#12 Innocence

Outside of the house there was a semicircle of large overgrown tea rose bushes off the north east corner. You could see the outer arch of the circle from one of the living room windows. It was a perfect spot for three island teen age girls to spread out their blankets and giggle long summer nights away. They were close enough to the house for safety and far enough for adventure.

There was a small private road that curved near the yard and rolled out towards the paved beach street. It connected the hidden vacation homes in the wooded hillside to the tidelands. One evening the girls talked about the water in the bay. Older girls had told them of the shimmer swim that occured only during a full moon. As their gaze swept the evening sky for the brilliant moon they each agreed to venture down the road to the midnight beach.

The paved street ended onto the beach with dirt roads heading to the left and right fronting the seaside houses. The girls headed to the right and climbed over the logs that divided the sand from the dirt road. They walked down the beach towards a secluded area that had an anchored raft about twenty yards out in the water. They striped their clothes off, piled them on the shoreline and silently ran into the surf together. They dove into the water then surfaced and swam towards the raft. With each stroke their bodies emitted thousands of sparks in the water as if shedding glitter in their paths. This was a glorious shimmer swim. The phosporous in the water was shinning like burning silvery green embers everywhere the girls motioned.

They climbed onto the raft and sat on the edge dangling their legs in the water, enchanted by their sparkling feet unconcerned about their nakedness. A sudden movement on the beach caught their attention as five summer house boys were quickly decending on their pile of clothes at the edge of the water. The girls silently slid into the water and minimally paddled to the back side of the raft, quietly peering around the corner at the activity on shore. Three of the boys stood for a moment looking out beyond them then turned around heading back from where they came. The remaining two boys stood a moment, then in a flash shed their own clothes and splashed into the water diving under as soon as they could.

The girls heard their smooth strokes as they neared them. The boys came up to the raft and grabbed the front edge while the girls were hanging on the back edge. Introductions were made. Realizations that the rafting group members were not total strangers but passing flirtations between island girls and summer boys made it easier for the boys to drift closer to the girls. Hearing their approach, the girls let go of the raft and silently floated away. The boys let go and stroked towards them, their underwater bodies shimmering in the moonlit water. Facinated by the glow, the girls broke out into gestures that would highlight their own bodies just out of reach of the boys.

They swam danced in the shimmering, glittering water. Never touching but glowing off of each other, they dove under and parted the water with their strokes - shooting off sparks in their wakes. One by one peaceful exhaustion overtook them. Each on their own swam towards the beach, lifting themselves out of the water to shine no more. Dressing in the moonlight, the island girls and summer boys shyly smiled goodby and went home.

#11 Touched

He grabbed her so fast that his partner sat stunned at how quickly this large man had moved. Pulling the car over onto the shoulder of the road, he stopped abruptly and ordered his friend to release her at once.

The three of them were returning home from a meeting. She sat in the back seat and the two men sat in the front. They were going over the evening’s events, recalling conversations with each detailing their experiences. As she spoke she reached out and touched the large man ahead of her on the shoulder as an emphasis to her point of the conversation.

Now standing outside of the car, he began pacing back and forth as he tried to find the words to explain his actions to his partner.

“Look at me.” he spoke softly. His partner did not hear him and asked him to repeat himself. “Look at me!” he screamed while gesturing to his face.

She quietly rolled down her window while looking straight ahead instead of looking out at the men.

“There have only been two women in my life who have ever touched me. One was my mother and I married the other woman because I didn’t think anyone else would ever touch me.”

“All night long," he said, glancing at the car, "Whenever she talked to me, she would touch me.”

His partner looked up at him and calmly said, “Guy, she is really short and you are really tall. How else could she get your attention?”

”I was thinking that too. But just now, in the car, she touched me again. So I thought it meant she wanted me.”

“Maybe she is Italian. You know how they talk with their hands.”

He turned and kneeled down at her window.

“Are you Italian?”

“Could be.” she said as she sat on her hands.

#10 Elevators

On television, some really romantic moments happen in elevators. Mostly to doctors and lawyers who probably constitute the largest group of elevator professionals.

The most unique encounter I ever had in an elevator occurred in downtown Houston. I had delivered some documents to a law office and was waiting to board an elevator to go back down. When the door opened there was a very happy fellow with a cigar in his mouth.

I had to comment on his state of bliss. He handed me a cigar and said he was a new poppa. I congratulated him and asked about his baby’s statistics. He grinned and told me he had actually just donated a baby elephant to the zoo and he was not too sure how much he weighed!

