The Love Affair of Tad and Elizabeth-Days 6,7,8,9 and 10

DAY 6-THINKING AND PONDERING  
 
Tad has an idea they could rent  a room in a house for a few weeks, put a jinx on the motel circuit, get a little bourgeois.  
 
He remembered a Vietnam vet who Tad had as a patient when Tad was a respiratory therapist at a VA hospital many many years ago,The vet said renting a room in someone's house was the cheapest and best way to avoid creditors and court summons. The vet himself had been dodging alimony and lawyers for dead-beat fathers. Then he enlisted and his problems were solved.  
 
Elizabeth called his idea a bright one, but suggested they go shopping today for the necessary items to change their appearances. They were both squeamish on that score, but fears of being found were gnawing at them. It was a question of  
 
how best  these romantic lovers could hide though they were no dangerous fugitives like Bonnie and Clyde.  
 
DAY 7-THE MASQUERADE  
 
He laid the razor down. Finished. No more goatee. He turned to Elizabeth. A heaviness and silence hung in the air. She  suddenly rushed into his arms, avoiding kissing him, yet he felt her body's full compliance.  
 
"I know how you feel," he said.  
 
"No, it's alright."  She traced her finger along the bare lips. "Really," she said slowly, then kissed them tenderly."Now let's get going with the dark haired lady."  
 
He placed her under the shower and began applying the dark dye.He wondered if the dye would change the natural aroma of her hair-that fresh heather scent he  
sometimes smothered his face in, to alleviate tense anxious moments and bring  him an incredible peace.
.  
Tad checked the tablet while Elizabeth towel-dried her hair. "Oh get this, they think they tracked us in Las Vegas."  
 
"Let me see." Elizabeth said, and he showed her the photo of the two look-alikes near some gaming tables. "Well, I hope they keep looking in all the wrong places. Have you changed the car plates lately?"  
   
"Before we left Oklahoma. You look fetching," he said.  
 
She fluffed her hair coquettishly.  
   
They put on their glasses-hers the narrow rectangular stenographer-like specs,his  more standard, rounder- and looked into the mirror intensely for awhile,their reflections meeting each other's at times, so that at one such juncture Elizabeth was able to lock eyes with Tad's in the mirror and vow, "No matter what happens, no matter where I am or where you are, forever and always I'm yours and only yours."  
 
 
DAY 8-THE 360 DEGREE TURNAROUND  
 
They were retracing, in a  sense, their previous route as they headed south towards Florida. Canada was out,Mexico still hanging, so Tad had googled Rooms  For Rent in Florida -a random choice like a stab at a horse in a racing form-but he jotted down several appealing listings in the city of Pensacola and the lovers shoved off for what they hoped would be a winner.  
 
Traveling mostly at night,the highway all but deserted, hardly another car seen for miles on end, Elizabeth unzipped Tad and sucked him off. No lion on the wild savannahs of Africa ever roared as loud as Tad when he exploded in his darling's mouth. Afterwards, Elizabeth brought herself off, in nearly equal volume, using her fingers.  
 
They'd find a 24-hour drivethru and load up on food and coffee to stay awake. This was no 2- day trip. They made it in record time: one night and less than half a day Tad rented a motel room-man and wife- then walked to a payphone  
 
where he'd make some calls, and hurry back to Elizabeth; he was still horny and to use slang of his adolescent years, she he dearly wanted to ball.  
 
 
DAY 9-HUNKERING DOWN AGAIN TO MOTEL LIVING-AND BROWSING IN A BOOKSTORE  
 
Returning from the second day of calling his rooms for rent list-no results today and none yesterday,all booked up-he happened to pass a newspaper kiosk and bought a copy of today's newspaper. He whisked past the amber alerts strewn across the front page till he got to the classifieds. He called three new listings, all three went into answering machines.Well, later he told himself. He banished a gnawing hangdog mood. His students had liked his positive upbeat attitude, whether on a personal problem or some difficulty with a subject. As he walked on back to the motel he  
wondered what Elizabeth might want to do today.  
 
Anyone noticing a short young girl in glasses and a paisley scarf wrapped tight around  
her head, an older man following close behind her as they entered a small, quaint house of a bookstore named Open Books, anyone noticing would have pegged them as intellectual daughter and proud father. Once inside the bookstore, they moseyed off in different directions. Tad could be found hovering around the poetry section.  He was soon leaning against a shelf, reading a dogeared copy of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg. He  
was interrupted when Elizabeth appeared, holding up a copy of Vatsyayana's "Kama Sutra."  
 
"There are a lot of pictures in here. I can hardly wait to try some of these positions.," she said.  
 
"One of the oldest love manuals in the world,honey," Tad said. He turned to the shelf. "Hm, let's see if there's anything besides 'Howl' I want. Ah! Leonard Cohen. Ever read him?"  
 
"I don't think so."  
 
"You have a treat coming," he said, putting a copy of Leonard Cohen's poems with his purchases.  
 
It was getting dark outside, wind rattling the windows of this small house turned bookstore (rain was forecast) but Tad and Elizabeth lingered on, going from one aisle to the other, letting their curiosities guide them,daring time to stand still.  
   
Finally headed towards the checkout desk Elizabeth suddenly dashed to a display copy of "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut. "I want this. I read it a long time ago. But my mother burned it because of the sex passages." She handed it to Tad who gave it several gentle protective pats.  
 
After their books were paid, the  young grossly overweight proprietress looked up at Elizabeth and said, "I bet you're a straight-A student who has her eyes on a Ph.D.  
 
"In sociology," Elizabeth said.  
 
 "Wonderful! Good luck."  
   
"Thank you ma'am," Elizabeth said.  
 
and walked out into a blustery day feeling like an actress in a play.  
 
 
DAY 10-TAD COMMUNES WITH HIMSELF  
 
Tad sat in a chair, watching Elizabeth sleeping on the bed and listened to the rain. He felt safer and more secure on the run than he had behind the walls of his classroom. He knew this was because of the magic of love. That sense of indomitable joining  which brings joy just to be in the other's presence. All else is blocked out. He wondered if they could get to Mexico in a kayak. People have done it. It was feasible but fraught with consequences if illegal entry is discovered.They'd get married in Mexico, and he'd get a teaching job in an English high school. He might even want to impregnate Elizabeth, but after fathering two daughters he had a vasectomy.  
 
He listened to Elizabeth's even breathing and remembered Jill's vociferous snoring. And what about Jill? Well,maybe things ended a few years ago. He wondered how he would explain his escape someday. It wasn't as the headlines proclaimed: ex-teacher  kidnaps his 15-year-old student. That was false to the core. Perhaps he'd fall back on,  
 
if he dare, an old saying: In love and war all is fair.  
 
--more days to be added soon--  
 
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