[QUOTE=Checkumout;3960213]No luck today giving up on the imaginary cartoon character.[/QUOTE]A splash of pink across indigo. The sky, a most vivid shade of lavender as the sun slumber into the horizon. And the air was alive, electrified with thrilling ionized molecular goodness. It was as if the torrential rain had washed everything anew.
Suddenly, there she was, as her slight raspy voice importuned through my half rolled-down driver side window. "Hey, can I get one from you?" Gently reeling me back from my inner thoughts. She was startlingly striking with violet-plum steaks accenting her luscious mane.
"Can I get a smoke from you?" she asked again, nodding towards the pack of Marlboro Menthols laying on top of the passenger seat. "So, what 'ya doing here tonight?" As she exhaled satisfyingly, giving me the once-over.
"Looking for you" came my immediate responds, and a coy smile of invitation.
"Is that right?" She countered with a crocket little smile that's sure to melt ice.
Not quite as profound upon my second glance, maybe it was the juvenile "purple streak" through her hair, but still decidedly pretty in a wholesome country girl sorta way. "Let's get out of here, this isn't a nice place to hang. " Closing the passenger door behind her. "Especially for you" she added musingly with a sarcastic grin.
Wearing a stylish Henley in brown khaki, and freshened with a splash of Stetson aftershave, I'd thought I had all my bases covered in a casual social setting, and looked rather dashing to boot. "Why, is there something wrong with the way I look?" I bemused at her with feigned petulance and my best imitation of a hurt-look.
"No. It's not that" as she does a quick double take. "You looked fine. More than fine, actually" again with that crooked little smile. But her placid demeanor more than told me that she is, at least for the foreseeable, in a state of chemically induced bliss.
Looking but not seeing, she gaze out the side passenger window. "It's just this whole place - -" nodding at the charred remains of a large corner dwelling perched like a twisted monstrosity at the intersection of Fairhaven and the side street with a obscured name that I can't seem to remember. "That was the house, burnt down with that girl in it - -" she added with a serene sense of disconnect.
"You live around here?" I glanced at her, changing the subject.
"Yea" she nodded in disgust. "But I'm originally from the county" she quickly added. "Where do you live?" She countered with a slight edge of defiance.
"Montgomery county" turning left onto Potapsco avenue, I nodded without adjudication.
"Oh, I have relatives in Poolsville. " There was a sudden pep in her uplifted voice. "We would go up to the Montgomery county fair every year. And if you like good chines food there was this really great place next to the fairground and they have the best shrimp fried rice, ever!" As she further enthused.
"You mean that place underneath the shopping center, next to the traffic circle?
"Yeah, that's the one!" She added with ardor. "Are they still open? It's been at least three years since I was there".
"I had dinner there just last week. And I had their shrimp fried rice for take home. " I nodded, batting an playful-eye at her.
A brief silence ensue as her expression passes from affable to impassive. "So, anyway, where're we going?
As the glory of a post storm vista becoming but a distant memory, and as enticing as the thoughts of what this nubile seated next to me can add to an ever expending vocabulary of a never-ending quest for carnal knowledge, I've suddenly lost the urge with a yearning for home. "If it's all the same, I think I'd like take a raincheck".
"What?" More hurt than disappointed, she snapped at me, frowning in petulance. "Why? What's wrong with me? Am I ugly?" Bombarding me with questions.
I can't help but smile at her inhibition "No. To the contrary, I think you're very beautiful. It's just that I have this sudden craving for Chinese food" as my smile turned coy.
"You mean that place next to the fairground?" Her eyes, fetchingly green in the twilight "I want to to go" as she pouted provocatively.
I nodded invitingly at her with affirmation. She sat for a moment as she considered.
She glanced at me with a sheepish smile "if I spent the night with you, you'll have to bring me back early in the morning. And take care of me so won't be sick, ok?" As she added pleadingly.
Again, I nodded. But this time in reluctance as she heard the unasked question in my waning smile.
"I know - - All this is coming to an end, real soon. " She gazed impassively out the passenger side window at a row of dilapidated housing project on the side of Potapsco avenue. "My family is helping me to get into a rehab. ".
She glanced at me as the corner of her mouth lifted in hope. "Hey, I'm really excited about going with you. I think we'er going to have a real good time. " The unexpected caressing of her left hand against the lap of my right leg was most felicitously pleasing. And in retrospect, foretold the events to come.
The drive back up interstate 95 are mundane at best, and at times dreary even. But on those rare occasions when certain conditions are met, like the astrological alignment of the stars for instance, or some other unknown workings of the universe, it can also be quite pleasurable. And tonight, the conditions were most agreeable as the fading sun slumbers into a glorious horizon.