At the Westin Galleria Hotel in Houston I once rode in an elevator with Henry Kissinger. There had recently been some publicity about his wife and I asked him if she had come to Houston with him. He thanked me for inquiring and stated that she had not come on the trip with him this time.

One week later I was on a trip to New York City with my family. We entered the elevator of the World Trade Center to go to the observation deck. When I turned around there was Mr. Kissinger again and this time he was with his wife Nancy. He remembered me and introduced me to his wife telling her I had inquired after her in Houston. He teased me about following him.

I still have the World Trade Center tickets. This is a bittersweet memory.

#9 Dessert

He was in advertising. We met at a meeting of "Save (something)". I don't remember now what it was but it attracted the young professional crowd. I was wearing one of those breakaway business suits. The kind that covered everything but the jacket and skirt could fall off with the huffing and puffing of any near-by wolf.

He called me the next day and made arrangements for dinner the upcoming weekend.
I met him at his condo located in an upscale neighborhood near the Medical Center. Instead of going out to dinner he decided to cook in as his roomate was out of town for the weekend.

His place was very beautifully furnished. He gave me a quick tour showing me his bedroom last. Here he had arranged wishfully lit candles around the silk pillow filled bed.

In the kitchen, he went about organizing the meal. He opened a bottle of wine and poured me a glass. Instead of handing me the glass, he put it on the counter and turned to me. With one quick action he lifted me onto the counter saying that since I was dessert I needed to sit patiently until he could prep me. He gave me a quick preview kiss and handed me my glass of wine.

When he was done preparing dinner he set it on the table. He came and lifted me off of the counter. Taking me by the hand he led me to the...bathroom! Directing me to take off my clothes and put on the silk robe hanging on the back of the door for me. He stepped into his room and also came out in a silk robe. For this was not only dinner, it was an oriental themed dinner.

We sat down to eat. He was at the end of the dining room table and I was to his right. The candles, sake, dinner and possibility of dessert. It was very romantic.

The doorbell rang followed by loud pounding. Someone was very desperate to get in. He went to answer the door and returned to the dining room with a disheveled man carrying a gym bag. Introductions were made. It was my date's best friend. He had been kicked out of his house by his wife for some (he said unknown) reason and he was looking for a place to crash.

Seeing dinner on the table, he grabbed the chair opposite of me and sat down. My date sat down in his chair mouthing the words "I'm sorry" to me. The conversation was dominated by the intruder who somehow managed to devour food while ranting. At one point he stopped as if he was seeing his plate for the first time. Looking at my date he asked, "What's for dessert?". At this point I burst out laughing and kicked my date under the table - daring him to answer.


When dinner was over it finally dawned on the guest that his friend and I were wearing robes and he excused himself from the table. Grabbing his gym bag he headed down the hall and shut the door to the room with the beckoning candles.


I turned to the ad man as he threw his hands up in dispair. Laughing, I headed to the bathroom to get dressed. Dessert would have to wait for another day.

#8 Kissed

There are all kinds of kisses between men and women. Hollywood has influenced many young men about kissing. If you watch classic movies you will find most kissers have a very sterile technique. Two mouths meeting, no movement, no head squirming trying to dig deeper into the kiss.

I had this conversation in a L. A. jewelry store with a doctor recently returned from a trip to Egypt. This fellow romantic was bemoaning the lack of real kissing in the movies. I spoke up about the kissing scene in “Juan in a Million”. It was believable and a definite point of comparison. Even the animator of “Swan Princess” got it right. I saw the pre-release pencil sketch version of the kiss and it was definitely done from a perspective of experience.

I asked her if she was a fan of Jimmy Stewart movies. He is, in my opinion, one of the best screen kissers. I quite imagine any actress who was kissed by him went home still wearing the memory of that kiss long after the scene was finished.

The kiss of my life occurred one evening after a rendezvous on an expertly manicured baseball field. The grass was soft and still warm from the afternoon sun. He had pulled me to my feet and walked me to the parking lot hand in hand. It was the end of summer and the end of our opportunities to be together.

When we reached my car he spun me around and grabbed my face towards him, then pulling my arms around him he reached down and enveloped me in his arms to get me closer to him. He kissed me hard and long then broke away briefly looking in my eyes while stroking away my hair. Then he changed direction and kissed me again. This time my whole body shook. I started to cry as his kiss gripped my heart.


