A Challenge!

My first post in this BLOG was on February 28th 2011.  I have just recently posted my 80th entry.  So I am proposing a challenge to myself:  To complete my 100th entry by 2/28/12. 

 Can I do it?  Will I do it?  It is exactly 30 days from now, so it seems like plenty of time to write

 19 entries.

Good luck to me!

-Kirsten
********************

Still Here, For Now

Play me a song, he says.
He hands her a harmonica.
What, now? she asks
Yes now. he says
She plays Old Susannah, passably.
He taps his foot along to the music.
She laughs when she finishes and claps her hands.

My pa taught me that. I forgot that i even knew!

They are lying on black satin sheets, a rarity for the time. Sensuously slippery. Only the best for the top earner! That’s what the madam says. You earn me money and you can have anything you want.
Until the day she slips and starts to age, and she leaves the grand house with the satin sheets and the beautiful dresses and men who cherish her to work the streets, the alleys, a new long-term resident of a hog farm out in nowhere. And then man after man after man after man.

You were my first choice,  he says

Tonite maybe. she teases. Usually you go with Tomato.

Yeah, she’s so plump. It’s fun.

Yeah it hurts my feelings, she says noncommittally. Well...

But you are always my first choice. Somebody else always gets to you first.

This isn’t our first time or anything! You sound like you’re trying to make it fanciful or romantic.

I’m not! maybe i am. he said. Sorry.

I don’t mind! It’s ok, you paid for an hour. So....

Well it’s just that i want you to know i think you’re really pretty and i always...wanted to....

We have already! don’t you remember? Oh, you were too drunk weren’t you you naughty roughneck...

Yeah. Yeah.  But that doesn’t mean i don’t remember it at all, I just don’t -  I want to remember it better. I want to lie with you and then take it with me in my mind complete, to the next place and the next and the next. Do you understand? I never know if i’ll ever make it back to this place.

Ha, of course you will. Stop it. And guess what, I’ll still be here.

Promise?

The sheets were cool and slippery. There was a cigar burn hole in the middle and it would chafe his thigh. Or her back. Neither of them knew what it was and they didn’t care. They didn’t even look.

*********************************

thank you Daniel Connors for your art

The Early Days

I knew it was going to be bad when he put his hand on my arm like that.

When he finally opened his mouth it was to ask me to fight crime with him.

What???

All I said was, "Why me?"

He said he needed a partner, a side-kick.

"For what?" I asked.

To fight the bad guys, he said.

"Rob, someone needs to kick some ass in this city! And I think I'm the one to do it.  No, I know I am. Did I tell you about the dream I had-"

"Wait, wait a minute," I broke in.  "Bruce, you're not going say I was in some perverted dream of yours?  Are you? Like last time? I'm totally scarred for life from that one."

"Oh no, no no no nothing like that."

So we kept talking about it for a bit, hashing it out I might say.

"And I can change my name to Dick.  Cause the women are gonna be all over this Robin character!" I bragged.

"Robin? Why not just Rob.  I don't really like you competing with 'batman'.  I really really really want to use that."

"Allright, allright." I gave in.  After all, he was going to be my new boss.  Dancing in a cage was getting  old.

"So I have to ask you Rob-"

"Robin."

"Yeah right, so ROBIN, are you prepared to die for your fellow citizens?"

Well I have to tell you that made me pause.  I had to sit still for a minute and think about that one.  Sacrifice my own life for a fellow human.  Who I probably will not even know.  Who might not even be...attractive.
I thought- "Well, what do I get out of it?"

Which I accidentally spoke out loud.

"This job isn't for everyone Rob.  I thought you'd be a great partner because you have a big heart."

I was looking sympathetic and all, but all I could think of was dying from getting shot over some mean old lady or something.  A Junkie.
Well really anyone!

"Bruce, I don't know.  I mean...it sounds like a great opportunity and everything but...."

"I know.  It's not really for you.  That's fine.  I'm glad you told me now before we started trainings and costume fittings."

"Yeah.  Sure."

As he got up to go, Bruce turned and looked at me, and I have to say I shivered a bit.  He seemed to have some big time charisma coming off him or something.
"Rob, I wanted you to know that you were my first choice."

"Oh, hey, thanks!"

"No problem.  So I've gotta go look for Jessie, have you seen him lately?"

"Try the laundromat."

"Gotcha! Hey, do you mind if I keep the ROBIN thing?"

"Nah," I said.  "I won't be using it."

**********************************

RETURN TO THE ICE PLANET!

Hi, my name is Shoyla Green32.  I live here.  On the Ice Planet.

Oh, we all know that you guys call it that.  And it is.  An ice planet, I mean.

But it does have a name, and if you Blue Planeters (that's what we call you!) could see outside your own narrow universes, you'd know that.  Maybe.

