Wash Day

Rating: PG for a few typical Bourdain phrases
Author's Notes: It's an acquired taste =P


*Set in an anachronistic past or a retro-cool present (Provincetown, Ma)

Wash Day

It was a wash day and I was in a wash day outfit: a pair of shorts that I’d forgotten to wear, a men’s t-shirt and pale blue bandana. No underwear, because they’d just been washed; I hung the laundry on the clothesline in the backyard. A hot and salty day and I’d left the door open so I could hear the record player from where I stood. Mary and Deacon left earlier to go to breakfast and skulk around town. Dry, chalky dirt mixed with sand caked the soles of my feet. A couple, two young men, walked past the yard: a tawny blonde in jogging shorts and a delicate redhead with blue eyes. They’re having an animated conversation; the blonde gesturing wildly and the redhead laughing heartily and nodding his head ‘yes’. As I watched them, I didn’t notice Tony jump the picket fence and walk into the yard. He parted the curtain of clothes I’d hung up and stood behind me.
“Hello,” he says softly.
I spun on my heel, making a weird snuffling noise in surprise. He grinned down at me.
“Oh. Hi.” I say, grinning up at him.
“Are you busy tonight?” he asked, “I thought maybe we could get something to eat, then see something at the matinee. How’s that sound?”
“That’s sounds great, I think they’re doing a “French New Wave” feature at the cinema.”
“Really? Excellent; very romantic.”
Tony put a cigarette between his lips and started to light it.
“Hey! No.” I barked. “Not right here. You’ll set my clothes on fire.”
Tony put the lighter in his jean pocket, the cigarette still in his mouth.
“I set your panties on fire last night, you didn’t mind then,” I heard his mumble under his breath.
“You’re funny.”
He began to inspect the clothes I’d hung up, occasionally turning to give me a “Really, Kelsi?” look when he came upon a piece he considered dubious; like my Yes t-shirt.
“Oh yeah, this is classy,” he said, taking down a pair of panties I’d bought on clearance at one of the sex shops down the street. Kelly green boy shorts with the words “Lucky You” in white on the front and a shamrock on the back. “I’ve never seen these before.”
“I’m cheating on you.”
He sighed dramatically, “You seem the type. The guys at work told me to say away from girls like you”
We were both quiet for a moment and Genesis’s “Fountains of Salmacis” could be heard clearly from the doorway. Tony rolled his eyes.
“How can you listen to that shit?” he teased, “It’s so pretentious, all that unnecessary keyboard crap, and chords and odd beats. Hermaphrodites? Killer weeds? What the fuck?”
“You know,” I replied, faining disgust, “You come into my yard, smoking, insulting my clothes, insulting my choice of music… I can’t see us sustaining this relationship for much longer.”
“Oh, well, I feel the same way.”
“I guess this is good-bye, then,” I turned away from him and tried not to smile.
“Ok, but before I leave and switch teams for good, I brought you something, that’s why I came here.”
He took my hand in his and with the other he gently, reverently, pressed something into my palm. I stared at the gift, completely surprised. Creamy white, fragile, the size of a peach pit with its lower jaw and teeth still intact: a bat’s skull.
“I found it on the beach” Tony explained, “I don’t know if it somehow managed not to get crushed long enough to bleach or maybe if someone bought it and dropped it, but I saw in the sand this morning... and I thought of you. I thought you would like it.”
He peered into my face, his wide, brown eyes full of boyish earnest.
“Do you like it?”
The skull was warm and slightly moist from being in Tony’s hand for so long. The idea that he had walked from the beach to my yard with this vulnerable piece of bone clasped protectively in his large callused hands made me feel sentimental. It reminded me of something from one of Kipling’s Jungle Book stories, about how a wolf has unbelievably powerful jaws, but could carry an egg in its mouth without breaking it.

“Thank you,” I could feel myself beaming, “its beautiful… it’s so beautiful.”
I leaned foreword and kissed him on the cheek, as he still hadn’t discarded his unlit cigarette. Then, Tony gingerly removed it from his lips and stooped to kiss my mouth.

“I’ll see you later, honey.”