His kiss to me was a message of hope for the future. My kiss to him was a silent good-by.

The next day, unknown to him, I moved 2,100 miles away.

#7 Scanties

With all of the topics in the world available to us, the conversation turned to my missing black lace panties.

He stated, with all the complete innocence a grown man could muster, that his barely ex girlfriend never owned any lingerie.

His point was not that she was deprived of silky, fine satin and lace underwear but that he felt they were not really a necessity - just a roadblock to the treasure.

Hadn’t he grown up in the culture of Playboy – matching bras and panties on every woman?

I told him that I knew lots of ladies who systematically matched their scanties in the hopes of admiring reviews from their ravishers.

Men who really shop for their wives, girlfriends and/or lovers buy two things – scanties and perfume. The reasoning is that when their women are not wearing one they are wearing the other. A reminder of him.

Then came the big question – Did I match?

Even though I was wearing just jeans and a sweater, why did I feel compelled to match if he was not going to get to see them?

Because I love scanties.

Beautiful ribbons of fabric on my body belying the impersonal impressions of the outer garments draped over me.

#6 Mathematics

In abstention classes for young adults, one of the presentations is a contrast study between Love and Lust with Lust being disguised in the euphemism of Infatuation.

The five purported Languages of Love are: Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Physical Touch, and Acts of Service. This Language package is offered to us in a number of ways.

This is how I add it all up:

Lovers
The deluxe set of all five languages is the Spiritual Set. When you share all five languages with another person, this is the basis of a “Soul Mates” coupling. When you have this completed feeling with one another - a relationship or marriage can be sustained through eternity.

Others
Combinations of three or four languages make for hearty relationships that can withstand hardships and usually the tests of time because of shared (overlapping) languages between partners.

Infatuation
Singular and doubled languages are a bit more trying as these can leave a person filling in the language barrier with fantasy and folly. Not the basis for long term relationships.

For example: If you are a Quality Time type who needs /wants to spend every waking moment with your partner but they do not share that language then it can be smothering. If your language is Gifts and you are a gourmet chef but your partner is an Acts of Service vegetarian then this also doesn’t work in the long run.

When they say you can change someone – what is really meant is that you can force them to use a language they cannot speak. You can’t – They won’t.

We are all amazed when the bad boy with all the notches finds love and settles in or the town flirt is finally married. We state with authority that they have changed their ways.
They have not changed their ways.

Add it up. Figure it out.

They have found someone who speaks their language.

#5 Freedom

Who doesn't dream of flying? One morning when I was about six years old I awoke and found myself flying through the air. It was very early in the morning and the air was thick. I woke myself up by coughing and found that I was floating over my back yard in the arms of a fireman.

At this Seattle house we had a terraced back yard that had three levels. The first level was all grass that angled down onto a second level where our swing set waited and rusted patiently for our attention. The last level dropped off sharply and had about a three foot ledge before dropping about twenty feet below into the neighbors yard behind us. From the windows at the back of the house you could see Union Bay and the construction of the expansion bridge high above the water.

The fireman carried me silently in the air over the first section of the back yard and laid me gently against the soft curve of grass that met the second level. I remember thinking it was a dream but realized it was really happening when my older sister was placed near me by another fireman within a minute later.

My sister and I shared a bedroom that was very girly. Ruffled shear curtains at the windows covering wide white wooden venetian blinds. We had black wrought iron bunk beds that were placed side by side separated in the middle by a night stand. At the opposite ends of our beds were our dresser drawers against the wall and a little ruffle covered vanity table with a stool. My sister slept in the bed against the wall and I was in the bed closest to the door. I was the easy grab for my fireman as he only had to reach for me from the doorway. My sister's fireman however tried to manueuver around the little girl room in all of his gear and it was more dificult a pick-up for him.

So that's why I got to be the first to fly accross the yard away from the house whose trusty basement furnace decided to break free and explode its memory into the early morning hours leaving us with soot filled momentos for months to come.

#4 Flammable

I have always liked the smell of gasoline.

My earliest memory of gasoline is a warm sunny day. I was about three years old. We lived in a suburb outside of Seattle. It was a time when streets were coated with tar and where there were pot holes in the street - these became tar pools.

I had wandered out of the house wearing panties and a little sun dress. I was attracted to the slick shimmering surface of a tar pool in the street. I stepped in and felt the warm tar slowly gush through my toes. Then I sat down and thoroughly bathed myself in the black ooze.

