Patrick's Surfaces III

III

I wanted to just turn the computer off. But I was paralyzed by the things that hadn't happened yet.

"What are you wearing?" she asked. Patrick must have turned her voice equalizer towards "sexy."

"Doesn't Patrick know that too?" I still hadn't turned back around.

"No." She laughed. "He hasn't seen you today. Come on, what are you wearing?"

"A black cloak."

"Are you naked underneath?"

I really needed to turn around and walk over to the computer and turn it off. But all I did was splash whiskey onto the sideboard.

"So? Are you naked underneath?"

"Yes." I flipped the hood of my State sweatshirt up onto my head. Black cloak. I closed my eyes and remembered being ankle deep in a high mountain lake, feeling the heat of the sun on my head, anticipating the cold of the lake on my bare belly, and craving the soothing but dreading the shock.

"Why a black cloak? Are you Death?"

"Will you close your eyes?" I said.

"Why? I can't see you anyway."

"Please?"

"But, why? Are you going to take off your cloak?"

"Please close your eyes for just a moment."

"Okay. There. They're closed."

"Thank you." I turned and saw them closed but looking at the blue and blond and of her, all framed in white, was bright like the bright after a nap on the high mountain beach. I walked over to the computer and dimmed the screen so that all I could see was her vague outline. She was a shadow against darker shadows. It was the best I could do.

"Okay, that's good. Thank you." I sat down and faced the screen.

"So? Are you naked?"

"No."

"You still have your cloak on?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"I know exactly what it is of you I want," I said.

"What do you know I have that you don't have?"

"You have power and place. You are flat and framed. Composed. Placed. And if you moved out of frame, you would no longer exist."

"Patrick didn't tell me you'd be like this." Her voice had been taken away from sexy.

"Patrick's not here."

"No, he's not. Because, he's here. Patrick is with me.."

"Goodbye Patrick." And I turned her off.