Tales of the City 03 - Further Tales of the City

…”
    “There are things I have to do,” DeDe said sternly.
    “Like … what?”
    “I can’t tell you yet,” DeDe replied.
    When she leaned down to kiss her children, there was something indefinable in her eyes.

Wishing Upon a Star
    __________ _________SAT UP IN BED AND LIT A CIGARET. “MAYBE WE’D better take a break, huh?”
    “Yeah?” said Michael, “I’m sorry.” God, was he sorry.
    “It’s O.K., pal.”
    “Maybe with you.”
    “Nah. It’s fine. Happens all the time.”
    “It does?” Michael sat up, so that now they were both propped against the regal headboard.
    The movie star gave his thigh a friendly shake. “Sure. All the time.”
    “That must be kind of a drag,” said Michael.
    The same sleepy, half-lidded smile that seemed to work so well on_______ _______’s leading ladies flickered across the actor’s face. “I’m just another guy like you, you know.”
    Michael smiled back at him. “Not yet, you aren’t.”
    “No sweat,” said _____, taking another drag on his cigaret. “We’re not in any hurry. I’m not, anyway.”
    “Won’t the movie be over soon?”
    The movie star shrugged. “You didn’t miss anything. I can promise you that.”
    “Not down stairs, maybe.”
    “Hey, ease up, pal … if I don’t turn you on, there’s no harm done.”
    “Are you kidding? You’ve turned me on since I was eleven.”
    “Hey,” grinned _______, “thanks a helluva lot.”
    Michael laughed apologetically. “I’m not doing very well, am I?”
    _______looked at him with affection, then tousled his hair. “All right. Pretty damn all right.”
    “It’s such a waste,” Michael lamented. “Your dick is so beautiful.”
    The actor nodded his thanks.
    “I can’t believe what a fuck-up I am. I mean, Jesus God … how many cracks do you get at_______ ________?”
    “Two or three,” said the movie star, tweaking Michael’s nipple. “And possibly lasagna. Guido’s dishing it out to the hordes downstairs. Why don’t I bring us a plate?”
    Fifteen minutes later, when ______ came back with the food, Michael had some good news for him: “I found the popper case. It was wedged between the mattress and the headboard.”
    “Great,” said ______, easing into bed holding two forks and a plate of lasagna.
    Michael examined the black leather pouch. “Jees. Your initials and everything. And real poppers inside. Lord, it’s so grand here at the Harmonia Gardens.”
    ______speared a chunk of lasagna and handed the fork to his guest. “That was a present from Ned. Christmas before last. He knows how to buy for me.”
    Michael took a healthy bite out of the lasagna. “That was what did it, you know. Those goddamn initials on that little leather case. All I could think of was: ‘Hey, that’s right. That must make me______ ______.’”
    “She’s a little tougher than you,” said the actor, “but I like your body better.”
    Michael smiled with a mouthful of lasagna. “Something tells me you’ve said that before.”
    ________spoke to the tip of his fork. “Well, you’re not exactly the first guy to say he feels like_________ _________.”
    “Good point.”
    “It’ll pass. It just takes a while sometimes.”
    “I think it already has.”
    “Huh?”
    “Do you mind if we ditch the lasagna and have another go at it?”
    “You’re on,” grinned ______.
Somewhere in Arizona, Michael is hitchhiking on a stretch of desert highway. The trucker who picks him up is older than he is—gray and a little grizzled—but his body is massive and hard. Without a word, he lays a thick-veined hand on Michael’s thigh and takes him to a sleazy motel on the edge of the desert. It is there that it finally happens, there that Michael tastes diesel fuel on a sunburned neck and commits himself totally to the appetites of a stranger.
    “Uh … Michael?”
    “Mmm?”
    “You O.K.?”
    “Does Nancy have a red dress?”
    “What?”
    “Sorry. Just a little post-coital campy.”
    “Oh.”
    “I’m great. How are you?”
    “Great. All things are possible, huh?”
    “Uh-huh,” said Michael dreamily, wondering if somewhere in Arizona a lonely hitchhiker was sleeping with a truck driver, but fantasizing about_____ ______.
    It seemed only fair.

Womb for One More
    T HE SAMADHI CENTER ON VAN NESS WAS ACROSS THE street from a Midas muffler shop and next door to Hippo Hamburgers. Brian pointed this out to Mary Ann, adding wickedly: “It kinda makes me feel mystical already.”
    Rolling her