Удушье (Choke)

going down along the outline of her ass. Just that far is the shelf of each breast pushing up a dark button nipple. Just my arm away is the warm hot space where her legs come together.

I say, 'No. Nope. No issues here.'

Her hands come together around my top shirt button, then the next, and the next. Her hands spread the shirt back off my shoulders so it falls behind me.

'I just need you to know,' I say, 'since you're a doctor and everything,' I say, 'I might be a recovering sex addict.'

Her hands spring my belt buckle, and she says, 'Then just do what comes naturally.'

The smell of her isn't roses or pine or lemons. It isn't any­thing, not even skin.

How she smells is wet.

'You don't understand,' I say. 'I have almost two whole days of sobriety.'

The gold light shows her warm and glowy. Still, the feeling is if I kissed her my lips would stick the way they would on frozen metal. To slow things down, I think of basal cell carcinomas. I picture the bacterial skin infection impetigo. Corneal ulcers.

She pulls my face into her ear. Into my ear she whispers,

'Fine. That's very noble of you. But how about if you start your recovery tomorrow....'

She thumbs my pants off my hips and says, 'I need you to put your faith in me.'

And her smooth cool hands close around me.

Chapter 15

If you're ever in a big hotel lobby

, and they start to play 'The Blue Danube Waltz,' get the hell out. Don't think. Run.

Anymore, nothing is straightforward.

If you're ever in a hospital and they page Nurse Flamingo to the cancer ward, do not go anywhere near there. There is no Nurse Flamingo. If they page Dr. Blaze, there is no such person.

In a big hotel, that waltz means they need to evacuate the building.

In most hospitals, Nurse Flamingo means a fire. Dr. Blaze means a fire. Dr. Green means a suicide. Dr. Blue means some­body stopped breathing.

This is stuff the Mommy told the stupid little boy as they sat in traffic. This is how far back she was going nuts.

This one day, the kid had been sitting in class when a lady from the school office had come to tell him his dentist appoint­ment was canceled. A minute later, he'd raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom. There never was any appointment. Sure, somebody had called, saying they were from the dentist, but this was a new secret signal. He went out a side door by the cafeteria, and there she was waiting in a gold car.

This was the second time the Mommy came back to claim him.

She rolled down the window and said, 'Do you know why Mommy was in jail this time?'

'For changing the hair colors?' he said.

See also: The malicious mischief.

See also: The second-degree assault.