Session Number 26

Session Number 26

Promptly
At 3,
The knock.

I buzzed the door,
And she walked
Directly
To the library,

Where she
Glanced
Back and forth
Until her eyes
Rested
On the wing-back
Chair.

She slipped off her shoes, paced back and forth across the red oak flooring, and then she made her demands.

"Tell me," she began, "your earliest memory of sounds."

I rolled out my personal history as if uncovering the Dead Sea Scrolls.

As I did, she launched herself up onto the seat cushion into a standing position, and leaned against the full back of the chair as it pushed against the wall.

It was then she seized upon her own body, checking each article of clothing for fit and comfort, and then smoothly sending her hands across her entire body.

My days of pre-school and elementary school were amazingly uninteresting, so it seemed incongruous that she should begin to touch herself.

Her usual pattern was to wait for a few minutes, but immediantly she rattled the peaceful evening with breathy lip bites and encouraging fingerings.

Perhaps I could have gotten to the part where 6th grade ended with a new school, but somewhere along the 3 hour line, she slumped over, moaning irreducibly into a silence of sleep....

And then, the second knock....