Sweet Children Come Out and Play, chapter 25
"Come here!"
"No! I don't want to take pictures! They always turn out stupid."
"No, they don't. You look beautiful now sit down with me!" Billie whined from inside the picture booth in the middle of Oakridge Mall.
"But... " Delphine really could not think of another reason why not to.
"Please?" he made a pouty face with his big bright green eyes and she made herself look away before she was convinced by that stupid charm of his. "Oh come on, honey." Shit, she looked at him. Well, that did it. No refusing now with a hot face like that.
"Fine." She stepped inside the curtain with her arms crossed, but he pulled her in and pulled her body close, shutting the curtain in a hurry and then passionately kissing her on the spot. "Billie!" she mumbled but closed her eyes and lost herself in his mouth for a second. He really just intended to put a smile of her face for the picture, but then again it was feeling pretty damn good about now. She bit his lower lip and he wrapped his strong arms around her, fingering her neck and down below he shirt. Her boobs were bigger now too. Not to be shallow, but that was fun too. But then a hollow metal knock came from outside.
"Anyone in there?" a man's voice said.
Billie let go of her tongue for long enough to say, "Yeah!" He was about to add, "GO THE FUCK AWAY!" but Delphine cupped her hand over his mouth.
"We'll be right out in a second," she said in a clear girly innocent voice. And then turning back to Billie for a, "We shall continue this rendezvous later. Don't worry," she poked his nose playfully before he tugged her down for one last kiss. "Mo ky, ok, stop that!" she whispered sitting up and setting herself straight. "Take the fucking picture already! That's what we're in here for."
They pushed the button. First Delphine beside Billie. Cheek to cheek. Then a kiss midair. Then sitting in his lap. And then the classic silly-face-off picture. After that, Billie slipped out of the little booth and pushed Delphine back inside. "Just stay there for another moment. Take another roll."
"Just me?" she whined from inside in the same four year old voice.
"Yes! Make 'em good."
"Even if I go like this?" she stuck her head out the curtain and stuck out her tongue.
"Yes! Exactly like that. Ok go."
When the photos were snapped, Billie grabbed them out of the machine and stuffed them into this back pocket. Delphine jumped out. "Ok, let me see."
"What pictures?"
"Billie, shut-up."
"Fine," he held up the ones of both of them.
"You look like a goof, Billie. Oh, this one's cute though." Then she looked up, "and let me see the other ones."
"Um, can't do that yet."
"What? And why not?"
"Because... because because. You'll get to see them later. But I need to use them for something first."
"And what by tell may that be? Blackmail?"
"Nooo."
"Then why won't you tell me?"
"Because, because... because of the wonderful things that he does! We're off to see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz!" Billie started doing a jig in the middle of the mall making people stare and therefore switching the subject. Delphine thought 'fine, be that way' and joined him on the mall dance floor tiles.
***
Later that day, as Delphine and Billie were strolling through the end of the mall, they passed another couple. The two were older, gray haired and had all the usual signs of an aged American couple. The guy in a plain tucked in collared shirt, loafers, blue jeans and a thin belt to hold them up over his overweight belly. He was going bald too except for the half ring of hair going around the outside of his skull. The woman had the short cut curled gray hair as all women seem to have of her generation - really, if they just left it long, they could look so much better, gray and all, they just all looked the same with that boring hair cut - plus the cache pants, loose shirt and some chunky jewelry that looked like it came from a sale rack in Macy's.
Delphine never liked how these couples were all exactly the same. It depressed her beyond reason from her teenage years on. Did they just not care anymore about their own style and she was going to be like that one day? Or was it that they just didn't have any style to speak of? She looked down at her own punky clothes - ones she had found even though she was pregnant because she still managed to shop at Hot Topic and stores like that for her darker side. Delphine was the type to wear whatever she wanted so her style ranged from metal head to hippie most of the time, but it was still her style. Billie was the simple punk look she guessed. He had a white shirt on, tight black pants and a baseball hat which he proudly wore backwards. It was never anything fancy except for the black collared shirt and a thin tie at some concerts when he felt like it.
