Behind my pillar where I was sitting, the woman from the wall was now standing lit another cigarette, it was hot and bright I thought. It sent a pale glary glow, an ash like pathway to the ceiling, streaming in front of my face, half-intended I thought. I had stopped smoking in 1984, smoked for 22-years, so what could I say, I had some years on her to catch up to me before I could scold her. There was a lull, then a scramble for words with her, "Care, would you care to dance...sir?"? she said. In the last of the lull, on my part, I carried a silence, looking at my coke; her voice threw me off, an audible sincere tone. But she had been so cold to me this morning. Even here, I thought as she stood behind me, she was trying to crush me with her casual idle, good and youthful looks and toned body. "Well,"? she said. "No, I don't want to dance with you, so don't bother me anymore!"? It was now 9:30 PM, and the first singer came up to sing, and started to sing, and this lady remained behind me. She had a gray glimmer to her eyes; they looked cold, dejection, and lack of sleep. "Why,"? she asked, "why will you not dance with me. I mean, you seem annoyed with me, as if I did something to you."? I turned up the uncorked anger in my mind, said in a narrow but benevolent jinn way: "You insulted me on the wall today."? "I did?"? she commented, "How did I do that?"? "You said I was too slow, and you zoomed by me like you were some hot shot."? She held back a laugh, "See,"? I said, "You're laughing at me again!"? "But you were slow, and I was kind of teasing you I know, but it was meant as a maneuver to get to know you later, I thought you were handsome."? "Oh...(I hesitated) but I had a bypass just a few months ago, a heart attack, I can't climb or do all those things I used to do I suppose."? "Oh...ooo, pardon me, I'm so sorry."? Then I thought: it would be pleasant to dance with her, to perhaps watch the night stars with someone beside myself, a good reason to start with a dance and see where it led, if a warm fire got going"?good, if a quite one so be it. With politeness I said, "I'd like that dance very much."? She smiled a warm smile, loosening the atmosphere around us, then added, "It would be pleasant."? And we danced, matter-of-fact, we danced several dances, and then we went up to the karaoke machine and started singing, "Are you Lonesome Tonight,"? an old Elvis song, and many of the folks like it in the bar area. And I went on to sing with her some more, her being my back up, "Love Me Tender."? As we continued to go to a third and forth song, I noticed she twisted about trying to see the words to the song, as they were big enough, and easily readable, it disengaged me from the songs for amount, "Anything wrong?"? I asked. We had scarcely got over our first unpleasant moment, when she hit me with, "I'm ninety percent blind, I only have side vision (peripheral vision)."? Now I was feeling a little shame, as if I had no blood in my face. I think this was not self-satisfying for her, but it had to come out, and this was a good place for it. "Well how did you know what I looked like on the wall?"? I asked. "I turned my head to the right, and caught your face from the narrow part of the side of my eye, and you looked good."? She flattered me, and it felt good, I had been divorced, and she had also, we both confirmed that sitting up at the karaoke machine trying to figure out what song to sing next, when someone said, "You going to sing, if not I will!"? With local etiquette we both stepped down from the platform and went over to my table, she had picked up her sweater on the way. We sat down and talked until midnight about birds and the stone wall, and her being a teacher at one time before she became blind some seven years prior, and me a counselor, and the more we talked the more personal we became. Within these few moments we were lovers it seemed like. An affair had come; we had physical attraction and good spirits, jokes, and lots of listening skills to offer one another; it all seemed too perfect. But even if nothing would manifest out of this love affair to be, this intelligent circumstances, we would have company while in Beijing, and that would be worth it, so I thought, when she said: "Would you like to come to my room?"? |
