Circe Read Free Page B

all of that in my palm."
    "No, I can see that in your aura. I see a dark woman. She looks foreign. And I see another woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. The dark-eyed one has no future. It is the one with the blue eyes who is really your future."
    "Are you saying I'm going to leave my wife?" I asked mockingly. She was speaking vaguely enough that anyone could have found truth in her predictions. Everyone has some woman in his life who is dark, and everyone wants someone who has blonde hair and blue eyes, at least stereotypically. I put no more faith in her prediction being true than I did in God himself.
    "I didn't say that. I only said that the dark woman has no future. I see you on the beach before a storm with the blue-eyed woman."
    "When will I meet this blue-eyed devil?"
    "Soon."
    "It's too bad your eyes aren't blue. I would like to end my days with you."
    She laughed. "I thought you were a married man."
    "Until I saw you."
    "Not too insecure, are you?"
    "I never saw the point in playing games. I wasn't very good at them, either."
    "You owe me $20.00."
    I handed her the money. "Can I buy you a cup of coffee or a hurricane?"
    "I'm working."
    "You can tell me more about the future. I’m dying to know how many children I’m going to have. And you haven't given me much information on this blue-eyed woman I’m going to leave my wife for and spend the rest of my life with."
    "I may need to read the runes to find out all of this. It may be expensive."
    "I need to know."
    She smiled. "My runes are at my apartment."
    It was that easy. I followed her through the maze of streets that led to her apartment with my heart in my throat. Anticipation can be the most potent aphrodisiac. She didn't say anything. Just watching her walk was enough. It was the thought that made her inexorable. It wasn’t her, but the hint of her. The parts of her that were unknown and forbidden. I did not want to wait until we found her apartment and I felt as if I couldn't wait. You have to understand that I was drunk and in those few moments she had become everything I had left behind in Detroit. She was the dank pavement and the cold aloofness. She was without family, without attachment. She required no sacrifice and I could have her without regret. I wouldn’t have to feel guilty for leaving her behind or for bringing her with me. She was the anonymous stranger in the dark.
    I pushed her up against a wall in a deserted alley and kissed her with such force that she lost her breath. She was hard. Skin and bone and angles, not soft flesh, like my wife. I felt her arms around me and there came in me a flood that I couldn’t stop. I had her skirt up and her panties down and was done before she could even whisper her name. There was a moment when she muttered something like, "wait until we get to my apartment" or “wait for something." But her hands were in my hands and she kissed me with a fury.
    When it was over, she disappeared into the darkness without a word. I leaned up against the wall for a minute and just breathed in deep release. I felt no remorse. I felt only peace. I had done this before. The first time it had happened, I had felt a twinge of conscience, but it had become more dream than reality. I reasoned that it affected no one. It was like masturbation and Pria would never know. I didn't know the women or feel anything for them. They were all easy and had followed me without thought. It was part of a fantasy that helped keep me calm when I was stressed. If no one knew, it wouldn't matter. It was no different than the men who made love to their wives and imagined they were other women. No worse then the men who loathed their wives and masturbated to imaginary women with perfect breasts and thin thighs. At least when I was with my wife, I thought only of her. When I kissed her it was only her I wanted. When she was with me, I was filled up entirely by her image. This was my way of staying emotionally faithful to my wife.
    I wandered back