For instance, I live in a city just like you! We learn how to speak English by watching two movies:  The Breakfast Club and No Strings Attached.  Can you understand me very well? I'm still working on it...

One thing tha you might be interested in about our planet is our two stars, Romulus and Azrael.

Awesome, huh? Azrael is the fiery one on the right.  He rises in the west, over the roiling seas of steam.



Here is Romulus rising in the east.  We have many stories about the two stars competing to make it to the top of the roof! They are awesome stories.
Oh yeah, He emerges from the mountains of ice, so he's cooooold.

This  really bright star is Azrael! He's my favorite!
Because we live in this cold climate, we worship warm things and fall in love with heat.  Probably sounds silly to you, you have so much green and blue.  We have white.

See the ice on the plants? That's our drinking water! Oh I just hate ice melting every stupid day!

All in all, I don't think I'd want to live on your planet.

Sorry, but we've heard some really bad things about you guys.

Is it all true?  Some things we've heard just can't be true.  In Earthlink class last year, I cried a lot.  You guys can be so....destructive.

Oh well, I've probably been talking a lot, so I'd better go.  

Have a good time here, remember to get a Flatisse at the Market.  It's good with ice.

Maybe some day I'll come to visit you!

***************************

Eat me part three

As they sat on the floor across from each other, exhausted, sore but somehow exhilarated, the boy and the old woman stared into each other's eyes.  a glint of overhead light lingered on his nose ring and reflected light off of her eyeglasses to blind him in the left eye.

"Ah, that's blinding me'" he said warding off the light with his hand.
he rubbed his throat;  the choking had gone on for hours.

"You understand our agreement then, eh?" she asked gently.

"Yes Ma'am.  And do you want me to take out the recycling
and the garbage for you too? On Wednesdays?"

"Oh yes, that would be lovely. Those cans can be so heavy to pull.  My goodness my
shoulder hurts for days afterward!"

"Does it hurt right now?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact."  She rubbed her shoulder and
rotated her neck slowly, groaning a little.

"Here." he said, and he moved to her, and slid her peach
velour robe over one slim, velvety soft freckled shoulder.

"Was there anything in those cookies we had with the hot chocolate? I feel...kind of....funny."

"Oh yes dear,"  she said as he rubbed and rubbed, her grey head falling forward.
"Did your parents ever read you the Alice in Wonderland books by
Lewis Carroll? "

"Ummmmmm, I don't think so."

"Do you remember when Alice ate a little cake?"

"No, I never read it! I TOLD YOU THAT!"

"Don't raise your voice to me.  Really!   Well Alice,  the heroine of the story wants to shrink herself so she can go through a  very small door.  So she takes a bite of a little, darling cake with a card attached that says.."

"Oh! EAT ME.  Right,  I saw that movie."

"Yes! Yes! Eat me! Eat me!"

"So....I'm going to shrink? Cause I feel...."

"Oh no," she said laughing, "No, no.  you won't shrink.  Would you be able, if it fits into your schedule of course,  might you come over on Saturdays as well?  I have a feeling we can read our way through  all of the world's great literature in what....two months maybe?"

"That would be fucking awesome!  So wait, I'll come over on mondays of course and wednesdays and saturdays too."

"Yes.  Ooooooo that plan sounds marvelous."

"How does your shoulder feel?"

She said, "Don't Stop."


*********************
dedicated to Carrie J.




Confused? Read the posts "FUCK THAT! part one"  and "Not On My Watch, Sonny part two" to get the backstory for this steamy romance.....

In The Conservatory

Guess where I am.

Sometimes I don't even know.




I'm here.

I'm there.

I spread and move and float.

I come unmoored and sink in stormy seas.

I end broken hearted, resting rusted on the bottom of the bottomless sea.

But in the conservatory,......




I am in the plants, or tucked securely into a flower.


Dripping down the window pane.




I'll be near the ceiling.

Gnawing on the cactus roots.

I am the water that feeds the plants and the dirt they live in.

My breath is the steam and my spirit the air.

forever.

************************

My Angel

I saw him again! I saw him!

My love, my Love

 my guardian angel.

Don't think he's sweet and gentle, he's not.
When he lifted that car off of me, you could tell
that you would not want to piss this guy off!
His magnificence is beyond words, above
any knowledge.

He disappeared afterwards, after kissing my forehead,
sweetly
softly.
He went away
into the crowd,
away.

The first time I saw him I was a young girl,

trapped in a well.

A light appeared above and came

down, down.

And there he was, next to me, hugging me saying

"Sssh, ssshhh my darling

 it's alright, you'll be o.k. You

weren't meant to go like this."

Holding me in his arms his

blonde curls brushing the top of my head.

Soft fingers caressing my cheeks, my

 tears.

We ascended in a rush of wings, to the

world above

and he was gone.

Again.

So I saw him again and I love him, I do!