A neighbor found me and ran to get my mother who pulled me out of the grip of the pit. Holding me at arms length she whirled me around towards our house. Stopping in the yard she plopped me on a picnic table while the gathered adults discussed the next course of action.

A woman put a metal tub on the table while a man positioned himself to pour gasoline into it. After the gasoline was in the tub, I was stripped of my clothes and the man took off his shirt. Holding me close to his body he dipped his free hand into the gasoline and ran his fingers through my hair from scalp to end stripping the strands of tar. Then my hair was shampooed and towel dried. He dipped a small rag into the gas and wiped my face and neck using short strokes while constantly changing to a clean piece of rag. When he was done exploring my ears my face was then washed clean.

I was sitting on his knee now turned around and facing towards my mother as the man dipped another rag into the gasoline and began stroking the tar off my arms towards my little fingers. I don’t remember being afraid. I remember the firm stroking. Where I was wearing clothes I was not too messy. When at last my legs were being cleaned I watched intently as elusive tar spots were firmly smoothed down and out from between my toes.

Another metal tub was brought out to the yard and put on the grass. I had to stand in this tub and get rinsed off with a hose while my mother soaped me down with Ivory. It bubbled away the gasoline smell.

Even now when I am held close and stroked, I recall as a small child I was once flammable.

#3 Altitude

During World War II civilian pilots were needed stateside to ferry newly manufactured war planes from factories to their designated bases in order to free up military pilots for combat.


She had been flying since she was fourteen along with several of her girl friends. They all lived near a small local airport and were able to bicycle over to the field frequently to take lessons from the instructor of the flying school.


She was nineteen and attending college when the war broke out. One day, upon finding out that a couple of her friends had applied to fly planes for the military, she also submitted an application. She and her friends were accepted into the program based on their logged flying time.


She was trained and then assigned to military bases on the East coast. One of her supervisors was an officer who paid particular attention to her.


One bright, clear day he asked her to join him as he flew a plane to New York. Sitting in the co-pilot position, she scanned the horizon before her and glanced around the cockpit trying to commit everything to memory in order to tell her friends when she returned.


As they flew towards the coast, they chatted a little, but mostly she gazed at the scenery below. Colorful patches of land, laid out like a quilt, unscrolled below them. The little squares of land would be ocassionally broken up by other geometric shapes with roads twisting with the geology of the land.


At the coastline they turned and headed North. As they approached New York City she could see ships sailing away and into the harbor. He decended a little so she could have a better view. She was caught off guard by the khaki colored decks on the Navy ships that were headed into the awaiting piers. She thought the ships were supposed to be painted a gun metal gray. He started to laugh as he decended a little bit more.

Now she understood. From this lower altitude she could see that the ship decks were not painted a tan color but were covered with hundreds of soldiers anxious to get back on U. S. soil.

#2 Accent

As a South Korean artist, he specialzed in fossil modeling overlayed on deco influenced framing. It appealed to a specific audience. Was it really art or forensics?



He became restless. Questioning the meaning of art, he headed out alone to find the answer. He spent six months visiting native villages along the Amazon. He watched the villagers weave baskets used for storing food stuffs, transporting their belongings, and for trade. As he watched, he noticed the natives wove delicate to intricate patterns into the baskets. When he asked each villager why they varied their designs, the answer he received was a very simple and yet sincere, "Because the basket's beauty makes me happy".



He apprenticed with the weaving masters and was soon able to design his own baskets and mats there along the Amazon.



Upon returning to the United States he began transferring his new skills into technical formats that would allow him to follow the master's methods and enable him to produce wall sized woven portraits.



I met him while visiting a warehouse artist loft when I accompanied my daughter on a photo shoot in downtown Los Angeles. As I stood up on the balcony and looked below, I found dozens of eyes staring back at me. I was drawn to look back at them. Going down the stairs, I could not help but reach out and touch the weaves. Black and rattan woven so intrically up close for such a perfect picture at a distance. He walked in while I had my hand on one of the portraits. I recoiled as if I had been caught touching an art museum masterpiece.



The portraits were being stored in the loft while they were rotated to various gallery showings. He explained his processes to me as he put his first woven basket into my hands to highlight how his skills had exploded into to such large magnificent pieces.



We sat together for a long time. He showed me photos of his Amazon visit and other photos of his solitary walking tour of South America. I heard about his adventures with flying mountain top tents and unusually vacant ruins.

