The tightness of the waistband around my body chafed my skin. “What do you mean?” I asked, swallowing hard and fearing the answer. We were laying side by side, him on his back and me on my right side, facing him with my arm over his chest and my leg on his thighs. “That’s the way of it.” And really there was no other explanation I could make. The tightness of the waistband around my body chafed my skin. All my piercings had healed perfectly, the way my body was recovering quickly and almost effortlessly from the infection in my lungs and the deep cuts along my sides. I was on my feet; shrugging out of the nightgown I’d been forced to wear for the doctor’s visits. ” … I could sense it clearly and so could he, once I explained myself. Not about my body, which he said was remarkable, but more over my mind, I suppose. “How did you get so smart all of a sudden?” He was smiling, teasing me.
