A Night At The Starlight Motel, A Fling Before Quarantine

The virus pandemic was getting out of control

states were starting to go on lock down

complete quarantine.

An ex-girlfriend of mine from a few years back

we had been going back and forth, 

in the past few weeks

saying we should get a drink and catch up, 

but we still hadn't.

So I texted her,

'Hey we should really get that drink before we're all quarantined.'

'Yes, we definitely should. Have you ever stayed at the Starlite Motel?'

She was talking about the seedy little motel

off Main Street

the one with the flashing neon diving lady sign.

The unofficial icon & symbol

of our little city, Mesa.

'No, I never have. Always wanted to though.'

'Well, we should just do that then. Get some beers, get a room, hangout. Sounds better than just going to some bar.'

'Fuck yeah, let's do it. I'm down.'

We agreed to meet at 7 o'clock.

I drove down the street, one block over from the motel,

and even from there, one street over and behind

I could see the diving lady sign

the neon woman diving

in three flashes

down into the blue neon water splash

at the bottom.

I pulled up in my little red truck

just as Ashton was putting the key card into the door.

The sun was quickly setting in the West.

the diving lady glowing brightly

against the pink-blue smeared sky.

"Hey there." She said, standing in the open doorway

smiling up at me from her pale face

her pitch black hair resting on her black leather jacket

black shirt, skirt, fishnets, boots.

She was the dark queen.

Gothic Drew Barrymore is a really good way

to describe Ashton.

"Hey." I said, giving her a tight hug.

I set my backpack down.

"I brought a jukebox. It's basically just a giant bluetooth speaker, it's like four feet tall."

"Oh, cool!"

I lugged the big jukebox speaker in and plugged it into the wall.

It connected to my phone

flashing blue, green, red, and yellow lights

now pulsated from the jukebox.

She had a 12 pack of Truly hard seltzer and a 12 pack of Miller High Life

I had a weed vape pen and a pack of Pall Mall reds.

We sat in the two chairs at the medium-sized circular wood table

starting slamming back our drinks

and got to catching up on things.

Mostly, her filling me in as to why

her and her long-term boyfriend were currently

on a break and most likely, not getting back together.

She told me tales of him destroying hotel rooms

in small European towns

and how shocked she was, that the cops just let him go.

"American cops would've just fucking shot him! But they wouldn't even arrest him!"

She told me about how he had tried to control her

didn't want her going out

didn't want her hanging out with friends

didn't want her drinking.

I just sat there shaking my head

smiling and laughing.

Unbelievable.

In all the time that I had dated Ashton

I had NEVER even thought about trying to

tame her.

A woman like that

you can't.

You'd just be shoveling water against the tide.

She's one of those wild and tough broads

that you can't try to cage up

I mean some guys like him would try

but me?

Shit, I don't believe in birds living in cages either.

'She's beautiful.' I thought, staring at her, as I changed the subject

to our most favorite subject to discuss;

music.

Ashton knew her shit.

This gal knew just as much about Blues music as I did

and THEN some.

She had been responsible for introducing me to some of the underground greats.

So we got into it.

Females Blues Singers.

Bukka White.

Blind Willie McTell.

It was great. Just like old times, the good ones.

I smoked more cigarettes and we kept on drinking.

The conversation flowed

just like the drinks down our throats.

I had forgotten just how much

I truly LOVED this woman's company

and conversation.

We finished all the hard seltzers and then started

in on those Miler High Life's.

I switched the music to 1940's slow jams

'Moonlight Serenade' by Glenn Miller.

We stood up and slowly danced together

swaying back and forth

the warmth of her body heat

so close I could feel it.

I put my hand under her chin and brought her lips to mine.

Like two pads of hot butter

we just melted onto the bed, wrapped up in each other's arms.

We kissed long and hard

breathing heavily through our noses

she started making those little whimpering noises that she made.

"No, no, we can't...I can't fuck you tonight...I can't..."

She moaned again, whispering my name,

and another little whimper escaped her lips.

I gripped a good handful of her thick, black hair

pulled it into a tight fist

and pressed my mouth to her neck

lightly biting and then kissing all the way up

her neck.

I whispered into her ear, trying not to laugh at what I was about to say,

"You're not fucking me tonight, I'm fucking you."

I lifted up her top and her big, pale, pink tits bounced out.

I slipped it in

and both of us gasped, kissing hard.

Remembering just how good it felt

when we got together like this

every few years or so.

We gasped

and we smiled

we laughed

and we kissed again.

Both of us just going at it

while the world around us

was getting

cancelled

postponed

closed

quarantined

and all the while

that neon lady sign

continued diving

down, down, down,

splash.