When my daughter was finished modeling she joined us and was invited to pose for a weaving project for his next show. Phone numbers were exchanged and then we left the loft.

After he called her to set up the preliminary shoot, to lay the design of the weave, my daughter hung up the phone and turned with a puzzled look on her face. She hoped she had understood him correctly because she said he had such a heavy accent.

In all the hours I spent with him, in every word and whisper, I never heard an accent.

#1 Reflections

He was the best looking man in town. There was not a mirror or woman his face had not reflected in. It gave him a certain confidence that he complimented by dressing well and keeping himself groomed within an inch of GQ.



She was new to town having just purchased the old Landry house off the square, kitty corner from the gazebo that was undergoing its one hundredth coat of brillant white paint.



The house appealed to her because of the large porch with the hanging wooden swing. In the evenings it was a nice place to sit and relax. The porch had a small opening in the board under the eaves, right about where it meets the house. At sunset, pigeons would flock to the house to roost in safety in the little space, gathering on the struts in little groups as if to gossip about the day's events. The only intrusion into their nightime activities were by two bolts that protruded through their floor, lodged into a seemingly sturdy two by four. When there were swingers below there was motion above.



She got a job at the courthouse coffee shop. Friendly to all. Flirting with none. She was on a first name basis with the regulars before he came in one day. He had been away on a business trip and spotted her as soon as he entered. He tried his usual with her to see his reflection in her face but it was not there. She was not playing hard to get. She was just not playing.



He persued her with such precision that bookies were on the verge of taking odds on his success. Surrounding her so much that any opportunity she had of meeting other men were all but impossible because no one wanted to compete in the game she now found herself in.



One day she gave in and surprised him while he was winding up with a new pitch. She invited him to dinner the next Friday at eight pm sharp. He was directed to bring the wine.



That Friday, he checked his reflection in the mirror before he left his house. Every hair on his head was held in its exact place by the newest men's hair shellac. His shirt was starched so stiff that it crackled when he moved. His precision pressed jeans and polished books finished off his look. Finally satisfied, he grabbed the wine off his kitchen counter and strolled out the door. Walking the two blocks to her house gave him time to fine tune his strategy for the evening. As he turned the corner and zeroed in on her house he put on his game face.



The house was one of the first built on the town square. It reflected the style of its day. Over the years it had sheltered hundreds of pigeons. This particular evening was no different. The birds had already settled down into their little groups under the eaves with a few nesting couples trying for privacy in the narrow edges where the floor and ceiling of their hideaway met.



He climbed the the few steps to the porch and reached out to knock on the door only to be met by her. She had two glasses in one hand and a corkscrew in another. As they sat on the porch swing enjoying the wine, he touched his hair, then pulled on his starched shirt to make it wrinkle free and finally ran his fingers down the crease of his jeans. When she was not looking he quickly rubbed the top of his boots on the back cuffs of of his jeans.



Tipping back her glass, she wondered how she was going to get through the evening. As if in relief, a timer began buzzing in the kitchen and she excused herself, leaving him in the swing as she went back into the house shaking her head in disbelief as she went towards the kitchen.



When she left, he took a swig of wine out of his glass and kicked back in the swing. When he came forward he stopped the swing. Glancing at the door, he quickly stood up, smoothed out his shirt and once again buffed the top of his boots before he sat back down on the swing. Instead of kicking back on the swing, this time he stretched out both of his legs moving the swing seat back and holding it. He raised both of his legs out to swing forward. Instead of the side chains stopping the swing's forward momentum, the chains stayed with the swing as it kept moving forward. He looked up and was hit face on with the secret pigeon coop floor and over one hundred years of pigeon debris.



She heard his scream and ran out to find him pooped and feathered. He was horrified by his less than perfect appearance but she held back her laughter and led him by the hand off the porch to the side yard where she prepared to hose him down. He was speechless. After the watering, she took him by the hand again, walking him back up the stairs to the porch and into the house. She pulled him into the bathroom and started running hot water into the large claw foot bathtub. After thinking twice about it, she added some bubble bath as he began fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. She left him alone for about five minutes then went back in, grabbed his clothes, and smiled at him. She told him dinner would be in ten minutes as she turned to go back out the door. On the way to the kitchen, she detoured by the washing machine where, with little fanfare, she dumped his wet clothes and turned on the machine.



In the kitchen she wondered who the man was now without his accessories. The bathroom door opened. She heard him enter the kitchen and slowly turned around. He stood before her. She looked at him and saw her reflection in his face.