Nude Men

because he could not bear to see her ugly face. But her body, oh, her body was beauty itself, a swan, a naked princess.”
    Sara is silent again. Then she says, “Jeremy, unlock me.”
    “No,” I answer.
    “ ‘Jeremy, unlock me,’ she repeated,” Sara continues. “She said it over and over again, but he kept saying no, no, no. ‘Jeremy, unlock me, unlock me, unlock me.’ ”
    I ignore her. And then I hear a heavy sliding noise. I look up, and she is slowly dragging the couch across the slippery wood floor. She grips her bare feet to the floor and pulls her body forward and advances toward me, on her back, legs first, dragging the couch behind her. Her progress is very slow. She groans under the strain. Minou is absolutely horrified by this spectacle. She’s not used to the couch moving around and making noise. She runs to the kitchen and hides.
    I go back to my letter, and Sara says, “So the poor soul, the poor desperate little bird, started dragging the couch behind her, which was terribly straining her skinny, puny arms. It was making a loud grindy-like noise, and it was scratching his floor, which upset him more than the damage it was doing to her body. She might not even be able to have babies in the future, because her poor lovely delicate lustful body was being stretched like a rubber band so much.”
    “Stop dragging the couch,” I tell her.
    “Her body was burning with desire, and so was his. They both desperately wanted to get their fur aerated. He tried to concentrate on his letter, tried not to look at her, but it was hard.”
    What she says is true. She goes on. “Her skin remembered his touch from the park of amusements, and her skin was begging him; if only he’d look up from his letter, he’d see every one of her little hairs kneeling in prayer, praying that he would become rational and come to her.”
    I glance at her and look back down at my letter, my mind hot, as in a fever. I am aroused. I take a deep breath and read “My Lady” out loud, hoping that the sound of my voice will help me to focus my mind. Then I read as I write: “ ‘I am very sorry to have to write you this letter.’ ”
    “ ‘Unlock me, unlock me, my lord, I implore you,’ she cried, but he did not listen, or pretended not to.”
    “ ‘Something happened at Disney World which should never, ever have happened, something terrible,’ ” I read.
    “He was terribly excited, was dying to get up and come to her, but was fighting the temptation with all his power, and he was a strong man, a strong, muscular man with rippling muscles and a hard manhood between his legs, a manhood that he wanted to give her but daren’t, because he knew that it wast sin. I knowest that it ist sinst, he thought to himself.”
    “ ‘Your daughter and I had a good time at Disney World, but then one night we got carried away and lost our minds, or rather, I should say, I lost my mind, since she’s a minor, and we did it, we made love.’ ”
    I stop reading, because this particular scene I am living right now strikes me very strongly with déjà vu. I have seen this scene before somewhere, or a very similar one, hard as that may be to believe, for this scene is so strange, but I’m sure of it. And then I remember. It was in the film The Exorcist. Sara reminds me of the little girl possessed by the devil, who moved furniture. The girl was tied to her bed, just as Sara is chained to the couch. I am the priest, reading from the Bible, trying to destroy the devil with holy words, while the devil-girl is speaking to me, trying to tempt me, her face a mask of evil. The girl and the priest both talked at the same time to each other, each trying to win, trying to overpower the other.
    Suddenly, Sara stops pulling the couch. She is close enough to me now that the tip of her foot can touch my foot when her leg is completely stretched out. She is lying there, below me, on her back, silent and panting, and she finally says, “He has finished his letter. He has revealed the whole truth, and he looks down at her and knows he’s supposed to bring her home now, but he just doesn’t know if he’s going to be able to do it, because he knows that as soon as he unlocks her she will pounce on him, and then he won’t be able to resist her, so why even try? Why even try? But he really should take off her handcuffs now. Her wrists must be sore from having dragged that heavy couch all that way, and he’s not as cruel as he seems, he has a noble