Joey Cloudy online

chapter 17

TRAMP: Mia Churchill

“Here’s to you Mrs. Robinson, Jesus loves you more than you should know.”

-Simon and Garfunkel

Mia Churchill was at least a decade older than Aaron but he had fallen instantly in lust with her over a year ago from the moment he first laid eyes on the 5′ foot 9″ inch tall slender red head as she glided through cloistered rows of Lakewood’s Paperbacks Plus bookstore. Mona could always tell when ever some woman had become the object of Aaron insatiable appetites. And Mia had been in his head if not in his bed for quite some time now. Aaron was writing love poems about her he had even written her a sonnet that he read to Trevor and Brandon last week over dinner at Campizi’s. Mona recalled that That hadn’t worked out so well, besides the fact that it was written in iambic pentameter and it rhymed like William Blake they both hated the wife of their mentor and poetry professor Mack Jackson.

Trevor and Brandon spent a good deal of time putting down Mia because as far as they were concerned she was little more than a second rate bimbo with a third rate intelligence. Nothing in the talent department to be concerned about and she was often the butt of many of his young mentors’ private jokes. Aaron had noticed that they usually spent a good deal of time bitching about women as he began to wonder if they even liked pussy. Bly, Lorca, Rilke they showered him with excellent books of poetry but they were all white men. He discovered the poetry of Lala on his own while studying the great Arabic poetry tradition of Rumi and Hafiz. Kahlil Gibran he knew as a print maker decades before they began to mentor him as a poet. Aaron was still a little pissed that they had laughed at his newest poems for her. And their attitude about such a lovely woman who did so much for the literary community caused him to lose a great deal of the respect that he had for them. It wasn’t that he no longer recognized their talent as writers, it was undeniable. He simply lost all respect for them as men.

Mona knew Aaron well enough to know that he didn’t hold a lot of people in high esteem, being in his good graces was as tenuous as walking the razors edge. She could feel him changing, evolving a conscience as he developed a capacity for a greater depth of feeling within himself. But his capacity to hate was just as wide and deep as it had ever been. Mona didn’t ever want to be one the unfortunate ones who wound up on his shit-list.

Mona and Aarons black clad figures sat at the top of the stairwell in the back of the bookstore discussing Mia Churchill. Mona sat on the top step with Aaron sitting one step below, her legs wrapped playfully around his waist, her arms draped casually over his shoulders, she leaned forward as she looked down the hall of the bookstore. Her cheek resting on the top of his head as she inhaled the fruity scent of styling gel mixing with his own musk.

I think Mia’s one sexy mutha fucka.

Seriously? Mona queried, knowing your taste, I would have guessed that she was too old to do anything for you. I’m the oldest girl you have hooked up with since we met and I’m twelve years younger than you. Mia’s old enough to be my mom.

Well, Aaron replied looking down the narrow stairwell to the side door, It’s not an age thing with me, it’s a brain thang.

Mona laughed, Trevor and Brandon don’t think too much of her intellectual prowess or her nonexistent literary merit. Are you sure it’s her brain that you want to devour?

Well, I was thinking of trying to suck it out of her skull while I had my face buried in her crotch.

Mona giggled; I figured as much. What is it about her that you find so alluring anyways? She doesn’t seem to be your type at all, she’s so straight edge and proper. I’ve never known you to go for the tampon before.

“What do you mean by calling her a tampon?”

“You know a skinny white thingy that you shove up your cunt?”

“She’s a stuck-up cunt?” He asked.

“Right outta the Park Cities, that scent you get a whiff of whenever she’s in the vicinity is ‘ode of old money’. She is in every conceivable way, completely out of your league. Besides she’s Mack Jackson wife. Of course, that’ll be her legacy, the nonprofit and magazine will be her epitaph. But her only enduring claim to fame will be the fact that she fucked a celebrated poet. She’ll be a footnote in the back pages of her husband’s collected works. You’ll only see her work in those embarrassingly pathetic women’s studies courses taught by radical lesbian feminist next to all of those other forgotten great women writers whose works were not taken seriously in their lifetimes because some man stole all their best ideas like Carolyn Cassidy, Anais Nin and… I just don’t get the attraction. You usually fixate on women that you can actually seduce and there is no way you could ever get a woman like her Aaron.”

