It took another week for the bruises on my face and torso to fade away. Mostly. I went back to the hospital out patients to get the stitches in my lip removed on the Thursday after my Sunday date with Jessie. It may have been a little too soon to have them out but I had had enough of seeing them there, not to mention the obstacle they posed to my growing need to kiss my new girlfriend properly. There was a little scarring left behind that the friendly nurse said made me look like a mob gangster. I could probably carry that cred given the heavy threat I had laid on Micky McGee.
I went back to work, almost fully healed on the second day of May. My normal routine continued except that it was slightly different now. I’d meet Jessie outside her building every morning and we’d catch the bus into town together. Her hair salon opened at 9am and I had to be in the office at 8am, but she said that she’d rather go in early with me and wait for the salon to open than catch the later bus on her own. The bus ride gave us time to chat about the kind of stuff lovebirds chat about. In the afternoon I’d wait for her to finish work at 5pm and then we’d ride the bus home together.
I’d had a few girlfriends over the years, but I’d never had one who I could talk to as easily as I did with Jessie. We spoke about everything from politics to science, sports, and movies. She was a lot smarter than I’d ever imagined her to be. And worldly-wise too. The highlight of my day was watching her walk out of her building every morning to meet me. My heart did a little flutter every time I caught sight of her. Compared to the sad way she carried herself when she was with Micky, it was like watching a completely different person come to life. She held her head high and she smiled all the time, those gorgeous dimples on full display for the world to see. She had a spring in her step now. Could I really have been the person responsible for this change in her demeanour? I’d watch her at work from the coffee shop opposite her salon while I waited for her to knock off each day, and she’d always be smiling at her patrons. When she saw me waiting for her the smile got even bigger.
On a Friday morning as we rode the bus into town we decided that she would sleep over at my place for the whole weekend. She’d come over once she’d sorted out food for her Dad and made sure he didn’t burn the house down. It would probably be about eight, she’d said. It would also give her time to pack some stuff she’d need for the weekend.
I was so excited. And nervous. It had been a while since I had a girl staying over. This time I wanted things to be different. Special. Not only for the purpose of my physical needs but Jessie was different to the other girls I had been with in so many ways, she deserved some respect from a guy and I fully intended to give it to her.
As soon as I got home that Friday afternoon I cleaned my flat with vigour, damp dusting everything, vacuuming the wall to wall carpet in the lounge and making sure the bathroom was spotless. Everything was disinfected and freshly scented. It was like being back in the army preparing for an inspection of my quarters. I showered, put on my favourite T-shirt and waited for her to arrive. Then I remembered to take out the trash.
While doing this my neighbour was out on the corridor having a smoke. Her name was Jenny Biggins, she was one of the nurses living in the building with her doctor boyfriend, Dave.
“Hey Danny, how’s it going?” she asked. She was barefoot and wearing what looked like an assortment of enormous scarves tied randomly around her body. Jenny was a quintessential hippie throwback with enormous masses of wild frizzy red hair to match her over-sized bohemian personality.
“Howzit Jenny, I’m doing great thanks. How’s it going with you guys?”
“Fine.” she said. “You having company over? I heard you vacuuming and thought that it was weird for you to do housework on a Friday evening. So is she a hottie?”
I smiled and marvelled at women’s ability to make accurate deductions about the state of men’s private affairs given only a few details.
“Ah, you figured me out, clever girl. Ya, she’s awesome. I’ve known her since junior school but only just got to know her better a couple of weeks ago.”
Jenny smiled back in the knowing way that women do when they sense romance is in the air.
“Aw, that’s so sweet. You guys must pop over and have a drink sometime if you’re not too busy procreating. Dave’s on night shift this whole weekend, but maybe during the week if you’re up to it?”
I chuckled at the procreating quip. “Sure, that sounds like a plan. I’ll let you know.” I said as I walked down the stairs to the garbage collection area. On the way back up she was just finishing her smoke and dropped her butt into an empty beer can.
“I hope she’s a nice girl, Danny. That last one was… bleh!” she said, her tongue poking out to show how much she disliked Vanessa.
“Jessie’s amazing.” I replied.
“I can tell by the look on your face that you’ve got it bad, young man… bad!” she laughed and went back into her flat smiling as she did, her weird flappy scarf dress billowing around her legs.
“Thanks Jen.” I said, returning the smile.
I decided to go downstairs to the bottle store just before it closed for the day. I thought I would get some wine for us to share. I had no idea if Jessie drank wine or not, so I got a bottle of white and a bottle of Rosé to cover at least two options.
