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Terreson Profile
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Aunt Helen


Please understand I do not have a rich enough imagination to invent my stories. '85. I was back in FL because my mother was dying, needed to be close but not too close. She was in Daytona. I was in St. Augustine. Enter Aunt Helen who lived in Tampa, my mother's youngest sister, half-sister actually. Growing up, every boy in the family lusted after their Aunt Helen. Fantasized about her. And she knew it. Kind of played up to it. A Florida beauty she was. Hell, all those aunts were and they all knew it too. Used it to their best advantage as needed. But Aunt Helen. Dark skinned, tallish, full breasted, hips that swayed, auburn haired. And a voice that could melt blue ice. A month before my mother's death she payed me a visit one weekend. She took a bus ride up. Must have been eight hours. Early August, damn hot, and my garret of an apartment without A/C. Almost forgot. Aunt Helen was a theosophist. Come to think of it, she is the closest I've ever come to having my own Madame Blavatsky. She even drew a picture of my spirit guide for me. Still have it in a box. An indian in full head-dress. She was there that weekend to give me comfort. Saturday, Saturday night, put her in a cab for the bus station Sunday. Forgot again. The comfort offered was because of my mother and a wife from whom I got divorced same month my mother died. !@#$. I wasn't hurting because of the divorce. Realizing I could go to sleep with the likely prospect of waking up alive, not stabbed to death, the divorce was a huge relief. We talked. Spiritual stuff, family stuff, stuff. Aunt Helen stood up from the couch, walked out through the french doors onto my balcony, came back, took my shoulders from behind, I was sitting at my desk, turned up my head, and we kisssed. Jurors, I tell you true. That was one of the sweetest kisses I've ever had in my rather long and inglorious career of kissing. Good golly it was sweet. And long. And Aunt Helen's scent was so earthy it made me dizzy. In that moment she could have been a Delphi priestess. I did not want it to end. But finally she straightened herself, took my hand, said it was right and time for us to go to bed. I wasn't thinking and my voice sounded disembodied but I said, No, Aunt Helen. She went to bed. I slept on the couch. Next morning while I made her coffee she was clearly perplexed. My sense is that no man had ever refused her. Then she finally said, it's the blood, isn't it? I said, yes ma'am. Some time later I told my oldest brother the story. He got pissed. Not at Aunt Helen, but at me. He wasn't outraged. He was angry she had offered herself to me and not him. I think he still holds that grudge. Years later I made a small poem out of that moment called A Southern Story. Poem equivocates the scene. You don't know the outcome. I only refused four women before taking retirement. One was a prostitute, one was married, one was married and my boss, and Aunt Helen. I regret Aunt Helen's case. That was churlish of me. She came to comfort me in the way she knew best and I rejected her and so hurt her feelings. Clearly that was bad form. I don't know. I don't think the same about taboos anymore or the outrage carried in some newspaper article about something the law doesn't sanction when it comes to liasons. Until you know the details, and motives, you really don't know the story.

Tere

Last edited by Terreson, Mar/24/2018, 11:12 pm
Jul/27/2013, 1:23 pm Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
Christine98 Profile
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Re: Aunt Helen


Quite a story, Tere, and well written as always. It's good to read your field notes again,

Chris
Jul/27/2013, 3:34 pm Link to this post Send Email to Christine98   Send PM to Christine98
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: Aunt Helen


Thanks, Chris. Glad you enjoyed what my brother the historian likes to call a Southern tale. Work gets most of my energy but it is incrementally coming back. Will be making more field notes. Right now, weekend energy is getting spent on retyping, cleaning up, and posting the new-old novel.

Tere
Jul/27/2013, 6:15 pm Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 


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