Dream Days

A dirt floor. Loose footprint-saving dirt. Guests in the house enjoying brunch, drinking mimosas.She yanked off her pants and pulled me aboard.

There, she said.

This is nuts, I said.

There, she said.

Okay, I said.

Okay. There. Okay.

Okay.

There.

All right.

All right, she said.

All right, I said.

All right, she said. Okay. All right. Okay.

Winter came, and on New Year’s Day we hiked upstream in the snow. We walked into the heart of the gorge, listening to the mumbling movement of water beneath.

She lay in the snow and started working her pants off. Come on, she said.

Seriously, I said.

It’ll be fun, she said.

You’ll freeze your ass off.

Come on. It’s my ass in the snow.

No.

Don’t tell me no. Get down here.

I’m not doing this.

I said come on.

No, I said. No.

She got up. That night we heated hunter’s stew for dinner, and after a few drinks she went to bed.

By spring she was sleeping with the other guy. She called one morning for a ride home. I said, I don’t think so.

About a month after moving out to live with the other guy, she called. She said, Come over for a drink, I want to show you something. She showed me the cellar, the backyard, the garage attic, and finally the bedroom. In bed I wept. She rocked me in her arms.

Oh baby, she said. Baby baby baby.

She held me until I stopped crying, and when she was certain I was done she said I had to go home.