Aaron sighed.

“You wound me sweet child, and I disagree about not having a shot at that scrumptious looking ass of hers. One, if the woman’s got a pulse as far as I’m concerned then I got a chance, no pulse then I’m guaranteed in. Two. The pair of snobs under whose rough tutelage I have been nurtured for the last year are dead wrong about Mia, they’re judging her by the wrong criteria. She’s like Hillary is to Bill.”

“You want to fuck Hillary Clinton too?”

“Well yeah, doesn’t everybody? But what I’m saying is that Bill would have never been president if he wasn’t married to Hillary, he had the gift but a man needs a woman like Hillary who appreciates his talents and then makes it her mission to see that he remains focused and vital. Mack Jackson has that same synergy with Mia Churchill she puts her energy into his poetry, life and career he has the raw talent, but a man needs a woman like her to refine him so that he can reach his full potential. If she weren’t already married to one of the few men, whose talent a actually respect I’d make it my businesses to be sure that she was the one sitting beside me when I get my Pulitzer prize for poetry and my Nobel prize for literature.”

Mona laughed. “Aaron, you haven’t sent a single poem to a publisher or even had one, count them, not one feature reading. Don’t you think you’re being a bit delusional?”

“I’m not delusional Mona, I just haven’t found the right woman yet, but don’t you go worrying that pretty little head of yours ‘cause when I’m standing on that stage in Stockholm giving my shout outs after I receive my award, I’ll be sure to mention your name.”

“Thank you, that’s very generous of you.”

“Yeah, I know its mighty white of me, what can I say. I’m just a big-hearted chump. Damn that woman is the complete package she’s got the right head on her shoulders, and she’s built like a brick shit house. Mona giggled. You know I ain’t lying I damn near give myself whiplash trying to get a peek at that motor-booty of hers every time she walks by.”

“You like her head and now you like her ass.”

“Hell yeah, she got an ass like a sister, round and firm, the woman is nine kinds of fine and that’s all there is to it. Brother like me would fuck her into a coma.”

They fell over giggling as they sat on the steps still buzzed from the joint Rodney the bartender had smoked with them at the Balcony Club before they walked the few blocks to the bookstore. Mona leaned back on her elbows as she looked at Aarons ever lengthening dreads. God, his hair was getting long. She liked him like this, all goofy jokes and talking crazy. It was nice to be able to laugh with him again. The status of their relationship had become complicated as their feelings for each other became muddied, while both developed deeper more intimate alliances with others.

It was this not being sure where they stood with each other that strained their friendship more than anything else ever since she had started dating Trevor. Aaron was cool when Trevor was just another guy that she hooked up with occasionally. But, now that she was serious, she could see that he felt intimidated by their relationship. she didn’t want to lose her best friend, but she just didn’t want to be poor for the rest of her life. Aaron had been disgusted by her when she told him.

Now, thinking back to that night, maybe the look in his eyes wasn’t disgust but something more nuanced something she had taught herself not to see in the eyes of others because of what it implied they had for her what she did not have for herself, hope it was disappointment. Not for himself, but his being disappointed in her that disturbed her, what it implied that he saw a future for her that she could not see. That she was capable of living up to her full human potential he imagined that she would one day become this elegant being.

Why did he believe in her when she had never had the courage to believe in herself? Christ, what was in the water on planet Aaron? He was hanging out at his New York lawyer friend Tavah’s a lot, she hoped that they would hook up soon. She could tell Aaron was into her more than she was into him but still she knew that Tavah was the kind of woman that could reign in his madness without killing his fire as an artist. It didn’t make any kind of sense to her that Tavah had passed up Aaron to hook up with Rodrick the Balcony clubs bartender, given a chose between Aaron’s corpse and Rodney’s live body she would have chosen necrophilia every time. For now, everything seemed alright.

