Al In Wonderland

“What on earth are you reading for, Lou? The sun is shinin’, the birds are chirpin’ — the ladies are sunnin’ in their… scanties. Two-piece suits and everything, Lou. Lou?”

“Al, shut it! I’m readin’ here.” Lou flapped the pages at him.

“No need to get bent out of shape, Lou, I’m just worried you’re not enjoying yourself… what are you reading about, anyway, your period?”

Al laughed, but Lou didn’t look up from the book.

“Whatever,” Al muttered. “…sitting under that tree like some eighteenth century fop…”

Lou really was missing an amazing vista, though. The girls were practically spilling from their suits. The heat wave had brought them all out—the hippies from their lofts, the secretaries from their skyscrapers—to lie out in the park, hot and languid, bronze skin glistening. They were like shiny pennies at the bottom of a fountain, and Al thought one of those pennies was winking at him.

“I’m gonna go take in the sights,” he said, eyeing his prize. “I’m feelin’ lucky.”

The girl was six foot if she was an inch, a tight, white bikini radiant against her dark skin. She gave Al a penetrating stare, squirmed her hips ever so slightly, then turned away to reveal two perfect scoops of vanilla. She was melting. When she disappeared over a lush knoll—her hips swinging like a hypnotist’s watch—Al strode off in pursuit.

“Thank god my old man taught me to chase tail instead of how to read,” he said to himself.

But when he’d climbed over the mound and reached the other side, the woman was nowhere to be seen. Instead there was only a hole—not a rabbit hole, maybe, but not exactly a cave either—sloping down into the damp, dark earth, just big enough for a man to squeeze into and fringed all around with curling brambles.

At the mouth of the hole, a bikini lay clinging to the dewy grass.

This is my response to this week’s Trifecta Writing Challenge: Mouth. I’m a little later than usual this week, but I hope you like it!

Send your comments my way, then check out all the other stories at Trifecta (there’s more and more each week)!

Related: The Waiting Water // A Fitful Sleep // Idle Hands