Chap 12 The Epiphany

by Shin

 

 

 

As they joined traffic on the highway, the local station played the song ' Killing me softly with his song ' on the radio.

“When I first heard this, I wasn't sure what it meant,” Sara recalled. She looked flushed in the face after the shooting practice.

The cell rang. She looked at it. It was Rebecca. She switched it off.

Matthias, at the wheel, gave her a curious look.

“Rebecca,” she replied. “ Not now. I'll call her later.”

They drove in silence for a while. Matt was suddenly brought into recalling an incident in Basrah, Iraq when he saved the life of British soldier. He had received the medal of honor.

“An off the wall question?” she suggested.

“Go ahead sarge,” he replied.

She giggled before asking,

“I've this colleague in college. Very in charge kind of person. She said she took one in the back one time....where the sun don't shine....and she became more confident and had better self control. You think there's anything to it?”

“I heard that from a British soldier in Basrah. My unit was there for a joint operation. He was gay and then decided he didn't like it. He says its an inordinate pride that comes from openly displaying the feminine aspect of a male. It might be some of that. But I think you need to look at it and help yourself understand, otherwise it'll go down the wash.”

“Oh yeah,” she intoned. “ I'm thinking I might go for it once,” she started....and then as if responding to his protests added, “ It's the phallic and anal phase in children when they are about three. I just can't figure how it grew into a gay pride this way.”

Matt raised his brows.

“It's child like in some way, but I think at some point it stops being fun.”

“Would you do it for me?” she asked.

He smiled faintly.

“I don't think so,” he replied. But added, “ But I don't think I'll have a problem if you do that with some one else.”

Sara was reminded of their first encounter when she had thought that he and Krish had a thing.

“The last of the liberal Americans,” she announced.

He stayed quiet.

“Well, would you do one up front with a gal who's just come from a shooting practice?”

He laughed.

“Well I've been sitting here thinking about a suave way to say that,” he said.

“I'll pass on suave. Just give me sexy.”

He realized just then that she wanted him to ask her.

“I'm a little full of myself and I'm not sure if I'm even trying to keep it down. But something in me would like to get up and crow all the way to liberty hall.”

“I might want to join you,” she added.

The sun was setting by the time they found a motel by the side of the highway. They had stopped at a McDonald's drive through for some burgers.

The sound of the traffic on the highway droned and bounced off the surrounding hills, drowning out and filling in every thought and sensation. Once in a while there was a horn from a truck that implied some impropriety in the way the traffic was conducting its affairs. Or maybe the trucker was horning at a pal on another truck, going in the opposite direction.

They were oblivious to it all. For a moment they were lost in each other, engaging in an act of togetherness that neither one of them was awake to witness.

When he rose, he lit up two cigarettes and offered one to her.

“I know what you are thinking,” she said with a touch of mystery.

“And what's that?” he asked.

“Are you back in the school gym?”

He thought about it and then added,

“I might.”

 

He came over to where she lay covered in the sheet and kissed her warmly.

They returned to the traffic. It had got dark and the cars had their lights on. Matt felt a curious sense of relation to the road ahead of them. It was as if he was in intimate relation to every sound. It was like an epiphany when everything comes together momentarily. He had felt that way in Iraq, just before he took a sniper's bullet in the shoulder.

“What does this tee shirt remind you of?” she asked suddenly.

“A summer's day on Martha's vineyard,” he replied.

“That's what I thought,” she said. “ Nantucket Bay.”

 

Then she switched on her cell and dialed Rebecca.