Most of the time nothing though. Tattoos are like jewelry for guys, and he was specializing in them; although not always on purpose. The sign on his chest that meant "potent male" or something like that was not exactly what she would have preferred up it was hella funny anyway. She would bet two-hundred bucks though that the couple in front of them did not have even the slightest touch of ink on them.
'What will we look like in fifty years?' she wondered. She could imagine what the man and his wife used to look like. As plain as they were now probably, just like the group of middle schoolers, who had not yet found their tastes yet, congregated in the center of the wide hall over to the right, but a little more "refined" - whatever that means.
Now, the reason Delphine was so disturbed by the couple was not because of the way that they dressed - at least not in the beginning when she had first spied them down the hall from fifty feet. It was the look that they gave her simultaneously as she passed them. It was another one of those glaring stares. Delphine felt them staring at her stomach. Billie had his hands shoved in his pockets, but as Delphine saw them, he felt her hang tighter too his arm. Then as she looked back over her shoulder, she saw them whispering to each other like little Catholic-school-girls with a secret and peering back her way.
Billie Joe looked up to see what was wrong. Then he saw her looking at the couple he had hardly noticed walking down the hall opposite them. "Something wrong?"
"I think they were staring at me," she replied sadly.
"Why?" he thought out loud. He recalled their walk past and realized she was right. They were looking their way as they passed.
"I look too young."
"For what?"
"To be having a baby." She looked down and put her hand over her belly. Their stares were already burned into her mind. She should not be so upset about it. She had never seen them before and would probably never again. Still, it made an impression. People don't know the damage they can do with a simple look.
"Oh. I see. Well, fuck them. They don't know who we are even." He wrapped his arm around her waist. "They're stuck in the good-ol'-days."
"Yeah. I guess, but other people have been giving me looks like that lately. It's too obvious now. I always thought I would want to show off that I'm going to be a mom. Now I feel like I want to hide it."
"You shouldn't have to." Billie scrunched up his nose and glared back over his shoulder again even though the old couple was long gone. Suddenly, he was angry with them, and all the other people who didn't like it. "Fuck 'em all. Those people. You're not in school anymore and we did it on purpose and the baby is going to be loved. What else do they want?"
"I guess so," she smiled back. "My mom said people used to stare at her when she was pregnant with me because she looked like a teen and I was her first kid. But she was 25 then."
"It's no different from now though. We just... skipped a couple years in between. Just means we'll be around a couple longer to bug her til we die," he teased.
That made Delphine laugh. She knew that too. "Ok, you're right. Just flip-off anyone who does that from now on for me."
"Will do."
They meandered out the main entrance of the mall without buying anything again. It was just a nice place to be.
"Hey, I was wondering. Now that there's no pet restriction on the house, can we get a cat or two?" She had lived with cats all her life. Daisy was her cat back at her parent's house. Actually, this was Daisy the second. Daisy I had been her first baby. Both of them were all black. She had a thing for black cats. Besides Daisy, there had been Charlie (a girl), Bradlee, Trudy, and Tim who was still alive. She hated to take her Daisy II, who she loved just as much, away from her home where she had lived for years with Tim. Plus, she would want Tim too, her brother's cat technically, and she couldn't take her cats away from her family. But she still wanted more kitties in her life.
"Um, yeah, sure. But I don't want to clean the litter box."
"I already do stuff like that around the house anyway. But I'll end up doing it even if you said you would do it."
"You got me. Ok then, we should go get a cat."
"Three cats."
"No, one."
"Two."
"Done."
***
"You want another tattoo, already? Weren't you people just here?" Tom said at the front counter of the usual tattoo parlor on Telegraph Avenue - one of many. They were calling the place Zebra now.
"Ah, yeah. Well, no, that was like a month ago. I got a good one." Billie reached into his pocket and pulled out the photo strip of his wife from the other day. "Can you draw this?"
