Chapter 12: Fantasy Gone Wild

Jaime and Keira and Angus

JAIME AND KEIRA spent most of their afternoon walking together holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes. They were completely lost in each other for a long time before the presence of others around them began to impinge on their awareness.

First, they focused on a woman walking a tiny fluffball of a dog and daintily picking up the poop.

Oh, my baby. That’s such a good girl. Are you ready to go home now? You want to be carried? Come to Mommy.

«I think the dog understood all that, » Jaime said.

«Don’t tell me you could read the dog’s mind!»

«No, not at all. I don’t think. It just seemed like she responded to what the woman was thinking more than to her voice.»

«I get it. There’s an argument going on. It sounds serious. Over there.»

The people Keira identified were too far away for their hushed voices to be heard, but their thoughts were racing together. The guy had gray hair and beard. He wore a bowler hat and a utility kilt. One woman was tall and strong, the other only slightly shorter and elegant. The conversation was heated.

Old man, you’ve done this one too many times. How long do you think we’ll let you just walk all over us. Your days are numbered, said Kate.

You’re farting in the wind. We should grab the bag as soon as we see it and be away before anyone knows it’s gone, Angus replied.

Right. Like the last time we tried that kind of move and were almost killed, Thursday (the younger woman) said. It was really too cold out for the short skirt and bare legs she was sporting.

We couldn’t just leave them, Angus said. They were sitting ducks. If you’d just taken off your top like I told you to, the muggers would have dropped everything to stare.

In the club or on the beach, Angus. Not on the street, Thursday said.

Jaime and Keira could see that all three shared very familiar images of each other nude. Apparently, both women worked in nude clubs nearby.

Hold it. No, that’s where you have to slug him, Kate said. It starts the fight and he draws the sword.

«What?» Keira asked.

«They aren’t fighting, they’re rehearsing something. I wondered what was going on. They didn’t look all that angry. But that cane he’s got with the dragon head? It really is a sword!» Jaime said

«Is that legal?»

«Hey, you two!» Angus shouted in their heads. «If you’re going to eavesdrop, be quiet about it.»

«You’re a head talker!»

«Shh! Don’t tell the girls. We get into too many scrapes to have them thinking all they have to do is think to me and I’ll rescue them, » Angus shot at them.

«Are you actors?» Keira asked.

«Amateurs. I’m a detective and these are my sidekicks, » Angus said.

«Cool! ... What are you picking?»

«Dandelion leaves and raspberry leaves. For the rabbits. Are you done prying into my affairs?»

«Sure. Sorry. Didn’t mean to be nosey. We just don’t know many people like us, » Jaime said.

«There aren’t many. I haven’t had a conversation like this in years. Kind of refreshing.»

«Maybe we’ll see each other again sometime,” Keira offered.

«Maybe. I come here often. Little chilly these days, but there are still leaves on the raspberries.»

«Nice to meet you, Mr. Angus, » Jaime said. «Maybe we’ll see you on Sundays.»

Jaime and Keira withdrew and felt Angus putting up some mental defenses he hadn’t used in years. They could hear the women getting ready to start the scene again and decided they should take their eavesdropping elsewhere.

«That was weird, » Jaime said.

«Yeah. It shows though, how wrong we can be when we overhear people’s thoughts. They were rehearsing a play!» Keira said.

«Yeah. He’s a detective? He has to be at least seventy-five.»

«Yeah, but the ladies with him weren’t more than forty or so. And man, could they strut their stuff, » Keira said.

«Really! I’m too young to go to those places!» Jaime said.

«Yeah, but you can fantasize about them. Or not. I’ve got another idea.»

«I’m all ears. Or whatever this is, » Jaime said.

«I think we really need to go slow and grow into our relationship a little at a time, » Keira said. «We haven’t even kissed yet and I know we’re both thinking about going all the way.»

«I didn’t mean to let that out, » Jaime said.

«We were so deep in each other, I’m not sure you could have kept it in. You had to have heard the same thing from me.»

«I kind of thought it was just me being reflected in you.»

«No. Jaime, I want to be your lover. It just scares the shit out of me. That’s why I think we should really take it easy. It’s why I said no kiss until next week. We’re only just getting comfortable holding each other’s hand and look where that took us today! What’s going to happen next? I don’t think I’m ready to find out.»

