The Tattoo by Chris Mckinney

Author:Chris Mckinney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2009-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

The waves were small, near non-existent that day. One to two feet, maybe. But as always, it was packed. About fifteen to twenty surfers drifted with the tide, mostly guys, and we all waited for the next small wave to come. I noticed others were occasionally checking out Claude, and at first it gave me a mixed feeling of pride and jealousy. However, after I thought about it and realized that she wasn’t mine, the pride boiled away, and the jealousy turned to rage. She didn’t seem like the type to dig caveman ways, so I turned to her and said, “Hey, let’s paddle more out.” She nodded and we paddled out closer to the horizon.

When we got far enough away from everybody, I stopped. “Shitty today,” I said.

She nodded in agreement. “Hey, Claudia,” I asked, “what do you do anyway? Do you have to work or something tonight?”

She had stopped and let the incoming tide drift her back to me, while I occasionally paddled in order to stay where I was. When she reached my side, she paddled to keep herself next to me. “Nope,” she said, “I don’t work. I go to school. Much to my mother’s disappointment, I’m here at U.H. getting an Art History degree. I think she was thinking Stanford or Berkeley or something. Thinking pre-medicine or pre-law or something. I’m turning out to be a big disappointment. I would say black sheep, if there were any other sheep to compare me to.”

“I hate to take sides, but what the hell can you do with an Art History degree anyway?”

She laughed.“You’re telling me. Nah, I don’t know, I guess I could work at a museum or something.”

“Work in a museum? I’ve seen the ladies that work in museums. They look one step away from becoming relics themselves.”

She laughed her polite, slightly sarcastic laugh and looked over to me. “When the hell have you ever been in a museum, scarface wannabe? What were you doing, looking for paintings to steal?”

I laughed. Then I thought about this conversation we were having, and the other conversation we had the night before. I realized that I’d been laughing like a jackass during the moments I was with her these last twelve hours, laughing more often than I’d ever laughed before. I also realized that Claude didn’t fear me. It seemed strange at the time. I figured just about everyone I knew had some reason or another to fear me, but she didn’t. She lacked caution. I mean, I knew she was making some attempts to be clever and charming, but she didn’t seem afraid to fail or insult. This girl didn’t give a fuck, but she didn’t give a fuck with grace. I looked up at the sun and squinted. I felt its harsh rays burn the white ring around my neck. I paddled a little closer to her. “Will you marry me?”

She laughed and splashed water on my hot face. I felt the cool ocean drip down to my mouth.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.