Duel

1

I pushed the stick into the sixth, at the same time turning the switch in my mind to the comfortable dumb position which would carry me at a stressless 80mph along the habitual one hundred morning miles to work. I did not turn on the radio. Didn't want to get distracted away from her.2

She was there, as usual. How she succeeded to get up every morning at exactly the right hour to ride alongside me for the full stretch of miles, I never asked. I didn't actually care as long as she was there.3

I peeked from the corner of my left eye at her outline, keeping my right eye on the road. You never know when a semi-trailer driver may launch some forty odd tons attack against you. Her eyes were closed, her lips carrying that mysterious Gioconda smile that only women, and only some of them, seem to possess. 4

I was wondering about her hair, did it grow so much just overnight or maybe she pleated some extensions in, enjoying the mild hurricane's pull as it fluttered wildly ten feet behind her, the three forked ends of each strand shedding fire leaves rolling and roving and thrashing wildly till they hit the pavement leaving a trail of bubbling black asphalt blisters popping their heads like popcorn flowers...5

I didn't envy the drivers behind us. Unless if they were not seeing her. I was not sure.6

One moment's inattention and a truck driver almost got me. I returned both my eyes to the road, and also my right hand to the steering wheel dropping in the process the pen and piece of paper which were taking my notes. I got control of the car again after a few slalom wonders, and scrambled between my feet to retrieve the pen. The paper rested on my thigh. I accelerated a bit, leaving far behind the blaring truck horn, the Doppler effect making it sound like a raging bull's snort. I was not in the mood to engage into single digit limited vocabulary hostilities. I finally found the pen, sensing some movement to my left. She was trying to speak.7

It was almost frightening, she never tried it before. I saw her mouth forming the words but I couldn't hear a thing, not with the window closed between us and the terrible noise her side of it. I glanced her way for a second pointing to my ear and trying to make her understand that I cannot hear her. I should not have looked because she opened her eyes and I fell into them. 8

I was lost. I don't know if it took years, I guess it was seconds if to judge by the digital dashboard clock, once I found somehow my way back. Where have I been? And why did I return?... I fumed spitting bits of milk chocolate at the impotently blinking GPS system... "...next time I'll buy a Scottish car..." I yelled at the indifferent screen, knowing for sure Scotland has no car industry, and probably meaning rather things like Nessie, and dragons, and wings... Where have I been? 9

Were the laws of physics applicable there at all as I was falling to my life down an endless precipice finally sinking into a morass of red leaves and green petals and pink clouds, and the air brushing past me was skin and the butterflies hanging to me rhymed and prism shaped rolling tears were breaking the light into the music of kiss shaped soap bubbles?...10

My foot probably slid away from the gas pedal as I heard the horn approaching at a speed unsuitable for my health, the Doppler effect acting now in reverse making it sound like a nightingale's trill. I kicked the mushroom to the floor loosing a few scraps of rubber in the process, and didn't even take the time to be surprised as she disintegrated from the outer side of my window and reintegrated on my lap, ironing my pants smoothly to my thighs except for one spot which seemed to be reacting the other way around. Luckily she was transparent except for the unmistakable shimmer of her outline. I heard her giggle.11

"You should have better control of your... ahmm... senses..." ...trying not to sound crass. Arms moved behind my neck and a cheek rested against my shoulder, eyes closed again, quiet.12

"You should not surprise me like that..." I retorted, slowly recovering from the truck induced adrenalin boost into the inhaled warmth of her bosom's touch.13

"I can leave if you wish..." she responded, starting to disentangle her fingers from the nape of my neck.14

"Stay..." I whispered, hearing echoes of myself reverberate inside the confined space. Maybe I shouted? The fingers tightened again, the pressure even stronger. The clean smell of feminine skin bathed in pure water started melting portions of the windscreen, rushing currents of air cutting into my flesh thin red lines. "Aren't you cold?" I asked her.15

I saw the thin outline of her fingers opening two buttons of my shirt and penetrating inside, sliding across my ribs towards my back. I expected the motion to stop, it didn't. The arm followed the fingers flowing inside the shirt and encircling my chest three times before the right shoulder followed suit, then chest, head, painted toenails, and finally the endlessly endless strands of hair pulling in from outside of the window. Traces of smoldering leaves floated gently to the car's floor burning holes in the carpets, in the upholstery, big round holes in my trousers uncovering pale patches of blistering flesh and smelly burnt short hairs.16

I felt her spreading inside my clothes, patiently conquering hidden niches, penetrating inside my mouth, looking from behind my eyes, pulling at my chest's hair, my nose hair, my... other hair... We felt like smiling.17

"You thought we..." I heard her saying, an inescapable image of a puppy cuddling all around me further nurturing our smile. "Here you go again... our..."18

"This is what love is about, isn't it? There is no I... you... mine..., just we... us... ours..." I said. I sensed certain hesitation. "Are you still cold?" I asked further, the goosebumps on my skin like rice sized sand grains.19

"You hesitated," she said, surprising me. Did I? Wasn't it she?20

"Unjoin me," I told her, all of a sudden knowing what I wanted to do, all of a sudden the clarity of it all enveloping me - the I, the you, the us, the joining of lives...21

"I know what you want to do. Are you sure?" she asked, slowly flowing out of my shirt, unembracing me, unblanketing me, an indefinite shape in my lap molding herself back into curves, fingers, breasts... Suddenly it was terribly cold, freezing.22

"We are cold..." someone said as I picked up my pen and broke it in my fist spilling rivers of green ink in my palm, and started smearing it upon the image of her shape. She started materializing little by little, penetrating my visible spectrum in an explosion of green hues, patch after patch after patch... thighs, neck, lips... I felt like God, I felt like creator, I felt like man... till finally the splendor of the creature raped my insanely going mind and with a savage move I stabbed the broken pen's jagged end mid of my chest, and as blood started gushing out I crushed her body against mine feeling the other end of the pen penetrate her breast and blood soaking inside the hollow recesses of her image...23

Her skin blooming into a flowing river smashing torrents of flowers against the yielding rocks of my flesh, red hot finger blades scorifying the components of my body into a storm of glowing cinders, lips... oh lips... oh lips turning dragons as we started drinking each other's life till all that was left was tails trashing wildly pieces torn off a yielding sun...24

I heard the horn approaching, its vengeful pitiless nightingale trill victoriously gaining on us, huge wheels rolling over us, crushing, smashing, grinding... and as the raging bull snort triumphantly left behind the shapeless mass of wrinkled flaming metal, we soaked into each other, carelessly falling into a sun awaiting our blaze to send its million miles long tongue of fire licking mockingly the hidden gates of eden... 25