"Do you want to learn ?" he queried.
"How to kiss ? Do I want to learn how to kiss ?" she clarified.
"Yes."
"Aaaah. Well. Maybe. I dunno.
It has been so, so long. Likely I cannot learn ... ... it has been soooo long," she deadpanned.
"But you were married, Legion. Three yellow - haired, blue - eyed boy babies ! Surely he ... ... ?"
"NO !" she interrupted him. "Noooo, that never happened. Kissing never happened. In fact, he never one time even --- zero is the number of times --- he said to me, 'I love you, Legion.' Not even
before we were married did he tell me that. Those four words. Let alone, afterward. I just up and came down preggers. So that was that. And then ?
I was pregnant again. And again. No. No kissing before or after marriage. Romance ? Romance ? ! O no. No. I have no idea what
that 'd be. Romance. And kissing ? Not even at the formal ceremony. That 'd 've been, ... ... ah, aaaah, 18 December y1976. Zane was already by then, ya' know, four months old."
"Yeah, I do know that. Almost seems unprecedented.
That. That much passive aggression. That much violence.
I can teach you, Legion. If you would like ?" he offered her his services.
"I don't remember kissing ... ... from before him. From when I was much, much younger. I did. Cuz I
can remember the men. Actually, I can remember
all of the men. So I did; I know I was a kisser, but I don't think I can relearn kissing cuz it has been so, so long ago. That's what I mean."
"I can figure out a way," he more or less promised.
"I don't think I am being quite heard. I mean there is the touch thing. I do not touch people any more. I was never touched, ya' know, with, ah, with a tenderness actually. I was only touched when I could ... ... except if I could be, ah, to be made ... ... well, to be made impregnated. Multiple times he was, well, giddy and gleeful ... ... he was
gleeful when he inserted a medical penlight into my vagina so that he could see its shine come through my skin. Up through my pubic hairs. Only he called it my pussy; that one was his favorite term. Or another one he liked to call it, twat. Or my cunt. I don't think ... ..., no. No, I
know that I never heard him ... ... ever ... ... say the word vagina. And I was supposed to like that. To like having that done to me. Just like the spring we first met. Our second, well, I would call it, ah I guess, an encounter. March y1974, it was. I was supposed to like that, too. He wanted me to come meet him at what he told me was a bar so I said okay. It wasn't just a bar. It was Mr B's Lounge on Main Street, a strip joint. I'd never heard of it, let alone, ever been inside a strip joint. Not even when I lived in New York City. I walked in; and in the noise and the dark, I tried to see him in there somewhere. I couldn't. Its spotlights were aimed onto the stage. Within seconds I'd had to get out. To get out outside, I mean. I vomited beside a parking meter right there on the sidewalk. At the joint's entrance. Soooo I, ah, I kinda want to not be touched like that again. Or, ya' know ? Not at all, actually. I just cannot be, ah, ... ...
handled again. I do not touch others either. Cuz I know how that feels now."
"I know what you mean, Legion. The violence. But, sometime, if you would like to give it a try,
why, um, ... ... why don't you give it a try, Legion ? Sometime maybe ? To try ?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2zTd_YwTvo