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March 14 Keolwulf 19
“We are like sculptors, constantly carving out of others the image we long for, need, love or desire, often against reality, against their benefit, and always, in the end, a disappointment, because it does not fit them.” –Anais Nin

Adrienne stood in the dark side street and stared up at the candlelit window. The old Victorian house was half covered by overgrown weeds, but she could still see the window on the second floor, although she was not sure whether it was because it was completely visible or because her mind’s eye remembered it being there. She reached down to the gravel amidst broken beer bottles on the curb and found an adequately sized rock to throw at the window. Again she reached down and picked up two more rocks, hitting the window twice more but in rapid succession. The window opened slightly. “Neveah I know you’re there,” she said to the shadow behind the candle in the windowsill. The shadow didn’t move. “C’mon,Neveah, I even did the signal right. Just get the fuck down here.” The shadow in the window moved and the window opened. A figure climbed from the room to the oak tree that stretched beyond the roof, and slid down its branches like rain water. Neveah stood before her, her dark hair hanging at a sharp angle over her green eyes. She stood eye level with Adrienne, clad in all black. She reached out and moved a curl out of Adrienne’s eye. “You know that’s not my name anymore,” she said curtly, and folded her arms. Adrienne rolled her eyes. “Does anyone else but you actually pay attention to the fact that you’ve changed your name based on Egyptian numerology?” Neveah fingered the amber amulet around her neck. “The rest of my coven does not recognize my birth name,” she answered. Adrienne sat down at the base of the oak. Neveah mirrored her action, pulling a pack of Marlboro Reds from her back pocket before sitting cross legged in front of her. Lighting her cigarette, she took a drag and then handed it to Adrienne. Adrienne puffed lightly, and closed her eyes as she exhaled rings of smoke. “I see you haven’t lost your talent,” Neveah said, taking the cigarette from her. “I haven’t lost any of my talent,” she replied, tracing Neveah’s lips with her finger. “Some people would argue that intercourse with men weakens one’s talents,” she challenged. Adrienne chuckled softly. “Is that an offer?”
“Do you want it to be?” Her jade eyes remained unchanged.
“Am I supposed to?”
“You always answer a question with a question.”
“So do you.”
“That’s not the point.”
“I think it is.”
“You don’t want to know what I think.”
“I already know what you think. You think I should leave men alone completely.”
“So?”
“So what if I don’t want to? What if I don’t know if I can?”
“How do you know if you’ve never tried?”
“How do you know if I’ve never tried?”
“I know. But it’s not about what I know. It’s about what you know.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You have bad taste in men.”
“And I don’t have bad taste in women?”
“If I said yes, wouldn’t I be insulting myself?”
“Hadassah doesn’t bother you?”
“No. Deshawn bothers me.”
“I never said he didn’t bother me.”
“If he does why do you stay with him?”
Adrienne inhaled more of Neveah’s cigarette and handed it back to her. “I told him to leave me the fuck alone. I wouldn’t exactly call that staying with him.”
“You’re still with him until you say that it’s over. You have to actually say it. Otherwise he’ll think you’re still together. He’d never get the hint. And it’s ridiculous to stay with him the way things are.”
“Meaning?”
“Why stay with him when you’re in love with his brother?”