*** Dedicated to Natalie (codename Sandy), a gregarious woman whom I had the pleasure of meeting through Craigslist. ***
Otter Body Experience
(Lyrics borrowed from the song My Name Is Luca by Suzanne Vega.)
Sandy Newman deeply, deeply concentrated on the photograph she held in her hand. It was a simple picture really, consisting of her young niece performing at a dance recital. The pretty girl was wearing a sparkling tiara and an extravagant white dress. The girl's little face beamed with a pure and blissful joy that Sandy had not felt in her own being in quite some time.
Where had all the years gone, Sandy wondered to herself. She remembered being young and bouncy, vibrant and full of energy, just like her little niece was in that picture. Well, Sandy could still be bouncy and vibrant at times, until her knees got to aching about it, anyway.
Alas, she was forty-four now, and it seemed a daily struggle just to maintain the trim figure she'd had in her youth. She still had her blonde hair, as wavy and sunny as it had always been. Her bountiful double D cups could still command a man's attention. Even though she chose not to wear too much make-up, she still had her pleasingly cute countenance. Sandy was sitting on the floor of her bedroom, with her five-foot-two frame draped in her usual, comfortable and snuggy, powder blue pajamas.
The bedroom, Sandy thought, that was part of the dilemma. She'd been forced to move into her boyfriend's apartment not too long ago. This was after she'd had so much trouble searching and failing to find work, until she'd finally run out of funds and couldn't afford her own place.
And Jeremy could be so uncompromising in wanting to keep the neutral look to his room intact, enough that Sandy had ended up placing nearly all of her belongings in storage. His bedroom was so drab and empty of emotion that the mood inside of it was nearly depressing.
At least he'd allowed her to keep some of her scrapbooking supplies, Sandy sighed. That was how Sandy kept herself busy when she had no job to go to. Even now, she had an array of her niece's recital pictures set down on the carpet before her. She was absorbed in giving them all a sequence number, for the order she was hoping to set them in a future scrapbook.
It would be nice, she thought, if Jeremy didn't have to work so far away, and if he didn't have to work such long hours, and if he didn't come home so tired all the time. What Sandy was really craving was a little excitement in her life.
A handful of minutes might have passed, when Sandy's absorbed train of thought was jolted by a loud thump from one of the other bedrooms. Jeremy shared the large apartment with two roommates, one male and one female. As far as Sandy knew, his roommates were both out. When she heard a long and loud stream of profanity a few seconds later, she knew somebody else was inside with her.
Intent on getting to the bottom of things, Sandy marched right out of the bedroom. Nothing looked out of place in the spacious living room, so she turned her attention toward the other two shut bedroom doors. She knew her roomies wouldn't like it if she was prying around in their rooms, but what if somebody was in there stealing something? For a brief second, Sandy considered arming herself. But no, she was a true pacifist. She wouldn't know what to do with a weapon even if she had one.
Sandy threw open the first door, but only saw Bill's unorganized and fairly cluttered room and bed. She'd half-convinced herself that she'd imagined the whole thing, when she cracked open Dee Dee's door and looked in.
The busty blonde shrieked, when she discovered a man standing there, on the far side of the bed and looking up at the ceiling.
"Who are you?" Sandy blurted out. "What are you doing in here?"
Right after she'd exclaimed those words, Sandy realized that she was looking at the neighbor from one of the upstairs apartments. It was that husky Hispanic guy who always had weird people knocking on Sandy's door and asking for his apartment. What was worse, in Sandy's opinion, was that quite a few of those people were young and female.
The man's scowl softened up considerably as he took in Sandy's voluptuous frame, and her powder blue pajamas. He grinned as he replied, "My name is Luca, and I live on the second floor. Yes, I think you've seen me before."
This guy was brazen enough to be checking her out and flirting with her, Sandy thought. And this right after she'd caught him in her roomie's bedroom! Well, she decided, two can play at that game, and she ogled him right back.
The man was dressed in a simple gray athletic tee and dark blue cotton shorts, and he was barefoot. He was stocky, and while he certainly was no bodybuilder, it was clear that he spent a lot of time working out. His shoulders were nicely rounded, his biceps and forearms were thick, and even his thighs and calves were well toned.
"You're name is not Luca." Sandy reprimanded him. "You're name is Rudy. I know this because of all those girls that come knocking on my door asking for you. Now, tell me what you're doing in here!"
Rudy was still smiling at her. "I'm a building inspector, and I was just checking the ceiling for termites."
"Stop it! I will call the police if I have to."
"Okay, okay." Rudy threw his hands up defensively. "I'll tell you, but you're not going to believe me anyway. I was having an Otter Body Experience."
Impatiently, Sandy set her hands on her wide hips. "Otter body? Really?"
"That's what my buddies used to call it, back in the day." Rudy explained. "I knew a couple of guys who used to do mushrooms and peyote and all kinds of other shit. They both claimed they'd experienced some very unusual trips while they were stoned. When one of my buddies came back from a wild trip, he mistakenly called it Otter Body instead of Outer Body. We joked him about it so much that the joke stuck. The difference here is that I'm trying to reproduce the same effect while using only my natural mind."
"I don't believe in any of that stuff." Sandy shook her head.
"Well, let me tell you a story, babe." Rudy went on. "I remember one time, back when I was sixteen or seventeen. I was meditating and trying to send my soul out of my body, you know, just to see if I could do it. Just to see what was out there."
