Section 3

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Chapter 3

White lies always introduce others of a darker complexion.
- William Paley, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, 1785

3

Chloe Stemons came into my life during my junior year of college. From the start she was a handful. One of those girls – you know the type – great body, sparkling eyes, luminous hair – and unhappy with every inch of herself. She would put on that bantam white smile and act all bubbly. Any room she walked into she became the focus of… disgusting if you think about it. And perhaps most hazardous of all was that this girl was smart. She was a razor blade, cutting swiftly through every guy’s calm, causing their blood to surge, and their erections to follow. One-hundred percent table-grade.

What she came to be, though, was an entirely different thing altogether. As it turned out, she was nothing more than a honey-flaxen glint in a shit-black stream. At first I thought I’d struck gold, but all I’d really found was a particularly well-polished rock – discolored by a life lived in turbulence and shimmering at first, but just something extra to wade through below the surface.

I loved her hair. It was a sort of polished ebony, and it shined the way you think of new cars as shining. It was shoulder length with a touch of curl to it, but let me tell you, those soupy curls, enticing as they appeared, were nothing more than shiny nooses, waiting to strangle the life out of any sorry bastard they could get close enough to wrap around… and wrap around me they did. After one night with her I felt secure. I felt as if I had found something solid and worthwhile. It was that just-purchased, new home feeling – it’s fresh, it’s yours, and no one has ever slept a night in it but you. What I had bought, though, was a quickly-built shanty with a clapped out roof, rainwater seeping through slowly, ruining the damned thing from the inside out.

Her eyes were caliginous, but luminous. The stunning contrast teased me, enticed me, baited me, seduced me, and finally, when she was ready, fucked me for everything I was worth! But wait, wait… I’m getting ahead of myself.