I stared down at the illustration on my desk. It was rare for me to be given the latitude I had been given with this one. My editor had called me 6 weeks ago to tell me of the spin off series from The Hulk comic series. Jim called with the news, “Harry, this is a wonderful opportunity. Since the movie this summer, the comic sales have risen dramatically. They think it is time to introduce Zani and immediately spin it off. The gurus at Marvel think it is going to take off! The wanted me to tap the best “Good Girl” artist to do the preliminary sketches for the character and I immediately thought of you.”
Zani stared up at me. Normally I would have sent the sketch to be penned by one of my apprentices. I had started immediately on the sketch when Jim had called. The preliminary pencilling emerged on the paper, magically and rapidly. Her eyes had captured me. I ran my hand through my short gray locks. Her eyes captured in black and white made me wonder until I remembered that my fingers were ink stained. I swore to myself when I pulled them down and looked at them. If the blacks had been red it would have looked like blood. After twenty some odd years I would have thought that I would remember not to mark myself. I glanced over to the clock to note that it was well past midnight. I then looked to the floor where Paulie, my golden retriever, laid; snoozing as if there were no tomorrow. Once again my eyes were pulled to my sketchboard, leaning slightly for ease but not so much that the ink would run.
I drew her as I saw her. I knew I wouldn’t be the one to assign her a personality, but evidently I drew one. Her eyes spoke volumes. Drawn in black and white they did sparkle with mischief and confidence. In my mind they would be green, so deeply green that the depth of the mystery would envelop you. Her mouth curled in a smile that only accentuated her mischievous air. Although currently drawn in black and white, those lips would be so warmly pink, moistly pink, and so seductively pink. So many artists draw women with either long flowing locks or short spiked hair, Zani was as different as day was from night. I noticed her midlength hair, curly, teasing her face, framing her face. Her earlobes were exposed, a taste of sensuality because they weren’t pierced. Her neck was long and swanlike. I still felt the body was drawn to the genre. Beneath the tight camp shirt her breasts were full and perky. I had drawn the shirt closed with only one button, the ends pulled high under the breasts and knotted to accentuate her bust as well as her narrow waist. Zani’s nipples I portrayed as erect through the cloth. Yep, I thought to myself, she would be the type of self confident heroine that knew her nipples were that way and was good humored enough to enjoy the power of that knowledge.
I didn’t draw the shirt tucked into her short camp shorts. The hands on the hips only accentuated the smallness of the waist and the power in her arms. I drew the legs of the shorts rolled up just covering her nice derriere. Her stride showed her confidence. A little Lara Croft, a little the girl you always wanted to make love with but felt that she was unattainable. Except that with the eyes beckoning to you, or at least to me, there was the promise of the secret pleasures. I sighed. A slow sigh that seemed to last forever. I leaned over to look into her face one more time. “Good night Zani. Pleasant dreams.” I whispered to an inanimate drawing. I chuckled under my breath and whistled for my lazy dog to go outside before hitting the sheets for the evening.
I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillows. I didn’t bother to do anything except let my clothes hit the floor so I could crawl into bed naked. The whisper soft sheets were silky and cool and I heard Paulie flop to the floor beside me before I gathered that long breath that beckoned me to sleep.
Sometime in the middle of the night I felt something in the bed beside me. I paused long enough to yell at Paulie, “Get off the bed you dumb mutt” when I heard the muffled “Quit” at the second time I shoved the mound beside me. I rolled from my belly so I could face what was in the bed beside me, the room semi lit from the street lamp that shone through the slits in the blinds at the window. I slid the covers down to see what was in my bed, only to see the beautiful face of Zani.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, as if this were actually happening. Was I asleep or am I awake? I didn’t know, and I blinked as if that would somehow bring me to consciousness.