A love story you have not heard before.
Chapter Sixteen
"Earth Angel"
At Watson Island they watched the seaplane from Bimini arrive, and the variety of people coming and going. The Bahamas.... Bimini less than fifty miles to the east across the gulf steeam.
"You'd love it there, Ivory," Harry said. They were sitting on an outdoor bench, sipping beers in paper cups, the sun going down behind the Miami skyline. "I have to work tomorrow, but the next day I get off.... You'd love it! The Bahamas is a black country – they've got a black government. And they speak English. And you'd always be able to say you've been in a foreign country! Huh? Do you have a passport? Well – a birth certificate or a voter's registration maybe? We'll need some American I.D. for you."
Something to prove you were born here, like in East LA.
"Nooo...."
"You must have a birth certificate somewhere."
"Well, my Daddy, he could get it for me."
"Will you write for him to send it?"
"Well, no.... We can go home an' get it."
"Baby, we won't be going back up there for a while. Sure wish you guys had a phone there."
"Well, I need to be goin' home soon. I don' like to stay more than a week, an', well – I need to be gettin' my new car home an' washin' it all up, an' my Daddy, he can hook up the speakers."
"Ivory...."
She can't wait to get away from me.
"Ivory, you have no idea what's involved in bringing your car over there, or wiring it with a new stereo – it's something I have to do. It's hanging in mid-air! Anyway, I can't go back for at least a couple weeks. My job is changing at the boat-yard. Money doesn't grow on trees."
And no more insurance for Annie and the kids....
Shit, I forgot to send them their money again!
Ivory moved closer to him and laid her head against his shoulder. She turned her half-full paper cup of beer around-and-around in her hands. "I could take the bus."
"Ivory!"
"You could pin a note on me an' tell the driver when I have to transfer."
"No way, Ivory. I love you too much. The only place I'm turning you loose is at your farm where I know you'll be safe. You let people talk you into stuff too easy."
"Mmmm - hmmmm." Ivory moved her head from his shoulder and sat upright. "This little island an' these people, an' that plane landin' on the water.... I never thought I get a chance to see the ocean. An' Miami. I thought Miami be all dark an' trashy an' people gettin' killed – an' not so big an' pretty as this. My auntie, she bring me books to read. I like travel books bes', I guess, an' then I like your Jules Verne books. I read all of them twice. An' then I like your science fiction books, only I dream it's me travelin', from planet to planet. But that's me...."
Harry put his arm around her and hugged her. "You are so fine, Ivory. And you stand out in the crowd like a pretty diamond."
"Oh, I see lots of pretty ladies here – prettier than me. My Daddy, he tol' me 'bout Miami but I don' think he know what he talkin' about."
"He must be something, your daddy, to name you Ivory."
"That was Mama. See, Daddy, he use' have this ol' piece of ivory he kep in a black cloth an' Mama say he use' to get it out an' look at it all the time, an' when I was born, I be so black that Mama wanted to dip me in bleach water before my Daddy come home an' see me but my auntie wouldn' let her – maybe it was Auntie's idea to call me Ivory, anyway, they tol' me that Daddy always look so happy when he be holdin' me in his arms jus' like when he get out his ol' piece of ivory an' rub it an' hold it. From Africa. He use' to get it out when I was little – maybe he sold it or somethin'. A white man give it to him before I was born."
Harry pulled her close again, her long body so compliant and yet so firm and alive. His love was almost more than he could bear, and it hurt.
They got up and walked hand-in-hand to a hot-dog stand and got a plate of potato salad and Polish sausage with fried onions. Harry talked the man out of two of his personal Budweisers, no charge, and Harry left him a five-dollar tip. The man called Ivory "Honey", which made her smile. After pulling on sweaters beside Love Jones, they found a new spot to sit, in a remaining patch of sunlight. When they had finished eating, Ivory kept on peering into her Budweiser bottle.
"This beer taste good, too."
"Ha! After you drink a couple, they all taste good!" Harry looked around, slid closer to her, and slid a hand up under her sweater and felt of her warm, uncommonly firm breasts. Desire throbbed hot and unrelenting in his loins and in what was still left of his brain.
