The Wolf, Part II

I got to the ladies' room, looked in the mirror, and laughed. I knew that if I went back to the booth, the wolf was going to try to scoot me into his lap and possibly get a few cheap squeezes--option A, also sounding like option disgusting. Aha! I got it. My best bet was to get into my car.

A few minutes later I emerged from The Ladies Room, and sat down on the opposite side of the booth, nearer to the middle so I would have additional room to scoot, if need be.

Not to be daunted, the wolf started the talk-and-scoot process all over again, this time moving to the left. He moved to the left, I moved to the left. He moved to the left some more, I moved to the left some more.

He looked at me like I was a medium rare pork chop. With gravy. And a biscuit on the side.

I wondered how long I could play the talk-and-scoot game.

The time was nearing 10:00 so after a few deliberately placed faux-yawns, I politely apologized for my extreme fatigue, said that I was horribly sleepy and asked if we could meet again later. He agreed and walked me to my car.

When we got to my car, the wolf cornered me at the door. I said "thank you so much, it was good to see you," and inched toward the handle.

He went in for the kill.

A face began to swoop toward mine.

Now, talk-and-scoot upgraded to smile-and-dodge.

I saw a pair of lips loom toward my face. I swiftly dodged. His face moved in toward the right, my head turned to the right. His face ducked down and under toward the left, my face shot to the left. So, I'm cornered at my car door, whipping my head back and forth like an epileptic and trying to aim my right cheek at his mouth.

A few feet in the distance, a Latino guy was yelling at his girlfriend, screaming at her in Spanish. She looked frightened and was clearly trying to escape this creep. The wolf stopped trying to corner my face and looked at the domestic violence scene unfolding a few spaces over.

Lucky for me, he had a conscience. He sighed, turned from me and started yelling at the guy to leave his girlfriend alone. The guy ignored him. "Damnit," he said, "I can't just let that woman get beat up," and started toward the Ike Turner reenactment. When Ike saw the wolf coming his way, he stopped hovering over his woman and starter to walk away.

I took it as an opportunity for me to get in my car.

A minute later,as I'm sitting in my idling vehicle, the wolf comes back to me, where I commend his bravery in the face of potential danger. The woman is safe from her companion, my face is safe from a pair of looming lips, all is right with the world.

Evelyn Parkside