Camry In Tissue Land

I Think I'm Okay

• Camry A. Davidson •

Three months later.

"Look here!" Sandy shakes my shoulder making me lose my footing on the slippery bathtub.

I grab for something to save my ass and end up clutching the shower dial.

"Ooh. . . Ho. . ." She laughs when the shower spouts cold water on our heads.

"You are a menace," I turn off the shower and wipe my face, "this is why I took off my shirt. You can't do repair work in the bathroom without getting wet."

I shake out the water from my hair and bend down again.

Charlie introduced Sandy to me. She is a rebellious social worker who is cynical to the core. She is sharing this flat- two floors above mine- with Anthony, my colleague and friend.

"You didn't see. Look here, I found a bug." She holds up a centipede by one of its legs between the tip of her two fingers. "So many legs."

We are both crouched down in the tight space of the bathtub. I'm trying to work while she is trying to entertain me.

"A thousand legs," I say.

"I thought it was called a hundred legs." She turns it around like a five year old meeting an insect for the first time.

"It can have upto two hundred legs," I start tightening the overflow nob.

"So what's its name?"

I put back the screwdriver in the toolbox and look up at her. "House centipede. What the heck are you doing?"

She has it pinned on the wall on it's back.

"Counting its legs." She answers with her attention still on the insect.

I pull her ponytail. She has a long, gorgeous one. "Either kill it or leave it. Don't torture it."

She gasps and turns her head to me, "how can you ask a social worker to kill a life? We treasure lives. All forms of it."

I roll my eyes and get up.

She smirks and without even looking back, squashes the bug against the wall with the heel of her palm. "We demolish evil things so that life can grow. Yikes." She turns on the shower again.

"SANDY!" I scream, now fully wet with a fresh spout of cold water.

She giggles. "Sorry, I wanted to wash off the evil forces." She scrubs her hands under the water.

I'm completely wet.

Taking tight hold of her ponytail in one hand I change the shower head direction with the other hand. Water hits her face instead of mine.

She screams and clutches my legs and hides her face between my knees.

"There. . . pure as a dew." I announce over her cries.

"What's up?"

We both turn to the new voice.

Anthony. He hasn't even changed his clothes. The same blue and black I saw him in at the office.

"Evil forces are working against me!" Sandy shouts with water running down her face.

I give her ponytail a good wag and turn off the shower. "Your roommate wanted plumbing services," I say and get out of the tub. "She murdered an innocent insect and paid me by giving me a bath." I look down at my shorts. It's dripping water on the bathroom floor.