"I'm thinking of all the men in the world who will never know the feel of a woman like you." Harry could hear the beer talking again but didn't see any reason to stop. "You must be made out of some kind of magic, high-tech rubber, I swear."
"Oh, nooo.... I jus' be closer to the 'riginal." Her eyes peered into the beer bottle, then looked up and out over the bay.
Harry studied her serene face. "Riginal?"
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
He wondered if giving her beer to drink was the right thing to do, even if it did seem to loosen her up. "Come on. Tell me about it."
"Oh, well, I jus' be closer to the 'riginal than you, so when you be squeezin' on me I don' feel so mushy."
I feel mushy?
"One time my auntie, she took me to the office where she work. It was Saturday. An' she had to make all these copies on the Xerox. I had to set it on ten an' make ten of everything she give me. That was my job. But sometime it ran out of paper an' she had to put more in, but when I made the copies she tol' me to use the 'riginal an' not copy a copy. 'Cause it come out better from the 'riginal."
"Yeah."
"Well, the 'riginal people come from Africa an' they be black. Black like me. An' white people an' people all mixed together, they be copies made out of copies an' that's why they don' come out good. An' white ladies, they think we all got them hangy-down titties 'cause they don' never see a black woman naked 'cept in the National Geographic, but them women in the National Geographic, they copies, too, an' when the slave boats come, they all mens on the slave boats, they didn' take no ladies wif' hangy-down titties 'cause mens don' like that kind. But they take ladies wif' nice ones 'cause they can sell that kind here in America, an' their babies be close to the 'riginal. 'Cept when the man make them pregnant, then they be mixed blood. But I think I'm not mixed 'cause I be so black. I be close to the 'riginal."
"Ivory, that's beautiful!"
"An' in the country the white people treat the colored people bad, so the black ladies what look good they took off for the city. Chirren in the country, they dream about the city. An' when they grow up, if they smart an' look good, they gone. An' now, in the country, they's only ugly people lef' to make copies from, an' all the people in the country now be copies of them. It jus' get worse an' worse in the country – people so ugly lookin'. But my Daddy an' my Mama, they come from the city, an' that's why we ain' ugly like a country nigger. "Cept Mama, she sick now an' can' take care an' she got all fat an' ugly. But she use' be pretty an' I have a picture." Ivory tilted back and pulled down a long swallow of Budweiser.
Harry was smiling and shaking his head. "You're pretty smart, Ivory. Pretty smart. I never thought about it that way."
"Oh, I know you think I'm stupid. This beer be almos' gone. Maybe we can go to the store.... Mama an' my Daddy, they think I'm stupid, too, an' I don' talk wif' them no more. But I talk wif' my auntie. An' I talk wif' Janey sometime."
"And you talk to me."
"Well.... You my boyfrien' now, I guess. My Daddy, he think I'm too dumb to drive a car an' he won' teach me. Anyway, I need to be home for my birfday, an' maybe you can teach me how to drive. But you prob'ly think I'm too dumb."
"When's your birthday?"
"March twenty-second. An' on my birfday, the night be as long as the day, an' Harold, he call me The Princess of Night and Day." Ivory finished off her beer and handed the empty to Harry.
"I'm not your slave."
"Well, nooo...." Ivory placed the bottle between her knees.
"We have more beer at home, but I think this should be enough."
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
"I love listening to you, Ivory. You're smart, and you have a beautiful voice."
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
"You think a lot about stuff? I mean, some people come home from work and the first thing they do they switch on the TV so they don't have any quiet time where they have to think about stuff. Their life. I have this rule at home – Janey understands it but Perry thinks it's stupid. The rule is: no TV while it's still light outside, and no TV when people come over to visit, and no TV during dinner. You know what I mean?"
"Oh, yes.... Sometime I be outside in my special place an' Connie have the TV on – she don' keep it on real loud but I can still hear the laughin' way off – an', well...."
"Right!" Harry shivered. Twilight was slipping up on them. The Magic City glimmering across the water – red and white streaks of traffic along the MacArthur Causeway. Ivory sitting so tall now, and alert, and taking in every sight. A perfect time for a hit of reefer, but....
"Ivory. I've never heard you laugh." Harry thought about it. He could not even imagine what her laugh would sound like.
