She is the balance of nature.

Shadow dreams.. .

"I have flash images when I settle into my chair.
It's like a slide show. I see a woman in a one-piece blue bathing suit.
She has a big floppy white hat on. She's walking along the beach."
Bob lights a match to his pipe.

"You're probably remembering your mom," Sally gently kisses Bob.

"No. This woman might have been Columbian," Bob taps his pipe on the table.

Sally was confused, "Why Columbian?"
"She had a copper complexion and curvaceous figure."
Bob shrugged, "I had a Columbia girlfriend in Somerville."
"Thanks for sharing that," Sally was peeved.

"Well, when I was in my twenties I went to Revere Beach with my friends."
Bob looks over at Sally, "Maybe I should stop."
"Oh hell no," Sally gives Bob a Cheshire Cat smile.
Bob rubs the back of his head and pokes at the burning tobacco in his pipe.

"I saw this gold bracelet; she was wearing. It had tiny bears and rabbits."
Bob scratched his right ear, "A charm bracelet."
Sally poured some jasmine tea into two cups and handed Bob a cup.
"The bracelet glittered, like water under the pier," Bob blew out some smoke.

Sally stopped sipping, "You were under the pier with this woman?"
Bob puffed on his pipe, "She was a prostitute."
Sally pursed her lips, "Oh, nice."
"She walked over to us and made a proposition. There were three of us."
Sally looked angry and began tapping the fingers of her right hand on the table.

"And?" Sally queried.

Bob raised an eyebrow, "Of course we chickened out."
Bob laughed and tapped out his pipe into an ashtray.
My friends and I went into Kelly's Sea Food and I had jumbo shrimp with onion rings.
Sally started whistling, This Old Man.


Fini