by
donna charles
Geraldine. That's my name. Born and raised right here. Never been anywhere else. Never wanted to. But I do know a thing or two. I do have a story to tell. Cause a hell of a lot can happen in a place like this over a lifetime. And dead dykes tell no tales. So I'm telling mine, before I ain't able to.

I was born right here in this house some seventy-three years ago. My momma raised 12 children all by herself. Only half of them was actually her's, but nobody really knew which were her's and which were take in children from our daddy's other families. Yep, our daddy had more than one family and everybody knowed it. But my momma was a good woman, and she took in his children whose momma's couldn't feed them. She was what they called ‘a good upstandin Christian woman'.

Well, I ain't. I was mad at my momma. Even though it was never clear whether I was one of her actual children or not. I was mad cause she let that man use and abuse her. I was mad, cause those other women, didn't bother to even send a dollar to help with they kids room and board. I was mad.

But I ain't mad no more. I done made my peace with my momma years ago. Long afore she died. I stood by her and took care of her and made sure she went to her Lord in her finest. That was important to her...being presentable in the sight of the Lord.

But not me. I don't think the Lord much cares about what I do from day to day. Shoot, if I had a rock for each time the Lord stepped aside while my life happened, I could build the world's highest pyramid. Right here in my own backyard. Folks wouldn't have to travel to Africa to see no pyramid. There'd be one right here. The Umpteenth Wonder of the World. And I'd charge admission and put a little plaque on it that says, "I built this here pyramid from the rocks cast at me by the Lord at each turn in which He was not guiding my path". What you think folks would pay to see some shit like that? Oh, my my.

Well, I need to get on with my story fore it gets dark. Gotta go in before them mosquitoes decide to come out of hiding and start looking to snack on what little bit of blood I got left in these veins.

I guess my story started about 13 years ago. I know that makes me just sixty at the time. But you might say I was a late bloomer. I hadn't ever had no man friend in my life. I wasn't real interested and I didn't really see what use they was for. I didn't want no kids, and I can lift just about anything I need to myself. So, no man. But back to the story. About 13 years ago, I was going down to the next town over for my birthday. I figured, I'm gettin older, I can ventrue out and see what's happenin in other parts of the world. So I find myself the name of this bar in the phone book. I don't know nothing about bars and such, so I just looked in the book. And this one sounded nice. So I went on over to The Purple Kitty to get myself a Happy 60th Birthday drink.

Now, like I said, I was born and raised here and I ain't never much felt the urge to go exploring outside of this here town. It's got all I need and what it ain't got, I can order from the Sears catalog.

So anyway. I pulled my car up to The Purple Kitty and took a look around the parkin lot. There were all kinds of cars and things and some young folks and some older folks going into the place. So I figure good, I won't look too out of place. So I grab my wallet and head inside. Well, now honey, this is where the story gets interestin. I push open the door and I'll be damned if it wasn't brighter in that place than high noon on a cloudless day. There were lights everywhere and folks with hardly any clothes on. and the music was thumpin loud in my ears. They must have some majorly thick walls, cuase I didn't hear a sound from outside.

Well, I ain't no punk, so I just acted like I knew what was up and stepped in line at the door. Some girl with cat ears and whiskers took my $5 and stamped a little purple kitty on the back of my hand. I looked around for the bar and headed in that direction. There was wall to wall people and I was sure they were all staring at my old ass. But like I said, I ain't no punk, so I just kept goin like I belonged there.

I got up close to the bar and ordered a whiskey. A glittery little girl, with the same ears and whiskers as the girl at the door, raised her eyebrow at me and said, "three fifty". Now I don't know about where you come from, but in my little town, you can get a bottle of whiskey for $5. But like I said, I ain't no punk. So I slid her four crisp ones and took my drink. As I turned around this voice beside me says, "I love a woman who drinks whiskey".

Well, I'll be damned if I didn't feel a little twinge in my gut. I turned around and looked right into the deepest brown eyes ever. They were almond shaped with dark little lashes and just a hint of glitter at the edges. Now like I said before I was never into the mens, but I never figured myself to be into the womens either. So this woman threw me totally off my guard. "Well, that's what we drink where I'm from." "And where is that.?" So I told her. And took a good long look at her. Right under those beautiful brown eyes was a perky little nose. Not real flat, but not pointy like those white girls. Her lips were full and shiny. They were colored in some brown gloss with a hint of glitter. And she was thick. Not fat. Not chubby. Not round. Thick. And in all the right places.

Now remember, I ain't been into no romance, lovey dovey, shit before. But I was smitten. Talk about a cool drink of water on a hot summer day. This woman was a glass of iced tea with the sweat running down the side of the glass wiped across your face after pickin like twenty bushels of peaches in the Georgia sun. Damn. Now don't get me wrong, they's all kinds of folks where I'm from and we have had a woman lovin woman or two around. But I just never thought of it for myself. So here I am looking dead into the eyes of black woman goddess and thinking I have most definitely died and gone to heaven. And I guess it must have seemed so to her too, cause she started laughin, and said, "Where you off to? Would you like to dance?"

