to the table that had been there since lunch. We sat with our faces looking out to sea. The air was soft and felt as though it were that way just for us.
Michael put our hands on the table mine on the bottom our palms touching. As he spoke, he played with my fingers.
“I’m hungry it’s 6:30; is that too early to order dinner?”
“I’m hungry, too. An early dinner sounds good to me.” I told him.
He was distracted by what he was doing with my fingers. I flashed – he’s testing the connect to see if motion still had the same affect on me, on us. If he were to ask me I’d tell him that it felt really good, probably better than it should, the sensual pull had not changed. I waited to give him space to think and to see what he was up to.
Looking over at me, still playing with my fingers, he said, “Did I tell you that you have wonderful hands; that I really like your hands?”
He brought my hand to his lips and stroked my finger tips across them. He was still testing the motion thing.
“You mentioned it.” I answered.
“That feels nice. Are you testing my resolve?”
It was a mild challenge.
“Why, is this bothering you?” He asked playfully.
“My resolve is intact but that is because I am very strong and able to resist the desire to kiss your neck or kiss your hand or kiss anything of yours that I can get my lips on.”
He stopped all movement allowing me to gain some perspective. It only took a minute for me to show Michael what I was feeling or very near to it. I turned my hand over so that it was on top of Michael’s hand and started playing with his fingers.
At first he looked at what I was doing to his hand and then slowly he looked over at me and nodded his head.
“I see. Stop that.”
He was experiencing the same feelings brought on by movement that I had.
I stopped and just laid my hand on top of his, until there was balance and peace for both of us.
“Holding your hand is good.” He was saying, ‘at least I have that.’
“Let’s go order dinner.”
We did and then went back to the balcony where I packed a bowl to have after dinner or before dinner, whichever came first.
Michael asked if I’d like another catch. I said no that I just wanted to think about what happened during the day and feel the peace. I don’t think he was really into a catch either but just in case I mentioned that it might be good after dinner. He was happy and pulled the lounge chairs side by side and we sat together with his hand on top of mine in relative silence until dinner arrived.
We were interrupted by Denice for a few minutes to tell us she would be dining with Manny and the group and could she get me anything. I just reminded her to leave the slider open for me. She produced the room key and said, “Just in case.” She asked Michael if he beat me at catch – couldn’t tell if she was hoping that he had or she wanted to prove her point about me never losing. He told her that he had a rematch coming up after dinner so he still had hope. She laughed, gave me a sidewise 5 and was on her way.
Catch and the Toe Floss
Our dinner was light and we were hungrier and wanted more. I fished around in my bag and came up with my purple medicine bag – the medicine inside was fun size candy bars. I found a Snickers and tossed it to Michael. His face lit up like a little kid. He didn’t wait for my help; he tore the wrapper off with his teeth. I didn’t tell him that I thought it looked well practiced.
We were starting to put the lounge chairs end to end when I stopped and said, “Let’s try something to test the connect and to make the catch more interesting.”
Michael said, “I’m game.”
I fished inside my sundries bag again and came out with some dental floss. Explaining the idea to Michael was easy enough.
“The dental floss is for tying to our toes which I think would enable us to separate a bit, if we could still feel the connection through the floss, and improve the distance for the catch. It’s just a test; we’ll only be a few feet away from each other. What d’ya think; could we give it a try?”
There was about 15 feet of floss available, perfect. Michael was already wrapping one end of the floss around a big toe. The other end he started to hand to me but instead got down on his knees and wrapped the other end of the floss around one of my big toes. A single look signaled the release of our pinkies. We dropped our hand connection standing a few feet apart and we waited for whatever discomfort would come our way but nothing happened. Our connection was strong; ‘oh wow’, the floss thing worked.
Our lounge chairs were now as far apart as they possibly could be. My chair was up against one wall of the balcony and Michael’s was against the opposite wall. The connection was strong through the dental floss which allowed us a certain amount of mobility. The sense of freedom was exhilarating for both of us.
The catch took on a new face as Michael learned how to have a real catch. With that distance we could work up a greater amount of velocity. Until he felt comfortable with peppering an object to me as fast as he could throw it, I knew he didn’t have a chance. So I modeled for him how to really enjoy the catch by giving it everything you have, by not holding back, by not being afraid to hurt the other catcher.
For Michael’s benefit, I said, “Let’s warm up before we start the actual catch. We both need to adjust our aim and speed to the new expanse.”
We tested the distance and found it to be just perfect. The catch started for real. Within a minute we were laughing – never letting up on the strength of our pitches. That was the time when most folks failed at the game. They couldn’t keep up the velocity while in fits of laughter. That was my strong suit.
Michael was the best competition, he didn’t catch and hold the object like many do to slow things down; he got rid of it immediately after catching it. He also had great reflexes which were evident the number of times he saved my butt by stretching to catch my wild throws. Of course, I did the same for him. We impressed each other as well as ourselves with the strength and accuracy of our pitches.
We worked up a sweat and got better and better at the catch. Michael started changing the rules to create a greater challenge.
“Ok, we can only catch with our left hand.” And another time when he said, “only side arm throws from now on.”
I just agreed to whatever change he wanted to make; I was always confident about the catch and adjusted my attitude to accommodate for his shenanigans. It was close to 11:30 when we finally ended the game
“Would you say it was a tie then?”
Michael wanted to make sure we were on the same page. He was keeping score. I just smiled and got up, grabbed my sundries bag, and headed for the bathroom. Michael would have to follow me but didn’t have to be right on top of me like before. He did follow but he wasn’t taking any chances with the disconnect and if I hadn’t stopped him, he would have followed me right into the bathroom.
“We
