Love

by David M. Harris
(Kingston Springs, TN)

One of the things I hate about this town is the VFW hall. It's where there is to go, and everyone goes there. The same damn people all the time, with the same damn histories.

Even Doreen, whom I love right now, is the same. We go to a dance at the VFW and she's been married to or in love with or in bed with half the guys there. So even though I love her, right now, I keep an eye on her.

She dances with other guys--I'm not some paleolithic male chauvinist--but I keep an eye on her. And sometimes, like this time, when she's letting herself be kissed and groped by one of the local petty hoodlums, she forgets herself, and I have to take her out and explain again, forcefully, about us, and how it is between us, and how I love her. Right now.

It's just too bad that she bruises so easily.