It was the first of May, 1978 when I first raped her. We were like poetry in the parking ramp men's room. She was so lovely, her skin fair and soft, her lips moist, her eyes like a fawn's, fingers to her lips. She nearly collapsed when I wrapped my hands around her neck. The toes of her cork wedges crossed and her thin legs gave away. I caught her by the throat.
I could feel her life's story at that moment, pulsing under my fingertips. Her heart raced, I wasn't trying to kill her, but I wanted her to know that I was willing to, and maybe I was, but she was so delightful. So perfect. No woman has made me feel like such a beautiful animal; physical, violent, and so exceedingly awake.
Her hands went reflexively to my wrists where she clung. She tried to steady herself on her feet and I let her drag a little air in. She's a tiny thing, no more than a hundred pounds and I needed her. No threat of violence, no plea for mercy was going to stop this. We were too far along. I pinned her neck to the subway tile between the electric hand dryers. Ballasts in the ceiling hummed and the old fluorescent tubes made everything look green like dirty japanese neon.
I smelled the sweet skin under her right ear. She didn't wear conventional perfume, it was more like those oils you can get in high-end boutiques on Gadmen Square where the folk singers drone poems over the same two chords. She was like cotton candy at the state fair. A sundress top, no bra. Perfect sun-bleached hair. Her nipples were stiff even before I grabbed her, when she knew I was there. When she dropped her keys and bent down to get them, one knee a little lower than the other. Her delicious thighs there begging to be groped. Her palm over her mouth in almost convincing surprise.
The truth is that she wanted me there. She lured into the parking garage. Her compact falling out of her purse. Fumbling with her keys, alone, unsure. So I followed her, like I had done before. Standing on the corner, she held an unlit cigarette in her lips and was digging into her purse when I passed her on the sidewalk. There wasn't much room so I brushed past her in my way and allowed my fingertips to graze her flank. Her glorious skin sang longingly and tiny fireworks exploded in the cool air breathing between the concrete and stone block buildings. We were alone.