Life Is Short But Wide (33 page)

When they were settled, with glasses in hand, Juliet said, “I like it real cold, so I put ice in my wine.”

Myine answered, “I like it cold, too.”

Juliet took a deep breath, “Now, my sister-friend, I hope I can answer any questions you have. If I can’t you’ll be drunk, and won’t know the difference anyway.”

They laughed a little, then Myine asked, “How do you make love?”

Juliet laughed a little, then said, “Why, it just comes naturally; you do what you feel.”

“I mean, how do you look? How do you hold your face? You can’t look at him!”

“He is exactly what I look at, Myine. He is my man, and I’m about to make love to him, with him.”

Myine sighed, exasperated. “I mean, do you fix your hair? Try to look pretty, and keep everything in place?”

“You do that before you make love, if you have time, and
want to. Once you get started, you don’t even think about that. At least I don’t. You can’t make love, if your mind is someplace else!”

“Well, suppose he looks at you while you are making love?”

“Oh, Myine, I see what the matter is. You are scared, and you were always bashful! Don’t be bashful, Myine; that man won’t be thinking of your hair or your face. Just relax and be yourself.”

“I have to be myself, Juliet, but I don’t want him to see me in a … a nasty way.”

“You think he, or any man, will worry bout if you see him in a ‘nasty’ way?”

Myine thought a minute, then shook her head. “Men are different.”

“No they’re not, Myine. Not when people are making love; when you make love, you think of the feelings. That’s why, maybe, you never had an orgasm. I hear tell that some men can be lousy lovers, but I think you were thinking bout the wrong things while you were trying to make love.”

“What do you mean, the wrong things? Tell me the right things, Juliet.”

“Number one, it’s about making love, it is not a beauty contest. You’re not there to be beautiful; that all happens before you get there. Once you get there, you let go, and just be yourself.”

“Juliet, I don’t know which self to be. How to be …”

“Myine, you have to … have to relax. I don’t mean lay there like a log, but … relax. When he gets on top of you, welcome him into your arms, but lay relaxed. Then when he goes to put it in, stay relaxed. But pull your knees up to his hips; but stay
relaxed.” She gave Myine a sidewise look, and asked “Are you making me tell you these things when you already know?”

“But I don’t know, Juliet.”

“Okay. When things start happenin, kissin, huggin, pettin, and all that, make your kisses soft, don’t tense your lips, don’t pucker up; relax your lips, so they will be soft. Now, I don’t like all that tongue in your ear stuff! Kiss my ears, soft and sweetlike, and my neck …”

“Has he put it in yet?”

“Oh, lots of things can be happening; just remember you have to help yourself to have an orgasm. Don’t leave it all up to him to make you …”

Myine stared into Juliet’s eyes, speechless, drinking in every word.

Juliet stared back into Myine’s face, saying, “I can’t believe as old as you are, you don’t know this already.”

Myine shook her head, in a daze. “I don’t know though. My mother couldn’t teach me.”

Juliet snorted softly. “Mamas don’t always tell you; you just grow to know. Or, I guess it depends on your man. He has to make you feel … make you want to do all the things …”

“Okay, Juliet, what else?”

Juliet laughed a little, as she continued, “When he puts, you know what, in, you have to picture what he is doing in your mind, like imagine it, but see it in your mind, the same as he is doing it.”

In wonder, Myine repeated, “Picture it in my mind.”

“Yes, but pay relaxed attention to everything happening to you down there,” she pointed. “Every move he makes, let your
body tell you what to do to answer his move. Don’t plan it; feel it. Keep on picturing it in your mind til you feel it. If he knows what he is doing, you’ll be done forgot about your hair, face, and everything else. Me, I like my knees up and relaxed open; let em fall open more, do they want to, far as they will go to the side.”

“Suppose he has a small… thing? Not a big one? I’ve heard men need a big one.”

Juliet smiled to her friend. “Chile, don’t let people lie, and confuse you. If you love a man, his size won’t matter. If you are picturing it in your mind, don’t care what size it is, it got to be good. You don’t want nobody to hurt you. You just want to relax and enjoy it. Now, some women are built big, but the Lord knew what he was doing when he made men and women. Size don’t matter as much as love. If there is love, that is what makes all the difference in the world.”

Hesitantly, Myine asked, “Is Cloud …?”

“That ain’t none of your business, my sister. And don’t you be telling other women bout NOTHING your man can do! That’s your business!” Juliet took a sip of her wine, and asked, “Now. Have you made up your mind, at least, to try it?”

Myine’s eyes were opened wide in the wonder of life, and she smiled as she answered, “I think I have.”

“Stop lying, Myine, You know you’re going to do it. You know you love Herman, and I know he loves you, all that work that man does for you!”

“He does that for his own self.”

“Well, what’s for him, is for you. He cannot wrap the house and yard up, then pick it up and carry it away. He loves you Myine. You will have a good man.”

Myine’s “Yes” was loaded with smiles, and anticipation.

(And by this time she is at least sixty-two years old! I haven’t told you everything, that would take another sixty-two years. You just be glad I wanted to tell you this story, and I wanted to tell it cause people always talking, and writing, about young love-, I wanted to let you know there is Old love, too! Love never stops on this earth, cause of the fact God is love. But you got to be in a special place to find it. You got to know what is real about life, and what is false.)

