From the Journal of William Kidd

Entry #9

Journal,

Okay.  Where were we?  Right, Dog Girl—actually I should probably use her name.  I can’t imagine she enjoys being called Dog Girl too much.

Lily.  That’s her name.  And her puppy’s name is Spot, just so you know.  How completely charming is that?  I didn’t know that there were people in the world who actually named their dogs Spot.

Anyways, on with the story.  So Hughes told me to get her number and then shoved me in the general direction of the bench she was sitting on.  Spot got to me first, actually, sniffing my crotch and wagging his tail—you know.  Dog stuff.

Lily hurried to stand, grabbing Spot by the collar and pulling him back.  “Sorry about this guy,” she had said.  Her voice was crystal clear—I mean, like, literal crystal.  It was like that sound you get when you flick a fine glass.  It was that same, clear ring.  It was fantastic.  “He’d just go around sniffing dicks all day if we let him.”

I watched her eyes widen as she realized what she said.  They were really, really green.  “But not, like, just dicks—I mean penises—peni?  What’s the plural for penis—actually don’t answer that.”

You know the old saying, you had me at hello?  Well, Lily had me at peni and that is a fact.

She looked down at the ground, curling her lips around her teeth and grimacing at her own words.  “I only mean to say that he smells everything, including everyone’s”—she risked a glance up at me through the tops of her eyes, quickly switching back to the ground—“nether regions, so it’s not like your special or anything.”

Suddenly, her green eyes ripped up, widening again as she threw her hand up with a frantic wave, erasing her words from existence.  “Not that you aren’t special—I’m sure you are it’s just that Spot here will sniff anything and everything that even slightly resembles…”

I think—I’m not sure, but I think I saw her look at my crotch just then.

“Wow, yeah.  Okay.”  Finally, her eyes met mine for longer than just a second as she stuck her free hand out to me, her face a flaming red.  “Hi.  I’m Lily.”

Spot let out a cheerful bark at her name.  I knew the feeling.  With a laugh, I took her hand and shook.  She had soft hands and a firm grip.  “Will,” I said.

“Nice to meet you, Will.”

“Oh trust me,” I said, unable to bite back a smile.  “The pleasure is all mine.”

She smiled back at me.  Her smile was small, but it fit her face.  Everything about her was small.  She must’ve been a solid foot shorter than me, making me wonder how on earth she was managing to hold Spot back.  He was at least half her size.

It took us a while to realize that we were still holding each other’s hands.  Lily was the first to realize it, clearing her throat and then using Spot as an excuse to pull away.  She took the neon ball from his mouth and the dog followed it as she looped it around his head.  She cooed and awed at him until she finally tossed it with a quick, “Go get it.”

Lily had one hell of an arm.

Spot took off and Lily turned back to me.  “Softball,” she said with a shrug, seeming to read my mind.  And here I thought that I was the one trained to read people.  “I’ve been the varsity pitcher for three years.”

Every time she opened her mouth, it gave my heart another excuse to start beating entirely too fast. 

Hey Will’s Journal. Willy fell asleep and is currently drooling all over you.  Whatever the two of you were talking about will have to wait, I guess.

Regards,

Bill.