I also bought a 6 pack of beer and another pack of Camels. Jessie wasn’t a full time smoker but she’d indulge if she was offered one. This made me think about getting her a pack of B&H which was the light cigarette most ladies I knew smoked. Then I thought better of it. Rather ask first and if she wanted I could always pop downstairs to buy another pack from the corner shop if I needed to.
Back in the flat I loaded the booze in the fridge and sat down, realising that I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch. Normally I’d grab a pie from the corner shop on a Friday night but with everything about Jessie’s staying over for the weekend buzzing around in my head I had forgotten. This girl really had a hold on me. I couldn’t think about anything else. Earlier that day my boss had called me into his office and asked why my latest reconciliation statement was so late. I couldn’t balance it. Normally I was the first in the department to finish the daily tasks, leaving the enormous ledgers and journals on the corner of his immense desk for checking, but today I was the last of the clerks to submit mine. He was concerned. Turns out that I was punching the wrong figures into the adding machine so nothing was tallying up.
I watched some TV while eating toast for dinner and then decided to put on some music. Viktor Lazlo was an artist I had just begun dabbling in so I slotted a tape into my deck and sat back letting the soft jazz fill my home. It was quite a departure from my usual music tastes, but given my softer moods of late it seemed entirely appropriate for this night. I was half expecting Jenny from next door to come and investigate this sudden change in music coming out of my place.
I’d progressed to Sade and was sitting in one of my occasional chairs facing the open doorway when she arrived. She didn’t knock, but just stood there momentarily, a small sports duffel bag at her side, her face alight, watching me watching her.
“Well, aren’t you going to ask me in?” she said, tilting her head back slightly, letting her dark bobbed hair rest on her shoulder.
I stood up and walked towards her, almost like I was in a dream. Her face was radiant, her hazel eyes alive with something that I couldn’t put into words.
“Welcome home, Honey.” I said putting my arms around her waist. She dropped the sports bag on the floor and linked her arms around my shoulders as the first of many slow, passionate kisses for the weekend began.
Jessie was a generous and tender lover. She took it slow, almost painterly in her approach to the act of physical love. I found myself lost in her, like I was riding a wave that never ended, each turn of our bodies bringing new dimensions of pleasure. It sounds corny, but it was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Maybe it was the anticipation we had endured in the build up to our first encounter, or maybe it was just some sort of cosmic reaction when two people who are meant for each other are finally able to be together. Whatever it was I never wanted it to end.
Later that night we lay spooning in my bed, caressing each other until we fell asleep. When I woke up some time later we hadn’t moved at all, her body was perfectly contoured with mine, barely a gap between us from shoulder to ankle. I got up to pee and she sat up, waiting for me to return before she also went to relieve herself. We made love again, not even aware of what time it was.
When the room filled with morning sunlight I opened my eyes to find her watching me, still lying at my side, her head propped up with one hand.
“Hey, beautiful.” I said, turning sideways towards her, propping up my own head so that we were looking at each other, eye to eye.
“Morning, darling.” she smiled back at me, her left arm moving around to caress my back. We kissed again and held each other silently for what seemed like hours, both our heads back on the pillows, eyes locked on one another.
“I could stay like this forever.” I said. “That was the best night I ever had.”
“Aw, you’re the sweetest man alive.” she said, moving her caresses to my hair. It felt so good I almost went back to sleep.
“Danny, I know it’s only been a couple of weeks since we started seeing each other, but you should know that they have honestly been the happiest weeks I have ever known. And last night… wow.” She was beaming.
“If I could think of something to top what you just said, I would, but… for now I’ll just agree with you on all of the above.”
“Are you hungry?” she asked. “I’m famished. I hope you got some beans in the house, young man. Jessie’s special is begging for an audience!” she laughed as she got out of the bed and walked to the kitchen, naked and unashamed. I joined her there.
“I don’t have beans, M’lady, but I do have bread, eggs, mushrooms and I think there is a pack of bacon buried in the freezer somewhere.”
“Mr Peterson, are you going to one-up my famous beans on toast?” she said, turning towards me.
“If you stay like this all day I will be your man servant until the sun goes down. You won’t need to cook or do a thing.” I said, embracing her once more as the sunlight painted our bodies through the kitchen window.
That Saturday we stayed in the entire day, making love, listening to music, watching TV and napping. By the time the sun started its rapid descent in the west we had almost forgotten about getting anything for dinner. We were lying lazily on my bed, Jessie had her head on my chest and my stomach let out a gurgle that sounded like a muffled bagpipe. She shot up, looking at me like I had transformed into an alien.
“Holy moly, was that your tummy?” she asked.
