You Don't Feed the Fish Already Caught in Your Net (801 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 2 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Day Star (View user info) at 2005-10-12 11:37:29 EDT
It was the subtle ending of a wedding reception. Over the back of her taffeta formal dress, royal blue and draped low into a precarious dip beneath her shoulder blades was the image from his dreams. He could swear that the tips of her inked visage had been in his subconscious, and he could only know as much as the dipping dress line would allow. It was the puzzle piece that he could see, black-green lines that raised a half inch from the shoulder line of the gown, so incongruous with the occasion.
She seemed quiet, and her actions were so demure, so gentle in her behavior that he couldn't fathom the sort of "bad-girl" she must be to have a tattoo settled betwixt her shoulder blades. No reserved rose, or flirty butterfly or some such feminine ink nonsense, but an honest to god tattoo that truly deserved the name. He could see the very edge of it peeking through the dress, hidden but tempting nonetheless.
With his wineglass raised ever so slightly in her direction, he made eye contact. Pretty, normal, sweet, she was all of these things to his eye. She wore no wedding ring or pantyhose, was no older than thirty nor younger than twenty, nondescript hickory hair, warm eyes. A relative girl next door, with the veiled secret. Swallowing abruptly he made his way to his feet, and swaggered closer to this mystery.
Eyes upswept with plum shades of cosmetics, and a pleasant smile; She was pretty, but not special in any particular way. In fact, as they spoke he did most of the talking, and though she was kind and considerate, she was not particularly engaging. And yet he found himself longing to touch her. The very though was penetrating him, to trace her instep, the curve of her wrist, the nestle of her collar bone, and especially trace the outlines of her back. He wanted her naked, to see the full beauty of her tattoo, to know intimately the women who would get such an image, though he knew not what, eternally painted into her skin.
Eventually, after the wedding, after the goodbyes to be said to family, friends, and well-wishing to the long forgotten bride and groom he was able to get her alone. Under the premise of a post-wedding hook-up he was able to persuade the quiet, slightly mysterious girl to enjoy a few glasses of champagne back at his rented hotel room. She made him dim the lights and with faintly flushed features she began to unzip the back of her gown. With hands that trembled with anticipation he assisted in the unveiling of her masterpiece.
It was a web. Black-green lines that criss-crossed and intersected as a network lay over a hand's width of her back. No, wait; it was a net. And there were two gold creatures in the image. One caught within the net, and one without, and it was swimming. They were fish in elegant detail, Oriental coy outlined in a strange ink-of-gold, complimented with lines of blue and red. One tangled inside the net, and one swimming freely on the girl's back. There was only a subtle difference in the two images of the coy, the scales gleamed a touch brighter on the free-swimming fish, the netted fish seemed slightly more limp on the texture of the girl's back. But the subtlety was enough to unsettle him. He swallowed, not understanding the image, nor the girl and feeling slightly ill. Unsure of what he expected, this tattoo made no sense. Or worse, it made the sort of sense that tugged at the corners of the mind and took time and heartache to unravel.
After staring far too long they made clumsy, hesitating love. He rose to shower and dress, but could not shake the image of the net and two fish. She was gone once he came out of the hotel bathroom, and he didn't know why.
User Reviews
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-10-12 14:53:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2005-10-12 13:58:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn good!
Submitted by supersloth (user info) at 2005-10-12 13:37:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by pantsarestupid (user info) at 2005-10-12 13:24:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I signed in just to rate this.
You're really talented with words.
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2005-10-12 12:17:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You're welcome! You're one of the good ones. ;)
Submitted by userpete86 (user info) at 2005-10-12 12:10:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"So what's the symbology behind that one?"
Submitted by houseman (user info) at 2005-10-12 12:08:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2005-10-12 11:50:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2005-10-12 11:47:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
good
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2005-10-12 11:46:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice to see you back.
Great.