STARLIGHTER

  But I immediately blew the gig. As soon as the freaks came inside, I blurted out, ‘we got lost’, ‘we got lost’ to anyone who so much as looked at me ... even Sloth. ‘We got lost’ ... over and over ... feebly shrugging my shoulders. ‘We got lost’. Hysterical. I was volunteering the information much too readily. ’We got lost.’

  As far as I could tell, Joey didn’t pick up on it. He didn’t seem to be in a mood to pick up on much of ANYTHING. He was unusually subdued, hardly paying me any mind ... apparently pre-occupied with matters of a more ethereal and abstract nature. He silently vanished into a back room and emerged, a few minutes later, in a change of threads, He joined Sasha and Blue on the platform, exchanging a few words with each before hunkering down on the bench. There was nothing in Sasha’s expression to indicate that major fireworks were in the offing. I flirted with the idea that maybe - just maybe - I’d gotten away with fornication. I polished off my beer and got up for another one.

  Connie Cleavage was standing in the kitchen by the stove, smoking a ’NEWPORT’ and waiting for the tea kettle to boil, She was wearing a white terry cloth robe which was open in the front. Christ! A skin-tight one-piece purple bathing suit ,,, that’s what she wore underneath ! Her massive knockers strained and throbbed against the wet rayon. Two vivid nipples showed through. Her waist was slim, her box was tight, her hips were plush and her legs were brown and slim. I imagined wrapping my body around hers, the two of us plumbing the depths of depravity ... another shot at her in my old man’s MALIBU. It wasn’t love ... it was a 55 gallon drum of industrial-strength lust,

  She HAD to go and spoil it by talking: ’’Jeepahs, Dahhn! You missed all the fun! That was a real blast!” she smiled.

  My eyes were melded to her Grand Tetons. “Pissah,” I vacantly commented.

  Then, like a bad debt, Henry Brylcreem made a cameo guest appearance. “What’s shaking, Daniel Boone?” He exhibited a polyester smile and CHICKLET teeth, but his eyes sized me up like I was a saleable commodity. “It was a trip. Should’ve been there. The sight of Sloth in water was worth the trip.”

  “We got lost,’’ I reiterated lamely.

  ‘’Not much of a woodsman, huh?” he chuckled.

  “Guess not.’’

  ‘’Just the cutest little spot,” bubbled Connie.

  Henry threw a playful haymaker at me. ’’Seriously, man ... pretty mellow up here, don’t you think? Spacey.” Again with the contrived hippie parlance. He was wearing a pair of ’JANTZEN’ swim trunks ... all the rage, no doubt, according to the trend-setters at ’GQ’ magazine. His soft tortoise shell belly protruded slightly over the spandex waist band. He had bronze skin, smooth and hairless ... and with the folds of flab on his upper torso. it looked like the breasts of a 13 year old girl,

  I snatched another beer, excused myself and returned to the sunroom.