Winter Night
Almost a full year later, I meet up with Johnny on a brutally cold Thursday evening. We go see the new Xavier Dolan film at Landmark Sunshine. It's long and vexing and beautiful. There are more than a few moments when the teenaged protagonist, an emotional tyrant of a blonde boy, loses his cool completely and explodes with rage, a flood of destructive and terrifying energy. I can't help but flinch, how much it reminds me of Tao Yu.
Johnny and I have a whiskey and a beer each after the movie and catch up. This might be our first real conversation, actually. It gets late. He hails an Uber. We go to my place, smoke pot, and crawl into bed together. There is a familiarity to this, even though it is only the second time he's spent the night. Our hands and feet are blocks of ice. Poor circulation or something. I clasp one of his hands, reach out my other. So strange. I think about how he is a similar size and shape to Ash, but of a wildly different temperament. It feels good to have a warm body to share this bed with on such a night. We kiss a little. Pretty soon he is asleep. I try to match my breaths to his, inhale, exhale. I doze off. When I awake in the middle of the night, my feet are warm and happy in the blanket next to him. My hands no longer frigid.
Johnny and I have a whiskey and a beer each after the movie and catch up. This might be our first real conversation, actually. It gets late. He hails an Uber. We go to my place, smoke pot, and crawl into bed together. There is a familiarity to this, even though it is only the second time he's spent the night. Our hands and feet are blocks of ice. Poor circulation or something. I clasp one of his hands, reach out my other. So strange. I think about how he is a similar size and shape to Ash, but of a wildly different temperament. It feels good to have a warm body to share this bed with on such a night. We kiss a little. Pretty soon he is asleep. I try to match my breaths to his, inhale, exhale. I doze off. When I awake in the middle of the night, my feet are warm and happy in the blanket next to him. My hands no longer frigid.