Seven Women: An Erotic Private Investigation

Chapter 14…

“It’s such a crowded city,” Amelia says, looking out the window.

I’m sharing a cab with Amelia, Tasha, and Sheila. We’re crammed in. I’m at one end and Amelia is at the other. Sheila is sitting next to me. Her perfume is expensive and strong. I like the way her hair smells.

There aren’t any places near that seem interesting. Sheila suggests a place none of us have heard of. It’s a few miles uptown. In the cab behind us are Holly, Lisa, and Cara. I wonder what they’re talking about.

“Amelia,” Sheila says.

“Yes?”

“You mentioned an astronaut several times before,” Sheila says. “Are you saying you did a real live astronaut? Like one who went to the moon?”

“He called himself The Astronaut,” Amelia says, “and we went beyond the moon. He went all over the galaxy.”

“Girl, you’re funny.”

“No, really,” Amelia says. “I met him right after I decided to run away. Drive away. I had to take David back to his car, of course, but I couldn’t go back home. So that was it. It’s what made me go and leave, take that car and drive away because I knew right then and there that no matter how much I needed or wanted someone to be a part of my life, to be in my life, no matter what, maybe it was best that I go it alone. The loner: little ol’ moi. The drift-girl. The old maid, sure. I didn’t care. All I knew was that I had to get the hell away, far away. And look at me! There I was, driving and driving! I was taking the highway east. I was heading away from the city and into the mountains, the desert, I guess I was going to try and find myself. I was driving, and suddenly there were all these swirly lights around the car. Eeeks! Oh my, oh my! I woke up and I was — inside a UFO.”

Tasha and I look at each other.

“We’re here,” Sheila says, and she brushes a hand across my leg, my upper thigh really, very delicately, the nails glancing across. She looks at me out of the corner of her eye just as Tasha looks over at Amelia, Amelia who is looking out the window and saying, “There are a lot of UFOs out there.”