The Bitter Wine Memento
The Girl with the Wild Halo
This morning I awoke with Dana Sue Anderson in my arms, she in full hopes of one day becoming Mrs Dana Sue Yeager. Twenty years younger than me, she was just a child. Her family had moved here from the south of America only a few months earlier, since she got herself in trouble back home. Her father figured a change of setting would do her good. It did until she met me.
This morning she was mine for a while, let off from the always overlooking eyes of her father for a few hours. She had met me in my apartment in the wee hours, my home since I had sold mine and Laura’s house virtually at the same time of her passing. She came in through my living room window, up a ladder which was rested against the wall overnight, awaiting some owner’s handy use. Her hair was wild, the smell of wet wind blowing with her in. She wore an oversized coat and smelt of thyme and coriander from the herbal shop where her father had her practicing as a trainee. Dana Sue was clumsy and always either spilled rosemary twigs all over the floor or mixed the oregano with the tarragon. She was awful when it came to keeping a household or running an errand, and she was neither very smart nor talented. Her fingers would always manage to get in the way of her sewing and they probably had more needle pricks than a pincushion, but she was beautiful, and the more starry-eyed and sensitive person one could know.
The smell of herbs was sharp and pointy and did not fit the soft curve of her face or the wild blueness of her eyes, glowing with excitement. Dana Sue’s plump shape was flattering in the backlight of the moon, throwing itself in through my window.
Half asleep from my anxious waiting for her, she appeared like a dream. The blond bush of a hair looked like dark brown curls when she lay herself down beside me.
"Laura?"
I whispered. Perhaps she heard me, perhaps she didn’t. Either way she paid it no mind, just hushed me and kissed my cheek. I had never told her about Laura, as I had not told her of anything else of my past. But she knew my name and the fact that I was bad for her, and she didn’t need anything else.
"Oh, Yeager, my dear Yeager. If you’d only know what I gone done to be here tonight! I gone sneakin’ past papa’s bedroom as silent I can, so I sure I didn’t go wake him. I was real fast goin’ here, too. Went all through the hedges and tore my skirt! But that’s all fine, see, ‘cause I’m here now. I said I be here, and I am here. How do you likes my blouse, isn’t it the most darling thing? Took it out of mama’s closet, I did."
Her high spirits were so obvious; I could believe it was them I lay my arms around. Dana Sue was just so irresistibly sweet, so innocent. She had given herself as mine, and was sure I was hers simply because of that. But I was not, and I knew that better than ever that night. I loved the way skirts licked her legs and her skin in the moonlight. I adored her childish accent. But I never loved her.
That morning I awoke with a handful of feelings. I was content, on the verge of happy, but feeling for some reason guilty. I knew not why until the sleeping bushy head of the young blonde on my arm spoke.
"Oh, my! How late does that clock there read? Already half past eight, oh no! Papa’s been expectin’ me at the shop thirty minutes ago already. I best be scootin’, and that ‘mediately!
Dana Sue rushed out of bed. She dressed sloppily and I watched in silence, somewhere in the back of my mind expecting something bad to happen. Her cheeks blushed with the heat from hurrying as she threw herself back onto the bed to give my cheek another kiss."
"Once more."
She looked at me with a big smile and then kissed me on the lips.
"You know we’ll see each other anytime soon, whenever I can sneak myself away from papa. He just don’t know to behave hisself when it comes to me. He really mean no harm, he’s sweet down inside, I know so! Sooner or later, he’s gonna realise that we is in love and that there is nothin’ he can do ‘bout it. Oh, gosh, listen to me ramble. I was goin’, that’s right!"
The next second she swung herself clumsily down the ladder and down onto the street. That was the last I saw of Dana Sue, the last I smelt her piquant scent of herbs.
"Laura."
I did not whisper this time.
"Where did I go wrong?"
This morning she was mine for a while, let off from the always overlooking eyes of her father for a few hours. She had met me in my apartment in the wee hours, my home since I had sold mine and Laura’s house virtually at the same time of her passing. She came in through my living room window, up a ladder which was rested against the wall overnight, awaiting some owner’s handy use. Her hair was wild, the smell of wet wind blowing with her in. She wore an oversized coat and smelt of thyme and coriander from the herbal shop where her father had her practicing as a trainee. Dana Sue was clumsy and always either spilled rosemary twigs all over the floor or mixed the oregano with the tarragon. She was awful when it came to keeping a household or running an errand, and she was neither very smart nor talented. Her fingers would always manage to get in the way of her sewing and they probably had more needle pricks than a pincushion, but she was beautiful, and the more starry-eyed and sensitive person one could know.
The smell of herbs was sharp and pointy and did not fit the soft curve of her face or the wild blueness of her eyes, glowing with excitement. Dana Sue’s plump shape was flattering in the backlight of the moon, throwing itself in through my window.
Half asleep from my anxious waiting for her, she appeared like a dream. The blond bush of a hair looked like dark brown curls when she lay herself down beside me.
"Laura?"
I whispered. Perhaps she heard me, perhaps she didn’t. Either way she paid it no mind, just hushed me and kissed my cheek. I had never told her about Laura, as I had not told her of anything else of my past. But she knew my name and the fact that I was bad for her, and she didn’t need anything else.
"Oh, Yeager, my dear Yeager. If you’d only know what I gone done to be here tonight! I gone sneakin’ past papa’s bedroom as silent I can, so I sure I didn’t go wake him. I was real fast goin’ here, too. Went all through the hedges and tore my skirt! But that’s all fine, see, ‘cause I’m here now. I said I be here, and I am here. How do you likes my blouse, isn’t it the most darling thing? Took it out of mama’s closet, I did."
Her high spirits were so obvious; I could believe it was them I lay my arms around. Dana Sue was just so irresistibly sweet, so innocent. She had given herself as mine, and was sure I was hers simply because of that. But I was not, and I knew that better than ever that night. I loved the way skirts licked her legs and her skin in the moonlight. I adored her childish accent. But I never loved her.
That morning I awoke with a handful of feelings. I was content, on the verge of happy, but feeling for some reason guilty. I knew not why until the sleeping bushy head of the young blonde on my arm spoke.
"Oh, my! How late does that clock there read? Already half past eight, oh no! Papa’s been expectin’ me at the shop thirty minutes ago already. I best be scootin’, and that ‘mediately!
Dana Sue rushed out of bed. She dressed sloppily and I watched in silence, somewhere in the back of my mind expecting something bad to happen. Her cheeks blushed with the heat from hurrying as she threw herself back onto the bed to give my cheek another kiss."
"Once more."
She looked at me with a big smile and then kissed me on the lips.
"You know we’ll see each other anytime soon, whenever I can sneak myself away from papa. He just don’t know to behave hisself when it comes to me. He really mean no harm, he’s sweet down inside, I know so! Sooner or later, he’s gonna realise that we is in love and that there is nothin’ he can do ‘bout it. Oh, gosh, listen to me ramble. I was goin’, that’s right!"
The next second she swung herself clumsily down the ladder and down onto the street. That was the last I saw of Dana Sue, the last I smelt her piquant scent of herbs.
"Laura."
I did not whisper this time.
"Where did I go wrong?"