In the hospital he told them he was her son and he walked back to her room after they had reset a bone or two. "Heavy drugs," the beautiful dark skinned nurse had said, "your mom will be ok I think but she was a bit wacky then and is now maybe sleeping but perhaps she was on something she forgot or didn't tell us about or was embarrassed by, you know, lots of guys your age are on the erection dysfunction pill and are embarrassed by hot nurses like myself, I'm not saying your penis does not work properly, maybe it does. I don't know. But I'm saying your mom may have lied to us. Do you think she did? And if she did we are not liable of course. Anyway, here she is? My name's Gabriella," Gabriella said and walked away.
"Miss Belvedere," Bob said, "Can you hear me? Hello?" He moved her arm and she didn't respond. "Sorry to smash your hip or spine or leg or whatever it was. You know, it's just, you're not really so bad. You're nice and we're all sort of aging and well," he said and walked to the side and became distracted by the hospital food. He ate the Jell-o and looked at poor Miss Belvedere asleep on the cot and began to eat the mashed potatoes and then the chalky white turkey meat and then the hard little peas that crunched and the soft cold carrots and then he stood up and said, "Miss Belvedere," again but she didn't answer.
He felt the thin blanket and, sure enough, it was thin. That hardly does anything, he thought to himself and began to pull it back to see exactly what it all constituted. Sure enough, it was just a sheet and the thin cover. Her flesh wasn't really so bad. Not really any worse than Jasmine James', who had a rotten eggplant for a heart anyway so it was like comparing nothing to a precious gem in Africa perhaps covered in some red soil behind a few crazy natives with Kalashnikovs and a very elaborate procedure of acquiring visas and traveling documents.
And that hospital gown, that wasn't thick enough for comfort either. It was short and had a slit in it, which had twisted to her leg and exposed the smooth white, speckled with moles and wrinkles, but otherwise smooth leg. What was that made of? Just as he suspected it was thin cotton. He pushed it aside but it went to the wrong side and he could barely, just barely see the outline of her white underwear.
Well, wasn't that something. It was sort of pretty when it wasn't yelling and screaming and threatening and having Cousin Dean WACK you in the back of your bald scalp where it is sensitive anyway. It was sort of peaceful and quiet and pretty, the whole scene as it was. And Bob the photographer decided to take a mental picture.
But what did it look like, he wondered. He had actually never looked at one he wasn't taking a picture of and that wasn't quite really fair. For professionalism alone he should maybe see one, one time. And well, hell, why not this for the time that would be the first time? Miss Belvedere was always so nice to him, surely she'd want to assist him in this advancement of his career path.
There, that wasn't so bad, and Miss Belvedere didn't seem to mind. She didn't really look too cold. She was passed out quite comfortably on elaborate pharmaceuticals. He'd find the best Afgan blanket for her momentarily.
Now, but now, he wondered what it felt like. He had never really touched one besides his cousin Missy that one Easter way back in the ranch near Temecula. Touching it would only help him to more fully capture the true personality of the thing while he was actualizing himself as Bob, the Photographer. And there was nothing Miss Belvedere would want more in the world than for him, Bob, to be actualized.
It was… well, it was fleshy and there was sort of a lot of it falling over itself and getting lost in itself and well, it didn't seem that great but it was all about what was inside of it. That's what you did with thing, right? You inserted and pushed and thrust and came and it was all about the inside, so, well, it was dry. And there was friction. It was hard to move without pulling the huge amount of skin along with it.
Overall, Bob the photographer thought, not that exciting. He removed his finger and Miss Belvedere's skin clung, seemingly sad to see him go. He readjusted the large white panties and turned the slit in the hospital gown and pulled up the sheet and looked at her sleeping peacefully and began to tuck the sides in.
"Oh and look at you, tucking your mom in, geez aren't we not the sweetest thing I've seen today? Yes, you are the sweetest thing I've seen today." Gabriella the nurse said and entered the room and touched him on the shoulder and smiled warmly into his face. "Maybe we can take a walk and let mom sleep?" Gabriella said and together they left and walked down the hall.
Joel Van Noord lives in California. You can find more of his work at Thieves Jargon.