A dream slipped from me when light flooded into my eyes, I jerked awake like I was slapped. Someone, a woman’s voice said something like I’ll only be a little bit, made some coffee. It didn’t make sense, but I woke to the sound of running water in the bathroom and the sobering smell of hot coffee. On my knees, I shook my head and knew it was hours after mom beat me senseless, maybe even the next day. In the doorway of my was a sight to make my heart go into cardiac arrest, it was Clementine, and she had dropped a bathrobe down to her ankles and stood completely naked. I knew better than to stare, but she should know better than to do something like that!
“Good . . . good morning Clem. What, uh, what are you . . .?”
“I made you some coffee in exchange for using your mom’s bathtub. I desperately need a bubble bath.” How did she speak so casually? Was this real? I’ll play along.
“Thanks. I feel like I need some coffee.”
“Sleeping on the floor can do that.”
I whirled around, yes, my bed was over in the corner. I slept on the carpet where I was knocked out. I nodded stupidly, and she dismissed herself to the bathroom. There was only one bathroom now that I can think about this, so I don’t know why she called it my mom’s when I paid for it. Maybe she referred to the many soaps and fragrances from the Bath and Body works that were stacked in the corners and in the basket on the showerhead and made an educated guess. I found my footing, my eyes caught the last of her tail slip into the small closet-like bathroom and the water stopped running. Not knowing how to react, I decided to go about as normal, but cautious; the events that unfolded yesterday were traumatizing and I’m not sure what kind of rape victim Clem was. I stirred milk into my coffee, it tasted professionally brewed.
“The coffee is delicious.” I said, “Is there anything you can’t do?” I called down the hall. Just knowing that I carried a conversation with her, with the woman of my dreams, was so elating that I didn’t know if this was even reality, for the first time in forever, I was happy.
“Thanks. Hey, why are you being such a stranger, I wanna talk, come in here.”
My feet were glued to the tiled floor, she wanted me in there with her? Why? Why was she even here, I didn’t even let on that I lived around here, let alone in this shit hole house. “Say again?”
“Come here.”
I placed the mug of coffee on the counter beside the sink where I always kept dishes I didn’t bring into my bedroom. In a trance, I floated toward the bathroom, it didn’t occur to me until now that mom might even be home. What would she say if she saw this? She’s probably scare Clem off, an eye for an eye kind of thing.
“Okay. I’m about to come in. You decent?”
“Yes, scaredy-cat.”
I turned in the room, a fog of pleasant heat and the smell like cherries floated in the air, trapping my conscious in its pleasing vicinity. She was in the tub and bubbles sparkled in clouds up to her neck from the sizzling water. She breathed a sigh of relief, “So good to have me. So how have you been, you look kind of awful?”
The mirror was to my left, I gaped at my gruesome face. All open blood had browned and the bruise under my eye was yellow-green. I grabbed my comb off of the sink and brushed my dark hair into order, convinced that it would take away some of the ugly if I looked neat.
“I won’t lie to you, Clementine. I was jumped.”
“Who?”
“Didn’t recognize them.” I used water to wash some of the grime off.