"An' sometime the TV be on an' I can' hardly stand it an' I leave my special place an' go trespassin'. Daddy, he show me where our land come to the end. No fence, but someplace you can fin' ol' rusty wire an' it snag you when you step over. An' then you come to the end of the woods. There be this new fence wif' cows an' all green grass on the other side, an' sometime I hide so the cows can't see me but they always know when I come. My Daddy, he say the people there be bad, but I never seen no people, an' he say not to let the bull catch you an' step on you an' kill you. But I look at 'em an' they look at me an' they like me, I can tell. An' these mushrooms grow in there, an' one time I ate too many an' they had to take me to the hospital, an' Mama, she stay up all night in this chair in my room, in the hospital, an' the nex' day the doctor tol' Mama I messed up my brain. But the cows like me an' they don' bother me. An' they let me pick as many as I want but now I jus' eat two, or three little ones. An' then I can tell what they're thinkin' 'cause a poor cow don' speak no English. They have their own kind of talk." Ivory suddenly looked at Harry with her mouth open, eyes wide and looking past him.
Harry turned around but could see nothing. "Ivory!" He took both her hands in his. "I know what you're talking about!"
Ivory continued, only now her eyes were looking directly into his. "An' when I come home from trespassin', I walk in an' I don' say nothin' 'cause if I say somethin' then they be askin' questions – 'cep' my Aunt Indigo."
"Aunt Indigo?"
"Auntie. Oh, she change her name in California. She have other names. Speedy. Hippie.... My Daddy, he call her Hippie."
"You tell her about the shrooms?"
"Nooo.... I use' to. When I was in high school, an' she tol' me to stop. 'Specially after the hospital. She tol' me they bad for black people, like LSD, 'cause black people have a differn' brain. Daddy, he get so made wif' her for sayin' that! An' she tol' me white people need it but black people already there an' more jus' scare black people. 'Cause God don' wan' people to go no further."
"Ha! Like the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden?"
"But I don' b'lieve that about God 'cause He tell you things, so I don' tell my auntie 'bout eatin' mushrooms no more, an' I can' tell about the trespassin' 'cause then she'll know." Ivory looked away, and then down at her feet. "You the only person. 'Cause we be a couple now, I guess. An' I tol' Janey."
"Janey...."
Oh, great, now Janey's doing shrooms!
"She promise not to tell."
"No, she never told me...."
Beautiful Janey!
Perry.... Annie.... What are they doing now? Sun going down, needing wood for the fire....
"Ivory? You are unique. Only one like you. My dream come true!"
"Oh, I be dreamin', too. But in my dream, this man, he be young an' single an' we have this baby."
The familiar pain punched Harry in the stomach and began to burn. "Jeez, Ivory.... What color is this dude?"
"Oh, he have blue eyes. He have your eyes. But.... I give up on him. He jus' in my head. I can tell him 'bout my dreams, an' my thoughts, an' he can write in my book. But I know there ain' no man like him, so...."
"You can tell me what's in your head."
"Oh, yes...."
"Are you surprised at that?"
"Oh, yes, I sure be surprised about that!" Ivory smiled and peered into her empty beer bottle.
"And you could tell me about the mushrooms."
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
"I used to trip on acid. LSD."
"Mmmm - hmmmm. My auntie, she say you might be one of those when I tell her 'bout you."
"You told her about me.... After that day we looked at your map on the porch?"
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
Harry shivered again. The sky was black now, the city shimmering. "Time to go! Okay?" Harry got up and looked around to make sure all their trash was picked up, and Ivory slipped into the cab like a cat in the night.
She talked all the way home, turning her head this way and that, taking in every big-city sight. "My Daddy, he come from Denver."
Harry almost said: Annie's from Colorado! (But not Denver).
"He say he live under a big bridge downtown wif' a whole bunch of Mexicans, and there was only ten niggers, an' after he was born there was twelve niggers 'cause he was two of 'um."
"Ha! Yeah.... I like your father – I hope he doesn't hate me too much for this...."
"My auntie, when Mama firs' had her stroke, she come live wif' us. Aunt Indigo. But not no more 'cause she have her own place down the road wif' this albino woman. She have blond hair like you only hers be whiter an' all kinky. Some people say Aunt Indigo be her mother but Mama, she say no."