“And you will … come through, too, if you do what I told you!” Juliet turned to a small table, reaching for a paper list, saying, “Now, take these things I put together for you. A little perfume, ‘Joy’: wear only the best for your man. It’s expensive; but I make this last me a year or two. That’s why you have to pay me back for this.

“Sometimes I order Worth perfume out of the magazine I have delivered to me. But it is hard to find, sometimes.

“But, I’m’a give you this; Youth Dew by Estée Lauder is good, but use it early in the mornings so by evening time it will be faded enough. Put it in good spots, like between your breast, in your navel, after you wash it. That’s enough, cause this stuff is strong, but it smells sexy.” She smiled a secret smile for herself.

“By the evening it will fade away, and that’s what you want. Then put a little Joy, just a little, behind your ears and on your thighs and neck. You can give me these bottles back in the morning, and you can buy your own. Cause our men buy tools, but these are our tools, and they make enough money. This is all for them anyway.

“I know you got this, your own self; put something pretty on,
and soft to his touch. Don’t spray nothing on it, it needs to smell like your natural self.”

Myine took in every word Juliet said, as if it were holy. “Oh, Juliet, you sound like I’m going out to some big, important affair.”

“Myine, this can be the most important time in your life with your man. You want to make him remember it, and all of the times like this, as long as he lives. Love ain’t no play thing, but, you are playing for keeps!”

Ardently, breathlessly, Myine said, “Oh, thank you, Juliet! These are the things I wanted, needed to know.” She picked up the small bag, as if it were gold. Juliet frowned in wonder. “What I can’t understand is how come you didn’t already know. Women’s born knowing these things; and magazines help a little; but you got to know when they lyin.”

“I’d wager a friend, or a mother, is the most help, Juliet. And you’re the only friend I’ve ever really had.”

“I am your honest-to-God friend, Myine, honest. Your mama and my family were friends from the time I was born. But that ain’t all it is: I love you. When I call you ‘sister,’ I mean it.”

They were silent a moment, then Juliet reached for one more thing on the table. “Myine, you might not need this jellycrème, but I have it, just in case you do. Sometimes, things you don’t use, dry up on ya!” They laughed girlish laughter of joy as Myine took the jar and nearly ran out the door.

She headed straight home, smiling as she thought of her friend, Juliet. She saw Herman and Cloud cutting a hole the size of a door on the side of her house. The sight took her aback for a moment.

“Well! Look what you are doing, Herman.”

Herman answered, “Yea, just look what I’m doing. Don’t worry, Myine, we will have a door here, and a sunroom besides … by tonight.”

“By tonight?” she asked.

“You don’t trust me, Myine?”

Myine relaxed, and smiled. “Yes, I trust you, Herman.”

The men laughed, and she ran inside her house.

Herman had all the studs and sheetrock for a twelve-by-eighteen-foot room marked off in the basement. He was also going to set and hinge the door to the outside. Cloud was setting the forms for the walls on the outside that would enclose the ten-by-twelve space for the sun-garden.

They would stucco six-foot Indian adobe walls over the form, with a redwood fence that could be opened to let the rest of the yard and beautiful trees in. It was going to be very nice. The studding and sheetrocking was finished that first evening. They decided to leave the old wooden floors as they were. The outside wall to the private garden had yet to be done.

“We can get that done tomorrow,” Herman said, as the two sweaty, tired men left to go to their showers and bed. He added, “I should be
going upstairs in this house to take a bath, and go to bed. But, I’ll wait.”

Cloud smiled, saying, “At the rate you swingin that hammer, I know you ain’t waitin long.” He turned off on his own path home.

Herman laughed as he answered, “I don’t have long. At my age, I could die in twenty minutes, so you are right, brother.”

Juliet had Cloud’s dinner ready. He showered, ate, and fell into the bed. Myine had fixed Herman a good meal and took it to him at his apartment. He was already snoring on his couch. She set the tray down: a steak, baked potato, and asparagus. Then she woke Herman, who looked dazzle-eyed until he realized where he was and smelled the food. She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead; as he was reaching for her, she said “Good-bye,” and left. She was not ready, and she wanted to use all the things Juliet had taught her about.

Herman ate the meal, fell in his bed without a shower, and slept soundly with a smile on his face.

The next day the men started early. By noon they had completed the outside walls, and attached the gate. There were a few things not quite up to par, but nothing that could not be put off for another day.

Myine had been busy all the morning making all the beds, three upstairs. Flipping the mattresses, putting on fresh, fluffy sheets and pillowcases, with pretty spreads. Vacuuming the carpets; just doing everything. She also began setting up for her dinner. Their dinner. A fresh broiled salmon fish with broccoli and rice with chopped parsley, and a tossed green salad.

When the men had been at work for a few hours, or so,
Myine put her head out of the window, calling out, “Herman? You are going to eat over here tonight. Alright?”

Herman stepped back, and looked up, with dust and a little paint on his face, and in his eyelashes. Startled, he nodded his head, and said, “Yes, ma’am.”

She asked, “When do you think you’ll be ready to eat?”

Cloud answered for him, “We’re gonna quit here in another hour or two. What time you want him?”

Embarrassed for no good reason, Myine said, “Well … in a couple of hours, I guess. Whenever he’s ready to eat.”

Laughing, Cloud said, “He’s ready now.”

Myine slammed the window down hard, before she realized they could not read her mind, and did not know what she was planning. “Juliet told him!” Then she was too excited to be angry. She thought, “I don’t care, this is my life; our life!”