Coffee Read Free Page B

the end of a stalk neck. Etty fluidly changed
the subject. “How’s this stuff work, anyway?”
    “I
call it ‘Mantis’, ‘cause it looks like a Praying
Mantis head.”
    “That’s the bug that eats her date after sex. Great.”
Etty kicked herself for bringing up sex, hoping Knut would not
pick up the cue. She could tell Knut liked her, and noticed a
slight change in his breathing when he touched her wrist.
    Knut
let it slide. “It’s actually two things, a monitor and
a microscope. Let me show you.” He twisted it around as far
as possible so the eye pieces were a little closer to her, but she
still had to get up and lean toward Knut to press her eyes against
it. Knut shuddered as he picked up a subtle scent from Etty, a soap
and skin smell. He could hear the air passing over her lips and
teeth as she breathed only a few inches away.
    Knut
flicked the mode button to Monitor , and large bright letters
appeared across the high contrast field of vision. “Wow.
Bright. I’ll bet that gives you a headache.”
    “It’s
not bright at all to me, in fact it’s rather dim.”
    “What’s
the microscope part?”
    Knut
opened his mouth in front of the view side so it pointed down his
throat, and switched to Microscope . “Christ!”
She backed her head away, laughing. “Microscope. I get it.”
    Knut
rarely dated. His consuming work kept him from the social circuits.
But his excruciating schedule also veiled an insecurity. Most
considered him mildly handsome, with his soft features and tender
yet witty style. He could tell women liked him, but he feared
rejection more than he desired intimacy. But recently, he vowed to
change all that. A full professor at a top Ivy League college, it
was time to be more bold with women. ‘What’s she going
to do, push me down the stairs?’ Knut chuckled to himself.
    He
slugged down a mouthful, and after a short pause, “Etty. How
about a favor?”
    Etty
looked around the apparatus into his glazed eyes. “What?”
    “Can
I look at your face?”
    She
smiled again, getting increasingly giddy from the Vodka. “With
this thing? Why, so you can see my blackheads?”
    “No,
really.” By his calm expression, Etty realized he was quite
serious. Knut was a nice man, a very intelligent and interesting
man, whom Etty found rather attractive. But she had no interest in
any kind of relationship - her work was far more important. Still,
there was something oddly appealing to her about this, a blind man
pouring over her face with a large machine to see every crevice.
    “Well,
O.K., but I’m telling you right now, we’re stopping
above the neck.” Knut pivoted the binoculars back the other
way, and Etty positioned herself in front of them. “Do I move
around, or do you?”
    “Just
relax, stay put,” he said with his eyes pressed firmly into
place, and his voice slightly distorted by the bulky gear.
    He
started with her eyes. The light made her squint at first, but she
willed them open wide, having resigned herself to give him a full
show. The tight quarters forced her knees up against his. Knut
felt the touch with keen sensitivity.
    He
moved up to her hairline, over the top to see wisps of straight
black hair. Then along the top of her forehead to a widow’s
peak point, around to the other side to her smallish delicate ears.
Across the middle of her face, over the high reddened cheeks, perked
up mostly because she could not wipe the wide smile off her face.
Then her nose. “Ugly nose,” she had to interject,
giggling. Knut said nothing. Then her mouth. For a second, she
opened her mouth wide as he had done, producing a grunt laugh from
Knut, but then she returned to smiling.
    Knut
stayed on the mouth. Her lips were so close, he wanted to kiss
them. He caressed with his eyes as he slowly passed each area - the
two little peaks in the center of the upper lip, the tiny crevasses
crisscrossing the swollen pink skin, and the precious creases in
each corner. Through the slight