Aarons voice interrupted her thoughts.

” You know Mack ain’t handling his business the way I handle mine. One night with me laying this pipe and she’d forget all about the plumbers helper. Then it’ll be “…who do you call rotor rooter baby boba trouble shooter.” Mona laughed as Aaron danced around on the stairs while he sang.

“I like big butts and I cannot lie,

you know a brother can’t deny.

When a girl walks in with a itty bitty waist

and a round thang in your face,

I get sprung ‘TAFKATPOD’s in trouble,

trying to get a piece of that bubble.

My homeboys try to warn me.

Oh my god. Me so horny.”

“You know I would climb off in there and act the fool, by the time I got through tearing that thang up that pussy would look like downtown Tokyo after King Kong and Godzilla finished fighting in the mother fucker. Shit she couldn’t go back home cause Mack wouldn’t be able to hit the sides or the bottom when I get through all that motherfucker be able to do is swing it side to side like he was ringing the bell. Ole girl would just have to pack up her shit and move in with me. Shit she’d be ruined for any other man after I was finished with her.”

“So, you think that’s all that’s that it would take is one night huh?” Mona queried, barely suppressing a giggle.

“Well, Aaron retorted, you know what they say; once go black poet you never, ever go back.”

Now Mona was laughing so hard that her eyes were watering and Aaron couldn’t keep a straight face anymore.

Then they both stopped suddenly, they heard someone else laughing too, somewhere down the hall behind them. They both leaned back and peeked conspiratorially around the corner to see who else was there. Out of the storeroom sauntered Mia Churchill her face flushed from laugher, smiling like a Cheshire cat. Aaron just stared mutely at her Mona was smiling back at Mia.

“Hi Mona hi Aaron she beamed at them are you guys coming to the reading we’re having?” Aaron limply nodded his head yes. Mona managed to giggle yes.

“Fantastic, Well, I guess I’ll see you guys later then.”

Mia had regained her composure but she didn’t know if she would be able to keep from bursting out laughing again if she stood there looking at him much longer so she spun on her heels and walked back down the hall with the subtle bit more of a wiggle in her hips than usual while Aaron watched until she turned and disappeared into the reading room.

“Do you think she heard?”

“Well yeah, why do you think she was laughing.”

“That’s it then, I guess I’ll have to move to Austin, la or New York now, my life as a writer is over in this city from now on I’m doomed.” Aaron wailed.

“It’s all right. Offered Mona with all the conciliatory wisdom of Woodstock. I think she was flattered that a younger guy found her so attractive, but you can scratch your plans of seducing her ever.”

“Why, do you know something that I don’t know? He said with mock terror. Is she a man?”

“Aaron, I know lots of things that you don’t know, and no, she most definitely is not a man.”

“I’m not gay but if she used to be a man and she’s that fine I’d still fuck her just for the Jimi Hendrix transgender Experience.” Howling with laughter they collapsed into each other’s arms.

“I guess we’d better get on in there. They’ll be starting soon.”

Mona looked at Aaron as they walked down the hall towards the room Mia had gone into a few minutes before Aaron was so embarrassed, she could feel the heat radiating from his body as they walked down the hall towards the room. Aaron wanted nothing more at this moment than to leave the building but he had spent too much of his life running. He lifted his chin, rolled his shoulders, tilted his head from left to right like a fighter about to go into the ring he marched down the corridor and into the room as if it were the ring. He looked magnificent. Mona hoped Trevor would come to the reading today. She hoped so. She hadn’t seen him in a couple of days and she wanted to hook up with him tonight. Mona wondered if what Aaron had said about a great man needing a great woman in order to achieve greatness. She hoped he was wrong, even though she had rarely known him to be in the few years she had known him, still she hoped.

-about the author JD Cloudy’s poetry has disappeared in the literary journals; Fatfizz, Mad Swirl, Texas Beat Anthology, Danse Macabre, Du Jour, and Death List Five. He has won no literary awards, entered no slam competitions, and never completed college. He lives to write in Dallas, Tx.