Elton John - "Bitch is Back"

Miguel hadn't made love since Rosa. With Rosa it was quiet and intense and there was a lot of "okay?" and "are you sure?" but it was warm and it always went on for a nice long time. With Abby it was much louder, and much faster, and there was even laughing. It was over quickly so there was room for a lot of things around the love-making that they could do.

"I'm studying Occult history right now," said Abby, out of breath and her bangs stuck to her forehead with sweat. She lay her head on Miguel's chest. "Do you know about Sir James Fite?"

Miguel kissed the top of her head and thought about Rosa, who always talked about food right after sex, "No."

"Lemme read you this," she flung herself to the far side of the bed and reached desperately for the thin brown book on the night table, smacking her hand on it as if it were a 6am alarm.

Miguel laughed and put on his underwear, feeling suddenly naked and a bit odorous now in the cold light of the room.

"Fite then made his way through the Orient to find new spices for his dark magick, staying in small villages along the way. At every stop, he would take a local girl as his mistress during his stay, testing his magicks and improving his craft on these young women."

Abby hadn't made love since Kevin, almost a year ago, and she was elated to find it was like riding a bike. "Can you believe that? 'He would take a local girl..' as if it were that simple, he must have left a wake of broken hearts." She said, folding the book back and placing it on the night table. Miguel was now up and looking at the framed photos on her desk. One of them had her and Kevin in it.

"Is that what you're doing with me?" she asked, smiling, naked, happy and proud. Miguel looked back at her and smiled, "Maybe."

Sparks - "Tryouts for the Human Race"

In the Nature of Science Museum, Abby was visiting her friend Laura. Laura is a 6th grade teacher, and was on a field trip to the museum with her kids. Laura is so busy with her job that field trips are often the only times her and Abby are able to see each other. Abby has tagged along on so many field trips now, that a kid one time asked "are you sisters?"

In the Undersea Bubble, they were looking at coral life and shallows-dwellers and were bathed in blue light. "So have you said 'boyfriend' yet?" asked Laura. Abby laughed, curling her hair behind her ear and stooping her head under the leg of a giant crab, "No. It's not there yet."

Laura used her teacher voice on some kids, don't bang on the glass, and language. "What does he look like?"

Abby paused. "Like Elvis. Like a Colombian Elvis." She thought he might be disappointed to hear her say that.

"Woah," said Laura, "not your usual type."

"I know," said Abby, and they moved slowly through to the Steam Engine section. The front of a big iron train loomed before them.

"What do you want from this?" Laura looked through her purse for lip balm as they entered the train, following the red cordoned path. She caught a couple of her kids with their hands in each other's back pockets, hey you two, knock it off.

"I guess I want to be someone else," said Abby, she looked at the switches and dials and the little chair for the conductor. People were much shorter back then. Or at least they could fit into much smaller places. "I'm sick of falling into the same patterns in relationships, I want to be the person I want to be and not the person that I usually am, you know?"

Laura nodded, "Yeah, I know," and they came out the back of the train engine, headed next to Water Purification. "It's a shame I don't think I'll get to meet him." Laura had been offered a job in the States and would be leaving at the end of her semester.

"You're leaving that soon?" asked Abby, and suddenly started doing the ranking of her friends in the city, and imagining who would take Laura's place. A kid about twenty yards ahead, suddenly spun around, earphone in one ear. "You're leaving, Ms. Decker?"

Laura's face dropped, "Uh, no, nothing's certain." The kid was satisfied with that and turned back around. Abby bowed her head. Laura, now softer, "Oops. Yeah, I'll be leaving right away as soon as school's over. James is so anxious to get out of here."

Abby, "Sure yeah. Well, be careful down there, don't get killed by any of those Jesus gangs." Laura laughed, at once dismissive and cautious, "Yeah, maybe I'll just join one."

They mixed desalinization chemicals, and pushed water through thick filters, in lukewarm silence. Abby wondered absently, since Laura was leaving, maybe she could put that time into her thesis. She also wanted lunch.

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