mom's genes and because I've been standing a long time,
even though the truth is the emotion and so much of it within me from her and
within her too, like I got a body made of magnets and there all clamoring to
stick around, but she doesn't need to know that, I forget how and why this
ends, but it felt like the time when I probably could have stayed, but if that
moment lasted longer than that I would have become old hat, though it was on
the brink where I could have stayed longer and extended the whatever-this-is
(but you got to leave them wanting more right) and I know she felt it to
because she made no further reference to her being busy, only I did, but as I
drew her back from embrace, in a semi-mechanical fashion, I moved to her side,
placed a kiss of gentlest sorts on her right cheek, trying not to make it be
deftly not cheesy, and said "I'll see you soon?", to what I believe
she said what, so I reiterated stating how she is very busy and all, and I
would see her soon, I backed away-- it wasn't easy-- let my hands drift from
her body, and made for the door, and in the mirror before I opened it I saw her
standing in the same pose she had been for sometime, hands at her side with
feet together, but I don't know if she stayed that way for more than a few
seconds because I didn't look back, I walked out the door, shutting it firmly
behind me as I turned right and walked down the hall.
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