The moon was full again and Josh and Cindy were sitting
on the hill in back of her house watching it climb into the sky. Josh
felt her hand grasp his and hold on. What was she thinking? Why
did decisions always have to have so many consequences?
"Josh? Josh, you know what I like best about you?"
"Yeah, sure. That I kissed you. You always say that.
There must be more than just being a good kisser?"
"Well, I think we both need a lot of practice. But that's
not what I'm thinking. Not now." She squeezed his hand just a little bit.
"What, then? What is it that you like best about me?"
Josh turned and looked at her profile, outlined by moonlight and shadow.
"I feel so comfortable with you. How long since we went
to the beach? Do you know?" She let go of his hand and
turned toward him.
"Let me think. Do you have an almanac? It was
many moons ago. No. It just seems like forever. It was one moon
ago. And the last full moon was on Saturday, April eleventh. So it was
a moon and a day ago." Josh took a bow.
"Pretty good, Romeo. I wouldn't have guessed you had
any idea. I thought it was all just rapture." Cindy stood up and walked
a few feet away. And then she turned, with the moon behind her.
It made Josh shiver, her aura seemed more than the glow of
the moonlight, it seemed her spirit was reaching out to him.
"But soft, what light doth break? It is the east, and Cindy
is the moon." Josh had risen too, pantomiming his Shakespeare.
"Come closer, my Romeo. But you still need to figure
out what I like best about you. No, no. No more kisses until you
know the answer."
"Well, it's got to be something simple, `cause that's all
I've got. I know. It's my nineteen eighty-nine Chevy and all its
rocking and rolling." Josh grabbed at an imaginary wheel and began tooting.
"It could be your sense of humor. You are one weird kid.
Or your poetry. I think that's what I like best about your
poetry—the humor you put into it. But that's not what I like best about
you. Keep guessing." She settled back onto the ground and crossed
her arms in front of her. The moon bathed her in its soft light.
"Aw, come on, Cindy. I'm just a dumb guy. I don't know
all this mushy stuff about love." Josh fell on his knees. "You gotta
tell me. Please. Pretty please."
"It's easy. It's the simplest thing in the world, and
that makes it the best." She jumped up and began running, trying to
fly down the hill. "Catch me if you can."
He watched her go. She ran in and out of the
moonlight, waving her arms as if she were a plane. A wide arc brought
her back to the top of the hill and close to Josh.
"Hey, killjoy. You taught me to fly. Maybe that's what I
like best about you. Uh, oh. Wrong answer. Come fly with me."
Josh enjoyed where he was and stayed on the edge of
the hill as she made another loop through the mottled light. How
could one person have come to mean so much to him? How had
she reached into his life and made him suddenly so happy?
Suddenly more complete than he had ever imagined he could ever be?
Maybe that was the answer.
"Here I come again. Your time is up. Catch me."
Cindy dove onto him, rolling him over, ending up pinning him to
the ground. "Now listen. This is important. This is the truth. Not
the usual mushy stuff I tell you. Are you ready?"
Josh nodded.
"Remember when you first came to my house?
Remember when I kissed you?"
"Not one of my finer moments."
"So you do remember. Well, we've had better times
since then. But that night, that kiss, that moment. I felt I had to grab
you and hold you tight and make you pay attention, or I'd never
have another chance. If I didn't pounce, like a mountain lion, and
sink my fangs into you, you'd disappear. Like a, like a wisp of
moonlight." Her face was close to his, and her eyes seemed to have a
fire of their own, burning into him.
"You make it sound so wild, so animalistic."
"It was. It was an all or nothing moment." Her
hands clenched his shirt and twisted.
"So that's what you like best about me? Is that moment?"
"No, no, no, no. You don't understand. I was desperate.
I was not being myself, and the only thing that saved us was that
you were being yourself. I think maybe you can't be anything
but yourself."
"I vant to drink your blood." Josh let his teeth protrude.
"See. Here I am, trying to be real serious, tell you the
most important thing about this relationship, and all you can do is
clown around. And that's you. And that's what I love."
"So I got it? So that's what you love best about me? Wait
a minute. Is it me being me, or my jokes that you like the best?
Cause if it's my jokes, we may have to rethink this entire relationship."
"No, you still don't have it. I'll tell you. Sit up."
Cindy rolled to the ground and pulled Josh beside her. "What I like
best about you is how comfortable I feel with you. How it's as if
we have all the time in the world. That first night, I was wild, and
I thought that if I gave myself to you, I could capture you.
Like taming a wild beast with a charm. But you were the sensible
one. You knew. You knew that we had all the time in the world.
There was no need to hurry. There was no wild beast to be
captured. There was only eternity, and you, and me."
"I'm not a wild beast?" Josh tried to look crestfallen.
"Oh, there's a wild beast in there, but it doesn't need
taming. It's a loveable part of you. But there's also forever inside
of you, and that makes me feel comfortable, safe, sure of you.
That's what I love best about you." Cindy had taken his hand again
and was looking at the moon.
"So I'm like an old pair of jeans, just hanging
around, comfortable and safe?"
"A pair of old jeans that I want to take to college with me.
I talked with Angie and their apartment's not going to be
free, they're staying there next year. But the one downstairs from
them, she thinks that's available. She's going to ask her landlord, the
first of the month. We should go visit them this weekend. What
d'ya say?"
"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea." But Josh felt that
old tightness, deep down inside, where nothing had hurt for a
long, long time.
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