Love on the RocksBack
Most clichés have some foundation in reality. When a snarky friend insists that, ‘No good thing lasts forever’, they are unfortunately too often right. Simon and Ginni discovered this painful truth that following Easter.
“What would you like to do over Spring Break?” asked Ginni brightly. She and Simon were spending a lazy afternoon walking around campus. Professor Grosskopf had left several days previous to holiday in Germany and so the late hours of lab work were cancelled for almost a month.
“I think I would like to go to the reservoir. The catfish are always biting this time of year. Maybe you could come round the house for dinner and meet Momma.”
“Simon I had your mother for freshman algebra, remember?”
“Ginni, you were seven. In case you haven’t noticed, you’ve grown-up a bit since then.”
Ginni ran her hands seductively over her hips and struck a provocative pose. “Have I now? And what do you think of the grown-up me?”
He still felt a catch in his breath every time he looked at her. There was something more to her than just a perfect figure, sparkling eyes and vivacious laugh. All he could think was, “She’s…good”. Other girls cared too much about how they looked, what everyone else thought, running down anyone who got in their way. Ginni was kind and thoughtful. Nobody could honestly say a mean thing about her. The worst thing she had ever done was get a tattoo on her left arm just after coming to school.
Her boyfriend at the time claimed to be a righteous Christian. But one weekend he gave her several drinks too many and led her on a merry romp. She sobered up by Tuesday to find a large cross splayed with lily flowers adorning her inner arm. At least even in a stupor she had remained true to her strong beliefs. The other couples branded themselves with graphic pictures of what they were planning to do after the party.
She stepped intimately close to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, the ever present bangles that hid the ink, rubbing against his ear. “Come on Simon; tell me what you think of the new me.”
Ginni’s behavior recently was way out of character. She wasn’t the same person he had been in love with since…well since they were seven. And he wasn’t sure he liked this new wilder version. There were dozens of girls willing to give themselves away for nothing, just to buy a guy’s attention for a few hours. His Ginni was worth more than that. She was special in body, mind, and spirit.
He prised her hands apart and lowered them to his mouth where he kissed the tips of her fingers. “Ginni, I really want to talk about you for a minute.”
“Wonderful” she said and turned a pirouette. “I love talking about me. Tell me how much you love me, how much you adore me, how much you want me.”
“Ginni!” he added sternly, “We need to talk about how you’ve been acting. What’s gotten into you lately?”
Her carefree mood was not abated in the least. Actually, she found the more serious Simon to be quite funny. She sniggered like he had told her a dirty little joke and then gazed at him intently. Her mood snapped suddenly from lighthearted to deadly resentment.
“There’s nothing wrong with how I’ve been acting. You’re not my father! I don’t have to answer to you. Just ‘cause a girl shows a little interest in a guy suddenly she’s a slut or something?”
Simon’s tongue was paralyzed. How could he answer this? He could not have been more dazed if she had announced her impending nuptials to the Jefferson statue in the rotunda.
“I didn’t mean…”
“To call me a whore? Well that’s what you as good as did you jerk!”
“Nononononono.”
A cloud seemed to pass over her face and with the departing shadow went the incensed harpy.
“Simon, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to say those things. I know you would never hurt me. I just haven’t been myself lately.”
“You could say that again”, he thought but took special care not to let that feeling out. “Babe, I don’t know what’s going on but please, please always remember that I love you and I’ll always be here to help in any way I can.”
He could see a struggle behind her eyes. Some part of her mind wanted to lash out and hurt anyone it could. The other part was fighting just as hard to maintain the loving person Ginni had always been.
“I know you will. Though I thought you may have been stalking me last summer.”
“What?” he replied, very confused.
“I noticed you in the store that day. You kept staring at me and turning up everywhere I went. My mom almost called the cops but I stopped her.”
“Thanks for that. But why didn’t you talk to me? I mean, if you knew I was following you.”
“I was nervous. You were awfully cute and I wanted you to think I was smart and funny and…and a good person. But I could see by your eyes that all you were thinking about was getting me undressed…”
“NO! I mean yes. I mean no, that wasn’t ALL I was thinking about. I wanted to talk to you but I was scared. You are so smart and beautiful and respected and kind. What would you possibly want with me?”
An embarrassing silence stretched through time and eternity. Simon could have sworn that people a hundred yards away were staring at them curiously. He swallowed hard and opened his mouth but her voice filled the air first.
“I love you too Simon. But before I can open my heart I have to know that you aren’t the same as every other guy out there. Do you have any idea how it feels to go around looking like this? Knowing that every set of eyes is drawn to your body?”
He was ready to talk about love and devotion but this was something he was most definitely not prepared for. The haunted gaze in Ginni’s eyes made him squirm. He too had looked at her in less than a brotherly way.
Her face became blank, like she was prying into her own soul. “Women are always trying to find something wrong with me. Some think I’m too fat just because I have these boobs. Others say I’m too skinny when they find out I wear size three jeans. Everything they want for themselves I’ve somehow got too much of. I can’t talk to any guy without his girlfriend baring her claws. And the guys…”
“Uh oh, here it comes”, he thought apprehensively.
Pain and maybe a hint of shame creased her forehead. “At first it was exciting, knowing that men wanted me. I had been skinny and gawky for so long. But I learned pretty quickly that they weren’t concerned with fulfilling a teenager’s romantic fantasies. The firemen all wanted to demonstrate mouth-to-mouth during the Fourth of July picnics. Cops pulled me over twice a day just so they could let me off with a warning. They thought I would be grateful. Heads pop up and turn every time I walk by. And the eyes…those leering, staring, grasping eyes.”
Ginni’s face grew pale and she started to rock back and forth. Her hands rubbed together like Ophelia trying to wipe away the spot. Her cool lilting voice dropped to a husky . “I can feel their eyes on me, touching, caressing. I know what men imagine when they see me, from an innocent peck on the cheek to the dirtiest most disgusting things. They all want to use me. They just want to…do things…to me.”
Simon grew more worried the longer she spoke. She wasn’t looking at him anymore. Her mind was a thousand miles away and something horrible lived in that place. Not having any idea what else to do he reached out to hold her and whisper comfort in her ear. The moment his slightest touch grazed her face she jumped back wildly and screamed. Only total shock saved him as Ginni’s left hand swiped at him in a primal clawing motion that missed his eyes by millimeters.
He lunged backwards out of her reach and tripped over the footstool, landing full onto her glass coffee table. The legs gave way and it collapsed underneath him, the 20 gallon aquarium it contained shattering in a massive explosion.
She was possessed! Ginni hurdled over the pouf Simon had knocked over and kicked him hard in the ribs. He had never felt such pain. It was like his right lung had moved over to join his left and the empty space was filled with broken glass.
Desperately he threw himself behind the wingback chair and called to her, “Ginni! It’s me Simon! Knock it off!”
The command in his voice only made her more wanton in her attack. She didn’t even bother to move around the chair. With an almighty leap she landed with one foot on the cushion and the other up on the back. Her momentum carried the chair over and onto Simon. As it struck him and turned sideways she gracefully rolled onto the floor and came up holding the baseball bat she always kept leaning behind the door.
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