Tom took it from him and looked at it for a moment. "Yeah, sure. I'll work on that."
"Also, I want to get something here," he pointed to the spot on his arm above the angel wing and below the ring of ivy that went around it. "I want to write her name."
"Well, ok. You sure about this girl? It's sorta permanent remember."
"We tried to talk him out of it," Mike shook his head. "You know you've only been married to 'er for six months."
"Seven now. And yeah, I'm pretty fucking sure or I wouldn't be doing it."
"Ok, whatever you say. Sit down and pick a font," Tom said walking over to one of the chairs.
"Something pretty like that." Pretty. A-huh.
"Ok. And you are sure this is how you spell it?"
"Yes! I think I fucking know how to spell my own wife's name by now."
Tom was setting up the ink and the tattoo gun. "Well, one guy who came in her didn't. He wrote her name down, said that was it and he was positive. Dumbshit didn't read it until it was inked on him," Tom laughed. "We had to make the E a flower."
"I see," he half laughed. "Well, I'm sure now just don't change it."
"There," Tom said after he was done with the sketch and laid down the first ink outline.
"That's great. Hmm... " he looked in the mirror. "Maybe a little lower though."
"Ok," Tom rubbed off the blue and reprinted the outline.
"That's good."
Tre walked back in with a sandwich. He had just been in the vintage thrift store across the street. Didn't find anything interesting though. Mike stood in the front looking at the flash art. "I like that one," he pointed taking a glug of Sprite.
"That's gay," Tre said most helpfully.
"Good, then I'll defiantly get it."
"Really."
Mike looked at the skull design again. "Neh."
"How about this one," Tre pointed to a can.
"That's just stupid."
"Oww!" Billie whined.
"I said I was starting," Tom rolled his eyes.
"Well, I wasn't paying attention to that. Ow!"
"I didn't do anything that time."
"It hurts now."
"Billie, next time don't drink coffee and then come and get a tattoo. Now sit still and shut-up."
"No! I don't want to take pictures! They always turn out stupid."
"No, they don't. You look beautiful now sit down with me!" Billie whined from inside the picture booth in the middle of Oakridge Mall.
"But... " Delphine really could not think of another reason why not to.
"Please?" he made a pouty face with his big bright green eyes and she made herself look away before she was convinced by that stupid charm of his. "Oh come on, honey." Shit, she looked at him. Well, that did it. No refusing now with a hot face like that.
"Fine." She stepped inside the curtain with her arms crossed, but he pulled her in and pulled her body close, shutting the curtain in a hurry and then passionately kissing her on the spot. "Billie!" she mumbled but closed her eyes and lost herself in his mouth for a second. He really just intended to put a smile of her face for the picture, but then again it was feeling pretty damn good about now. She bit his lower lip and he wrapped his strong arms around her, fingering her neck and down below he shirt. Her boobs were bigger now too. Not to be shallow, but that was fun too. But then a hollow metal knock came from outside.
"Anyone in there?" a man's voice said.
Billie let go of her tongue for long enough to say, "Yeah!" He was about to add, "GO THE FUCK AWAY!" but Delphine cupped her hand over his mouth.
"We'll be right out in a second," she said in a clear girly innocent voice. And then turning back to Billie for a, "We shall continue this rendezvous later. Don't worry," she poked his nose playfully before he tugged her down for one last kiss. "Mo ky, ok, stop that!" she whispered sitting up and setting herself straight. "Take the fucking picture already! That's what we're in here for."
They pushed the button. First Delphine beside Billie. Cheek to cheek. Then a kiss midair. Then sitting in his lap. And then the classic silly-face-off picture. After that, Billie slipped out of the little booth and pushed Delphine back inside. "Just stay there for another moment. Take another roll."
"Just me?" she whined from inside in the same four year old voice.
"Yes! Make 'em good."
"Even if I go like this?" she stuck her head out the curtain and stuck out her tongue.
