Well, I can’t be doing too bad—it’s been a year since my relapse, and I’m sober. I’ve got to admit I’m doing a good job at fooling some people, but as Lincoln said, you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Elias, my shrink, would smile at that, but generally he’s pretty grim—and maybe that explains why every time I see him , it rains.
We run through the de rigeur therapy session—the game of chess, as I call it, where I make moves and he counters—but today he looks out the window and remarks on the weather and cuts the session short because of rain.
O thank you, rain gods.
When I get home, Stella’s Mercedes is parked on the circular drive—she ‘s inside making herself comfortable. She has a key—I know—bad idea, but these things I do.
I shake the rain off my hoodie, toss it on the deacon’s chair and sit opposite her in the front room.
She’s sitting in my love chair—rather ironically named if I might say, but she’s struck a pose, legs demurely slanted to one side, balancing a ridiculously gaudy, fragile china teacup and saucer on her lap. Of course, it draws my attention to her lap, which she intended, so all her modeling of temperance virtues is somewhat belied by her rather intemperate attempts at seduction.
The rain is beating at the windows, a migraine is beating at my head, and the heart of a tigress is beating in Stella’s breast.
She comes right to the point. “I want you to come with me to Hart House Theatre tonight. It’ll do you good to get out.”
I wince, partly at the thought of doing anything to encourage her romantic notions, but mostly because my head hurts so much I’m seeing stars.
“You love theatre, Leon—come with me and see a performance. It’s Aristopahanes—and you dote on the ancient Greeks.”
I knew there had to be an agenda—she’s stuck having to appease a client, probably by appearing ‘artsy’ as she puts it. Stella can be a chameleon at times, and dragging me along will kill two birds with one stone. She’ll get to schmooze her way into a multi-million dollar deal, and possibly seduce me as a nightcap.
“What’s the play called?" I ask, "Aristophanes wrote more several ‘opera’, as you know.”
“Opera? I didn’t think it was a musical,” she frowns.
She’s no student of classical languages, this girl.
“I used the term as the plural of opus,” I smile, “he wrote more than one work of art, Stella.”
“I know that,” she pouts. “I think Lex called it The Frogs.”
“Appropriate on a rainy night,” I tease, “ but I think I’ll pass.”
“Oh come on, Leon—it’ll be fun. A trip to the Underworld where the hero brings back a soul from the Land of the Dead—kind of right up your alley, I’d say.”
Again, I wince, this time at her allusion. It pains me to think lovely Jessica Skye is moldering in a crypt in Mount Pleasant cemetery, and not vivacious and alluring as I saw her in my frenzied state. But then, I’m no oracle, and I inevitably end up chasing the tail of my own mind when I try to figure out who’s the ghost—the long-dead Thirties screen Siren, or this alcoholically impaired time traveler from the future?
I think I need a life, but don’t feel up to an evening of parrying Stella’s moves.
“Much as I’d love to spend the evening adoring you, Stell, I have other plans.”
She uses her little girl voice, “Really, Leon—you’re going to turn me down?”
I shrug. I could use the excuse of the migraine, but I did that last time.
She frowns, “I thought we could go back to my place afterwards and vape on the Linnai. We’ll get high, but it’s not alcohol, so it doesn’t count. Besides, it beats tea.” She wrinkles her nose and places the china cup and saucer on the coffee table.
“So, what do you say? I’ll light some candles—it’ll be romantic.”
I don’t want to embarrass her by turning her down flat, so I hedge a little.
“I’ll make a call and see what I can do. But, I’m not promising anything.”
“Well, I am,” she whispers, and leans in and silences me with a lingering kiss.
“Call me, maybe,” she winks as she heads out the door.
My body keeps buzzing for ten minutes after she’s gone. I’m purring like a cat. Stella has that effect on me—I’m not sure if Jessica does—our two meetings have been brief, so it’s hard to tell.
But she certainly does thunder in my memory. And I think I'm going to venture back to her again.