«Yeah, I agree. It’s just hard is all.»

«I could feel that.»

They both snorted.

«We shouldn’t go without any relief, » Keira said. Jaime looked at her with a thousand questions. «I said I thought we could play a little game this week, right? Well, what if we kind of open ourselves to hearing fantasies this week—you know in school. Then we could just take a fantasy home and enjoy it. Individually, not together. But then we could share what happened.»

«Isn’t that kind of voyeuristic?»

«No one gets hurt by it. We just have to be sure we don’t act differently toward anyone, okay?»

«Yeah. I mean, it’s not like we’ve never done anything like that before. It would be like going to sleep with the image of that Thursday girl in our heads. She was really... »

«She sure was. Let’s see where it takes us this week.»

Jaime and Keira

Jaime typically found girls’ fantasies and the occasional memory to be more inspiring than those of boys. He was fascinated by girls’ bodies and the thoughts they sometimes had. Keira also preferred girls’ fantasies because they were less graphic. Boys’ memories were often better, in her opinion. Imagining herself on the receiving end of a boy’s attention—one who had actually experienced sex—was breathtaking.

Still, as much as their contemporaries thought about sex, most of it was in fleeting bits and lustful reactions rather than anything to really build on. There was so much going on at school that took attention away from daydreams, it was rare to find someone with as well-developed a fantasy life as, say, Debbie Burke. Jaime had decided to stay well away from Debbie’s fantasies in the future.

By Wednesday, neither had found a likely subject for a good fantasy and they were contemplating just taking one of their own memories when they sat at lunch in the cafeteria. It was raining out and they sat near each other, sometimes allowing their hands to brush against each other for that momentary expansion that allowed them to distinguish individual thoughts from the crowd.

Juan and Letitia stopped by their table to show Cheery’s new engagement ring. She was beaming and Mex couldn’t stop grinning. They were headed out for a little alone time away from school. They could hardly keep their hands off each other.

«There was enough fantasy material there to last a week!» Keira said.

«I can’t think that way about my closest friends, » Jaime answered. «It just wouldn’t be right. I blocked out everything they were thinking.»

«I understand that. I’ll skip them, too.»

Jaime glanced over by the windows where he spotted his computer lab partner, Emerson Flaherty. He liked her, but didn’t consider her to be a close friend. She sat alone, looking out at the rain.

«I see her, » Keira said to him. «She’s awful mousy, isn’t she?»

«To most people. It isn’t how she sees herself.»

Keira focused on Emerson.

«Wow! I should say not! Do you suppose she’s really that way? Why would she hide that around school?»

Keira returned her attention to a guy who had caught her eye.

«What do you think of that guy at the table straight across the room from us?»

Describing where the guy was sitting wasn’t really necessary. Jaime could instantly zero in on him from Keira’s thoughts with a mere brush of his hand against hers.

«He’s slept with how many girls?» Jaime thought in shock.

«He doesn’t even remember. It’s been going on for years. And not just girls. Adult women. College women. Mothers and sisters of his friends. He didn’t know what he was doing at first, but now he fancies himself a born seducer.»

«And he thinks they’re all happy about it. Is he just making all this up in his head?»

«I don’t think so. I’m going to pick a couple of memories as they come through his mind this afternoon. I’ll think about them later.»

«It’s hard to think of you imagining somebody else ... you know ... doing it with you.»

«Don’t. Focus on Emerson. If we don’t choose other people for when we want to ... masturbate, we’ll end up thinking about each other and ... You told Mex to keep it zipped a while. We need to do that, too. This is just as important for us. If we rushed home after school and made love today, it would blow my mind. Yours, too, I think. I’m not sure I’d recover. We’re getting better at controlling things when we hold hands, but even that ... I come close to losing myself every time we do it. We need to go a little at a time and when we make love, it will be phenomenal.»

«When we ... Do you think we’ll make love, Keira?»

«I’m counting on it. This weekend, I want to kiss you after our date. Just a little. We have to be disciplined about it. But I’d really like that.»

«So would I. You know, it’s easier to tap into the way someone imagines having sex than the way they imagine kissing.»