"Yes! Exactly like that. Ok go."
When the photos were snapped, Billie grabbed them out of the machine and stuffed them into this back pocket. Delphine jumped out. "Ok, let me see."
"What pictures?"
"Billie, shut-up."
"Fine," he held up the ones of both of them.
"You look like a goof, Billie. Oh, this one's cute though." Then she looked up, "and let me see the other ones."
"Um, can't do that yet."
"What? And why not?"
"Because... because because. You'll get to see them later. But I need to use them for something first."
"And what by tell may that be? Blackmail?"
"Nooo."
"Then why won't you tell me?"
"Because, because... because of the wonderful things that he does! We're off to see the wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz!" Billie started doing a jig in the middle of the mall making people stare and therefore switching the subject. Delphine thought 'fine, be that way' and joined him on the mall dance floor tiles.
***
Later that day, as Delphine and Billie were strolling through the end of the mall, they passed another couple. The two were older, gray haired and had all the usual signs of an aged American couple. The guy in a plain tucked in collared shirt, loafers, blue jeans and a thin belt to hold them up over his overweight belly. He was going bald too except for the half ring of hair going around the outside of his skull. The woman had the short cut curled gray hair as all women seem to have of her generation - really, if they just left it long, they could look so much better, gray and all, they just all looked the same with that boring hair cut - plus the cache pants, loose shirt and some chunky jewelry that looked like it came from a sale rack in Macy's.
Delphine never liked how these couples were all exactly the same. It depressed her beyond reason from her teenage years on. Did they just not care anymore about their own style and she was going to be like that one day? Or was it that they just didn't have any style to speak of? She looked down at her own punky clothes - ones she had found even though she was pregnant because she still managed to shop at Hot Topic and stores like that for her darker side. Delphine was the type to wear whatever she wanted so her style ranged from metal head to hippie most of the time, but it was still her style. Billie was the simple punk look she guessed. He had a white shirt on, tight black pants and a baseball hat which he proudly wore backwards. It was never anything fancy except for the black collared shirt and a thin tie at some concerts when he felt like it.
Most of the time nothing though. Tattoos are like jewelry for guys, and he was specializing in them; although not always on purpose. The sign on his chest that meant "potent male" or something like that was not exactly what she would have preferred up it was hella funny anyway. She would bet two-hundred bucks though that the couple in front of them did not have even the slightest touch of ink on them.
'What will we look like in fifty years?' she wondered. She could imagine what the man and his wife used to look like. As plain as they were now probably, just like the group of middle schoolers, who had not yet found their tastes yet, congregated in the center of the wide hall over to the right, but a little more "refined" - whatever that means.
Now, the reason Delphine was so disturbed by the couple was not because of the way that they dressed - at least not in the beginning when she had first spied them down the hall from fifty feet. It was the look that they gave her simultaneously as she passed them. It was another one of those glaring stares. Delphine felt them staring at her stomach. Billie had his hands shoved in his pockets, but as Delphine saw them, he felt her hang tighter too his arm. Then as she looked back over her shoulder, she saw them whispering to each other like little Catholic-school-girls with a secret and peering back her way.
Billie Joe looked up to see what was wrong. Then he saw her looking at the couple he had hardly noticed walking down the hall opposite them. "Something wrong?"
"I think they were staring at me," she replied sadly.
"Why?" he thought out loud. He recalled their walk past and realized she was right. They were looking their way as they passed.
"I look too young."
"For what?"
"To be having a baby." She looked down and put her hand over her belly. Their stares were already burned into her mind. She should not be so upset about it. She had never seen them before and would probably never again. Still, it made an impression. People don't know the damage they can do with a simple look.
"Oh. I see. Well, fuck them. They don't know who we are even." He wrapped his arm around her waist. "They're stuck in the good-ol'-days."
"Yeah. I guess, but other people have been giving me looks like that lately. It's too obvious now. I always thought I would want to show off that I'm going to be a mom. Now I feel like I want to hide it."
