"Ouroburos. The snake that devours itself, the rings around the world. Saturn is like that, because he devours his own children. You're like that, you're always up your own ass." She laughed, and he pursed his lips. They were looking through his CDs, and she'd pointed to the cover of his Tool album, Fear Inoculum.
"It's just a band; I like the singer's voice and the drumming." He felt criticized.
"I like mythology; I see it everywhere. It's probably the psychology I took in college. Or maybe I'm schizophrenic." Trudy was on her third date with Tim, and this was the first time she'd seen his apartment. He had cooked her dinner, and now they were in that phase where Trudy always faltered. She knew that he probably wanted to sleep with her now, and she didn't know what she wanted to do. She was walking around his apartment, picking up his objects, and remarking on them. She wanted to get him talking while giving herself enough space to decide what she wanted to do.
"You think I'm always up my own ass? I thought you liked to talk about deep stuff."
"No, no, it's wonderful, how much you think about things and explore your thoughts. Really. Jung said that unconsciousness was the worst sin in the world, because you have all this material to work with in your life, but if you ignore it, it dies with you." She was ruining it. Did she want to? Now she was overthinking it. He'd infected her. Damnit. Sex had been so much easier on dates when she was drinking, but now that she was sober, she had to try and figure out what to do.
Tim picked up the CD. "Do you know Tool? They have a lot of references to spiritual things in their work, like Pneuma, the breath, how God breathed life into the world." He looked at her hands, across the table, clasped, and he wanted to touch her. But she was so far away. Every time he tried to get closer, she shrank away. He wondered what he should do next. He needed to bridge the gap.
