Note: So didn't score points on first story posted below. Didn't have the best weekend to write this one, so unless this one surprises me and I get some luck, I'll likely be out after this one. Enjoy.
Synopsis: Catherine has arranged for a
public meeting with an internet flame. As she waits for his arrival, she
reconsiders risking her marriage and family for her carnal desires.
The ponies plodded dispassionately in a circle under the blazing sun. Some miserable child wailed on the back of one painted white and brown. The pony remained as disinterested in the ride, as the rider did in appeasing his parents. The mother and father, who circled with the animal and the wretched beast they’d created, snapped pictures with the hope of getting one with a smiling child. Catherine remembered similar experiences with her own children, and she knew the only will stronger than a parent insistent on projecting and producing an image of the perfect child was that of an obstinate toddler. Catherine pitied the pony the most. The poor thing was destined to traverse the same damn trail a million times at Buck’s Petting Zoo at the Eden County Fair.
She glanced down at her cellphone, pressing the button to get the time to flash across the screen. Only two minutes had passed since her last check. How long before he arrived? Would he be early, as she had been? Or was he a late arriver? Why the hell was she putting herself through this? Waiting out here in the sun for someone with the ludicrous screenname of “Silver Cobra” was antithetical of her normal behavior. Was her marriage so lame to resort to adultery via an internet hookup site? A willful voice she recognized from her own youth blared out “Yes,” in her head. She tried to silence it, thinking about his profile that simply stated that he was in his late twenties, tall, disease free, and into older women. She was older, in her forties, married for twenty-one years, and eager for something new, as she stated in her own profile under the name “Curious Cat.” Her husband always called her Cat, and the acidic taste of her betrayal rose in her throat.
The petting zoo meeting was her idea, since she didn’t expect that anyone in her circle of friends or family would be there. After the public meeting, she expected sex. At least, she supposed that was how internet hookups worked. Damn, where was he? Her nerves were wilting in the cursed heat.
She brushed her ponytail off her shoulder. Her strawberry mane was tied back with a neon green ribbon she’d borrowed from her teen daughter’s dresser. Her daughter liked wearing the ribbon in her hair to high school football games. Cat chased the thought away by walking toward the goat pen. Inside, kids of the two-leg and four-leg variety bolted around making frantic sounds. Two fat women were seated inside, testing the mettle of a pair of folding chairs. They jawed loudly back and forth to each other between sips from ridiculously sized fountain soda cups. One had a loaf of bread wrapped in plastic on her lap. It looked homemade, and maybe was some kind of specialty loaf like banana or zucchini.
“Anyhow, I got down to the cake walk, and the only damn thing left was this loaf of banana bread,” the Whale with the bread said. “Can you believe it?”
“Last year, I won that German chocolate cake. Me and Buck ate it up in one afternoon,” the other answered.
“You got all the damned luck.”
The two rested their jaws. Finally, the woman with the banana bread looked around and remarked.
“Ain’t it a shame these poor animals are caged up all day, and all they know to do is beg for food.”
Cat rolled her eyes and plodded toward a shade tree with a bench under it. An old black man sat alone at one end. The movement shifted her thoughts back to her intentions. She wasn’t one to deceive her husband, and it wasn’t like he deserved it. He didn’t beat her. Wasn’t mean. Didn’t cheat. Had a job, and treated the kids fine. So why was she risking messing it all up? The youthful risk-taking voice chimed in.
“You’re just tired of being led in circles.”
“Hush,” she responded in her own head. It wasn’t too late to run home. Instead, she plopped down on the wooden bench. The man, who wore a white cotton shirt with suspenders, wrinkled his face at her. It made him look like groundhog. Before them, a zebra paced back and forth in a pen.
“That ole boy misses bein’ free,” the man said and spit a wad of tobacco on the ground before his feet.
“What?”
“He’s got it worse than all of them. All these other creatures don’t know no different, but he used to run free on the savannah. Now, they got him all caged up. It ain’t natural.”
The man finished his thought, and like he’d been waiting there just for the purpose of voicing it to someone, he stood slowly with cracking knees and a stooped back, and started at a snail’s pace down the path toward the fair’s midway. Before getting far, he turned back.
“It’s hell getting old,” he shouted.
She considered his words, gradually becoming aware of a figure moving on the opposite side of the zoo. She made out only a blur of a person between the fences and animals and people. All the objects melded together. In her heart, she knew it was him.
The figure continued to move closer, but she couldn’t make out his face. Her “Curious Cat” voice was screaming. Anticipation and apprehension twisted her stomach. She raised both her arms up and placed her hands on the back of her head. Her fingers touched the ribbon. She thought of her daughter. Of her son. Of her husband.
She pulled the ribbon from her hair. Looked at it. Looked up. Spotted his outline.
