Death & The Single Girl

"Hound," Her father said. "One dog, three heads."

"No, it's hounds," I corrected. "Three dogs, one body."

"Ah," he nodded. "Look, does Mom or Mrs. Campbell know you're all playing tea party amongst the priceless antiquarian artifacts, Doodle-bug?"

"Joe was watching us. And we were being careful."

"Perfectly respectful," I said.

Marley examined the drawing. "You've got talent," she said. "Although Orpheus in the drawing looks much sadder than the statue."

"Mr. Joe tells great stories, Daddy. And he likes tea parties! Auntie Marley, can Joe stay with us? He's a lot more fun than all the other old people standing around talking."

"We're not staying over tonight, honey. We've got to find your mother and head back to the city. Daddy's got a lot of work to attend to." He shot a look at Marley. "Lots of irons to take out of the fire, apparently."

"So you're going to steal my big sister and leave little old me to shake all the hands and accept all the condolences, then?"

"Hey, the price of being fashionably late, Kiddo," He said, turning to smile at me. "But I see our mysterious guest is indeed charming, and not many can entertain both my munchkins so adeptly."

"They are quite precocious," I said. "Della is quite the little artist, too. A regular Frida Kahlo."

"Sit and draw with us, Daddy! We're going to try to sketch the man on the mirror next."

She pointed to a bronze of Rodin's Narcissus.

He nodded. "We'll have to wait until next time," he said. "But I am curious what it is you do, Joe. And how you knew dad. Marley says you were at the funeral? I don't recall seeing you."

"I tend to keep a low profile at these things," I said. "As for how I knew William Jacobs... we did a brief interview, reviewing the details of his life."

"A journalist, eh? Great job, Mar. You go and bring a reporter to a family-only event."

"I brought a guy," she smiled. "But the fact that he's a reporter wouldn't bother Dad in the least. Half his friends were newsies."

"Well, everything the family has to say was in the obituaries."

"Funny," I said. "Bill was telling me about having his heart checked only a month ago. Odd they didn't catch any signs of his imminent death."

The man holding his daughter set her down. "Go find Mommy, sweetheart. Tell her we're heading home."

Della scampered off, taking her baby sister with her with significant effort.

"Just what are you implying, Mister...? I didn't catch your last name?"

"Black," I said. "Joe Black. And I was merely commenting on how odd it was. That's all. A perfectly healthy man in his mid-seventies could be expected to live well past his hundredth birthday with today's advances in modern medicine."

"Well, Dad smoked for twenty years," he said.

"And yet," Marley said. "It couldn't hurt to check with his cardiologist, could it? Heck, he has offices near the hospital campus. I could do it." Marley turned to me. "I was curious about what you might do for a living. Do you work for one of dad's bureau chiefs, or are you freelance?"

"Let's say I go where I'm needed."

"Well, look into it if you want to, Mar. Bill made his share of enemies, but I doubt he riled anyone to the point of homicide."

"Statistically, most homicides are perpetrated by people close to the victims," I said. "Spouses killing spouses, children killing their parents, etcetera."

The big man kept his expression even. "Like I said, Mar. Sleek, stylish, but faulty wiring. See you for squash Sunday?"

"The court is already reserved," Marley smiled, patting the big man's shoulder. "You're going down, Drew."

-M-

We saw Drew, Susan, and the kids off and then went into the house.

"He's kind of a pill, but he means well," I said.

"A pill," he said. "Such an odd choice of words."

"Don't worry, I still like you. How's about 30 minutes of me doing my family duty, and then we break open a bottle of wine or something?"

"...Or something? Sounds interesting."

"What is it about you? It's like my heart has been racing faster and faster since we met. I know nothing about you, and yet...."

"It's like we were destined to meet," he said. "Marley, I really need to tell you something...."

I couldn't stand it any longer. I grabbed him to me and kissed his cool full lips. "I can still taste you at the back of my mouth."

"And I want to taste you, too." His arms went around me.

"Down, boy." I smiled as I pulled away. "Of all the days to feel this way about someone...."

"Marley, please... I'm not who you think I am."

"You're the guy who inhales apple pie and tastes like peanut butter," I said. "And your skin feels like silk and your eyes remind me of deep forest pools reflecting starlight."

"Marley ..."

"What?" I asked, realizing the expression on his face was one of intense worry. "What is it? Have I said something wrong?"

