Okay - here I am - sleepy and irritable, standing in the pentagram. I smack devilfish jaws.
WHO CONJURED ME, AND WHY??
Oh yeah. Right. Getting off. <nyuk>
When I was a sophomore in the fine, bent city of Baltimore - the summers would get HOT. I took to walking around wearing nada but cutoffs and a pair of flip-flops. Back then I think my weight hit its rock bottom of 135 lbs - 45 lbs less than now at the same height. I could pull the cutoffs off in a single motion, no need to mess with the snap.
So it's an early July evening, muggy, hot, and I'm at half-impulse going by a park bench. There's this fortyish black guy, and he doesn't look rich. He gets up off the bench with a thousand-watt smile, moves to intercept and proclaims in that soft-edged Maryland black diction:
"MY you a fine looking young man - would you like to spend a little TAHM wid me?!"
I'm shocked speechless. But I don't bobble my ambulatory cadence, whoa no. The Captain asks Mr. Scott for "Warp Speed now", and as the engines spool up I sort of half-smile and say "uh, no thanks."
I could have had all sorts of dates in Baltimore. Trouble is, I was/am heterosexual and never could get past that minor detail. |