She slipped the ribbon into her purse. Her legs started moving away down the path. Her gait started slow then increased to a trot. Before she knew it, she was sprinting like she did as a girl with the smell of free air in her nostrils.
The ponies plodded dispassionately in a circle under the blazing sun. Some miserable child wailed on the back of one painted white and brown. The pony remained as disinterested in the ride, as the rider did in appeasing his parents. The mother and father, who circled with the animal and the wretched beast they’d created, snapped pictures with the hope of getting one with a smiling child. Catherine remembered similar experiences with her own children, and she knew the only will stronger than a parent insistent on projecting and producing an image of the perfect child was that of an obstinate toddler. Catherine pitied the pony the most. The poor thing was destined to traverse the same damn trail a million times at Buck’s Petting Zoo at the Eden County Fair.
She glanced down at her cellphone, pressing the button to get the time to flash across the screen. Only two minutes had passed since her last check. How long before he arrived? Would he be early, as she had been? Or was he a late arriver? Why the hell was she putting herself through this? Waiting out here in the sun for someone with the ludicrous screenname of “Silver Cobra” was antithetical of her normal behavior. Was her marriage so lame to resort to adultery via an internet hookup site? A willful voice she recognized from her own youth blared out “Yes,” in her head. She tried to silence it, thinking about his profile that simply stated that he was in his late twenties, tall, disease free, and into older women. She was older, in her forties, married for twenty-one years, and eager for something new, as she stated in her own profile under the name “Curious Cat.” Her husband always called her Cat, and the acidic taste of her betrayal rose in her throat.
The petting zoo meeting was her idea, since she didn’t expect that anyone in her circle of friends or family would be there. After the public meeting, she expected sex. At least, she supposed that was how internet hookups worked. Damn, where was he? Her nerves were wilting in the cursed heat.
She brushed her ponytail off her shoulder. Her strawberry mane was tied back with a neon green ribbon she’d borrowed from her teen daughter’s dresser. Her daughter liked wearing the ribbon in her hair to high school football games. Cat chased the thought away by walking toward the goat pen. Inside, kids of the two-leg and four-leg variety bolted around making frantic sounds. Two fat women were seated inside, testing the mettle of a pair of folding chairs. They jawed loudly back and forth to each other between sips from ridiculously sized fountain soda cups. One had a loaf of bread wrapped in plastic on her lap. It looked homemade, and maybe was some kind of specialty loaf like banana or zucchini.
“Anyhow, I got down to the cake walk, and the only damn thing left was this loaf of banana bread,” the Whale with the bread said. “Can you believe it?”
“Last year, I won that German chocolate cake. Me and Buck ate it up in one afternoon,” the other answered.
“You got all the damned luck.”
The two rested their jaws. Finally, the woman with the banana bread looked around and remarked.
“Ain’t it a shame these poor animals are caged up all day, and all they know to do is beg for food.”
Cat rolled her eyes and plodded toward a shade tree with a bench under it. An old black man sat alone at one end. The movement shifted her thoughts back to her intentions. She wasn’t one to deceive her husband, and it wasn’t like he deserved it. He didn’t beat her. Wasn’t mean. Didn’t cheat. Had a job, and treated the kids fine. So why was she risking messing it all up? The youthful risk-taking voice chimed in.
“You’re just tired of being led in circles.”
“Hush,” she responded in her own head. It wasn’t too late to run home. Instead, she plopped down on the wooden bench. The man, who wore a white cotton shirt with suspenders, wrinkled his face at her. It made him look like groundhog. Before them, a zebra paced back and forth in a pen.
“That ole boy misses bein’ free,” the man said and spit a wad of tobacco on the ground before his feet.
“What?”
“He’s got it worse than all of them. All these other creatures don’t know no different, but he used to run free on the savannah. Now, they got him all caged up. It ain’t natural.”
The man finished his thought, and like he’d been waiting there just for the purpose of voicing it to someone, he stood slowly with cracking knees and a stooped back, and started at a snail’s pace down the path toward the fair’s midway. Before getting far, he turned back.
“It’s hell getting old,” he shouted.
She considered his words, gradually becoming aware of a figure moving on the opposite side of the zoo. She made out only a blur of a person between the fences and animals and people. All the objects melded together. In her heart, she knew it was him.
The figure continued to move closer, but she couldn’t make out his face. Her “Curious Cat” voice was screaming. Anticipation and apprehension twisted her stomach. She raised both her arms up and placed her hands on the back of her head. Her fingers touched the ribbon. She thought of her daughter. Of her son. Of her husband.
She pulled the ribbon from her hair. Looked at it. Looked up. Spotted his outline.
She slipped the ribbon into her purse. Her legs started moving away down the path. Her gait started slow then increased to a trot. Before she knew it, she was sprinting like she did as a girl with the smell of free air in her nostrils.
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