Starcrossed Lovers in Bed

Volume One

Two Playing Blues Guitar

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A hospital bed is no place to make love. But they werent making love anyhow. They were just laying together as sweet as can be. It was a landmark moment, especially for her. For Suzy. She had spun her web, and now she had pulled him in. It was all part of her plan. The big plan, the master plan. The problem here, as I see it, is the problem of… well, hey, it’s a problem of communication. Just like The Man said, in ‘Cool Hand Luke.’ Cool Hand knew he was in trouble when The Man said that thing about communication. Because that’s how it always is, when the powers that be start explaining themselves to you. To you, the victim. If they start explaining themselves, then you’re in trouble. And that’s the line you always get. They tell you the communication’s been screwed up. Suzy’s plan, her master plan, the web she spun, was this… To bring him in. So they were lying in bed. He snuggled up behind her. And he laid himself down. He was dressed, had all his clothes on. She was under the sheets, the hospital sheets, and I suppose she had on one of those light hospital thingies, those embarassing things designed to make you vulnerable and compliant and a victim. Yes, a victim. That’s right. But he had on running gear, workout stuff. So he was all right.

But here’s the thing. The thing is, she no longer had the baby. The baby, man, the baby! It was no longer there. It was no longer inside her. It was gone, brother. Gone. Exited her, and now was making it’s own way in the world. And if I live to be a million years old, I’ll never stop talking about this. Let me just say it real nice. No more baby. She’d gone through childbirth, and now she was laying there in the bed, having gone through childbirth, and this young fellow, this Johnny -who, by the way, was the father- had stopped by to visit, and had snuck into the bed. It was some kind of gesture, Sister. It breaks my heart. And it makes me crazy. It’s a combination of deep sorrow and fierce anger which I am not happy inhabits me. That any single human being could contemplate this scene, and maintain that it makes sense, that it’s okay, that it’s… oh man, I gotta say it… that it’s touching. This breaks my heart, and sends me over the edge. Listen, you know what she said? And dont get me wrong, because I love Suzy. I really mean this. We go way back. Way back. But what she said was -and I forget when she said it, but she said it, believe me- she said that she didnt even need to see the baby. It was okay, it was okay. She didnt need to see it. The baby was going elsewhere. She wasnt keeping it. She didnt need to see it. The mother didnt need to see her child, Sister.

She smiled when she said it. It was an act of love, dont you see? She had a pretty smile, my Suzy. Johnny never really appreciated how pretty that smile was, until she said that. They had never talked about love. They were friends, just good friends. But lovers? Come on, man, that’s corny stuff. It wasnt till much later, when her belly was popping out, that Suzy started talking about love. They had sex on the swing set. It was all her idea. She dropped her drawers while he sat there -he wasnt swinging yet- and his jaw was dropping, to match up with her drawers. The boy had never seen the center of the universe, at least not under these conditions, where it was coming to meet him. His drawers had already been dropped, and his johnson was primed. Hey, it was a solid swing set, and these two young folks were light and thin, and it was just possible for little Suzy to climb onboard while skinny Johnny hung on to the ropes. And his eyes were wide with wonder, because he didnt know what this feeling was. Neither one of them knew what this feeling was. It was all new to them, to the both of them. But she was commander-in-chief, no doubt about that. And the little bloody thing that happened didnt bother her any, her being the trooper which she is. But that boy… when he entered into the mystery, he didnt know top from bottom, he didnt know heaven from hell. It’s not the climax that’s the thing, this is what he was learning. It was the entry that was the thing. That was the mystery. It always is, always will be. Dont let ‘em tell you different.

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next: the brown guitar