***
I’m going to miss having you as a captive audience, Cary. Maybe when you get back to land, you can set me up with a handsome young guy who’s headed out to sea.
***
Or a lovely young woman?
***
Huh. Maybe. I don’t know.
***
Is that still where your head is at?
***
You wondering if I’ve gone full Sappho since the last time you asked?
***
I’m just making sure I have the most current information.
***
I think I could probably date a woman. (This feels very weird to talk about. Can you talk about homosexuality on a military computer?) Like, I don’t seem to have any emotional or physical objections? I feel very enthusiastic about women, conceptually.
But, in reality, I can hardly standanyone. Not at close range, anyway.
(I think this is getting worse as I get older... with exposure to humanity.)
It’s murder all day long trying to be patient with people and to give them the benefit of the doubt. To remember that they probably mean well, even when they don’tdowell.
And I don’t like the look of them, either. (People.) (Human beings.) Their clothes are embarrassing, and their voices are piercing, and I never want to see their feet or their ankles or their knees or their elbows.
Maybe there are only five people in the whole world who I could stand for more than ten minutes and who I’d also like to kiss—and maybe one or two of them are women.
***
Is one of them still Val Kilmer?
***
One of them will always be Val Kilmer.
***
Shiloh, I’m coming home when my deployment is over. I have 20 days of leave, and my plan is to spend that time in Omaha, getting my mom’s house ready for sale.
I’m going to stay with Mikey.
I know that you and I haven’t had the best track record with face-to-face interactions—but I hope you’ll let me take you out to lunch.
***
Cary!!
Of course!!!