He kissed me, moving his body into mine. He fit the way I always imagined the perfect guy would. His lips became hot and hungry, and his fingers gripped me at the back of my neck, angrily passionate.

"I could die right now," I said, smiling.

"Please don't," he said. "At least, not for another 87 minutes."

I laughed. "Oddly specific?"

"Thirty minutes to say goodbye to the guests, four minutes to get upstairs. two minutes for what-have-yous...."

"My Mr. Black, how devilishly I want to kick everyone out just to keep to your schedule."

"You could never be that rude... could you?"

Eighteen minutes later I clinked a fork against a champagne glass halfway up the grand staircase where 50 heads turned to see me, pasting on my best sorrowful smile. "My sister and I appreciate your coming out for this. It's nice to have all the family together even under such sad circumstances," I lifted my glass. "But as Dad would say... 'go home and stop drinking my booze, you bunch of free-loading reprobates!'"

Laughter erupted around the room.

I smiled. "Here's to Bill Jacobs! He was a man; take him for all and all. I shall never look upon his like again."

-💀-

The party raised their glasses. "To Bill!"

They all drank. I kept my distance at the bottom of the stairs and drank as well. (Champagne is oddly fizzy...)

"Now go home!" Marley said. "Dad hated people milling around not living their lives, and I, for one, encourage you all to get out there and live! Kiss your grandkids, fall in love, put on a record when you get home, and dance the Wa-tootsie. Take risks! It's what Dad would have encouraged, and I'm of the mind to agree with him!"

Twelve minutes. Everyone laughing and smiling.

Marley kissed the last great aunt on her cheek with an award-winning smile. "Next Sunday! I'm there with bells on and a nice little Bordeaux!"

She turned to me after waving her last goodbye.

"The storm has passed," she said.

"I can see that," I said, looking out the great entryway at the still-dripping world. The grey clouds still lingered, but they would slowly dissipate with the sun's last rays. "Both literally and metaphorically."

"Now, I know you've gorged yourself on pie and peanut butter," she smiled. "But, how does a girl transition straight to unbridled passionate sex at this point without a proper segway?"

I smiled. "If you could describe what a segway is," I said. "I'd listen intently while casually disrobing you?"

"Anyone ever tell you you're too easy, Joe?"

"Never," I smiled. "You're actually the first."

She turned into the house, unbuttoning her jacket. Her hands went up through her dark hair as she rolled her neck, relaxing the knots in her shoulders.

"You wouldn't be interested in an evening swim then, would you?" She asked.

"There's a pool?"

"It's the North Shore," she smiled. "We have an indoor tennis court and an outdoor tennis court. An outdoor swimming pool and an indoor swimming pool."

"What about a dock with a green light flashing through the night?"

"Dad thought that was a bit much," she smiled. "So, you're up for a swim, then?"

"In the moonlight?" I asked. "With you?"

"This way, sir," she said, keeping her hands at her side as she led the way.

After a maze of hallways, we stepped out into the cool fall air onto a stone patio.

Steam rose off the glassy smooth surface of an Olympic-sized pool. She flipped an unseen switch, and underwater lights came on.

"Off, please," I said.

"As you wish," she said, flipping the lights off.

She passed by me on my right, closely, walking the length of the pool toward a stone-columned changing house. I followed at a discrete distance. She peeled off her jacket and then unzipped her skirt, letting it slide down her long well-toned legs.

She reached a door to one of the changing rooms and opened it, turning to face me as she unbuttoned the top button on her white silk blouse.

"We keep some swimming things for guests," she said. "If you're shy."

I removed my jacket and began unbuttoning the black vest.

She reached her fingers up and began undoing the knot on my tie. "You have this expression on your face," she said.

"And what do you read in it?" I asked.

"Uncertainty," she smiled. "Been a while, Joe?"

"I haven't made a lot of room for life," I said.

She peeled back my shirt and suddenly her hands were on my belt.

"Shame on you," she said.

-M-

He moved close. His pale blue eyes seemed bright even in the gathering darkness. His pale skin caught the dancing glow of moonlight off the water as the rainclouds dissolved slowly revealing a quarter-moon.

"It's odd," I said as his hands came up to slowly unhook my bra. "All my life, I've told men they were handsome, and I thought I meant it each time."

My bra slid from my breasts, and he tossed it over a chaise lounge. I had his belt and fly open and my hand slid down into his pants.

"Now," I said, swallowing as he bent his neck down and kissed my neck gently. "I'm scared a bit."