"Hey! I've seen her! I've seen her riding her bike down the highway!" Harry remembered the rush he got when he saw her the first time – the albino's alien aura, her pale eyes burning, her legs humping that bicycle at high speed down the edge of the blacktop – and how he wanted to have her. And after seeing her the second time, how he couldn't sleep that night, hating himself for not having the guts to confront her.
"She crazy. An' she hate white folks. But she always nice to me.... She funny, too. But she don' let nobody touch her. One time she tol' me 'bout her sinkhole an' she let me go down in there an' we bump into each other down there but she didn' say nothin' an' I didn' say nothin'. 'Bout us touchin' each other."
"Sinkhole.... Is it a deep one?"
"Oh, yes, she have this rope an' you go way down an' it be way over my head, an' when you look up there be jus' this little hole of light an' you can see the sky an' the clouds goin' pas', an' on my birfday, it be fixed so in the very exac' middle of the day the sun come right over an' it beam down on you an' get you warm. "Cause it be cold down there. There's mices an' stuff live in holes in the side an' they poke their head out, an' it be buggy, too, but one mouse he like me. An' I like him. But I ain' seen him lately...."
Harry pictured Ivory and the albino together down at the bottom of the pit and got a rush.
They arrived at the flat without Harry's being conscious of driving there – suddenly finding himself backing Love Jones into the front yard. Ivory got out and looked up at the giant poinciana tree, like it was now hers. Then she glided up the staircase and unlocked the door with the key Harry had given her to keep. After the door swung open, Ivory looked at the key and smiled.
"I like to watch TV at night," she said. There was an unusual urgency in her voice. She tossed her purse onto the living-room sofa. The TV was in the bedroom and Ivory headed there to switch it on. Harry was right behind her and he caught her wrist.
"I have to make love with you first, Ivory. I do. I couldn't handle lying next to you on this bed without having you first. Without coming in you."
Ivory snatched her hand away.
Harry sucked in a deep breath. "You come to bed. Let me have you for an hour or so, no, just half an hour. Then we'll turn on TV if you want. Watch together and lie here all comfortable because all the sex hassles are over with. We'll enjoy the TV and you'll be safe and pretty and happy and sleepy.... And tomorrow we'll have a nice day, and I won't hassle you in the morning, okay? I'll come home from work early and we'll do all kinds of neat stuff in the afternoon."
"Well...."
"You might even start to enjoy sex. Most women do."
"I ain' mos' women."
Harry pulled her up close and hugged her. "I know, Baby."
"An' I ain' no baby."
"Hey! You know I know that!" Harry let her go and sat on the edge of the bed to unlace his boks. "You want to shower first?"
"You can go firs'."
When Harry finished in the bathroom he lay on top of the bed wondering, listening to the water in the next room being turned on and off, hearing for the first time the tinkling in the commode, remembering her stories and marveling at her being a shroom-head – telling himself to be satisfied with the way she was – she was the way he had dreamed her. Even better. Nothing to bitch about.
Not even twenty-two yet....
No kids. So pretty and so tight. Like a glove – all the way up. I never felt that before – not with any girl....
Like a virgin. Is she? Was she?
Yeah, sure, Harry!
Every girl I ever had, somebody fucked before I got to her. Even Annie.
I love Ivory so much!
Harry turned down the bed and switched out all but one light.
But I'm not her dream....
Ivory emerged from the bathroom silently. Tall and naked. She eased down on her side of the bed and lay on her back. She turned her head the other way.
"You are so beautiful, Ivory." Harry pulled up alongside of her and felt of her with his hands, trembling with desire. He pressed himself up against the side of her hoping to cool his yearning. He planted a kiss on her little ear, and kissed the corner of her mouth flushed with pink.
"Ivory, there's nothing I wouldn't give for you. Nothing."
silence....
"If you don't want to be my lady – maybe you could just – pretend? Just once in a while pretend? If you could just be mine for when I really have to have you. I'll do anything for you. Take you where you want to go. Give you the things you need.... I want to be your man, Ivory!"
Ivory's eyes were wide open, her head facing away toward the window. Harry sighed, and reached down for the sheet and pulled it over them. He flopped back down on his side of the bed. "Okay, I won't force it on you. I love you too much for that. Come on, I'll turn on TV and you slide over here next to me and I won't make you do it."