"You shouldn't have to." Billie scrunched up his nose and glared back over his shoulder again even though the old couple was long gone. Suddenly, he was angry with them, and all the other people who didn't like it. "Fuck 'em all. Those people. You're not in school anymore and we did it on purpose and the baby is going to be loved. What else do they want?"
"I guess so," she smiled back. "My mom said people used to stare at her when she was pregnant with me because she looked like a teen and I was her first kid. But she was 25 then."
"It's no different from now though. We just... skipped a couple years in between. Just means we'll be around a couple longer to bug her til we die," he teased.
That made Delphine laugh. She knew that too. "Ok, you're right. Just flip-off anyone who does that from now on for me."
"Will do."
They meandered out the main entrance of the mall without buying anything again. It was just a nice place to be.
"Hey, I was wondering. Now that there's no pet restriction on the house, can we get a cat or two?" She had lived with cats all her life. Daisy was her cat back at her parent's house. Actually, this was Daisy the second. Daisy I had been her first baby. Both of them were all black. She had a thing for black cats. Besides Daisy, there had been Charlie (a girl), Bradlee, Trudy, and Tim who was still alive. She hated to take her Daisy II, who she loved just as much, away from her home where she had lived for years with Tim. Plus, she would want Tim too, her brother's cat technically, and she couldn't take her cats away from her family. But she still wanted more kitties in her life.
"Um, yeah, sure. But I don't want to clean the litter box."
"I already do stuff like that around the house anyway. But I'll end up doing it even if you said you would do it."
"You got me. Ok then, we should go get a cat."
"Three cats."
"No, one."
"Two."
"Done."
***
"You want another tattoo, already? Weren't you people just here?" Tom said at the front counter of the usual tattoo parlor on Telegraph Avenue - one of many. They were calling the place Zebra now.
"Ah, yeah. Well, no, that was like a month ago. I got a good one." Billie reached into his pocket and pulled out the photo strip of his wife from the other day. "Can you draw this?"
Tom took it from him and looked at it for a moment. "Yeah, sure. I'll work on that."
"Also, I want to get something here," he pointed to the spot on his arm above the angel wing and below the ring of ivy that went around it. "I want to write her name."
"Well, ok. You sure about this girl? It's sorta permanent remember."
"We tried to talk him out of it," Mike shook his head. "You know you've only been married to 'er for six months."
"Seven now. And yeah, I'm pretty fucking sure or I wouldn't be doing it."
"Ok, whatever you say. Sit down and pick a font," Tom said walking over to one of the chairs.
"Something pretty like that." Pretty. A-huh.
"Ok. And you are sure this is how you spell it?"
"Yes! I think I fucking know how to spell my own wife's name by now."
Tom was setting up the ink and the tattoo gun. "Well, one guy who came in her didn't. He wrote her name down, said that was it and he was positive. Dumbshit didn't read it until it was inked on him," Tom laughed. "We had to make the E a flower."
"I see," he half laughed. "Well, I'm sure now just don't change it."
"There," Tom said after he was done with the sketch and laid down the first ink outline.
"That's great. Hmm... " he looked in the mirror. "Maybe a little lower though."
"Ok," Tom rubbed off the blue and reprinted the outline.
"That's good."
Tre walked back in with a sandwich. He had just been in the vintage thrift store across the street. Didn't find anything interesting though. Mike stood in the front looking at the flash art. "I like that one," he pointed taking a glug of Sprite.
"That's gay," Tre said most helpfully.
"Good, then I'll defiantly get it."
"Really."
Mike looked at the skull design again. "Neh."
"How about this one," Tre pointed to a can.
"That's just stupid."
"Oww!" Billie whined.
"I said I was starting," Tom rolled his eyes.
"Well, I wasn't paying attention to that. Ow!"
"I didn't do anything that time."
"It hurts now."
"Billie, next time don't drink coffee and then come and get a tattoo. Now sit still and shut-up."
