The Long & the Short

When you can’t get long, sleek and slender, firm inverted tree-trunks were alright too. More than serviceable. The Chinese shortie coming down from the bus on Guillemard was taken from behind. Usually from in front the reported passage from the Prophet came to mind, either from one of the Hadiths, or else the Holy Book itself: observation of the inside of women’s thighs was best left aside. Best avoided; the sight averted. Five or six weeks ago Era the Minangkabau had flipped a switch somehow. Invited over to the cloister, this time she had immediately accepted. Here she was at the door, across the floor to the bed and lying adjacent. Recent pics of Australie and Jakarta. From where flipping to the relevant literary output: the piece where she herself featured no less, together with her Mame and young daughter. Publikaci in Amerika The Minangkabau. How about that?! Four or five words in bahasa included apart from the title—here, here and there. A number of times Era had been shown the piece, but never mind, she had not tired. Preliminary kisses turned pretty serious, decently friendly an’ no end mysterious. We were going where exactly? Some little coyness over opening the mouth confused the picture. You needed to understand after so long. Ahoy! Hold onto your hats. There we were soon enough sailing into the warm waters of yore, wind at our backs to be sure. How long it had been. A Ramadan four years ago woz’n’t? Era and Angely had slept in the corner on a mat, with Era’s younger sister joining for a time. (Relax, no need get excited. There had been no crime.) On two or three occasions in the dead of night—once the sis had departed— Era had answered the call from the bridge. Weary though she had been from the long day’s haul, up she had jumped and didna crawl. The switch had only been part flicked: the Minangkabau would not remove her own clothes now. Not a problem when Doctors and Nurses added to the fun. (This was pre-Covid by the way, three or four weeks before, while the virus had seemed a problem for those Chinese with their unsavoury ways.  Before the local explosion of numbers among the foreign construction workers in the dorms.) Four years later there was thickening in the trunk particularly; the usual pear. Ya, here among those girls still feeling some part of the injunction, twas not uncommon to resist presumption. A week or two later repeat of the same. Sweet and one brightly burning flame. Since her separation from her loafer husband eight or nine years before, almost certainly for Era there had been no lovers more. Always makes a difference.