Well, I didn't know what else to do, so I gulped down my whiskey and said, "Okay". And off to the dance floor we went. She put her left hand in my right and her right hand on my neck. I tried not to stand too close, but she laughed and put my left hand around her waist, and pushed herself up real close to me.

"My name's EmmaLee by the way, what's yours?"

"Geraldine."

"Well, nice to meet ya Geraldine." She was a little taller than me, so my face was right at her neck, and man did she smell good. I don't know what kind of music they was playin, but we just kind of swayed across the floor, for what must have been a couple of hours, cause when I looked up they was herdin folks towards the door.

Now of course, I didn't want to let go of her, but I didn't want to be disrespectful either. So I asked her if she'd like to grab a bite to eat at the all night diner. She said yes, and so we hopped in my car and drove about 5 minutes down the road to the diner. I pulled in a parkin space and got out to open the door for her. When she stepped out of the car, she put her arm around my neck and kissed me, right smack-dab on the lips. Wow!

I tried to play it cool, but I was tremblin so much, she had to grab my arm to steady me. We walked in the diner and sat at a booth by the window. And talked. We talked for about 2 hours about everything. She told me about her life and I told her about mine. Seems she had been into womens for as long as she could remember. And that was a long time, cause we was both the same age. When I told her how I stumbled on the place she laughed so loud, everybody in the place looked over. Then she said she would like to give me something special for my birthday. And winked.

I wasn't sure what that was all about, but I said okay, and we drove back to the bar where we'd left her car and I followed her home. She led me into her little house and when I turned from pushin the door shut, she wrapped both arms around my neck and kissed me hard. I felt her tongue slidin across my lips and opened my mouth just a little. Her tongue slid in and touched mine. I though I was gonna pass out. Not only was there electricity happenin in my mouth, but I could feel little sparks in the nether regions, if you know what I mean.

EmmaLee stepped back and led me to her bedroom. She did a little strip tease and my mouth watered. I had never felt like this before. I thought that if I weren't already dead, I would die soon. After she was completely naked...Gawddamn she was beautiful...She reached for the buttons on my shirt. I let her undress me and then she straddled my lap. I remembered for a second that I didn't know what the hell I was gettin myself into, but then decided, what the hell, I'm just gonna enjoy whatever happened.

I was so overwhelmed with her and started to kiss every bit of skin I could reach. I kissed her forehead, her nose, her ears, her chin, her lips. And when I reached her neck she leaned her head back and moaned. This got me all excited and I started kissing it even harder. I then kissed down towards her breasts. I took a deep breath and took her left nipple in my mouth. She started to moan louder and dug her nails into my back. This excited me even more and I spent what seemed like hours sucking on each of her big round mahogany nipples.

She stood up and eased me back on the bed. She started kissing down my body and I felt as though every bit of my flesh was being caressed by angels. She licked my belly and the insides of my thighs. Then it was my turn to moan. She took her fingers and spread me open. When her tongue touched me I nearly hit my head on the ceilin I jumped so high.

EmmaLee just laughed and tightened her grip around my thighs. She winked at me and I closed my eyes to try to stay focused and keep from flyin off the bed. Her tongue felt so good and I started to cry. Not because it hurt, or I was scared (shit, I ain't no punk), but because I had never felt so good in all my days. I felt my body tighten and and liquid fire rush between my legs. She continued licking and I thought I would lose my mind. She climbed on the bed next to me and kissed me deeply. She straddled my face and the scent of her sent my head reeling. I wanted so much to have my mouth on her. I didn't know what I was doin, but I just opened my mouth and welcomed what she had to offer. And I guess I was doin alright, lickin and suckin, cause fore long she was buckin and moanin and her thighs were tight around my head.

This dance of touchin and caressin and kissin and tastin went on well past dawn. We eventually got up and showered. I needed to go back to my place for clean clothes, and so we hopped in my car. After I dressed, I made her breakfast and we talked the whole day through. I was in love. Yep, me, Geraldine--never had a man, never got too close to nobody--was in love.

You're probably wonderin what two old ladies who find themselves in love do. Well, we both had our own places...and we kept them. We would spend the week at my place, cause it was closer to where I worked. EmmaLee would spend the day tendin the gardens and runnin errands, and the nights curled up tight in my arms. Her place was closer to the city and we'd go in and have ourselves a good old time on the weekends. I realized what I'd been missin all those years–dancin, lovin, playin, and laughin. Shoot, EmmaLee sure knew how to show an old gal a good time, huh.

EmmaLee passed on bout a year ago. She had a tumor in her brain they couldn't really operate on. But she had a good life. She was a good woman and I loved her with all of me. We had some times. Hopefully, I'll be able to tell you about those too. I don't know if I'm gonna be around much longer, so I wanted to tell you about the happiest 12 years of my life. Shoot, love happened for me at 60, and I wouldn't trade those 12 years for nothin. But them ‘squitoes is comin out, so I'm gonna get myself back inside. I'll be talkin to ya.

THE END

Copyright © 2002. Used by permission of author. All Rights Reserved.