He paused, kissing. "Scared of me?"

"Scared of how strange this feels," I said.

He looked down between us.

"No," I chuckled. "Not that," I said. "Very normal, kind of impressive actually."

"Very reassuring," he said. "But, you were saying?"

"Well, it's like I've been expecting you all my life?"

"And like we've just kept missing each other?"

"You step off an elevator just as I step on. I leave a room just as you rush in." My hands left his growing erection to come up over his own large lean hands, which had idled to trace along my ribs under my breasts.

"See," I said, smiling. "You're controlling yourself just when I'm supposed to be working you into a frenzy. Earlier, you looked like you wanted to kill me when I left you in the closet."

"I wouldn't go that far," he said. "Although telling me to get dressed like I was some child... made me want to take you over my knee and...."

"And?" I challenged.

He backed away from me then, a devilish smile on his face. "If there's one thing I am, to a fault, Doc," he said. "It's patient."

He turned, took a brief run, and dove expertly into the steaming water of the heated pool.

-💀-

From the way she drove her car, I knew she would chase me.

I reached the far end of the pool, swimming the complete length underwater. I surfaced as I heard the splash of her body diving in after me and smiled. I turned to see her surface, her bare shoulders moving in expert rhythm as she cut through the water towards me.

"NYU swim team," I sighed. "Laps every morning at the University Faculty pool."

She surfaced in front of me. "What was that?"

"Huh?"

"You said something."

"Just admiring your form," I said.

"I'm not used to chasing guys," she smiled.

I took her hand and kissed the tops of her knuckles. Beneath the surface of the water, my other hand moved.

I could feel her heart beating as she pushed into me, her cheek landing against my chest as she moaned.

She was probably aware of the increased pulse. But she was foolishly ignoring it or misinterpreting it as having something to do with....

"Oh, God!" She gasped, the fingers of her right hand digging into my shoulder as her breath caught and became a raptured squeal.

It was startling and when the wave subsided, she laughed, bobbing up in the water to kiss the tip of my nose. "Can I keep you?"

"Do you remember the first time you told a guy you liked that he was beautiful, Marley?"

Her hands slid down over my chest as she cocked her head. "I... it might take me a minute."

"You were fifteen," I said. "And you would drive your mother into the city for her chemotherapy. Most of the other patients in the ward were older. But there was one boy your own age."

Her lips stopped kissing my throat. Her dark green eyes stared at me. "Reggie," she said. "How did you know--?

"He was only three months older than you, a poor kid from Queens. And he loved the New York Mets. And after the first few times you drove your mother, he always asked to sit nearby so the two of you could talk. You'd play hearts and crazy eights and do mad-libs like you were still children. Your mom liked him, too. And then one day he took you aside and told you he liked you a lot. And you asked him to take you out on a date. It was your first date and his too, though he pretended otherwise."

"How do you know all this?"

"He took you on The Cyclone at Coney Island, the merry-go-round, the bumper cars. You went Dutch on the cotton candy."

"Okay, stop it. It's not funny."

"And when he took you on the Ferris wheel, and it stopped almost near the top, he was crying and touching the baseball cap he wore to cover up the fact that he was bald from the chemotherapy. And then you told him he was beautiful and you kissed him. Your first kiss and his."

I could see the realization dawning slowly in her eyes. Her hands still held me, so I continued talking. "His first?"

"And last," I said, looking down. "You made plans for a second date," I said.

"But two days later, he was admitted to the hospital," she said. "Grand Mal Seizer. And then..."

"He was gone," I said. "You didn't go to his funeral even though his mother invited you and your family paid for it. You stayed that whole day and night in bed, crying."

"And then three months after...."

"Your mother died. You decided then that you would become a doctor and that you would try and save people or at least comfort them when the time came."

"I said it at the diner," she said. "I asked if we'd met?"

"We've come close," I said. "When you had scarlet fever when you were four. When you fell out of a tree and broke your arm when you were nine."

"So, you are..." her hands moved away.

"Go on," I said. "Who am I?"

She swallowed but kept her eyes trained on me. There were tears threatening to fall from her eyes. "You... You're..." She shook her head, refusing to say.

"I'm sorry, Marley. I wanted to tell you but, I... It's nice being just Joe."

"Is this what Reggie would look like had he lived?"

"It's what you imagine he'd look like," I said. "I take the form that's most comforting usually. It helps with the transition."

