Falling

Thirteen (Fallen)

We are sitting in the back seat where soft leather cuddles our bodies, while the black SUV maneuvers through busy streets. Lyla's warm body is snuggling against my chest, my arm wrapped around her shoulders. The meeting in the warehouse receding from my enraptured brain. Seems like peacemaking is a worthwhile undertaking.

Doors bang open announcing to my anesthetized brain that we've arrived at some inevitable destination. I feel her warmth separate from my body. The rear door swings open. She reaches back and entwines her fingers in mine, while climbing out.

"Come on. I want to show you my apartment!"

I don't have any words to offer. My brain is still on hold. I am happy to follow your lead.

She gently pulls me down the narrow space that opens the room between bar and booths. We climb a narrow set of stairs, guarded by a black metal railing. I don't pay attention to anything other than her warm hand in mine.

The upstairs hall is short. There appears to be two doors. We stop in front of the second one.

Lyla pulls out a little plastic card from the small purse hanging at her side, a silent partner. She slides the card into a little box and a click allows the door to open.

"This is where I call home!" She twirls around, flinging her arms into the air. She presses her body into mine, her lips complete the embrace.

She steps back, like an artist taking an admiring look at the beauty of what has been created. Her ebony eyes dance above brown cheeks pushing up from the corners of a glowing smile.

The moment evaporates to soon in another twirl of her body.

"Have a seat." She throws the words over her back, her attention turns to another purpose in the kitchen.

My eyes wonder around the room while my emotions simmer. A window clings to the opposite wall, allowing the setting sun to cast its last light across the small room where I'm planted on a short, but cuddly love seat. There's a small round table claiming the corner space between two walls to the left of the window. An open door gives a hint to a bed resting inside another room.

"Are you thirsty?"

Lyla steps out of the petite kitchen holding two glasses of coke in her hands. She offers me a cool glass of brown, bubbly liquid. I take the coke and stand, facing her inviting smile.

We simultaneously lift the cool glasses to our lips. I take a long drag. Little cubes of ice clink behind the escaping sweetness.

Icy cold attacks the inside of my head. I lower the glass and give my head a little shake.

"Got a brain freeze!"

My nose grabs at the room's warm air.

The space between us wiggles, like heat waves steaming off hot desert sand. The starch goes out of my legs and I let the couch have my body. What's happening?

The half empty glass finds purchase in her hand.

"Just relax," she whispers into my ear. Her words echo, like a whistling wind.

Her body fills my lap, hands caressing the back of my head. Her lips pressing into mine for a brief moment before releasing.

"Just relax, you'll get used to it in a moment."

I pull away from my body, like a piece of clear plastic. An invisible line seems to be holding what I'm feeling, me... a mirror image above my body... a kite on a string. A plastic doll, seeing yet not able to act.

Watching!

She stands, grasping my hands, pulling me up and drawing my body into the bedroom.

Her body and mine, fall onto the bed.

Her smooth skin tastes like honey.

I watch clothes dissolve into naked bodies, caressing.

Relentless waves of passion are shaking my body.

The string pulls me down into the roiling sensation.

Velvet fills my head.

Taking me away with Lyla into a cloud.

Sailing...Until...

An explosion and falling into the night.

Black!