“I think it was.” I said. “Maybe we ought to get dressed and find something to eat?” I looked at the clock on the wall and it was almost 5pm and getting dark outside already.
“I could eat.” she said, sitting up and looking around the room for her underwear. “Where do you want to go?”
“Roadhouse?” I suggested.
“Sounds good to me.”
The evening outside the flat was warm. May was an amazing month for weather in our part of the world. It felt like a mild summer’s evening as we walked down to the roadhouse along the beachfront. It wasn’t very far from the south end, about a kilometre away. People were walking about enjoying the last of Saturday’s sunlight as it washed through a darkening western sky. Some surfers were showering off the salt water from their wetsuits, a few were brave enough to surf without wetsuits.
“Do you surf, Danny?” Jessie asked as we strolled towards the roadhouse.
“Nah. I could never get the balance right. I enjoy boogie boarding and body surfing, but standing up on a surfboard is a skill I have decided is something I am never going to master.”
“I’d love to try it someday. Looks like fun.” she said.
“Hmmm, it’s only fun once you get out to the backline. Getting there is definitely not much fun! It’s exhausting, actually, especially when the swell is big.”
“You weren’t much into swimming at school, I remember.”
“No, definitely not. I nearly drowned a few times. I’m a landlubber.”
Jessie laughed.
“And you, sweetie? Did you do any swimming at school?” I asked.
“I tried, but I wasn’t very fast. Athletics was my thing. I got quite a few first places at the inter schools meetings for sprints and hurdles. Long and high jump I could never beat that bloody Annie Preston though, I always came second.”
“I know the feeling, I also had a nemesis at athletics who I could never beat. Used to drive me nuts.”
At the roadhouse we took a table outside. A waiter came and took a drinks order, beer for me and a dry white wine for Jessie. The evening light became darkness save for the yellow lights of the parking lot.
“What was it like for you in the army?” she asked.
“Well, at first I hated it, but after a few weeks I started to fit in. I made some really good friends in the army, including Simon, as you know.”
“Did you miss home?”
“Of course, but for me it was also a nice break from the confines of home, you know. I love my parents but the constant scrutiny used to wear me out. My Dad was always asking me about going to varsity and making something of myself and my Mom was just so over-protective. All I wanted to do was be my own person, be an adult.”
“I see. And where you ever scared? Did you go to the border?”
“I did go and yes, it was pretty scary at times, but for the most part I wasn’t in the field. I was an officer and I ended up getting a posting at the base camp in South West as the Adjutant to the OC. I was his lacky, but he did look after me, kept me out of the front line.”
“OC? What’s that?”
“Sorry, officer commanding, or Commandants. They were the guys in charge of the units on the ground.”
She seemed to be quite interested in my rank.
“My Dad went to the army also, but he only did nine months. How come you had to go for two years?”
“They changed the conscription laws in the late 70’s when the ANC started blowing shit up, so we had to increase the army presence on the border to Angola, which is where the terrorists were mostly coming from. The guys in my unit had some real horror stories to tell about their time in the field. Nasty shit. I’m glad I wasn’t out there, to be honest.”
“Why? What do you mean?”
“I’m in the artillery so the gunners would be moving the guns around and would often come under enemy fire, so we had a lot of deaths and casualties. Guys got injured badly too, lost limbs, eyesight. It wasn’t a fun time, I can tell you that. I used to have to write the letters to parents when soldiers in my unit got killed.”
“Oh God, that’s awful, Danny.” her face changed and I could see that maybe she didn’t want too many more details.
“Ya, there are army experiences we don’t always like to talk about, but if you want to know I will tell you.”
She shook her head slowly.
“I just wish that we could all find a way to co-exist in this country without all the violence.” she said, letting out a sigh.
“It would be nice, but it’s not in their nature to be peaceful. Violence is their default setting.”
We sat quietly for a moment and I wondered if maybe I had pushed too many of my personal opinions into the discourse. There were white people opposed to the political situation in South Africa, but I didn’t think that Jessie was one of them. She was surely the same as the rest of us in that regard? She hadn’t gone to university to have her mind changed by liberal educators. I’d seen enough of that shit too, students rioting on behalf of the people who were inflicting violent terrorism on innocent civilians.
“I thought of joining the police after school.” she said, suddenly allowing me the relief of knowing that she wasn’t a political nut job. “But my Dad talked me out of it. Probably just as well, I don’t think I could have handled the sorts of things they have to do. I’m too much of a softie.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a gorgeous softie.” I said. She smiled back at me as the waiter brought our drinks.
Saturday had turned out just perfectly.
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