Harry got up, hoping he looked OK, nothing wrinkled, sagging, old-looking.... "You like MTV?"
The picture came on in the middle of an old, Jody Watley video. "It's a curse," Harry said, holding the remote with his fingers frozen. "My suffering will never cease." Lean, black, Jody Watley – another of Harry's little fantasies. Piercing, almost Oriental eyes. Exquisite, hungry mouth so sexy it hurt Harry to watch. Experienced, little-girl voice.... Her scent, jasmine, or so Harry thought that was what jasmine would smell like. Jasmine....
"She have straight hair. So long. Mus' be a wig."
"Oh, Baby, don't say that!"
Ivory had propped herself up and Harry was surprised to see her pointy breasts uncovered, above the sheet. Harry's heart squirmed with a stabbing pain so violent he mashed the palm of his hand against his chest. He pulled his eyes away and watched Jody Watley snake around on the tube. Harry felt a little tug of come ripple up his meat. He mashed the volume down on the remote.
Ivory snicked her tongue against her teeth.
"Baby, I can't help it. I need to get in you so bad. Can't you just try to pretend?"
"I been tryin'!"
Harry groaned and kissed the knotty-little braids on the top of her head and his hands were all over her and before he could even consider holding back he was on top of her and forcing his way into her and coming at the same time, deep into her now, his hot seed pumping into her until he slumped down, burying his head beside hers in the pillow, relieved but ashamed. So ashamed. Ivory wormed herself a little to the side and reached for the remote while Harry's face burned into the pillow, his hardness inside of her aching and throbbing. The sound came back up. Rap music. Drums beating. Lyrics so inappropriate to Harry's need and pain. His right hand felt for one of Ivory's rubbery, jungle tits and he came in her again while she watched TV.
Harry awoke to find Ivory sitting up, her long back a marvel. She was looking out the window. The television was off, and all of the lights had been turned off, also.
"Ivory...."
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
"I broke my promise."
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
"I'm sorry."
"It be okay...."
silence....
Suddenly, Ivory laid back down beside him in the semi-darkness. "There's spose to be shootin' stars out tonight," she said, her lips brushing his shoulder. The feel of her lips made him hard.
"Shooting stars?"
"Mmmm - hmmmm. Meteorites."
Meteorites.... "How do you know?" Harry refrained from turning toward her and frightening her, almost happy enough to just have her close.
"I seen it in the newspaper. At the cantina. The newspaper rack. I seen it through the glass."
"Oh, Ivory...."
"Hmmmm...."
"You're special. That's for sure."
"Mmmm - hmmmm. But we be in the city now an' I guess we won' be able to see them – the sky be so bright wif' these lights."
"You ever watch them in the country?"
"Oh, sometime."
"I love the country. The city, too, but...."
"Yes, I love the country. The country is my home. But the city is nice. An' I can see so much. An' the people look so fine."
"I'll come home early from work tomorrow."
"Mmmm - hmmmm...."
"I love you, Ivory."
"Mmmm - hmmmm."
I'll kill for you – without a thought. But you wouldn't understand that.... Harry turned on his side and pressed against the long, sweet length of her, encircling her with his arms. "My black tulip. My dream." I'm sorry I came so quick, Ivory. I don't know why. I don't have any control with you. It's because you're my dream. You've been in my head so long.
I could come in you again, right now. It's that strong.
She was asleep. Asleep in his arms. Harry could scarcely believe it. In the brassy glow through the curtains from the street-lamps, he looked at her until his heart could take no more of it. He strained to reach the blanket without disturbing her and pulled it over them. She seemed to be able to fall asleep with the same ease she could wake up in the morning. Her innocence and trust filled him to bursting.
Harry felt the tears coming and turned his head so they wouldn't drip on her and startle her. "Dear God," he whispered. Even though I don't believe You listen. Or care. "Oh, dear God." With Ivory's quiet breath brushing his shoulder, Harry whispered to her. "Ivory. I just figured out what you are. You are an angel."
<end chapter-16>
Copyright 1979, 2005 John Aalborg
All rights reserved.
Email: aalborg@jbaal.com
Chapter Seventeen
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Humanism
with
attitude!
Rev: 10 April 2005