Reconciliation 15

Chicago, Illinois

June 21, 1957

Anxiously sitting behind the steering wheel

staring in the direction her husband had disappeared

after what seemed an hour,

but in reality was no more than twelve minutes,

seeing an approaching shadow,

thinking it was her husband

about to go to him,

she realized the figure was shorter and wider.

“Hi!” Going to the passenger side,

opening the door,

sitting,

Mahoney pulled the door shut.

“I thought maybe you’n’me could,

uh…”

 “What did you do with my husband?

Where’s my husband?”

“With my partner.

He’ll be just fine.

I’m John,

an’ I thought you’n’me could,

 uh,

kind’a talk to each other.

Maybe kind’a get to,

 uh,

know each other.”

“Get to know you?

I don’t want to know you!”

Her stomach lurching,

“I want my husband!”

“Well, ya know,

girlie,

what the two’a you was doin’ before,

what’j’ya was lettin’ him, uh,

your ‘husband,’

do to ya’s what we call deviant behavior,

an…”

Angled on the seat,

facing the young women

who was facing stiffly forward,

Mahoney began to run the tip of his

finger back and forth,

along the outside of her thigh.

“…an’, uh,

if I wanted,

I could haul the two’a’ya

into precinct an’ book

the two’a’ya as sexual deviants

an’ then whenever there’s a crime of a,

uh,

sexual nature, your husband…

What’ch’ya say his name is?”

Slipping his hand through the seam of the chemise,

he rubbed it lightly on her bare thigh.

©December 1, 2011 / Mark M. Lichterman

To be continued as “The Reconciliation 16”