Summer story contest 2009 winner: Sky Pesher
Could you learn to love me, she asks. I say nothing. She stares back at me, mouth slack, muddy eyes thick and black. We linger, two drugged fish treading water.
I'd seen this girl, Bev, around Uptown, usually sitting outside the diner with a cigarette and a beer, melting in the summer humidity. Our acquaintance was accidental, due to prolonged eye contact.
Jump the fence, she said last night upon meeting. What? I ask. Come sit next to me, but you gotta jump the fence first, she says motioning to the knee-high iron fence surrounding the diner patio. I step over and sit down. She is Audrey Hepburn meets Gwyneth Paltrow, short with plaits of blond hair. Rings on every finger, like a gypsy fortuneteller. Khaki shorts baring knees like dimpled plums. Vegan boots. And sleepy eyes that beg you to relax. Or give up your plans for the night and keep a new friend company as she goes on a nocturnal adventure.
What do you mean by nocturnal adventure, I ask. I'm not the type to stray far from my routine. I'm a part-time student, doing bio research at the U, and living in a cheap studio, exploring Minneapolis having transferred here from Mankato.
I mean I want you to sit with me inside a sculpture and wait for an optical illusion, she says. Is she insinuating something? I don't get it, but I smile and nod like I do. And I order a plate of nachos for me and my new friend, Beverly.
We end up drinking quite a few beers. The sky changes from blue to black and my new best friend Bev and I jump the fence and take a walk.
This part of my memory is pocked with haziness. The potential that I may have said some things I shouldn't have is very good. I'm still getting situated. I'm lonely. I want to feel connection to another human being.
I may have said some stuff.
My memory gets less foggy around 4:30 in the morning when we arrive at this art museum and she leads me down this really steep hill. Bev smiles a drowsy smile at me, and I think to myself she looked cuter six hours ago, and she says, Welcome to my favorite place in the whole world. And I think, What the ... and we walk into the side of the hill. Into a room with a rectangular hole in the ceiling and benches on all sides. Bev tells me this room is actually a sculpture. And that when the sun starts to come up, this white room fills with light in such a way that it feels as if the sky is falling.
She says, We need to take this in. She takes my hands and closes her eyes. I pull my hands away, so Bev opens her eyes, wondering why I'm looking at her that way. I don't say anything. I'm not as fascinating as she is. I'm just here. Misled. Tired. Lost. And not trusting her.
Then she asks. No, doesn't ask -- says it like a statement: Could you learn to love me. And I just stare back at her. Are you kidding me. I've never felt like my reality was this close to slipping under dream's radar. I say nothing, and suddenly, the sky falls down on me.