I've considered walking against traffic or
skydiving without a parachute.

He'll only come when I need him, I think.

How badly do I have to hurt to see
my love?

My heart will beat only for him, my
guardian angel.

**************************

Not On My Watch, Sonny part two

I know you're a good boy, somewhere deep down in there. Under those strange hair colors and all the metal hanging off your face.    I know it's there!  It must be!




But don't you see, you can't go around always destroying things.
There has to be someone behind you to build them back up again.
Especially if you're not going to do it, and frankly sonny I don't think you know how.
There I said it!
You only know how to tear down, maybe you need to go to back to an accredited learning institution.
Or maybe it's your parents fault, you know I always blame the mother.
I see you out there, driving so recklessly into the Harper's hedge, coming up onto my lawn that my dear departed (god rest his soul) sowed on his hands and knees and driving in horrid circles and just ruining everything!
Where is the kindness?






I just want to kill you with my bare old lady hands! Choke you until your eyes bug out and you beg me for mercy! Of which only god has the ability to bestow!
And then, I want to lie you down, very gently, on my very softest linoleum in the kitchen, and I want to tell you,
"-----, you are a good boy.  You are.  Even if no one else knows it ------, I do and I believe in you."
And then, if you're not really dead, I will make you some hot chocolate and we'll sit at the kitchen table and talk.  About anything you want.



I know I'm a foolish old woman, but all I want is the opportunity to help.  Is that so wrong?

FUCK THAT! part one

YEAH THAT IS WHAT I SAID MOM SO JUST GET OUT OF MY WAY.

I CAN'T STAND ALL THESE PEOPLE GETTING IN MY WAY.

I CAN'T.  I CAN'T.

DRIVING HELPS, it calms me down so I can focus on one thing and not freak OUT ABOUT ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE WRONG WITH MY LIFE!

THAT'S WHY I DRIVE MY FUCKING CAR ANYWHERE I WANT, MOM.








I'VE SEEN THAT OLD LADY LOOKING AT ME FROM BEHIND HER FUCKING CURTAINS, AND ONE TIME, OH THIS IS FUNNY.  SHE CAME RUNNING OUT OF THE HOUSE WITH A PAN AND SHE WAS SHAKING IT AT ME!  SHE THREW IT INTO THE STREET AND THEN FELL DOWN IN HER DRIVEWAY!

so i did a donut on her lawn.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT COMES OVER ME BUT I JUST WANT TO BREAK AND SMASH.

I HAVE NO LOVE, or hope what is that anyway?

WHAT ELSE IS THERE THEN??

MOM?

The Telegram

The brilliant Professor Fugate shrunk us for his own purposes.  Of which I don't even suppose to guess.

He wanted to make dolls out of us!
3 men, 3 women, all shrunk down by an atomic ray deviously operated by that seemingly sweet old man, the Professor.  Oh well you know the story.

So Mike? He's dead?  Well beat that.

Yes, I laid right next to him in the suitcase everytime the Profesor took us to the theater.  Those outings were called "picnics" and usually involved the 6 of us sitting on a doll blanket on the stage while the Professor forced us to interact with his real puppets in an Ibsen or Chekov drama.
Once Mike and I played Hedda and Lovborg.  My husband was played by a hairy wolf puppet.

You never heard that one?

So yeah. Mike.....I heard that right after we got put back he started hitting the bottle pretty hard.
 Is that what happened to him?

Cause in those days I was partnered with Rick and Mike was with Daphne.  The Professor liked things neat and tidy.  But I was secretly in mad lust with Mike.  I always hoped we would, I don't know,  sneak behind the coldcream bathtub and make love.  It never happened.  There was always the Professor. Always watching,  playing records and snapping his fingers and of course, writing in his dang notebook.

Are you going to to tell me what happened to him?!

So yeah, I keep going off on tangents don't I.  The injections the Professor gave us sometimes makes me.........................................................................................................................................Yes, still.

No one much comes around to ask me about those days anymore.  Right after it was all over, you couldn't keep the crowds of reporters away! Rick and I posed for Lady's Home Journal and Model Makers.  Reader's Digest did a wonderful story on Daphne.  Mike just....kept a low profile, he never seemed to want to really celebrate our liberation.  Now that I think of it, that must of been when he first started drinking again.  Hmmm.

But, gosh I'm sorry to hear about that.  Real sorry.  Don't tell me what really happened.  Don't.  I don't want to know.  I always thought that maybe someday.... So I can keep my image of him perfect in my mind.  Lying on the canopy bed braiding that rug.  Coming down the stairs toward me, looking in my eyes.

We lived in that dollhouse together, and yes it was a dollhouse, for 6 months.  It was years ago.
 Seems like yesterday.

****************




Thank you PSYCHOTRONIC 16 for showing Attack of the Puppet People, on which this was based.