Here's the beginning chapter of Iguana Love as it was
originally, but it sounds like it needs a rewrite to me.
Maybe they really had other reasons for cutting it. My
reputation was probably saved and now I'm ruining it.
Vicki
Iguana Love
I'm perched naked atop Henry,
squatting lightly on his mouth, giving my quadriceps a good
workout. I glance up from his face to the TV screen. It's
seventy-nine degrees in Miami Beach, open waters with a light
chop, says the eleven p.m. news--probably be nice for a dive
tomorrow, but it doesn't matter now.
I look back down at Henry. His blue eyes
are wide, and my bright red pubic hair, curling around his
thin nose, reminds me of a basket starfish engulfing its
prey.
He's fallen for my breasts and
face--so sweet, they all say peaches and cream--and the long
soft hair and flaming crotch. But my tits are artificially
augmented and grown hard with scar tissue as the rest of
me.
Henry's wrists are tied to the heavy
TV console legs, his ankles to the wooden stumps of the
couch. His mouth is tucked full of white cotton panty. At
five-foot nine, one-hundred-sixty pounds of solid muscle,
fear, and disillusion, I could let my weight down and smother
him.
"Ramona Romano," I say to this
balding detective beneath me. "That's me. The best you've
ever had. Right?"
His cheeks bunch up. He's smiling
under me, enjoying it. He's probably thinking how the red
hair doesn't match the name. He's not thinking of
danger.
"Drink," I say to him,
regardless of his mouth full of cotton. "Drink from the
fountain of sexual power." I'm talking down into his face,
pressing my pubic bone into the soft part of his nose,
rubbing my enlarged clitoris against his septum, rubbing,
rubbing, feeling my warm juices flow. Yes. Yes. Come
. . .Come . . . Ahh. A little more moisture after a long
workout.
"You like it?" I ask. I let my
weight down and feel him tense. His arms and legs jerk. He's
not sure now, but doesn't want to show his fear if this is
still a game. He blinks. His sex-weakened brain clicks--could
be he's beneath a killer.
I feel the heat rising under my
thighs from his armpits. He heaves his chest off the floor,
wiggles his legs. He needs air. "One-hundred, ninety-nine,
ninety-eight, ninety-seven . . ."
He wrenches sideways. He knows he
can't last the countdown to one. I have all the power.
Henry's eyes bulge and he tries a gulp deep in his
throat.
"Ninety-six, ninety-five," I say. I
tighten my quads and raise my hips a little. Half a breath
and then I'm back down.
His eyes are shining. He tries to
swallow. He knows I have reason to kill him. Besides that he
doesn't know me at all.
"Ramona Romano," I repeat. "Ra-mo-na
Ro-man-o." I like him to remember who's in control. I've had
a few drinks, but I can still say it without getting
tongue-tied. My own fucking name. My mother the joker--her
name was Jane Smith.
"The proximal end of the femur
is ankelized at the acetabulum of the oscenamenata." It's a
nursing school memory--so long ago now. It means the thigh
bone is connected to the hip bone, but maybe Henry thinks I'm
speaking in tongues.
"What am I gonna do with you?" I ask
him. I sigh. I raise up and allow him one deep inhalation,
then sit back down, make him wait to exhale.
I contort my face into a
picture of his, eyes wide, nose scrunched. I mimic him
sucking air through his nose. Those blue eyes turn to
brimming pools as his terror deepens further than he ever
knew it could from a woman. I grit my teeth and the muscles
in my face and neck go hard from habit, but I don't feel
anything. I rise and let him choke and take a long snort of
air and sit back down.
"This breath's in memory of Enzo," I
say. He knows what that means. My thoughts start whirling
over the past year. A blackness floats in front of my eyes
and I close them. I shift my weight off his face and onto my
knees to
think.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~--> Has someone you know been
affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place
to support health awareness efforts!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/rkgkPB/UOnJAA/Zx0JAA/kqIolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 28 Apr 2005 EDT