She nodded. "So, am I... already?"

"No. But 'in thee there is not a half an hours life,'" I sighed. "I made a promise this morning to your father I couldn't keep."

"Dad?"

"I was in a little blue suit with a white collar that had red piping on it," I said.

"I see," she said. "And, um, what do you really look like?"

I looked behind her at the dark water beneath a thin veil of mist. The hollow eyes and bleached bone of something not quite human reflected back at me.

"It would only frighten you," I said, feeling a tear stream over my own cheek. "And I don't want to do that, Marley. The truth of the situation alone is already frightening enough."

"You're not," she forced a smile. "No. You're Joe."

I gripped her hands gently before she could pull them away. "Don't, please? Don't pull away."

She reached up to touch my cheek. "Do you often cry," she asked, her thumb wiping under my eyes. "Seems out of character if you are who you say you are."

"No," I felt myself laugh despite the tears. "And I don't get it either. I know it's too stupid and inexplicably fast, but I don't care. I have to say it. With you, there is no tomorrow, and I want to be here in this moment forever, a human idiot full of hope."

"So you're saying I've got one foot on the shore and one in the boat, and..."

"... I love you," I said.

Her eyes narrowed. "Can you love someone? I mean, if this is real and you are... Death?"

I looked into her eyes. "Have you ever seen the Orion Nebula?"

She smiled. "That's in Yonkers, right?"

"I suppose you'd only have seen pictures."

"Can you show me?"

"Close your eyes," I said, putting my hand at the back of her neck and bringing her bare legs up so that she floated on her back in the warm water.

"Will it hurt?" She asked.

"No," I said. "I promise."

-M-

I'm not exactly sure of the details, but we were in the pool, naked, and then suddenly it was quiet and his hands held me and squeezed my wrists. I opened my eyes to take in an explosion of green and blue set fire by stars burning brightly intermingled with flecks of golden gas.

I felt myself gasp inward and then...

Coughing, I kicked out of the warm water of the pool and spun to cling to him sucking in lungfuls of air.

"I forgot to tell you to hold your breath," he laughed, softly. "Sorry.

"Holy fuck," I swore. "You weren't joking."

He steered me over to the side of the pool, setting me on the cold stones and kissing away water droplets from my face.

He pushed up from the pool and sat naked beside me.

"So, questions?" he sighed.

"Is there a Hell?"

"Ooh," he said, leaning away. "Straight to the dark side. I wouldn't have guessed that from you."

"Is there?"

"If there were, do you think you'd be headed there?"

"Don't you know? Aren't you like the bus driver?"

He shrugged. "To die is to awaken on some distant shore. I never glimpse beyond the trees of that shore."

"What's God like?"

"Never had the pleasure," he shrugged.

"So, what is this? Death takes a holiday?"

"Not sure. I've never taken a holiday."

"So, if you're here, are people just not dying right now?"

"I'm never exactly in one place, Doc."

I looked at him, he was sort of gazing off into the distance. "Okay, that's not ominous or creepy," I said.

"You use humor to mask fear," he said, meeting my eyes.

I held my gaze locked with his forcing myself to smile. "If you flinch first, do I win something?"

He cracked a smile and looked away. "At least you're funny."

"You're right," I said, shivering a bit with the cold. "I am sort of afraid. But I'm a doctor. I face death every day."

"Not every day. You're too good a doctor."

"So, do I keep calling you Joe?"

"If you don't mind," he said. "It's grown on me throughout the day."

"Well, Joe. Is there any chance for a miracle? Can I stab myself with adrenaline or call an ambulance?"

His head sank. "There's little chance either would work at this point," he sighed. "I'm sorry to say even miracles require some amount of cosmic wheel-greasing to arrange."

I nodded. "So, I get to choose how I spend my last moments, huh?"

He nodded. "Within reason."

I clicked my tongue and looked out across the mist-covered pool. "I could use a drink."

He smiled and held out a hand. In a soft flash of blue flame a glass appeared. "On me," he said.

I took it, looking at the golden brown liquid with a small blackened cherry and twist of lemon. "No way."

"Smoked Manhattan on the rocks with a twist," he said. "You're go-to after a particularly grueling no-good bad day."

"So you know everything about me, huh?"

"Sort of takes the mystery out of it, I suspect." He said. "You'll push the bitters-soaked bing cherry to the bottom of the glass so that it's extra cold at the end of the drink and then..."