- Vol. 08
- Chapter 12
Meet At Our Spot
She could not stop moving or else the mosquitoes would find pause to puncture and feast. She jiggled her legs and hopped from one foot to another whilst scanning the edge of the field again. She was early but this time of day always felt more elastic – shadows grew longer and pinks crept into the flat blue of the day sky, softening it, transforming it.
With her tongue, she moved her gum from the bottom left side of her mouth to the right and tasted its fading sweetness in the process. She turned the key twice then thrice in her palm and passed the time by singing the ABCs from Z to A. It was true that a green cash box existed. But relayed in passing as a joke; there were also biscuits, expired chocolates, half-eaten crisps mentioned in equal that lay less loved in her superior’s bottom left drawer. She imagined the sweat of her palm seeping into the rusted key, corroding it further.
When he told her this was right she believed him. For the force with which he kissed her against the metal chain link fence behind, left diamond indentations across the smooth of her back, which at the time, felt like they would last forever.
In the last light of the day, she saw a car pass in the distance. And she knew instinctively from the way it abruptly slowed to watch her, that it was driven by a man. She felt a cold prickle in the nape of her neck and her left fingers naturally curled into a fist with the jagged edge of the key peeking out. Eyeballs, male or female, were equally soft.
Meet At Our Spot
She heard the sound of three whoops in the distance, laughter, the engine kicking in and then acceleration into a point of obscurity. She crouched into a squat and scratched at a mosquito bite on her leg. And when she withdrew her fingernail it left a little smear of blood in its wake. She knew at this point that he was not coming today.
She reached out to tug at a loose wire in the fence near the ground. Opening her palm to release the warm key, she threaded it through the wire to a point where it felt secure. Then taking the gum out of her mouth, she pressed it into keyring and wire, fusing it in place. She gave the key a tug and watched it dangle for a moment, before she was up and running, to catch the last bus home.